18 



The World's Commercial Products 



ground to meal. In large factories millstones are replaced by revolving steel rollers, which 

 pulverise the corn. This coarsely ground corn passes through several other machines, 

 where it is bolted and sifted, in' order to, separate the meal completely from the bran. The 

 final pair of revolving rollers through .which the bran is passed to get out the last particles 

 of meal are made of porcelain. TJhus, the work of these factories consists in successive or 

 alternate grinding, bolting, and sifting. The flour obtained by these processes has attained 

 an almost incredible purity, and is completely free from all foreign elements, such as dust, 

 germs, or bran. The flour used for the French " pain de luxe " is obtained from a special 

 kind of hard corn. 



In addition to being used for different kinds of leavened bread, of which we shall speak 

 later on, wheat is employed for several kinds of unleavened bread ; such as, for instance, the 

 unleavened bread which the Jews eat at the Passover, the wafers of the Roman Catholics, etc. 



REAPING IN PERSIA 



Several sorts of baby-food are also prepared out of flour, and pastry and fancy cakes ; and then 

 there are different kinds of rusks, and numerous varieties of dry biscuits. 



A great deal of wheat is also used for the preparation of pastes. These are made of the hard 

 macaroni wheats, which contain a high proportion of the sticky gluten. Macaroni and other 

 pastes are made from semolina, the small rounded grains into which the hard wheats are 

 broken up instead of being ground into the fine powder of ordinary flour. These pastes 

 are commonly called Italian or Genoese pastes, and are known to the French as "pates 

 alimentaires." They are dry and have different forms, and are used in puddings, soups and 

 ragouts. The best-known of these pastes are vermicelli and macaroni, which are made by 

 forcing the semolina, kneaded with water, through small cylinders or pipes, whence it takes a 

 tubular form. 



These small tubes are manufactured in enormous quantities in large kettles ; a great many 

 holes are pierced in the bottoms of these kettles and the thickness of the tubes depends on 

 their diameter. In order to make the macaroni into tubes, that is to say, to make them hollow, 

 steel wires in the form of a U are passed through every two holes, and inside the kettles all 

 these wires are connected with one another, to keep them exactly in the centre of every hole. 



