Flour Milling by Peter A. Kozmin
Preface
1. Flour Milling According to Religilious Legends and Classical Literature, Modern Relics of Ancient Forms of Milling 2. Types of Mills Drives by Aminal Power 3. The Utilsation of Water Power for Mills 4. The American Automatic Mill 5. The Influence of American Technics in Europe 6. Mills in France 7. Process of Technics in Germany 8. Further Development of Mill Building in Europe 9. The Struggle between the Roller and Stone Mills
1. The Berries of the Cereals 2. Physical Structure of the Wheat Grain 3. Chemical Composition of Wheat
1. Impurities and the Principles of Cleaning 2. Extraction of Pieces of Metal from the Stock 3. Separation of Large and Small Impurities
1. The Fundamental Principles of Milling 2. The Construction of the Grinding Machines 3. Machines of Reiterated Action of the Working Surfaces
1. Sifting the Product 2. Relative Position of the Sieves 3. The Sifting Process 4. Construction of Sifting Machines
1. Grading Middlings and Dunst according to Specific Gravity 2. Middlings and Dunst Grading Machines of Today 3. Capacity of Purifiers
1. Purification of the Intermediate Product 2. Dust Collectors 3. Exhaust Systems
1. Classification of Milling Systems 2. Plain Grinding 3. Diarams of Improved Plain Milling Systems 4. High Grinding 5. Shorter Gradual Reduction Systems 6. Rye Grinding 7. Maize Grinding 8 Scheme of Oat Meal Grinding 9. Quantity of Intermediate Products and the Calculation of Corresponding Machines 10. Russian Grinding
1. Conditions Determinig the Charactor of Buildings 2. Construction of Mill Buildings 3. Buildings of Complicated Grinding Mills 4. Construction of American Mills 5. Plans of Mills
1. The Mill Building and Equipment 2. Calcuation of Working Expenses 3. Selection of a Prime Motor
It is a singular fact that there is no serious modern work on flour milling in English. This fact was recently stated by Mr. Arthur E. Hawker, secretary of the National Association of British and Irish Millers, in a letter to the Editor of Milling. Even the rich American technical literature has no modern works of this kind, and the Americans were compelled four or five years ago to translate the old book of Professor Fr. Kick, the last edition of which was published over twenty years ago (1894). The want of serious literature on flour milling is noticeable even in the German language, in which dialect during all the time which has elapsed since the appearance of Professor Kick's book not one objective scientific work has been published. As a characteristic feature of German literature of the last few years (Bumgartner - 1902, Baumgartner and Graf - 1904, Baumgartner - 1907, Pappenheim - 1903, Kettenbach - 1907), one may point out the absence of descriptions of English and American machinery. I refrain from judging whether this is a result of the Germans not being acquainted with the machinery of English and American manufacture, or whether it is to be ascribed to the peculiar German patriotism in science. Be this as it may, the German authors do not give a broad scientific technical statement to their readers when they omit to mention English and American machinery. Having been for twenty years engaged in this industry as a theoretical and practical worker, and having studied the technology of milling in Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Belgium, England, and United States, I made up my mind to write a book on this subject, keeping to the most scientific basis. The object i had in view was to produce a practical and theoretical text book for operative millers and for milling engineers, who have to construct flour mills and to design flour milling machinery. I thought it necessary to begin my book with an historical outline of the manufacture of flour. I drew up this outline on the basis of the material which I found in the richest library of the world, that of the British Museum, as well as in the Congressional Library of the United States, in which I worked on the occasion of my visits to these two countries. I have given an outline from the most important developments the milling industry has undergone from the ancient period of civilized nations of Asia Minor and Egypt till the period when practice determined the correct way of improving the technology of flour milling. The historical outline is important in that it presents the general developments of the craft to the mind of the student and forces him to think more logically. After having spoken of the product which is to be treated, I pass to the study of the construction of the cleaning and grinding machines. The designs of the machines performing a very particular operation in the cleaning and grinding processes are almost infinitely variable. In order to rain the student promptly and logically to analyze and estimate the numerous machines, I have classified them according to the principles of their operation. Then I have illustrated the fundamental principles from most characteristic and most popular European and American machines. To explain my idea, I will take for instance the study of the roller mill. I consider this machine form the point of view of feeding the rolls (German, English, and American systems of feeding), disposition of the rolls (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal), driving of the rolls (gear drive in the European makes, belt drive in America), methods of ventilation, etc. Describing the principles of the action and design of certain machines, I make also a critical estimate of them, basing my contentions on practical and scientific considerations. Such is my method of describing machines, the idea always being to give the student a conception of the most important designs and to force him to think critically. In the chapter on milling diagrams I give typical diagrams of systems at work in European and American countries, in order that the student may compare all the different schemes of grinding. In each chapter I give the practically established capacities of the machines and a basis for the calculation of the necessary number and dimensions of them, corresponding t a given capacity of a Russian, German, English or American mill. No author has yet paid attention to the problem of the motion of the plansifter and of the movement of the product on the purifier. I thought it therefore necessary to solve this problem, and this makes it possible scientifically to estimate the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of these machines. In writing my book I have attempted to instruct and prepare the way for learned and scientifically thinking specialists. It is for others to judge as to whether I have succeeded in my achievement. In writing this book I have largely availed myself of the materials and advice of my professional colleagues working theoretically and practically in England and America for the benefit of the Milling Industry. I consider it therefore my duty most earnestly to thank Mr. W. Jago, the author of the excellent work on The Technology of Bread Making, for his kind permission to reproduce some of its tables and photographs of the wheat grain. Further, to Mr. R. A. Sidley, editor of The Miller; to Mr. Geo. J. S. Broomhall, editor of Milling; Mr. A. R. Tattersall, Mr. Chas. E. Oliver of the Dixie Miller, and many others who have rendered me their kind assistance. Finally, I desire to express my heartiest thanks to Messrs. Geo. Routhedge & Sons Ltd., for their kind consent to publish my book in English, and thus to give me a chance to offer it to the judgment of the specialists of England and America, to whom I shall be most obliged for their impartial criticism. P. Kozman.
The Publishers desire to add their thanks to Mr. Edward Bradfield, Associate and Technical Editor of Milling, for his assistance in revising the proof sheets of this book.
FLOUR MILLING ACCORDING TO RELIGIOUS LEGENDS AND CLASSICAL LITERATURE. MODERN RELICS OF ANCIENT FORMS OF MILLING Modern culture of mankind, indissolubly connected with the technics of production, is the last link of a long chain of human endeavor stretching away into the dark space of past millenniums. The culture of mankind has not developed spasmodically; although history relates of whole peoples vanishing and their culture with them, this is but a seeming disappearance of culture. It is an undoubted fact with us, that a more perfect technical knowledge corresponds with a more perfect culture. Culture never vanished, it simply underwent an evolution. Its old forms were gradually modified and perfected. When studying the history of the technics of any particular kind of production, we come to the conclusion that the perfecting of the process of production was never brought about by leaps and bounds. On the contrary, it has been a slow process of gradually collecting grains of human knowledge. Out of an inexhaustabe source of knowledge, the grains of culture, i.e. the weapons of the victorious battle of man for existence and happiness, passed from one people to another; neither racial, social, not national and territorial partitions of humanity could bar their passage. An empire might vanish, even a people, but the weapons of the struggle for life - in the first place, the implements of production - remained in the hands of others, and the culture did not disappear. The law of evolution of the technics of production is a curve having no solutions of continuity. The study of the development of a production gives us the law of inflection in that curve. Parallel to this curve, i.e. in accordance with that law, runs uninterruptedly the line of human culture. That is the reason why historical catastrophes of human culture are impossible, however powerful the wave of barbarians on the cultured people may be. An intimate acquaintance with technical history is indispensable to every engineer, because history gives us the law of evolution of the implements and processes of production. Only by carefully studying the historical development of the technics of production does the creative power of an engineer receive its true education and evade retrogression. The most brilliant example of culture and its evolution to date is the technics of procuring and preparing the nutritive substances for food. Since man left the cave epoch behind him, vegetable food has constituted undoubtedly the most substantial part of his nourishment. Even the biblical legend of paradise tell us that man lived on the abundance of the fruits of the earth, and was allowed to use them for food. Traditions about a human paradise on earth reached even the time of Ovid, who depicts the life of primeval man as the golden epoch, when men were content with the food the earth yielded them without Constraint. But people multiplied, formed numerous groups, the abundance of the fruits of the earth did not suffice, and the curse of procuring food by the sweat of man's brow began to gain ground. The struggle against the curse is the history of human culture, the history of the technics of production. In the end, a perfect technical knowledge will, of necessity, liberate mankind from this curse. Since time immemorial, bread has been the most essential element of man's vegetable food. How it happened that man stumbled upon the cereals, why he began to cultivate this unsightly plant, we know not, but, in selecting the cereal plant out of the mass of other fruit, man made no blunder, for the grain of corn contains more nutritive substance than any other fruit; but out of the gloom of ages, traditions slightly varying in import have reached us. Moses says that Cain tilled the soil, that Noah, after the flood likewise began to cultivate land. Pliny speaks of a tradition which ascribes the origin of agriculture to a deity. Tradition tells us men were taught to cultivate corn by the goddess of agriculture, Ceres (by Demetere, sister of Zeus, according to the Greeks). "Before this, people fed on acorns." Pliny adds that men learned the grinding of corn to flour also from Ceres. From this myth we understand that the art of grain grinding, a contemporary of agriculture and proceeding from one and the same deity, has its origin in the same depth of ages as the cultivation of corn. A Spartan tradition ascribes the art of making flour to Miles, and says that the chief milling town of Greece of that epoch was Alesia. According to Hommel, Asia is the native country of the cultivated cereals. He maintains that the Sumerians coming to Egypt from Mesopotamia, eight thousand years ago, had a great influence on the culture of Egypt, having taught the aborigines to procure and work metals and cultivate corn. About the grinding instruments of the pre-mythological ages the traditions give us no information, but relics of the classical and the Egyptian culture exist, which can give us an idea what the antique Egyptian machine was like. Excavations and the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians indicate the the primitive milling implements were first wooden, then stone, and later on metal mortars, in which the grain was crushed by blows from pestles. The whole process of flour making by the Egyptians is seen on one of the pictures that decorated the house wall in the town of Thebes, according to Wilkinson's Account of the Ancient Egyptians. The mortars and the pestles with two working ends, the basket of grain or semi-product the basket of ready flour. The loading is done by a man, who pours the grain out of the vessel into the mortar. Two men are grinding; one is emptying the crushed grain out of the mortar into a sieve; the last man is sifting. The sifting if crudely crushed grain was known apparently even in these very remote times. The sieve, a kind of rudely shaped plate, was probably made of papyrus. One either side of the bas relief at the top are hieroglyphic inscriptions and explaining the meaning of the picture. It is supposed that the ancient Egyptians roasted or heated the grain until dry, previous to grinding it. That is very possible, as the dryer the grain is, the more easily it is broken by blows from the pestle. The same type of the primitive mill existed on ancient Greece,and some of the excavated vases bear the drawing of a similar mortar and pestle. Besides that, Pliny gives us a description of apparently similar mills in Greece, saying that "in Etruria, the ears of corn are roasted and then crushed by means of pestles with sharp saw like edges below and a cogged wheel in the middle." And yet the primitive milling in Etruria required technical knowledge for Pliny says (ibid.) if the work was done carelessly, the grain was crushed more finely than was necessary and the iron parts of the pestle were soon worn out or broken. But what strikes us most is the fact that after thousands of years living relics of antique Egyptian technics are found. Some of the African tribes in the valley of the Nile use the mortar and pestle for grain grinding at the present day. In the town of Khartoum and that of ancient Egypt. Here are the same two baskets - one with grain, the other for flour - a stone mortar, and wooden pounder. There is but a sieve to make the same identical image. In China, where traditions of great antiquity, concerning gramen, the gift of gods, also exist, wheat was cultivated 2700 years B.C. and the ancient Egyptian type of grinding machine was in use. Until recently, in many parts of China the mortar and pestle were used for clipping and polishing rice, i.e. freeing it of the coating. In several out of the way places in that country, wheat is still crushed to a coarse flour in that mortar. The pestle in such a mill is powered by foot drive. An interesting mill of a similar type, but driven by water, is described by Bridd in the American Miller, 1907. This mill is used by the Indians who settled in the state of Kentucky, for maize grinding. the mortar is hollowed out in a tree stump. A lever, with a stone pestle attached to one end, and a box to the other, is placed on a fork. A jet of water from a stream is conducted along a groove into the box. When the box is filled with water, outweighing the stone, it drops to the lower position, the water runs out of the box, and the pestle falls quickly into the mortar, crushing the grain. The capacity of the mortar is about 28 pounds of grain; that quantity is ground in eight to ten hours. The mill, consisting of a mortar and pestle, belongs to the first period of prehistoric technics. The next stage of its development is a transitory type from the mortar and pestle to two millstones, between which the grain is ground. The primitive type of such a mill was produced apparently also in Egypt. The grain was ground on the larger stone by means of the small one. We find this mill nowadays in the hands of the natives of Africa in the Nile Valley. The African women prepares flour in the same manner as the Egyptians did some 4,000 years ago. The up to date milling of the Nubians the work is preformed by children's labor. It is curious to note that the same principle of milling has been retained, up to this day, by the Mexican Indians, descendants of the Aztecs. The stone "mill" used by the Mexican Indians of today; they use to grind corn on it. The primitive grain crushing show us how slowly ancient man acquired the principles of a more economical system. The mill of the first type is very simple - it is based on the impact principle, knowing, as he did, the destructive power of a blow and the solidity of stone, for he fashioned his axes and arrowheads from that material. But gradually the human mind became conscious that such work is not efficient. It is evident, besides, that the blows of the pestle by degrees, wear out the mortar and the pestle itself. Thus the question of the greatest efficiency of work and of a better constructed machine arises. The impact principle is rejected, and that of grinding is adopted. That principle was adhered to in the mills of the improved type, that might be called "grinding mills," for thousands of years. When the mills consisting of two grind stones appeared is not known. At any rate, it may be supposed that they made their appearance in Egypt, and 3,500 years before our time at the very latest. The Jews, leaving Egypt, doubtless brought much technical knowledge of various productions out with them. It was from the Egyptians that they learned to grind their grain to flour on millstones. We fond traces of that in the fifth book of Moses, where it is written, "No man shall take the neither or the upper millstone to pledge." Evidently the grind stone mill was an indispensable utensil of a Hebrew household during their searches for the blessed land, since Moses forbade by law loans on the pledge of a millstone. In the fourth book of Moses the heavenly manna is spoken of in the following terms; "And the people went about and gathered it in mills, or beat it in a mortar." The contemporary use of the mortar and grinding mill points to the period of the migration of the Jews, as the beginning of the use of grinding mills, which at the time had not yet succeeded in supplanting the pestle and mortar. Grinding mills are spoken of more definitely (about 1,000 years B.C.) in Homer's Odyssey (song 7, vv. 103, 104), where domestic life at the court of King Alcinous is described; "Full fifty hand maids form the household train; Some turn the mill, or sift the golden grain." and then canto 20, vv. 105-111: "Beneath a pile that close the dome adjoin'd, Twelve female slaves the gift of Ceres grind; Task'd for the royal board to bolt the bran, From the pure flour (the growth and strength of man), Discharging to the day the labor due, Now early to repose the rest withdrew; One maid, unequal to the task assign'd, Still turned the toil some mill anxious mind." The grind stones of those mills were very small, a proof of which is to be found in the fact of ancient heroes using them as missiles for throwing at their enemies during battle. A stone of this description weighs some 45 pounds, and does not exceed one foot in diameter. The upper stone, slightly conical, is 4 1/2 inches thick. The neither one is flat and 2 1/2 inches thick. Such stones are disinterred in Abbeville (Picardy).These grind stones belong to an age not distant from that of Homer (found in Syria). The working surface of the upper and nether stones are of conic shape. Later on, we shall find proof that this mill was the predecessor of that of the Romans. We ventured the opinion that the double stone mill was invented in ancient Egypt, and then brought into Greece. Indeed, the kind of mill described by Homer is still used in Morocco. These mills are also in use in the Orient and in China. A celebrated traveler and explorer of the Orient Journefause, says he saw a similar mill on the isle of Nicaria. Giving a description of it, he tells us that the grain was poured into an aperture in the upper stone and fell in between the two stones. The upper stone (2 feet in diameter) was made to rotate by means of a stick fixed into its edge. Similar millstones are mentioned by Clark, who saw them in Nazareth; they were worked by two women. One of them was turning the upper stone, taking the handle with her right hand half way round, and passing the handle to the second woman, who after performing the same motion, returned it to the first from the other side, & etc. With their left hands they poured the grain into the hole in the upper stone. The Chinese rice mill are of the same construction according to Staunton, though designed not for the grinding of grain, but for freeing it of its outer cover. He describes it in the following manner; "The rice is placed in between two flat cylindric stones, which are so far apart that with the rotation of the upper stone the grain is but freed of its covering, and not ground." The type f hand mill alluded to by Moses and Homer is still preserved among the natives of Morocco. A hand millstone set of the Caucasian "Dukhobors," was still made in 1908. But not only the native aborigines of Africa use these mills, it is almost identical to the hand mills, with a few improvements, that the "Dukhobors" from the Caysasus used, before migrating to America. The improvements in this mill, when compared to the Morocco one, consist in the fixing of the stones to a block hollowed out in the shape of a trough. The hole bored in the side of the trough, serves for discharging the flour. This type of hand mill brings us to the end of the first period of milling technics of the antique, mainly slave owning culture. The consumption of bread not being high, there was no need for large production of it, and therefore the milling was successfully performed by slaves and women. The work being very difficult, criminals were condemned to do it for punishment. As to the women, it was one of the items of her ordinary household work. To this day, in Mecca, a place is shown where Fatima, daughter of Mohammed, worked a hand mill.
The new mill, where mainly animal power and only partly human power is utilized, appears with the passing of flour milling from the family, which only satisfied its private needs, into the hands of the producer, working market. The principle of grinding the grain between two millstones remains in the new mill, but it is larger, and has undergone some modification in its construction tending to reduce the expenditure of power. This mill was invented at a later period, yet we find no traces of it among the relics of antique Egyptian, Roman, and Greek Cultures. Only the latest excavations of Pompeii have given us pictures of the improved mill of the time of Roman dominion, as well as nearly perfectly preserved millstones. In all probability this type of mill was invented by the Romans at least 150 to 200 B.C. The foundation of the Roman mill consists of a cylindrical pillow of stone. It is about 5 feet in diameter and 1 foot thick. To this foundation is rigidly fixed a conic stone (the nether stone - "meta") with the top[ truncated about 2 feet in height. The cone is provided with an iron journal at the top. The revolving upper stone ("catillus") has two bell shaped hollows, thus resembling a sand glass. In the place where the tops of the bell are joined an iron cross beam is fixed, like a dove tail in shape at the ends. In the middle of this beam is a round hole, into which the journal is inserted, so that in between the inner sides of the lower bell and the outer surface of the cone there is just the space needed for grinding the grain which is put there. The grain is poured into the hollow of the upper bell, acting the part of the hopper, from whence it falls into the space between the grinding surfaces. The upper stone is revolved by means of levers, which as inserted into the two or four rectangular cavities made in it. The product is discharged into the ring shaped groove below, made on the surface of the foundation. We have detailed information concerning the nature of stone used in milling from Pliny. Judging by his descriptions, it was known that not every stone can be used for milling purposes. The grind stone if the Pompeian mills were shaped of lava from Vesuvius. Coarse and fine sieves, made of horse hair and linen, were used for separating the flour from the bran and whole grains that passed unground. There were usually several kinds of flour known on the market. He mentions even the number of flour grades and refuse obtained from one medimnim holding 108 laurels, viz: Flour of the finest quality (pollen)...................................17 laurels. Flour of medium quality (similago)..................................50 laurels. Flour of semolina, 1st quality (farini tritici)......................30 1/2 laurels. Flour of semolina, 2nd quality (secundarii panis).........2 1/2 laurels. Flour of semolina, 3rd quality (cibarii panis)..................2 1/2 laurels. Bran (furfur)...........................................................................3 laurels. Various refuse.......................................................................2 1/2 laurels. Total.........................................................................................108 laurels. It was mentioned above that working the mill was the occupation of women, chiefly female slaves. Men were employed in that work later - serfs and criminals, sometimes forced to wear wooden discs round their necks, to prevent any possibility of reaching their mouth with the hand and eating the flour. After it was discovered that larger and heavier stones work with greater efficiency, animal power was put to use, especially that of horses and asses. For that purpose a fencing of beams with shafts for the harnessing of horses was arranged round the runner, which represents part of a bas relief in the Vatican. Blinkers were placed on the eyes of the animals, probably to prevent giddiness. The mill driven by an ass is reproduced in a book on Herculaneum and Pompeii, by Rou-Barre (vol. 2, tab. 83). This drawing was made from a picture at the entrance to the Pompeian Pantheon.. Besides the mill there are the mill demons shown in the picture (a belief that an unholy power lives in the mill exists also among the Slaves). The mill is in the middle of the picture, and seven spirits are seen round about it, some working, others resting form their work over a glass of wine. One of the spirits is about to harness an ass and to start his work., Four such mills after their disinterment, in perspective. Those mills were found close to a bakery, and probably formed a complete bread factory. Mills with a lever drive evidently kept their place a long time in milling. They are to be met with in the classic world as well as in the far Orient. A Chinese mill, worked with the aid of a horizontal lever by a man. In Hindoo a mill was driven by oxen. Though it is furnished with a lever drive, the primitive mortar and pestle system has been retained here. The crushing of grain, however, is based on the principle of grinding. This mill was described by the traveler Sonerat in his book, Reise nach Ostinbien und China. Animal power is still used in modern China for driving mills. Some mills are driven by buffaloes. Yet we must note that modern Chinese mills, where buffaloes are employed as motive power, have received considerable improvements, in comparison with those of the Romans.
As the construction of a mill grew heavier, in response to the need of greater output, men were forced to apply a greater driving power, which should be more efficacious than the muscles of a slave, woman, or animal. Naturally, they turned to water and air first of all, and utilized the power of these moving elements. The first veracious information concerning mills driven by means of under shot water wheels, and a minute explanation of their construction, we find in Vitruvius. Vitruvius a Roman architect, wrote De Architectura about 16-13 B.C. It is to be regretted that Vitruvius in his immense work about the art of building did not furnish it with drawings; all illustrations given in some of the later editions of his work, are only attempts to depict what he described. Such is the drawing I've taken from an edition of Vitruvius' work, published in 1521 in Caamo, in Old Italian. Here represents a wooden water wheel. On its rim are radially fixed paddles receiving the pressure of moving water, and boxed or ladles, which serve to bring up the water used for special purposes (probably for irrigation). The shaft of the water wheel is turned with the long end inwards. On the square part of the shaft is fixed a comb wheel engaged with a mangle gear. The cogs of the collar comb wheel enter into the mangle wheel, set on, the spindle of the millstones, which rests with its lower end on a beam, the upper end passing through a fixed lower grind stone, and is hermetically fastened to the runner, into the opening of which the product to be ground is poured. The latter is fed from a pyramidal hopper, where the grain is kept. The lower opening of the hopper is furnished with an adjustable vibrating shoe. The water lifted by a wheel pours out of the boxes into a tank, whence through an opening it passes into a spout, and may be used for irrigation. Possibly a fullery was attached to the mill, which may explain the presence of a hammer in the drawing, though it may have been used for hammering a stopper into the outlet. We may suppose the use of horizontal water wheels or turbines on mill to be nearly as old as the use of vertical water wheels. Simple turbines are found in mountainous regions in almost all lands where the population is slightly touched by civilization, however low their mechanics may stand. If the drawing in this surmise is to be correct. It is a drawing of an Arabian water mill, made at Roller's by a captain of the French artillery soon after the taking of Constantinople by the French. it denotes the wall of the mill building, the hopper for pouring the grain in, a cross bar communicating a vibratory motion to the hopper, a revolving grind stone (making 112 revolutions in the present case), the spindle of the grind stone, masonry serving as nether stone at the same time, a cavity, where the ground product (flour semolina) is collected, a shaft on which a turbine is mounted, a ladder, a lever for the runner, a gate in front of the spout. It is also mentioned that the turbine is 1-6 meters in diameter, and is furnished with thirty paddles. With the aid of a spout, through a small opening in the dam, the water is directed on to one half of that wheel, so that it falls into the concave side of the paddles bringing the wheel, the shaft, and the grinder into motion. As to horizontal water wheels in mills, M. Ruhlman quotes and extract form the French encyclopedia. In the 14th vol. of the Distionnaire Techniligique, page 207, it is stated that horizontal water wheels in the so called bazcle mills on Tumra were built on the twelfth century (1190). Then, in the issue of Neues Hannoversches Magasin on October 4, 1802, page 1277, is the following description of a Bashkir mill that was evidently a contemporary of the vessel mills of Belisarius: "The Bashkirs have mills of a peculiar construction, apparently an invention of the people. With the view of economizing labor, they choose the smallest rivulets for their mills, make a hedge of twigs which is filled with earth, and dam the stream with it (or an ordinary dyke of brush wood). On the dyke is built a hut on piles. In that hut grind stones are placed on a scaffolding standing in the middle with railings running round its edge. The grinders are not of stone, but of a hard tree stump or block of wood, and are shaped in the form of plates, studded in and orderlies way with flat iron nails, so laid that their prominent parts run lengthwise from the center to the periphery. The nether wooden grinder is rigidly attached to the scaffolding, while the upper one may be raised and revolves conjointly with the vertical shaft that runs through the opening in the nether grinder and rests with the point of an iron crutch is usually made of one block of wood, so that its lower part ends in a round thick knob, into which a number of flat wings or paddles, slightly concave on one side, may be hammered in a manner resembling the spokes on a wheel, and forming the water wheel proper. A bolt is hammered into the thick end of the shaft below, by means of which the vertical shaft rests in the rivulet on a beam and revolves in it, as in a bearing. "The grain to be ground into semolina or coarse flour is poured into a hopper built of planks. Under the opening of that hopper, a short horizontal spout is placed, leading to the opening in the middle of the upper grinding disk. The corn bin with grain is hung to the cross beam of the mill, free to be shifted. A handle tied to the corn bin, which touches the upper grinder with one end, imparts a vibrating motion to it." We presume, however, that the author errs in ascribing the invention of this mill, with a horizontal water wheel, to the Bashkirs. From the oldest times and up to this day, such a mill is a common object in the Caucasus. Possibly the author has mistaken the natives of Caucasus for Bashkirs. The mountaineers, and even the people of the plains of the northern Caucasus, chiefly use maize flour, of which an unleavened bread is prepared, "Chureck." Wheat is also ground, but is used only with an admixture of maize flour, as the use of pure wheat flour is a luxury among the natives. The whole amount of maize and wheat is ground for local consumption in the water mills depicted in 1802 by the Neues Hannoversches Magasin. In such a mill, the shaft of a horizontal water wheel rests with one end on a step bearing in the shaft, which may rise and fall with the aid of a stem and a wedge in its upper end. To the upper end of the shaft is fixed a runner by means of a driving iron. On the lower end of the shaft is set a wooden hub furnished with ten to twelve paddles. The number of revolutions of the water wheel is from forty to eighty per minute, the fall of the water being 3 1/2 to 7 feet. The diameter of the grinders is 1 1/ to 3 1/2 feet, the thickness 3 1/2 to 7 inches. These mills are usually furnished with one burr, and are built on mountain brooks. Their capacity varies from 1 to 8 or 10 poods (1 pood = 36 pounds) per day. A Caucasian Mill with a single set of grinders. It is of brush wood wicker work, with a thatched roof. Also found is a Caucasian mill with three sets of grinders, three water wheels, tile roof and wood construction. In a valley nine such mills, situated along a mountain torrent, along to the mountain side like swallow nests. In these mills the work is usually performed by women. This type of water wheel became known in France and Germany only in the fifteenth century. Therefore, the supposition that these mills were brought to Europe by the crusaders at the end of the thirteenth century is quite just.
A strong impetus was given to the development of milling technics in Europe by the Americans. The idea of an automatic mill, as of many other improvements in machines with the principles of automation, belong to them. It is astonishing, but a fact never the less, that the discovery of the French quarry "La Ferte sous Jouarre," producing the famous French stones, was made by the Americans. That stone was used in America for making grinders a long time before it became known to the French millers. The Americans threw away the sifting bag of the old European mill, and substituted for it cylindrical and polygonal reel separators, which are also American inventions. For the transportation of the product the Americans adapted elevators and conveyors. For the cooling of flour special apparatus called hopper boys were planned. The flaxen tissue in sifting bags was supplanted first by wool, then by wire, and lastly by silken tissue. Thus everything tending to progress in the technics of the furnishing of mills in the end of the eighteenth and first quarter of the nineteenth centuries belongs to the initiative of the Americans. For nearly forty years, up to the thirties of last century, the teacher of the Europeans was the celebrated American engineer, Oliver Evans, whose book has passes into thirteen editions (authors note - Oliver Evans, The Young Mill-Wright and Miller's Guide, the thirteenth and last edition published in Philadelphia, 1850), and was translated into French and German. In the review of European mill building the great influence of America on Europe in that respect will be pointed out. At present, we shall give a description of a typical American mill, the design of which was completed by Evans as early as 1783. Plate eight, article eighty nine illustrates from Evans book the whole process of milling in a longitudinal section of Evans' mill Evans automatic mill). The mill is situated on a river. The reception of the grain is effected either by means of an elevator from a vessel, or from carts brought up to the mill. We shall first examine the reception from carts. The grain is poured out of sacks down spout 1 on to a scale 2. After being weighed it is let down into the grain bin 3 (black pit), and thence through spout t conducted to the elevator 4-5, which supplies the large bin 6. Part of the floor below is also occupied by bins, ending in a pyramidal bin 7, on the next floor but one below. Out of bin 7, the grain passes through the hopper 8 into the burr, the purpose of which is to rub off the outer husk, remove the germ and dirt. Consequently the grinder is the same as the German Spitzgang. The grain, comparatively cleaned of husk, germ, and dirt, is aspirated in passing out of the grinder, the clean grain falling again into bin 3 (no dirty grain is mixed with it, as it was all passed into bin 6), the heavy refuse into bin 9 lying below, while the air and light refuse are blown out through an opening in the bin 9a. In proportion to the freeing of the grain of its husk, it is taken by the same elevator 4-5, this time into bins 10 and 11. From these bins it is conveyed into the reel separator 12, where the small grain and chaff are sifted away. The throughs of that separator are fanned, therefore the good grain falls into bin 14, the light kernels and chaff are blown by the ventilator into bin 32, and still lighter refuse into bin 33. Out of bin 14 the cleaned grain passes into conveyor 15-16 with paddles right and left, which discharges the grain into conveyor boxes 17,7, 18, which feed the grinders 8, 19, 20. After the grinding the product is conducted into the common conveyor 21-22 and then into elevator 23-24, which passes it into hopper boy 25, a kind of flour mixer designed by the Americans for the purpose of cooling the product. On leaving the hopper boy, the flour flows first on to two cylindrical reel separators 26, where the throughs are conveyed into bins 28 and 29 with a chamber for the flour, and the refuse left on them is once more sifted on the controlling separator 27. The refuse from separator 27 is taken by conveyor 31 either to bin 32 to the light kernels and chaff, and then reground on grinder 8, or ground apart. Thus we have a complete automation, with grain cleaning and repeated grinding of the product, if needed. The principle of sorting the product according to quality was known to Americans long before the Europeans learned of it, and effected with much greater success. It is necessary to describe the sorting cylinder 12, where the coarse or small grains are sorted away. This cylindrical reel separator is an invention of Evans (called "Rolling Screen and Fan"), and works in the following manner: out of the conveyor box the grain flows into the inner cylinder concentric to cylinder. The meshes in the cloth of cylinder are smaller than the grain, those of cylinder larger. The two sieves are joined to each other. The refuse of sieve, large admixtures, passes into box, the throughs into sieve. The refuse of sieve, the good grain, flows into bin, and the throughs, fine dust, and etc., fall through a crevice in the air pipe. The grain and throughs are subjected to the effect of a current of air blown by fan along. The dust is carried out and the heavy refuse falls into bins. The diameters of these cylinders are 2, 5, and 3 feet; the number of revolutions 15 to 18 per minute. When the mill is supplied with grain from a barge or vessel, the reception is accomplished by an elevator, which ascends and descends with the aid of chain sheaves. The elevator pours the grain into the conveyor, which carries it into bins, the conveyor being exhausted the while. The dusty air is discharged out of the conveyor on its left side, and out of the grain cleaning chamber of the mill through the outlet.
In the civilized countries of Western Europe for many centuries the system if a single milling passage reigned, and is still adhered to, in peasant windmills. In those mills both grain and husks were ground in millstones, and the flour was sifted through hand sieves of horsehair preparatory to baking. Some 250 years ago the sifting bag was adapted to the mill and performed the work of a sifting apparatus. Over 150 years have elapsed since the French technics introduced a new style of milling - the repeating type (mouture economique), which is beginning slowly to spread in Europe. Up to the end of the eighteenth century the milling technics of Europe remained the same with scarcely any alterations, there being no motive cause for progress, either in social organization or in the trade corporation industry. Flour mills were working almost exclusively to supply local needs, and seldom for neighouring districts. The last quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed the beginning of the gigantic breaking up of the economic structure of feudal Europe, caused by three powerful historical factors, which brought about a new era of progress. Those factors were: the perfecting of Watt's steam engine, the struggle for liberty in America, and the French Revolution. Technical progress and the victory of the middle class over the feudal system in Europe rendered the organization of industry on new principles of production, those of capital. To that end, in the beginning of the nineteenth century hundreds of automatic mills, similar to the one described, were built in America, chiefly in the estate of Pennsylvania and along the river Mississippi. The influence of American milling technics became noticeable first in the English milling industry, partly by reason of their economic relations, which were closer between these two countries than between the others, partly owing to their common tongue. Yet that influence commenced only after 1781, as is proved by the fact that the most reliable English work of the time (Rees' Cyclopaedia, vol. XXIII, 1781) in its chapter on flour milling gives a detailed description of English mills, in which no mill of American type is mentioned. It also speaks of a celebrated English engineer, Smitton (Note he means to say John Smeaton 1724-1792), who built in 1781, in Deptford, a mill for the needs of the fleet, called by him "The Steam Mill," according to his own system that he had worked out as early as 1754. The motor adapted by Smitton was Newcomen's steam pump, which pumped water into tanks, placed at a sufficient height. The water, flowing from these tanks on to the water wheels, worked the mill. At the end of 1782, Watt has so far perfected his steam engine, that it was possible to adapt it for immediate use in working a factory. In 1785 was built the first steam mill in London close to Blackfriars' Brideg, which was called Albion Mills. It was built and arranged by the engineer John Rennie, and the Watt steam engine was purveyed by the works of Bulton & Watt, in Soho. The mill only began operating in 1786, having ten millstones for wheat grinding. The capacity of the steam engine was 50 horse power, i horse power grinding 63 pounds of wheat per hour, and burning about 3 1/2 cwt. of coal per hour. But even that great expenditure of fuel was considered to be very profitable, and judging by the results of milling, Rennie's mill was recognized to be exemplary. During the end of the eighteenth century, mill building in England made rapid progress. Besides the brothers Rennie (George and John), in that department, the names of Modsley, Etken, and Steel in London, Fenton, Murrey, and Woods in Leeds, and Fairbairn and Lille in Manchester are renowned. George and John Rennie built a mill, the largest in the world at the time, in Plymouth, for the victualing of the fleet, containing twenty four millstone sets. This was probably the first fireproof mill, as the building was constructed of iron and stone. The millstones sets were divided into four groups, each group of six being driven by one large cogged wheel.
Flour milling in France of the eighteenth century was far superior to that in other European countries. In a book by Malouins, published in 1767, we find the description of a mill where the product was twice sifted by means of reel separators. It was rather primitive, but sufficiently characteristic drawings were made if the inner arrangement of the mill. The millstones set rests on a timber hurting. The feed hopper is filled with grain by a workman who carries a sack of grain on his back up a ladder to the millstone platform. The float in the feed is a sufficiently heavy plank attached by a string to the warning bell. When the grain is spent and the hopper is empty, the falling plans pulls the string, and rings the bell as a signal. A large wooden box and two separators are placed under the hurting. The ground product flows into the upper separator or dresser. The refuse from that separator passes on into the lower one. The throughs of the separator yielded flour which was collected in the box. To prevent the flour from escaping into the building, the box and separators were hooded with a curtain which formed a kind of dust chamber. The tissue in the separators was woolen. In proportion to the flour collected in the box the curtain was lifted and the flour removed with shovels. The influence of American milling technics began to penetrate into France much later than into England. In the celebrated Methodical Encyclopaedia of Diderot and D'Alambert (1788), a mill of the end of the eighteenth century is described greatly resembling the type of mills constructed in the beginning of that century, depicted by Belidor in a work called Architecture Hydrolique, as early as 1737. Such stagnancy in milling technics and industrial life generally has its explanation in the stormy period of the French Revolution and in the wars of the succeeding Empire. Only after the continental wars has ended did the industry of France revive, and flour milling adopt the Anglo=American type of mills. these new types of mills in France were built by English firms. In 1818 the English engineer, Modesley, was building a mill in St. Denis, near Paris, for Bensit, who acquired a name in the French milling literature later. But the vivacious and creative mind of the French was not satisfied in the further development of mill building with imitating the English and Americans. French engineers have introduced many original inventions, chiefly in the sphere of transportation, cleaning of grain, and dressing of the product. The building of their mills excelled in beauty of architecture, and the departments in proportionality of sizes. One of the greatest inventions of the French of that time is the cleaner and separator, the most indispensable machine of the grain cleaning department. Doubtless the development of milling technics pushed the question of perfecting the water wheel, adapted then almost exclusively in mills, to the front and it was Fourneyrond who produced the first turbine. This was of no less importance to the development of milling in France than was Watt's steam engine in England.
The old German mill which was in use up to the fifties of the nineteenth century is illustrated in Technoloqishe Encyclopade, vol. 2, by Prechtl, Stutthard, 1840. Such mills were driven by a water wheel with the aid of a mangle gearing lying on a beam which may be raised and lowered, regulating the distance between the spindle by a driving iron. From the millstone the flour flows into a woolen sifting bag, to which a vibratory motion is communicated by a fork, performing returning oscillations from the shaft. The fine flour, sifted through the bag, passes into a box. The bran, semolina, and coarse meal (over tails) falls on the sieve, where the bolting is repeated. In this manner, two kinds of flour were obtainable, and semolina, which was then reground. Sometimes the sifting bag was replaced by sieves of different density, to obtain a greater number of kinds of flour. The metal parts are a solid driving iron, a ratchet wheel for the vibratory motion of the shoe set into the opening of the runner, a mechanism communicating the vibratory motion to the fork which shakes the sifting bag. The mechanism and the working of which is obvious, was frequently adapted for the same purpose. In the first and second case the revolving cross head acting upon a wooden spring, effects a vibration of the rollers on which the spring is set; is a wooden spring counter balancing the vibrations of the sieve. The tightening of the spring is regulated either by transposing the taper pin, or tightening the spring. We find the shaft and screw apparatus for raising the vertical journal when the distance between the grinding surfaces is to be regulated. The new mill made its appearance in Germany later than in England and France. The feudal system, the corporate organization of the trades, and the conservatism in technics maintained by them were the chief causes of this tardiness. The feudal law had created the so called "compulsory grinding" on the mills belonging to the landowner, thus putting the monopoly of production into the hands of the lord of the manner, and precluding any possible competition. Yet the necessity of competing in the market and fighting against the imported French and English flour forces the Germans to adopt the American type of mill, as more efficient and producing better flour. Having grasped the advantages of the American mill, the German engineers and industrial promoters commenced studying that type with the carefulness and minuteness characteristic of the nation. The first German flour mills of the Anglo American type were built and began operating in Prussia. As early as in 1825, such a mill was arranged in Magdeburg by F. Murrey of Leeds; in Guben, under the supervision of an enterprising leaseholder, Korti. In Berlin there sprang into existence a steam mill of Schuhmann and Kratzede arranged by an engine builder Freund after the fashion of English mills; and on the upper Oder a steam mill of the American type, similar to that in Guben, was working. The Prussian trade committee furthered these beginnings in every way, by publishing, for instance, in 1825 detailed drawings and descriptions of the best English and American mills, and sending in 1827 two pupils of the Imperial Trade Institute (Hantzel and Wulf), who were studying mill building to American and England, to acquire practical knowledge in everything pertaining to the question. Hantzel and Wulf's report was published by order of the Prussian Government of 1832, and these two builders erected with great success several large mills and very skillfully performed the milling operations. In the western provinces of Prussia the Ober-President von Winke became renowned, having built about 1830 the first standard mill of the American type on the river Leine. In the south of Germany the first to introduce mills of American construction was the Royal Government of Wurtemberg. The first mill of that type was erected on the site of an old mill belonging to the treasury in Berg, by Stutthart. The building of that mill was begun in the summer of 1830, and ended in 1831. It commenced operating on the 1st September 1831. Here three water wheels set into motion ten millstones, three aspirators and three separators with silk cloth, one sieve, two product elevators, one sorting dresser, and several sifting machines. In a short time the flour from this mill commanded so extensive a market that by 1832 an enlargement of the mill was thought of. But the greatest good the mill wrought, was the example it set, for soon in different parts of the kingdom mills of the Berg type sprang up. Such mills were erected in Althausen, Zeflingen, Urach, Reutlingen, Tubingen, Esslingen, and Helbronn. Some time before the mill in Berg was built, the attention of the Royal Government of Bavaria was attracted to the question, and it published on 27th February 1828 the following announcement: "A remuneration of 3,000 guldens will be allowed to the man, who in two years' time shall have built and commenced working a flour grinding mill of at least three stones, constructed after the manner of those successfully operating for several years, in England and North America." The sole claimant of that prize, a mechanic, Spat of Nurnberg, announced in 1831 that a mill of the type mentioned, containing four millstones and driven by an overshot water wheel, had been erected by him, and was working. Spat was awarded the prize in 1832, notice being taken of the fact that "the mill is indeed of the Anglo-American type, but somewhat modified." This improved mill of Spat's enjoyed no great success as an example to be imitated, and in 1837 a miller, Bachmann, was sent by royal order for the Bavarian Millers' Union to Wurtemberh too study the American mills of that country. A far larger field was gained by the Anglo-American mills in the following years (1833-35) in Prussia, where the Royal Sea Trading Society took a prominent part in their diffusion. From 1822 that Society, acting on behalf of the merchants of Danzig, distributed the grain purchased by it among the local mills and sent the fine flour partly to England, partly to Transatlantic ports. Thereby the traders soon arrived at the conclusion that German flour milling was too far behind that of foreign countries, particularly of North America, to enable them to compete successfully on the out land markets. In consequence, the Society purchased a milling plant situated on the Oder in Tiergarden, in the neighourhood of Ohlan (in Silesia), and entrusted its reconstruction in the American fashion to an experienced technical miller named Hantzel. In 1834 eight stones of the rebuilt mill were installed and started, two more flaking mills being added to the number later on. This mills was the standard for mills built in after years, and produced flour of a higher quality for home use, as well as for export. At the same time private industry did not remain inactive. Particular attention must be called to the effort of a merchant, Witt by name, who greatly assisted the development of the flour milling industry in Danzig. In a mill with twenty pairs of stones, rented by him in Danzig, he had twelve reconstructed, on the American system; and added new ones to them, so that in a short time he had no less than thirty one millstones sets of perfected construction in operation. The second of the above mentioned engineers who had been sent to America, Wulf, had an open field here for developing his activity on a large scale in the capacity of director of the technical side of the business. Buscher of Neustadt-Eberswalde next deserves mention. He was a government engineer, and with his five stones mills of the American type strove to enable the owners of small mills, without any marked alterations to the plants, to produce flour which only slightly differed in quality from the product of the most perfect mills of the day. In 1935, Kruckmann, the owner of a mill in Berlin, adapted his three stones mill for hard grain, and shortly afterwards a counselor of commerce, Grunau in Elbing, reconstructed his mill in the improved style. Before that, on the Rhine, opposite to the town Neuwied, on an estate "Zur Nette," belongs to Karl Winz, a mill on the American system, was erected and worked. This mill contained four sets of stones driven by two water wheels.
In 1823, after unsuccessful attempts by Helfengerg in Rohrsch (Switzerland, cant. St. Gallen), Ballinger in Vienna, and von Kollio in Paris, a certain von muller of Lucerne began building, first in Warsaw, then in Triest, last;y in Frenuenfeldt in Switzerland, mills which operated by means of iron rolls instead of millstones. These rolls did no fulfill the hopes placed in them, and it was only in 1834 that a Zurich engineer, Sulzgerger, eliminate the defects of the roller mill and attained real success. The joint stock company established by Muller in Frauenfeldt began to built roller mills with an unusual energy, and not only successfully erected Muller's mill in Warsaw, Triest, and Frauenfedlt, but took plans to build such mills in other localities too. These mills were driven by steam engines. With a steam engine and a sufficient quantity of fuel and water for feeding the boilers, it was possible to set up a reliable motor anywhere. In 1836 there were several steam mills in Prussia; Berlin alone was in possession of three of the number. In Austria-Hungary the first steam mill began working on the 26th September 1836 in Odenburg (in Hungary in the neighourhood of the lake Neusiedleer). About that time a similar mill came into existence in the Grand Duchy of Baden in Mannheim; a little later, in the Grand Duchy of Hessen, two large steam mills began operating one owned by Schneider & co. in Obbenheim, close to the banks of the Rhine, the second in the vicinity of Weissenau by Mainz. In Hanover a leaseholder, Fiedler, had mill plants of the American type in Klickmuhle (capital of Hanover) in 1832, and the first steam mill in Rehden was started by Hartmann in 1836. All these enterprises enjoyed great success, as, thanks to them, wheat gained near markets, and local consumers received flour of a higher quality. The Hanover steam mill in Rehden, which ran some two years only, proved to be the sole exception. The main causes of its failure were the restrictions it was placed under by the restrictive and archaic regulations imposed by the trade corporation; besides which its being situated amount large water mills, and the excessive consumption of coal by the boilers, were factors which influenced its fate. The first wind propelled mill of the American type in Germany is the mill by Breslau, constructed by Hofmann, a then well known factory warrant officer, about 1836. The eight story wind mill will be described with its full equipment. On the top floor, under the roof, is a hollow main shaft of cast iron, with spider and winds, which may be brought into any position (to assume a working taper of the surface of the wings) by the aid of straight and angle shafts, moved by a shaft and a rope with a shaft and counterbalance. The motion of the wind propeller is transmitted by means of cogged wheels and to the vertical main shaft of the whole plant. The seventh floor (some 20 feet in diameter) contains supply bins for grain and an appliance for elevating it. The sixth floor is designed for grain cleaning apparatus, of which only the so called smutters (machines for freeing the grain of its husk) driven by gears. From this floor the grain passes into bins on the fifth floor. In all probability, other cleaning machines were stationed on the third floor, as the smutters would not be sufficient for that purpose. On the fourth floor we find the millstones, set symmetrically in a circle, the radius of which is self defined, owing to a large cogged wheel, which couples with the gears of the spindles of all four millstones (under driven millstones). On the third floor are stationed the cogged wheels driving the millstone and gears, and two mill drives (hopper boys) for collecting the grain and cooling the product. We may add that of the four pairs of millstones (5 feet in Diameter), two pairs were from a French factory (La Ferte), the other two being from the Rhine (of volcanic basalt in the environs of Andernach), These stones made from 100 to 110 revolutions per minute, the wind propeller making 10 to 12 in the meantime. On the second floor are the sifting bolters. The middle part of that section, supported by strong wooden pillars, serves for storage. In the ground floor is the hand flour barrel press (of the Evans type) for packing the flour purposed for export into barrels.
The first steam roller mill of the Sulzberger (Frauenfeldt) type appeared at the end of 1837 in Maniz; it was followed by similar mills in Stettin, Munich, and, at the end of 1837, in Leipzig. Steam roller mills made their appearance in Austrian dominions, Buda-Pest, and Milan, probably at the same time. The costs of arranging such a mill, with capacity up to 300 centners (Centner = hundred weight) of wheat per day, amounted to 156,500 guldens, with a floating capital of 93,500 gulds. These Sulzberger roller mills were adapted solely for factory production of flour, suitable chiefly for export, as the product did not become heated in grinding, while it was possible to grind only perfectly dry grain. The roller ground flour first gained great popularity from its good outward appearance and high quality. It was even maintained that this flour contained more nutritive matter than flour ground on stones. But gradually the opinion as regards roller mills began to change, to which assistance was lent by the circumstance of a quick discovery that on the roller mills of the day a perfectly pure product was not to be obtained, and special stone sets had to be built for that purpose. The owners of roller mills soon began to complain of heavy expences incurred by the repair and oiling of the rollers, and particularly of the expenditure of power and the necessity of employing many hands. Thus, for instance, the Ludwig mill in Munich produced 13,000 Bavarian bushels of flour per year on thirty six roller mills, whereas the thirteen stones that were substituted on their place later, gave 26,000 bushels of flour, while the number of hands was reduced from twenty eight to nine. In Saxony the mills of the Anglo-American type were first adopted at the end of 1838 in two localities; in Neumuhle by Dresden, and in Kloster-Muhle in Chemnitz. Both these mills were worked by water wheels driving millstone sets. In the following year (1839), in Austria, a splendid mill was started in the town of Fiume (Croatia). This mill was situated within a half hour's journey from the sea. It contained eighteen sets of French stones, 4 1/2 to 5 1/4 in diameter, driven by three overshot water wheels with a total capacity of l95 horse power. Its capacity was to be 198,000 centners of flour from the best kind of wheat - Banatkam Russian, and Rumanian. In 1840 the plan of construction of a steam driven mill, previously rejected, was worked out anew, and after a short time one of the best Austrian mills, the licensed steam mill in Vienna, was erected. The renowned firm of Coquerille, in Seraing, near Liege, supplied the mill machinery, arranged it, supervised the erection of it, and took the whole responsibility upon itself. In 1842 when the mill began working, it was equipped with sixteen sets for wheat grinding, and two for that of corn. In course of time, it was enlarged to twenty two set driven by three Wolf's steam engines, of the joint capacity of 200 horse power. When appanging the mill, it was designed merely for the Anglo-American low grinding which was not adapted for producing so called "Imperial Flour" (Kaiser Mehl), which goes to the baking of rolls, very popular in Vienna. Therefore it soon had to be reconstructed for semolina grinding, on the French system or "Mouture economique," to be discussed later in the section treating the grists. In this manner the stone mill won the battle almost everywhere. Between the forties and to the sixties, the roller mill struggled in vain against the millstone set, improved by a system of exhausts and dust collection. However, at the end of the sixties, the factories of Escher, Wyes & co., near Vienna, and F. Wegmann in Zurich, brought out the perfected roller mills, which began successfully to supplant the stone set in the industrial flour mills. NOTE: This book Flour Milling by Peter A. Kozmin, was used a model by Prof. Benjamin W. Dedrick in writing his book Practical Milling published in 1924. Reprints of Dedrick's book are available from SPOOM.
