NEW USES OF CORN 



317 



produced by mechanical or milling methods, those by 

 chemical process and those made from the stalk or 

 plant. Improvement in milling machinery has been 

 very marked in the last few years, and the result is 

 a large increase in the number of forms in which corn 

 is made available for human food. Under old milling 



methods corn could only be 

 ground into a coarse meal, and 

 this was the only form in 

 which it entered into the diet- 

 ary of the people. This old 

 process meal was made by 

 grinding the whole grain, and 

 it therefore contained the 

 large percentage of oil which 

 is in the chit or heart. This 

 excess of oil made it difficult 

 to preserve the meal fresh and 

 sweet, its keeping quality be- 

 ing low, and it was not a safe 

 product for commercial pur- 

 poses. 



The improvement in corn 

 milling is by the adoption of 

 the roller reduction process 

 similar to that used in wheat 

 milling, but requiring much 

 greater power, and by this 

 process a flour is produced 

 quite as impalpable as the best 

 grades of wheat flour. Through the use of very 

 ingenious machinery the chit, or germ, is mechan- 

 ically removed from each grain of com before it 

 passes into the rolls, by this means removing all but 

 a trace of oil from the meal or flour. The product by 

 this process loses some of the distinctive corn flavor, 



Pig 93— Use of Cellulose in 

 Warships 



The accompanying sketch 

 illustrates the use of cellulose, a 

 product of corn pith, in pro- 

 tecting warships from shot and 

 shell. If a shell from the enemy 

 pierces the side of the ship be. 

 low the water line, and passes 

 through three feet of corn pith 

 cellulose into the ship, the cellu- 

 lose will swell up so q^uickly 

 that no water will get m. A 

 number of United States war- 

 chips are thus protected. 



