IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MEAL AND FLOUR FROM WHEAT, MAIZE, AND OTHER GRAIN, AND IN OBTAINING ▲ Valuable PRODUCT DURING THE SAID MANUFacture
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Muir, of Tradeston Mills, Glasgow, in
the County of Lanark, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF MEAL AND FLOUR FROM WHEAT, MAIZE, AND OTHER GRAIN,
AND IN OBTAINING ▲ Valuable PRODUCT DURING THE SAID MANUFacture"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Muir at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th July 1875.
I, THOMAS MUIR, of Tradeston Mills, Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MEAL AND FLOUR FROM WHEAT, MAIZE,
AND OTHER GRAIN, AND IN OBTAINING A VALUABLE PRODUCT DURING THE SAID
MANUFACTURE," to be as follows:-
:-
In the manufacture of meal and flour from grain, particularly in the
production of flour from wheat, maize, and like cereals, the general
practice heretofore has been to grind or crush the grains between stones

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Muir in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th January 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MUIR, of Tradeston Mills, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Ier reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Muir, Her special licence that
I, the said Thomas Muir, of Tradeston Mills, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the said Thomas Muir, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during tho
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 THE MANUFACTURE OF MEAL AND FLOUR FROM WHEAT, MAIZE, AND OTHER
GRAIN, AND IN OBTAINING A VALUABLE PRODUCT DURING THE SAID MANUFAC-
TURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Muir, 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 Invention, 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 Muir, do hereby declaro
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, that is to say..
In the manufacture of meal and flour from gram, particularly in the
production of flour from wheat, maize, and like cereals, the general
practice heretofore has been to grind or crush the grains between stones
or other equivalents into a mass more or less finely divided, and after-
wards to separate the bran and offal from the flour by sifting and like

page_text: means. That practice is and has been disadvantageous, inasmuch as the
resulting mcal and flour and the bread made from it are dark colored.
Probably however it is the only method satisfactorily available for soft
and damp wheats.
In Austria and Hungary, and to a small extent in Great Britain, a
practise has been followed of cracking dry and firm wheat into portions,
of separating these into various giades of quality, and of subsequently
crushing the separated portions into flour of different qualities Notwith-
standing the most watchful cleaning and care it has been found that the
lower grades of flour made in this way when baked give bread of very
dark and undesired quality
After protracted and patient investigation I have found-that the cause
of the dark color is the presence of the grain germs in the mass of the
meal or flour.
I am aware that various proposals and it may be attempts have been
made to remove from wheat and like grams the germs which are known
to discolor the flour and particularly the bread made therefrom by
cutting, hulling, and slicing off parts of the grain, thereby removing
more or less of such germs. The said germs have also been more or less
removed or torn out from the grain by the rasping or tearing action
produced by roughened surfaces. It has also been attempted to sift out
the germs after the wheat or grain has been rough ground, and as
regards maize proposals have been made to soak the grains in acid
solutions, and subsequently by drying and other means to remove the
germs. All such attempts or proposals however have been practically
wanting in success, because cither the germ was not wholly disengaged
from or was mixed up with the true flour particles, or if so disengaged
by any cutting, hulling, slicing, separating, tearing, or soaking and
drying operation valuable portions of the true flour cells were removed
with the germs, and so the separation was effected at such a sacrifice of
good flour that the result was obtained too dearly.
Now my Invention consists in separating the germs from the fleshy
parts of the wheat, in using only the fleshy parts in the manufacture of
meal and flour, and in obtaining the germs by themselves as a valuable,
nutritious, and novel product suitable for feeding cattle, for making flesh
forming biscuit, and for other purposes.

page_text: I have found after a long series of experiments that when wheat
grains are cracked and broken up by passing them between horizontal
millstones or their equivalents the germs are mainly disengaged from
the cracked portions of the grains, although they remain mixed up
therewith.
nortions
Some germs no doubt remain embedded in the fleshy