THE MILLING OF WHEAT 267 



power. In Texas there were 50, and 17 more were driven by 

 oxen, while wind furnished power for five. Many of the prim- 

 itive forms of mills can -still be found in operation in various 

 parts of the world. 



Modern Improvements and Processes. In the first milling, 

 the entire wheat went into the flour. There was no " bolting " 

 or classification of the product by separating it into several 

 grades. Usually not even the bran was separated. The first 

 distinctively modern improvements were in the line of bolting 

 the flour. The primary sieve was an extended bag which was 

 shaken by machinery. Its first introduction was in the power 

 mills at the beginning of the sixteenth century. A German 

 miller seems to have the credit for bringing forth this reel as a 

 flour-dressing device. It was the predecessor of all subsequent 

 bolting apparatus and of all appliances for purifying and sepa- 

 rating the various grades of flour. 



The old Roman system of cylinder milling, which is similar 

 in principle to an ordinary coffee mill, was developed in Hun- 

 gary. Elsewhere the system known as "low milling " was more 

 common. In this the grain was ground in one process between 

 two crushers placed as near together as possible. 



In the United States the flour making industry was early de- 

 veloped in Pennsylvania, and in connection with this was given 

 the first patent to a citizen of the new world for an inven- 

 tion (1715). A Philadelphia woman invented the device, which 

 was in its essential portion a series of mortars driven by me- 

 chanical power. In few industries has there been so much 

 litigation and controversy as in the manufacture of machinery 

 for milling. Many patents for machines with the same object 

 in view were taken out almost simultaneously. In the invention 

 of all kinds of milling machines, competition has been so brisk 

 that it is difficult to determine questions of priority and relative 

 efficiency. New York city and Philadelphia had good bolting 

 facilities even before 1698, but such facilities did not become 

 general until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Oliver 

 Evans (Philadelphia, 1756-1819) invented the elevator, con- 

 veyor, drill, descender and hopper-bag, from which "dates the 

 long period of so-called ' American ' milling, which produced 

 flour as economically and of as good a grade as that of foreign 

 millers." There was little progress from the days of Evans 



