117 



FLORA. 



FLOUR; FLOUR-MILLS. 



notice of their possible weakuess. Cast iron, in fact, breaks suddenly 

 under an excessive load, without warning ; wrought iron yields gradu- 

 ally. The rules for calculating the strength of metal girders will be 

 found under the head of GIRDERS ; they have been derived from the 

 researches of Tredgold, Fairbairn, Barlow, and Hodgkinson. 



In France, much attention is paid to the construction of a species 

 of fire-proof floors, in which a framework of H rails, with smaller 

 split rod intermediate bars is formed, and the spaces are filled in with 

 the very energetic plaster obtained by the calcination of the gypsum 

 of the Paris basin. On the top of this artificial landing, sleeper-joists 

 are bedded, and the floor boards are nailed to them, in the better classes 

 of rooms ; whilst in the offices, or in the attics, the tiled floors are at 

 once bedded on the joists and filling-in materials. This kind of floor 

 has been imitated in England, and the plaster has been replaced by 

 cement concrete; the principle of construction remaining the same, 

 namely, the formation of an artificial landing, bearing upon the external 

 walls. There are great advantages in these systems of fire-proof floors ; 

 but it is to be observed that they load the walls to a dangerous extent, 

 and that in many cases the plaster, or the concrete used, exercises a 

 powerful lateral thrust upon the walls. 



The flooring itself is, in England, usually executed of white or 

 yellow deals, or battens ; in France, it is almost invariably executed of 

 wainscot, in narrow widths, laid either with a straight joint, or in 

 herring-bone fashion ; in Holland and Germany, the ordinary practice 

 is to use wide timber slabs, which shrink and crack in a very disagree- 

 able manner. The boards are usually grooved and feather-tongued, or 

 edge-nailed, in the best descriptions of work ; and occasionally, when it 

 is desired to introduce ornamental decoration in the floors, a second 

 layer, composed of variously coloured woods is laid upon a coarser sub- 

 layer ; the upper layer is usually known under the name of Parquet 

 flooring. The thickness of the single floor boards, or battens, in 

 England, is usually made to range between 1 and 1J inches; but the 

 batten floors are rarely more than 1J inch thick. 



FLOTtA, in the Roman mythology, was the goddess of spring and 

 of flowers, and the wife of Zephyr. A flamen was appointed to her 

 service by Numa. Her temple stood near the Circus Maximus. The 

 Ploralia were festivals celebrated in honour of Flora, from the 28th of 

 April to the 2nd of May. Instead of the fights of wild beasts, hare.? 

 and rabbits were exhibited and chased about on those occasions ; and 

 women of loose character performed dances and mimic fights, throwing 

 beans and chick-pease among the crowd. The .Ediles presided at these 

 games. (Cicero ' In Vcrrem,' v. 14.) The ground on which the games 

 were performed is still called Campo di Fiora ; it forms one of the 

 squares of modern Rome, and serves as a market-place. Some pretend 

 that the Flora who bequeathed this ground to the Roman people was a 

 -s of Pompey, the remains of whose theatre are close by. l!ut 

 the floral games were instituted long before Pompey, at the beginning 

 of the 6th century of Rome. They were no doubt originally annual 

 games of the country people. The festival was discontinued for awhile, 

 but was restored in B.C. 173, in consequence of the blossoms of the 

 fruit trees having hi that year been severely injured by storms. As 

 long as they were held, the Horalia were scenes of the most extravagant 

 licentiousness. The May games and floral games of the middle ages 

 were the direct descendants of the Roman floralia. The term ("jeux 

 floraux ") was applied to the more refined poetical assemblies and 

 competition for prizes held at Toulouae. [CLEMESCE ISAUBE, in 



Dir.l 



FI.'iKIX. [MosBT.] 



KI.i ri'S.VM, U such portion of the wreck of a ship and the cargo as 



me* floating in the water. Jetsam is where goods are cast into 



the sea, and there sink and remain under water ; and ligan is where 



they are sunk in the sea, but are tied to a cork or buoy, in order that 



they may be found again. 



These barbarous and uncouth apjiellations are used to distinguish 

 goods in these circumstances from legal wreck, in order to constitute 

 which they must c<>me t<> bind. 



Flotsam, jetsam, and ligan belong to the crown if no owner appears 

 to claim within a year after they are taken possession of by the persons 

 otherwise entitled. They are accounted so far distinct from legal 

 wreck, that by the king's grant of wreck, flotsam, jetsam, and ligan 

 will not pan. 



Wreck has been frequently granted to lords of manors ,-w a royal 

 fi -anchise ; but if the king's goods are wrecked, he can claim them at 

 any time, even after a year and a day. 



FLOfU; KI.orUMlU.S. I ,,der the heading WIXDMII.L will be 

 found an account of the mechanism of the windmills employed in 

 grinding fl.mr, raising water, Ac., chiefly in the days when the steam- 

 engine had not yet come much into nse, or in districts where steam- 

 power is not readily available. Referring to that article for a descri ption 

 of the 'ordinary mode of producing flour, we shall here treat briefly of 

 certain modern improvements, either in the substitution of steam- 

 power for wind-power, or in the adoption of new forms of grindstone. 



In the ordinary mode of grinding wheat into ll.,ur, or any other 

 grain into meal (flour being only one kind of meal) there are circular 

 stones employed, each about 4J feet in diameter; they are flat disrs, 

 placed one \ipun another. The lower one is fixed, while the upper one 

 revolves horizontally on a vertical axis, with a speed of 100 to 120 

 revolutions per minute. The surfaces are channelled or grooved, to 



increase their frictioual effect ; and they are placed so nearly in contact 

 that grains of corn between them are crushed to powder. Now it is 

 found that, owing to the weight (often 14 cwt.), size, and velocity of the 

 upper stone, the flour is much heated before it can escape from the edge 

 of the two stones ; it is overground, and is apt to clog into lumps. 

 Millers and millwrights have long sought for a cure for this evil. Some 

 have tried to vary the shape of the grinding surfaces of the stones ; while 

 others have sought rather to direct a cold blast of air between them, in 

 order to keep the grain and the flour cool, to separate the grains, to 

 allow all to be acted on equally, and to prevent clogging and pastiness. 

 To insure some or other of these results has been the main object of 

 numerous inventions by Corcoran, Gordon, Taylor, Bovill, Pinel, 

 M'Lellan, Banks, Goodier, Westrupp, Spiller, Valck, Seeley, Schiele, 

 Harwood, White, aud others. To notice briefly a few plans is all that 

 need be attempted here. 



BovuTs invention comprises five different elements : a mode of 

 driving two ranges of millstones from a central horizontal shaft by 

 means of half-crossed straps, which pass from the horizontal shaft to 

 riggers or pulleys on the vertical spindles of the ranges of millstones ; 

 an arrangement for drying meal and flour by means of steam and hot 

 air, instead of kiln-drying the grain previous to grinding ; a mode of 

 applying steam to give moisture to manufactured flour, which, after 

 grinding, is in too dry a state ; an arrangement for washing grain to 

 separate its impurities, and then drying by currents of hot air ; and 

 lastly, a mode of employing machinery in combination with millstones, 

 having apertures covered with wire-gauze or other perforated material, 

 in order to facilitate the passing away of the ground flour through the 

 apertures. All these parts combine to produce a very efficient grinding 

 apparatus. 



White's apparatus comprises several new principles. While the upper 

 stone is revolving, the rhyne or connecting piece between the driving 

 spindle and the stone is forced upon its upper side, in such manner as 

 to serve for a rolling or crushing bed for the preparatory crushing 

 rollers. Immediately over this rolling surface are placed the small 

 crushing rollers, adjustable to distance by screws. The grain to be 

 ground passes through a hopper upon the flat rolling surface driven 

 round by the millstone spindle. The revolution of a Hat disc rolling- 

 plate causes the two crushing rollers to turn upon their respective axes, 

 and thus to crush the grain as it is fed between the rollers. As the 

 grinding proceeds, the crushed grain falls off the rolling-plate, and 

 reaches the surface of a distributing-plate. The top of this distributor 

 is corrugated radially, to aid in the distribution of the grain. The 

 distributor is made hollow, for the passage of cool air ; it has four or 

 five air-holes, which are horizontal curved passages ; the outer ends of 

 these holes terminate at the junction of the grinding surfaces, while 

 the inner ends open into a central aperture in the distributor commu- 

 nicating with a descending trumpet-mouthed tube. Air enters by these 

 trumpet-mouths, in consequence of the suction exerted by the cham- 

 bered air-distributor ; the current is strongest just where the grain is 

 most severely acted on and requires most cooling, and then the air 

 escapes by the five or six holes. 



In Westrupp's conical mill, there is a conical revolving stone placed 

 beneath a fixed stone. The upper stone is a cone, hollow beneath, and 

 the lower one is a cone fitting into it ; the two being susceptible of 

 easy adjustment, according to the size and condition of the corn to be 

 ground. On account of the conical form of the rubbing surfaces, the 

 flour leaves the mill very easily. It grinds the corn more completely 

 than an ordinary mill, leaving less farina in the bran ; for the bran 

 remains awhile after the flour is expelled, and then falls by gravity to 

 another pair of stones, where the remaining farina is ground out of it. 

 It has been asserted that this mill obtains one shilling's-worth more of 

 flour from a quarter of corn than the ordinary mills, and that the flour 

 is better in quality ; but this is a statement requiring confirmation. 



Schiele's anti-friction corn-mill is an application to practical purposes 

 of a peculiar curved surface, which Mr. Hchiele discovered ; or rather, 

 a concave revolving surface rubbing against a convex fixed surface, to 

 prevent a kind of irregular friction which results from the contact of 

 conical surfaces. The gradual variation of the curvature, in relation to 

 the increasing distance of the parts from the centre of motion, equalises 

 the rubbing pressure. The wear upon the stones is uniform in all 

 parts ; and it is expected by the inventor that there will be no need to 

 re-dress the stones until actually worn down many inches equally all 

 over. 



M. Falguiere, a Frenchman, has invented a mill comprising a pair of 

 vertical stones revolving at high velocities ; they weigh together less 

 than 1 cwt., and are made small and portable for use in camps and 

 ships. The grain is fed down from a hopper into a horizontal cast-iron 

 pipe, with an Archimedean screw inside ; the screw carries it to the . 

 other end of the pipe. The stones are fixed in a pair of frames, sur- 

 rounded by a copper casing in two hinged halves. The running stone 

 is carried upon a separate shaft driven by a band. The stones are con- 

 cave at their travelling surfaces, and the grain is conveyed into this 

 space from the tube. 



The r/ritnas flour of M. D'Arblay attracts much attention on the 

 continent of Europe, on account of the great extent to which the 

 finest and most nutritious part of the flour is retained. Hard wheats 

 of all kinds, especially Sicilian, Russian, and Sardinian, from the large 

 per centage of gluten which they contain, are the best adapted for the 



