The Evolution of the Flour Mill from Prehistoric Ages to Modern Times By John Elton, 1905
In asking visitors to the Paris Congress to accept this Souvenir, the author expresses the hope that the event, unique as it is, will not be the last of its kind. The history of Corn Milling, from the appliances used by primitive man to the highly complex and magnificent machinery of today, will, no doubt, be read with interest by those who have not well studied a most interesting subject. The story of some of the principal Miller's Associations is given with the view of promoting a spirit of fraternity amongst members of the old and honorable craft the world over. It is hoped that the present gathering will seal friendships and lead to more uniformity in matters of vital interest to all millers, of whatsoever nationality. GEO. J. S. BROOMHALL, EDITOR OF "MILLING." Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of London. Statistician to the Grain Trade of Liverpool. European Correspondent of the Board of Trade, Chicago. British Correspondent of the Produce Exchange, Buenos Ayres. BRUNSWICK STREET, LIVERPOOL. October 2nd, 1905.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FLOUR MILL, FROM PREHISTORIC AGES TO MODERN TIMES. THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH AND IRISH MILLERS: ITS LIFE STORY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FRENCH MILLERS THE GERMAN MILLERS' UNION THE GERMAN MERCHANT MILLERS' ASSOCIATION THE ASSOCIATION OF BELGIAN MILLERS THE DUTCH MILLERS' ASSOCIATION THE ASSOCIATION OF BOHEMIAN MORAVIAN MILLERS THE ITALIAN MILLERS' ASSOCIATION THE MILLERS' NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE U.S.A. THE FRATERNITY OF OPERATIVE MILLERS OF AMERICA
Before the first actual grinding mill came into existence, grain was merely shelled or husked by pounding. This simple kind of a "first break" was effected by spreading the grain upon a slab or block of stone and beating it with a hand stone; a subsequent development of this rude apparatus being a hollow mortar and an improved hand stone. The original hand pounder was used on a flat block, this being an early English specimen, sows the improved mortar and pounder, this being an early Welch sample. Such relics are found throughout both hemispheres, having been used by all primitive nations throughout the world; but eventually they were universally discarded for more perfect apparatus, which really ground the grain into meal. The "saddle stone" so called from its more or less fanciful resemblance to a high peaked saddle. It is the most interesting of the whole series of hand stones, as being the first real hand mill- highly esteemed and used all over the globe. Saddle stones of the ordinary types of the stone made, and are used by kneeling in front of the stone, the operator used a back and forth method of working it. Though the loose hand stones seem to assume the form of rollers, still they were not so used; they were simply pushed backwards and forwards without any rolling motion, the grain (probably after being broken in a "Mortar") being placed on the lower stone in handfuls as required. Though we see it in use in Central Africa in modern times, it is found in the exploration of the relics of prehistoric ages; it abounds in the remains alike of rude historic periods and of the civilized days of early Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Its chief survival is found in the "Metata" of Mexico and Central America generally, where it is in ordinary use grinding maize for the making of "Tortilla" cakes. A sample of extremely elegant form into which the Indians of Mexico carved these stones may be still found. But as the Saddle Stone had displaced the Mortar so it, itself, was displaced in turn by the next improvement - the "Quern." In the Quern a rotary movement was for the first time introduced into the operation of grinding grain. The machine originally consisted of two circular stones of about equal diameter, the top stone resting on a pivot in its center, this pivot being fixed in the center of the lower stone. A wooden handle projected upwards from the top stone, and by this the latter was turned. The grain was placed in a hole or hopper in the upper stone, and as the latter revolved it gradually trickled through the top stone and was drawn "between the upper and the nether millstone." As it became reduced into meal it was automatically pressed to the circumference of the stones and expelled. The action of this simple hand stone was in fact nothing more or less than that of the water mill and wind mill, which were developed from it. The Quern is believed to have been a product of the civilization of the Roman age. "No early Greek writer mentions the revolving Quern, and the earliest allusion to it seems to be made by Cato (232-147B.C.)"; though after this date it can be identified through all ancient history. The Indians of American knew perfectly well the Mortar and the Saddle Stone, yet the relics of their period do not seem to disclose that they ever knew or used the Quern. So vastly improved a mill as this became the subject of all kinds of development. Very early the bottom stone was made in conical form, the top stone being funnel shaped; this being to render the outflow of the meal easier. Another alteration was the provision of the rim round the bottom stone and a lip or spout at one side, the object here being to bring out the flow at one fixed spot. Grooving the stones soon followed the mere roughening originally adopted, and many Roman and early British specimens show excellent samples of this ancient art. The grooved lower surface of the top stone, illustrates a rimmed and grooved lower stone. In modern times the rimmed lower stone was generally discarded for the original form, and those in use in the last century, in Scotland, for example, differed very little except in perfected mechanical detail from the querns of Ancient Rome. The most notable early development made from the Quern was the horse Mill or Slave Mill in use a century B.C. It was nothing but a huge enlargement of the conical and funnel shaped stones, with the turning handle at the top abolished for a horizontal bar, to which slaves, horses, or asses were attached. The "Slave Mills" or Ass Mills" of Pompeii are seen to be constructed in this way. The fanciful representation of a Horse Mill on a marble carving in the Vatican, but it is in no degree indicative of the sorry beasts and the mean contrivances that were the actualities of the period. While the Quern was in the height of its success as the premier mill of the world, there came about a final development which ultimately abolished both it and all other hand mills. The revolving principle of the Quern was retained, but human and cattle labor was abolished, and water power adopted instead. The vast change was made only about a century after the invention of the Quern had given its impetus to the construction of milling appliances; it being about the year 85 B.C. when the Greek, Antipater of Thessaloica, gave us the first allusion to a mill driven by water. The mill, as he knew it, is believed to be identical with a very primitive and crude contrivance that soon spread throughout Europe and Asia, and survives in some places still. This Greek or "Norse Mill" consisted of a large Quern fixed above a stream, a vertical spindle being fixed in the top stone, but passing loosely through the bottom stone and desending into the stream, where it was pivoted on a block of stone. A little way above the pivot, a horizontal water wheel was fixed on the spindle, and the stream playing down on the vanes of the water turned, with this latter, both the spindle and the top stone of the mill. such horizontal mills, the crudest know, have survived on a small scale till even the present day. Many of their small "Hurst" were formerly to be found in ordinary use by cottars and farmers in the Shetlands; the mosses of Ireland have yielded numerous relics of them; so frequently do they occur in Norway that the term "Norse Mill" is that by which they are now generally know; and they are met with in large numbers on the great Chig-tu Plain of China. The Roman water mill, a much superior contrivance, was introduced about sixty years after the Greek mill, and, as described by Vitruvis about the year 20 B.C., was in all essential particulars identical with the world known water mill of modern times. the Roman improvement consisted of the abolition of the horizontal wheel in favor of the now well known vertical wheel; the Roman mill is similar to the present day mill comprising an almost literal specification of the ancient Roman milling engineer. From his day to our own the rudimentary principles of the universal water mill have never changed; its simplicity and general applicability kept it at the front as the only possible mill for no less a time than eleven hundred years. Wind mills are of comparatively late origin. Amid many apocryphal allusions to wind mills of very remote periods, the earliest known was an English one erected at Bury St. Edmunds in 1191. The original type of wind mill the peg (or post) mill was built round an upright shaft fixed in the earth, and was laboriously pulled round from time to time to bring its sails up to the changing wind. This type seems to have been universal till as late as about 1595, when the Dutch were accredited with the invention of the fixed tower mill. it had a movable cap that could be turned to bring the sails up to the wind without turning the entire mill; but alter the cap was made automatic in its action. Of course, the grinding apparatus of the wind mill was merely copied from that of the water mill, the only change being in the accessories suitable to the aerial motor. Steam was first introduced into water mills solely for the purpose of pumping water from below the wheel back again into the race. This was the case about the years 1780-1790. But by 1784 the first known installation of steam as a driving power had taken place at the Albion Mills, Blackfriars Bridge, London, which, till their destruction by fire in 1791, were worked with great success. Of roller milling little need hare be said. As early as 1651 iron rollers were advocated in England for the bruising of horse corn; a century later stone rollers, working at a differential speed, were suggested for the manufacture of flour. Little practical result arose from these and other crude ideas on the subject till, between the years 1820-1830, the system of roller milling was largely exploited in France, Austria, and Switzerland, and the initiative was definitely taken for the vast developments that have since been evolved. Now that roller milling is so firmly established a fact in all the civilized countries of the world, the demands made upon the scientific and commercial attainments of the miller are infinitely greater than any previous age has seen. Necessarily, therefore, have arisen huge developments of that spirit of mutual co-operation among the members of the craft which their modern successors find essential still. The great milling nations of the present day all possess their Associations and Federations for promoting the welfare of the trade, and in the following pages is given some account of the history and constitution of the principal of these valuable aids to successful modern milling.
