l^Jie Milling of Wheat in (he United Kingdom. ?>^ 



Middlings consisting of endosperm only could be regiound 

 satisfactorily on millstones, but taking into account those par- 

 ticles of endosperm to which husk remained attached, it was 

 found that roller mills were a much better instrument for 

 grinding this intermediate product, and that by means of the 

 combination of purifiers and rolls flour of higher commercial 

 value could be produced from the middlings than that pro- 

 duced from the first grinding of the wheat itself by millstones. 

 Therefore, millers set to work to produce an increased 

 percentage of middlings, and for some time it was customary 

 to use millstones for grinding wheat with this object, and 

 rolls to complete the grinding processes. However, it was 

 found that fluted rolls produced more middlings, and in all 

 respects were better tools for the modified purposes than the 

 stones. They were incomparably better for grinding hard 

 wheats, and better, though in lesser degree, for grinding mellow 

 or soft ones. 



Among other changes was the production of larger sized 

 particles of endosperm than those found in the intermediate 

 products of millstone days, and the term semolina came into 

 general use to indicate the larger sized ones ; whilst the term 

 middlings was retained to indicate the small sized ones. Flour, 

 semolina, middlings, and dunst are in essence the same, all 

 endospei-m broken down into particles of different sizes, con- 

 taining little or much of the branny husk. A pair of fluted 

 rolls, 60 in. long, grinds as a normal feed say 50,000,000 grains 

 (berries) of wheat per hour. It is obvious, therefore, that from 

 a microscopist's point of view, the grinding of wheat on a 

 commercial scale makes a jumble, and it is incorrect to regard 

 semolina as the product of any one part of the wheat berry. 

 Furthermore, as the term " middlings " is used also to denote 

 certain grades of " millers' offal," it is not uncommon or 

 undesirable to confine its use to the last named material and to 

 describe the granulated product of ground wheat, derived prin- 

 cipally from the endosperm, by the generic name of semolina, 

 and I will use it in this sense for the remainder of this article. 



I have already said that flour of higher commercial value 

 can be obtained fi-om semolina than from the first grinding of 

 wheat itself, so it has become the miller's object to make as 

 much semolina and as little flour as possible in the earlier 

 grindings of wheat. As a result of that part of the process he 

 obtains from 10 to 20 per cent, of the wheat as finished flour, 

 and al)out 20 per cent, as finished bran. That accounts for at 

 most 40 per cent, of the wheat. The remaining 60 per cent, is 

 semolina, using the terra in the generic sense. It consists of 

 particles of pure endosperm, particles of endosperm and husk 

 in physical combination, a proportion of the very small 



VOL. 72. U 



