90 Modern Imp'ovements in Ccn-n-Milling Machinery. ' 
bushels per hour. The tendency is very marked in the direction 
of the construction of large mills, and very small mills are j 
going out of use. The number of mills in the country now | 
running is far less than it was ten years ago. The decrease \ 
has been chiefly in small mills in country districts. 
Steam has very generally superseded water as a motor, on 
account of its constancy in work and the freedom it allows in , 
choice of a site ; also i'rom the consideration that the cost of 
conveyance to and from a water-mill generally exceeds, except 
in a few rare situations, the economy of water over steam. In \ 
most water-mills steam-engines are now provided for use in ' 
short-water or flood times. The modern mill is substantially ' 
built, and generally of a considerable height, as the best ar- .i 
rangements of machinery demand floors of from 14 to 18 feet . 
from floor to ceiling. Instead of all the work being carried on 
in one building, a wheat store, a department for cleaning wheat, i 
a mill in which the grinding operations are conducted, and a ! 
warehouse to receive and stoi'e the fmished products, form the ' 
block. These should all be divided by complete walls from 
ground to roof, so as to limit the spread of fire. The cost of 
insuring mills and their contents is very heavy, and that of i 
insuring stores comparatively light, so that it is good pi-actice | 
to allow no material except what is in actual process of manu- ' 
facture to remain in the machinery departments. It may be 
premised that from the moment the wheat is brought within 
the wheat store or mill building, throughout the cleaning and , 
grinding processes, and vmtil the products are packed in the 
sacks for delivery to consumers, all the material, in whatever 
form, is moved from place to place by mechanical means, and 
nothing should be moved by hand-labour. 
The means of transport in a horizontal direction or for 
moderate inclinations are " band conveyors " and " endless \ 
screws or worms." Band conveyors are belts, generally of india- 
rubber, running over terminal pulleys at a considerable velocity 
supported on intermediate rollers. The grain or material to be 
conveyed is fed in a continuous stream from a pipe, which de- 
posits it on the upper surface of the belt, where it lies with 
very little disturbance, notwithstanding the high speed at which 
the belt travels, and is carried to the desired point of delivery. 
At that point the band is deflected sharply downwards over a 
pulley, and the grain or other matter continuing in the same 
path is shot forward by its own impetus, and may be caught in 
any receptacle, or may be " shunted " to a band running in a 
direction other than that of the first. For long distances this is ] 
by far the most economical mode of conveyance. " Worms " or ' 
"screws," of various diameters from two inches upwards, by their 
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