A Historical Account of Useful Inventions and Scientific Discoveries: Being a manual of instruction and entertainment.Grant, George
History
A Historical Account of Useful Inventions and Scientific Discoveries: Being a manual of instruction and entertainment.
Grant, George
Inventions -- History
It will, from the succeeding statement, that in using the language
which has just appeared, circumstances sanctioned us. The clergy of the
chapel royal, and parish church at Versailles, sent their wheat in the
beginning of last century to be ground at an adjacent mill: according
to custom, it was put through the mill only once, and the bran, which
yet contained much flour, was sold for fattening cattle. This miller
having, however, in process of time learnt the process of the _mouture
economique_, purchased the bran from these ecclesiastics, and found
that it yielded him as good flour as they had procured from the whole
wheat. The miller, at length, is presumed, in a qualm of conscience,
to have regretted cheating those holy men; he accordingly discovered
to them the secret, and gave them afterwards fourteen bushels of flour
from their wheat, instead of eight, which he had only furnished them
before. This voluntary discovery of the miller was made in 1760; and it
is probable the same discovery was made at the same time by others.
A baker, named Malisset, proposed to the lieutenant-general of the
French police to teach a method by which people could grind their
corn with more advantage; and experiments were accordingly made and
succeeded. A mealman of Senlis, named Buquet, having the inspection
of the mill belonging to the large hospital at Paris, made the same
proposal: the result of his experiments, made under the direction
of the magistrates, was printed. The investigation of this art was
now taken up by men of learning and science, who gave it a suitable
denomination; explained it, made experiments and calculations upon
it, and at the same time recommended it so much, that the _mouture
economique_ engaged the attention of all magistrates throughout
France. Its government sent Buquet to Lyons in 1764, to Bourdeaux in
1766, to Dijon in 1767, and to Mondidier in 1768. The benefit which
France derived from that trouble, shows that it was not taken in vain.
Previous to that period, a Paris _setier_ yielded from eighty to
ninety pounds of meal, and from one hundred and fifty to one hundred
and sixty pounds of bran; but the same quantity now yields one hundred
and eighty-five pounds, and according to the latest improvements, one
hundred and ninety-five pounds of meal. In the time of St. Louis,
from four to five _setiers_ were reckoned necessary for the annual
maintenance of a man; these were scarcely sufficient; as many were
allowed to the patients in hospitals; and such were the calculations
made in the sixteenth century. When the miller’s art was everywhere
improved, the four _setiers_ were reduced to three and a half, and from
the latest improvements, they do not exceed two.
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