Inventions in the centuryDoolittle, William H. (William Henry)
History
Inventions in the century
Doolittle, William H. (William Henry)
Inventions
The new process consists of removing the outer skin and adherent
impurities from the middlings, then separating the middlings from the
central finer part and then regrinding the middlings into flour.
This middlings flour being superior, as stated, to what was called
straight grade, it became desirable to obtain as much middlings as
possible, and to this end it was necessary to set the grinding surfaces
further apart so as to grind _high_, hence the _high_ milling process as
distinguished from _low_ milling. For the better performance of the high
rolling process, roller mills were invented. It was found that the
cracking process by which the kernel could be cracked and the gluten
middlings separated from the starchy heart could best be had by the
employment of rollers or cylinders in place of face stones, and at the
same time the heating of the product, which injures it, be avoided.
The rollers operate in sets, and successive crackings are obtained by
passing and repassing, if necessary, the grain through these rollers,
set at different distances apart. The operation on grains of different
qualities, whether hard or soft, or containing more or less of the
gluten middlings, or starchy parts, and their minute and graded
separation, thus are obtained with the greatest nicety.
The Hungarians, the Germans, the Austrians, the Swiss, the English and
the Americans have all invented useful forms of these rollers.
This process was accompanied by the invention of new forms of middlings
separators and purifiers, in which upward drafts of air are made to pass
up through flat, graded shaking bolts, in an enclosed case, by which the
bran specks and fuzz are lifted and conveyed away from the shaken
material. In some countries, such as the great wheat state of Minnesota,
U.S., where the wheat had before been of inferior market value owing to
the poorer grade of flour obtained by the old processes, that same wheat
was made to produce the most superior flour under the new processes,
thus increasing the yearly value of the crops by many millions of
dollars.
Disastrous flour dust explosions in some of the great mills at
Minneapolis, in 1877-78, developed the invention of dust collectors, by
which the suspended particles of flour dust are withdrawn from the
machinery and the mill, and the air is cleared for respiration and for
the production of the finest flour, while the mill is kept closed and
comfortable in cold seasons. One of the latest forms of such a collector
has for its essential principle the vertical or rotatory air current,
which it is claimed moves and precipitates the finest particles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account