Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-01-19
WEBSTER C|TY'S
FIGURING MILL
MOI Every Man and Woman in This
Place Knows About the lnsti-
tuition we Have in This
Line.
TURNS OUT MANY PRODUCTS
The Interesting Process of Grinding
Wheat Into Flour and Corn
Into Meal.
TURNS OUT MANY PRODUCTS

in Webster City knows that the
town has q flour mill running about
half time, which turns out not only
two brands of -four, but in addition
rye flour, rye graham, wheat gra-
ham, whole buckwheat -four, health
bran, and both bolted and unbolted
corn meal. Besides these table pro-
ducts, all kinds of chicken feed are
ground The Webster City Mills are
owned and run by a. C. Hoot, who
has been four years proprietor, hay
ing purchased them Of F. &.
Stearns, former Webster City resi-
dent.
At present these are the only
Touring mills in operation in the
county and are steam roller mills.
Their capacity is about Is barrels
of flour every twenty-four hours,
and $50 barrels of feed and meal
every twenty-four hours.
A double dump takes care OF two
kinds of grain at one time in the
driveway and a double elevator sys-
TEN is used, which can accommodate
six carloads of grain. There are
forty-three bins in the mill and MI.
Hoot considers his mill the best
equipped as to bins in the state.
Ear corn alone is bought OF the
farmers, as Mr.. Hoot prefers to Sc
lect and clean his own corn before
grinding into meal. The wheat at
ter it is elevated, is conveyed by a
large conveyor which runs the fall
length of the mill to three different
separators in turn. The grain IS
"smutted" and this applies to corn
as we'll as wheat. Instead of the mill
stone of a quarter of century ago,
corrugated rollers are used, the
wheat being heated and steamed be-
fore passing through these rollers.
"A set of valves in the condensed
steaming apparatus properly heats
and steams the grain before it is
ground. This mill provides three
breaks on wheat, five on middlings,
and a gradual reduction system IS
used, The germ, however, is not
reduced. A hot air system takes the
wheat from the rollers and elimin-
ates the possibility of dough balls
forming. Two pairs of rollers in
each of the three machines are run
with the steam equipment and the
first stage of the ground wheat is
cracked wheat; second, the germ is
separated from the cracked wheat;
the third, grinds or produces mid
dings, germ, -four and bran; fourth,
the purified middlings; and fifth,
the separation of all but the ele-
ments conducive to good flour.
The excess starch is removed
from the corn meal in this mill and
is added to the chicken feed. y
cyclone dust collector is attached to
the purifier on the corn meal pro-
cess which lifts out the impurities
and the grade of corn meal manu-
featured by this mill is well known
for it's fine qualities. The excess
starch from the wheat flour is like
wise removed by hot air system.
The second floor of the mill is n
network of elevators which connect
the rollers on the first floor with the
purifiers, shutters and lastly the
plansifters on the second. The
plansifter system is worked after
the plan of the old hand sieve,
which was shaken from side to side
and is a series of nine sieves which
are reached from above by the flour
descending through muslin tubes in
to the sleeves, and is connected with
the bins below with another set OF
muslin tubes. These sleeves are Gov
cred with the boiling silk in various
grades of fneness with which the
old fashioned reels in the water
mills were covered. The mill boasts
of no bleaching process, which is
objected to by many who prefer the
old fashioned creamy loaf of the
mill stone period, instead of the
whittier loaf of the bleached process.
No less than $4,000 in rolls are tied
up in this mill and one of the plan
sifters cost $1,000.
The dust collector, which extracts
the dust from the wheat, is a ma
chine of almost human energy and
its metal arms move like those of a
mechanical toy, pulling the wheel
round and reaching for the cogs
with mathematical precision. The