Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1894 — A GRAIN OF WHEAT. [ARTICLE]

A GRAIN OF WHEAT.

Various Operations it Undergoes Before Becoming Flour. One who has never been in a flooring mill of the largest siee cannot realize what a peculiar lot of noises are made by the machinery. As soon as the wheat enters the machine from the long spout which brings it down from the upper floors it falls between two rollers of iron—“chilled” iron, they call it, and very hard iron it is, too. One of these rollers revolves rapidly, the other more slowly, in order that the separation of the coat, or bran, from the kernel may be mors easily accomplished. The wheat first passes between rollers separated just enough to allow the coat to be crushed. It is then carried away up to the top of the mill again, to a room where the sun vainly tries to shine in through the flourooated windows far above the city’s roofs. It next passes over a wire sieve, which separates the bran from the kernel proper. This bran, which contains much of the flour material, again passes down md is ground once more, this process being repeated four times, making; five grindings, each one finer than the one preceding it. Each time ths fibrous or bran portions are more completely separated, and at last the bran comes out a clear, brownish husk, with every particle of flour removed. The Inside part of the kernel ha* meanwhile been going through a very Interesting process. After the first grinding, or breaking, it passes to • big six-sided, revolving wheel covered with a fine wire netting or sieve. Through this reel the finer portion* of the kernel pass, coming out in what is called “middlings.” a granulated mass, which goes back to the rollers for another crushing. This process is repeated through five reels, all but the first being of silk. The last one has 120 threads to the lineal inch. The flour which comes out of the fifth reel, while white in hue, is yet not of the finest or “patent” grade, but Is classed a* “baker’s,” or second grade fiour. The middlings above referred to ar* purified by an interesting process. They are passed over a fine wire sieve, through which a strong current of air is passed. This holds in suspense the tiny portions of fibrousmatter which may have been in the flour, and, at last, after this process of middlings purifying has been carefully carried out, the flour appears a spotless, snowy white—the “patent*' flour, as it is called. In the process of grinding in thia gradual and repeated way the germ of the wheat— a tiny particle about the size of a mustard seed— is sepa*rated from the white flour. It it what one might call the life-part of the wheat. If it were ground up it would not leave the “patent” flour so white and powdery, so it is separated in one of the sievings, and passes into the darker or lower grades of flour. It contains, however, the best and most nutritious part of the wheat. The lust thing that happens to the pulverized kernel before it is ready for market is the filling of barrels or sacks. Down many stories through a smooth tube comes the white or patent flour. Under the tube is th* barrel or sack, as the case may be, and, as it begins to fill, a steel auger, just the size of the barrel, bore* down into the flour, packing it carefully and solidly beneath its blades. —{St Nicholas.