IMPROVE MENTS IN PREPARING WHEATEN FLOUR
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Karr Callard, of 4, Blenheim Terrace, St.
John's Wood, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN PREPARING WHEATEN FLOUR."
Sealed. the 8th June 1860, and dated the 20th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Karr Callard at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th-
January 1860.
I, THOMAS KARR CALLARD, of 4, Blenheim Terrace, St. John's Wood, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING, WHEATEN FLOUR," to be as follows:-.
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing wheaten flour..
I have ascertained that various classes of wheat do not contain that quantity
of fecula in proportion to the quantity of gluten as to render the flour produced
therefrom suitable for various purposes. And my Invention consists in applying
fecula obtained from other wheat, in order to bring up the desired relative
proportions of the fecula and gluten, as may be desired for the object for which
the flour is to be used, and the applying or combining fecula is believed to be
most conveniently accomplished when grinding the wheat, but it may be com-
bined after grinding.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Karr Callard, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
Karr Callard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Thomas Karr Collard, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom. of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING WHEATEN FLOUR," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Karr Callard, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Karr Callard, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say.:—
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing wheaten flour.
I have ascertained that various classes of wheat do not contain that quantity
of fecula in proportion to the quantity of gluten as to render the flour produced
therefrom suitable for various purposes. And my Invention consists in applying.
fecula obtained from other wheat, in order to bring up. the desired relative
proportions of the fecula and gluten as may bo desired for the object for which
the flour is to be used, and the applying or combining fecula is believed to be
most conveniently.accomplished when grinding the wheat, but it may be com
bined after grinding.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
It has hitherto been very generally considered that the excellency of wheaten
flour depends on the large per-centage of gluten contained in flour, but on
careful experiment and investigation I have ascertained that it is neither the
large per-centage of gluten, nor the large per-centage of any of the component
parts of wheaten flour which constitutes its excellence, but that it is important
in order to obtain the most useful preparation or manufacture of wheaten flour

page_text: that the gluten of flour should bear a certain relative proportion in respect to
the fecula present, and that such proportion of gluten is that which will
ensure (during the process of fermentation) a sufficient transformation of the:
fecula by the action of the gluten as is necessary for the sweetness of the bread
and the production of carbonic acid gas in the quantity requisite for raising
the bread. I have further.ascertained that any departure from these propor-
tions, by which either more or less of the fecula is transformed than is
necessary for the above purposes, indicates the inferiority of the wheaten flour.
In the manufacture. of cakes and biscuits, where no ferimentation is required,
the excellence of the flour will still consist in the relative proportion that the
gluten bears to the fecula, but not the same proportion as in the case of bread
where fermentation is requisite.
My improvements consist in the production of a better class of wheaten
flour out of those wheats, the inferiority of which arises from their excess of
gluten, and this I do by combining therewith fecula obtained from a portion of
the same or of other.wheat, so as to bring the whole to consist of the requisite
proportion of gluten and fecula according to the purposes, to which the wheaten
flour is to be applied, whether to bread, or cake, or biscuit making, and it may
be remarked that wheat injured in harvesting or housing, and therefore not
adapted for making good flour by itself, is nevertheless capable of yielding
fecula of a perfectly pure character, and suitable; when mixed with wheaten
flour deficient in fecula, in producing a high class of wheaten flour. The
classes of wheat suitable for my Invention' are those which do not possess
fecula to the extent of five or six times as much fecula, by weight, as the
gluten therein.
i
In carrying out my Invention, I first test the wheat which is inferior by
reason of its possessing an excess of gluten, and I ascertain. the proportion of
gluten therein, and I take a portion of that wheat, or of other wheat, and
grind it very coarsely in a steel mill, which I prefer to stones, as less of the
granules of the fecula are thereby broken. The ground wheat is then put
into a vat with water, and allowed to soak for about four weeks, by which
time the wheat will become so soft that the more liquid parts can be separated
from the husk by pressure in a strainer, whilst a continuous 'stream of water
is being poured thereon, thus leaving only the bran in the strainer. The fluid
thus obtained is put into another vat, and a small quantity of yeast mixed up
with it; it is then allowed to stand for about two weeks longer, when the
fecula, being the heaviest, will be found at the bottom, the gluten above it, and
the water on the top of all. The water is drawn off by a syphon, and the
gluten removed with a scoop from off the fecula, which is then stirred up with

page_text: water and again allowed to settle, and the surface. again cleared from what
little gluten may have been left, and this can be repeated two or three times.
Sufficient water is then added to the fecula to make the whole so thin that it
can be passed through a lawn sieve; it is again allowed to settle and the
water drawn off which will now come away quite clear. The 'fecula being a
stiff mass can be put on to cloths placed in perforated trays.and allowed to
drain; it is afterwards removed to a drying stove where it is dried at .150°
Fahrenheit. After standing about eight hours in the trays it will then bear to
be cut into pieces, and will stand by itself on tiles until it is thoroughly dried.
The fecula can be easily broken up.
. I would state that although I prefer to obtain the fecula of wheat in this
I make no claim thereto, and in place thereof other means of obtain-
ing the fecula of wheat to be used in the carrying out of my Invention may be
resorted to. I combine the fecula of wheat, either with the wheat, and grind
them together, or I grind the wheat first and then combine the flour with the
fecula in such proportions as to make up the deficiency of fecula in the par-
ticular wheat or flour, and according to the purpose to which tho wheaten
flour is to be applied, whether for bread or biscuits. I prefer for the purposes
of making fermented bread that the flour should consist of about one part, by
weight, of gluten, to about seven and a half parts, by weight, of fecula; but
for biscuit I prefer to use more fecula, say, eight or nine parts of fecula to one
of gluten. I do not, however, confine myself to the precise proportions.
What I claim.as my Invention is, the combining fecula of wheat in the
preparation or manufacture of wheaten flour where the wheat or flour obtained
from wheat contains an excess of gluten.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Karr Callard, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight-hundred and sixty.
THO. KARR CALLARD. (L.S.)