The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-08-08
Jones Bros. Co. Get Contract
for Manufacturing Grind
ers for Milk Chocolate Co.
FORMERLY CAME
FROM GERMANY
The Contract Means Many
Thousands of Dollars to the
Barre Granite Industry

When the war was still in the 1degling
stage, as wars go, and plenty of PEOPLE
were saying that the little field day
for fighting men on the continent would
end in ninety days, someone here in
Barre sprouted the yarn that local gran
ite manufacturers had contracted to fur
nish fine assortment of granite balls
for the allies. War babies were begin
ming to squall in American ammunition
centers and many thought that it would
be a fine thing for Barre to grow bigger,
and buster and prosperous, like Bridge
portal of sudden. But for one rea-
son and another-perhaps public senti-
men in Germany wasn't ripe enough for
granite cannon balls--the kaiser or his
minions never had chance to bite the
real Barre granite.
Barre's war order was slow in coming,
but it il here now and it is worth thous-
ands of dollars. Jones Bros Co. has
the contract for erecting large number
Of grinding devices for Hersey's Milk
Chocolate Co. The grinders are an in
tricately contrived arrangement for pull
verizing to the finest powder the choco-
late used in the manufacture of milk
chocolate. Manufacturing them in Barre
is taking something else away from
Germany, for before the war Hersey
company, probably the largest organiza-
tion Of its kind in the world, bought all
Of its grinders from the Germans and
the stone used was not only quarried
but manufactured in Germany The sup
ply from Germany has outlived its use
fulness and when the chocolate folks
came to look for more here at home,
they found plenty of stone manufactur-
ers willing to try, but none of them had
the machinery adapted to making them.
Jones Bros. Co. were among the con-
Germs which figured on the initial con
tract but the bids were all too high
far too high said the chocolate manufac-
turers.
There the matter rested until Robert
B, Jones, son of III. J. NJ Jones, set
about to invent the machinery necessary
to turn out the grinders at a minimum
of cost. To bring with the Hersey COM
pany asked for a device which consisted
Of a granite bed and corrugated gran
ite roll. The deck of the bed must be
concayed and then fluted, while the cor
rugations on the granite roll must fit
snuglv into the futed deck of the con-
caved bed. The big problem centered
around the corrugated rolls and the
ribbed surface across which they roll in
grinding the powdered chocolate finer
than ANYTHING else can firind it, Rep
resentatives of the chocolate company
explained that a peculiarly delicate fav-
or TO be found in Hersey's milk choco-
late products was due in large part to
the consistency of the chocolate as it
merges from the grinder. Incidentally
they assured Jones Bros Co. that they
had subjected Barre granite to a careful
analysis before considering the native
stone as suitable material for the de-
vices.
Specially eontrived lathes were rigged
by Mr. Jones, who also perfected and
then had patented drilling machine
which is capable of boring the length
of ten corrugated rolls at once. The pat
ent rights have been sold by R. B. Jones
to Jones Bros. Co.
An entire shed section is devoted to
finishing the rolls and beds. Corrugation
must iit the f1uted surface of the bed to
the veriest fraction of an inch and be-
fore each outfit has passed inspection a
lighted candle at one end of the roll
must fail to reflect light in mirror held
at the opposite end, Enormous pres
sure is brought to bear on the turning
lathes that the eorrugation Of the rolls
and the deck of the bed may be as near
" perfect as possible
Stock in special dimensions is brought
from the quarries and then placed under
the Mcdonald machine, which separates
the block into several slabs of uniform
size. Then they are turned over to the
surface cutter and when they reach the
finishing department only the finer work
remains to be done before complete
bed has been turned out. Uniform
lengths Of granite rolls are used in the
manufacture of the corrugated rolls.
A carload of grinders has been dis
patched already to Hersey, Pa, where
the dairy farms and the chocolate plants
of the company are located. Early re-
ports indicate that the Barre granite
grinders are meeting every test, and in
the meantime the new department st
Jones Bros plant is hive of industry
and men employed there are aware Of
the fact that the devices they are turn
ing out enables a great chocolate concern
to fill immense orders for milk chocolate
bars, bars that figure very largely in the
diet of the military and civil population
of both France and Germany.
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