402 THE IRISH MILLING INDUSTRY. 



THE IRISH MILLING INDUSTRY 



In reviewing the present condition of the Irish Milling Industry, and its 

 history during the past thirty years, two salient facts present themselves, 

 a revolution in the process of manufacture of flour, and a gradual and 

 constant decline in the industry during that period. The change in the 

 method of manufacturing flour was so complete that, before examining the 

 causes of the decline, it will be desirable to describe briefly the system of 

 milling in vogue thirty years ago, and that practically in universal use 

 to-day. 



In Ireland, up to the years 1875 to 1880, the only method of manufactur- 

 ing flour was by grinding the wheat between two flat circular- shaped stones, 

 about four feet in diameter. These were of a very hard silicate, and «were 

 formed of several wedge-shaped pieces cemented together and bound with 

 iron hoops. The surface of each stone was cut into a series of alternating 

 ridges and furrows radiating from the centre, and the lower stone was fixed 

 while the upper was caused to revolve. The wheat was fed from the centre, 

 and by means of these furrows and ridges was pushed to the circumference, 

 being ground into flour and bran in the operation, and the bran was sepa- 

 rated from the flour by means of " separators," which were at first made 

 of wire and subsequently of silk gauze. 



The use of iron rollers instead of stones was first tried in Buda Pesth as 

 far back as the year 1840, but it was a very long time before the " Roller 

 System," as it is called, came into general use. By the year 1870 it was in 

 general use throughout Hungary, and, the superiority of the new process 

 being very great, Buda Pesth soon became the great milhng centre of the 

 world. Briefly, the principle of the new system was to reduce wheat to 

 flour and bran, not by a single grinding, as was the case in the old method of 

 grinding by stones but by passing the grain through a series of sets of 

 rollers to reduce it gradually. The wheat is first put through a process of 

 thorough cleansing or " smutting," and the cleaned grain is then passed 

 through the first series of grooved chilled-iron rollers, between which it is 

 slightly broken. The product is then sifted, and a proportion of flour is 

 separated, mixed however with a granular substance, composed of small 

 pieces of the floury part of the wheat, and commonly known as " semolina" 

 As the flour produced by this first grinding is generally of a low grade, the 

 object of the miller is to extract as little flour and as much semolina as 

 possible in the first break of the wheat. The broken grain is sent to the 

 other rollers, and is again broken up and its products sifted as before, and 

 this is repeated from four to seven times till as much as possible of the flour 



