Images of Historical Millers
Were you ever in a country grist mill? Here is a miller and his mill. The farmer drives up and unloads bags of corn, wheat, oats and buckwheat for the miller to grind into meal. The miller takes the hand truck and wheels the grain to the hoppers. Do you see that little board in one corner of the hopper? With it the miller can make the hopper feed the kernels of grain so that the meal will be coarser or fine. In the picture you cannot see the millstone nor the long belts with little cups on them to carry the meal into the bins. There is a bin in the back of the picture. The miller hangs a bag under the bin, pulls out a little board (gate) and the ground meal drops into the bag. When all of the farmer's grain is ground he comes and gets it. He pays the miller for grinding the meal or gives the miller some of the meal. That is how the miller gets meal to sell to people who do not raise their own grain. The Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, New York, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and London, England.
Your mother buys flour from the grocer. Where does the grocer get the flour? The farmer sows the wheat. The sun and the rain help it grow. Then it is cut and threshed and sent to the mills. At the mills it is weighted and cleaned. And then it is ground into flour. This picture shows some of the roller mills that are used in grinding wheat. The wheat is sent through hoppers and between long rollers. The glass doors in the front allows the man (the miller) to see the rollers and the wheat. The wheat is usually roller several times. Then the meal is sifted. The different kinds of flour are sent to different parts of the mill and put into sacks to be sent to the wholesale dealer. The grocer buys his flour from the wholesale dealer. The Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, New York, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and London, England.
The spout shown on the right in the picture is of smooth polished steel and just large enough to slip easily into the mouth of a flour sack such as the flour trade uses. The quarter-barrel sack, holding 49 pounds of flour, is the standard-sized sack although half-sacks and quarter-sacks are now in use. Each size, of course, has to have its own sacking machine. When the sack is slipped upon the spout as shown in the picture the bottom rests upon a small table or platform which is so balanced that is slides down to the tale below it as shown as the full weight of the flour has dropped into the sack. This shuts off the flow and the sack is slid along to the tier which is shown to the left. In that way the sack is weighted at the same time that it is filled. This system of automatic weighting is much more accurate than hand weighing and filling would be. It is impossible for even a little more flour to be added after the exact amount necessary to turn the scales has been reached. Note the shape of the little platforms where the sacks stand as they are filled. They are made up of narrow strips instead of solid bottoms and very little flour or dust that may be scattered can remain upon them to affect the weight. Note how free they are from scattered flour while there is a noticeable amount of it on the solid table where they tying is being done. Notice the big aprons and close-fitting caps worn by the men. What is the object of wearing then? Why are the smooth leather belts better for flour-mill machinery than canvas or rubber belts? PUB. KEYSTONE (no date) - "Sacking and Weighing Flour by Automatic Machinery - MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota." INDUSTRIAL / FACTORY WORKERS. Labelling on flour bag appears to read "RUSSELL - MILLER Occident Milling Company." The Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, New York, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and London, England.
An advertisement for Gold Medal Flour from a 1910 magazine. An army of milling experts help to make Washburn - Crosby's Gold Medal Flour. Five of them are pictured above.
More Images of Historical Millers, some millers of Peice Mill.
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