Modern ImproDeUenfs in Gom-Milling Machin&riJ. 
85 
flour with a minimum of friction under the millstone, the 
best results in unbroken bran and purity of flour, and thus, for 
this and for other reasons, were sought for at a price i-elatively 
liigh compared with their foreign rivals. These latter were, 
indeed, regarded as only supplementary or as substitutes for 
native wheats, which supplied the staple consumption of the mill ; 
they were used chiefly in order to give " strength " to the flour.' 
In those days the mills were generally situated in the rural 
districts, and drew their supplies from their immediate neigh- 
bourhood. Now, however, the great mills that supply the 
country are placed either at the seaports, or in the midst of the 
great centres of population, or, unfortunately for the interests of 
this country, in America. 
The " meal " delivered by the millstones was, after having 
been cooled, conveyed to the " dressing-machines," the term ap- 
plied to' the machines by which the flour w^as separated from 
the " offal." In very old mills these machines were " bolters," 
in which the sifting was accomplished by means of a woollen 
cloth ; later, " wire machines " were adopted. These consisted 
of a fixed or slowly rotating cylinder of wooden hoops or ribs, 
covered with woven wire cloth and inclined at an angle, having 
running through its centre a spindle furnished with arms or 
spokes, to which were affixed brushes arranged so as to be in 
contact with the wire cloth. The spindle was made to rotate at 
a high velocity, and the meal having been introduced at the 
higher end, or head of the cylinder, the flour was forced by the 
brushes through the meshes of the wire cloth, and the offal passed 
out at the lower end, or tail of the cylinder. 
About forty years ago " silk machines " were first introduced 
in England. The operative part of the machine was a " reel," a 
long hexagon frame made of laths and covered with silk cloth. 
The " reel " was carried by arms on a central spindle, and 
caused to revolve just so fast as to lift the meal, which was fed 
into the head end (the " reel " being arranged with a slight fall 
from " head " to " tail "), to the upper side of the " reel," whence 
it fell on the silk surface on the lower sides, and thus the flour 
was sifted out, the " offals " passing out at the tail. This machine 
gave a purer or cleaner flour than the wire machine, because the 
brushes of the latter forced the small particles of bran through 
the wire cloth ; while under the more gentle action of the silk- 
covered " reel " the particles of skin being lighter than the 
' The qualit)^ of " strength " in flour depends on the presence of a large 
proportion of elastic gluten in the wheat from which it is made, and it is 
so named because the flour possessing it yields a tough dough which rises 
in the oven into a large loaf. English wheats lack this quality, and are 
classed as " weak " wheats. 
