INSECT POWDER. 11 
Arriving at the mill the flowers (which have been thoroughly dried) are fed to a set 
of burr millstones, just as wheat is handled in making flour by the old process. The 
grist is carried by an elevator to a separator which, by proper sieves, separates the 
coarser particles of the grist, allowing only the finest, dustlike powder to pass through. 
This powder is carried by an elevator to an adjoining building, where it is put up in 
tin cans for the market, while the coarser particles thrown off by the separator are 
returned to the millstones. 
The flowers become heated while being reduced to powder, but the latter, in pass- 
ing through a large series of elevators, loses its heat to a great degree before it is 
put into the cans for the market. 
Slaus-Kantschieder (261), in 1913, described the preparation of 
insect powder in Dalmatia as follows : 
The flowers are prepared as powder in Dalmatia, as well as in Trieste. The largest 
Dalmatian mills, located in Sebanico, are driven with electrical power from " Krka- 
fallen." Further, several smaller concerns in Zara, Ragusa, and upon the islands of 
"Mittel-Dalmatiens " carry on the grinding of the flowers. In Trieste the grinding of 
the chrysanthemum plants is carried on in about 10 mills, and this is the place where 
most of the adulteration occurs. 
In the United States, in addition to Stockton, Calif., where Buhach 
is manufactured, insect flowers are ground on a large scale in Balti- 
more, Peoria, and New York, and to a smaller extent in Philadelphia, 
St. Louis, and other places. In most cases the older firms still use 
stone "chaser" mills, while the newer firms employ steel disc mills. 
A " chaser" mill consists simply of a pair of millstones joined by a 
horizontal axis which is connected with a vertical shaft. By means of 
power the shaft is turned, and the two stones roll around, one after the 
other, on a heavy block of granite. These millstones, which are also 
of granite, are about 2 J feet in diameter by 8 inches thick, and weigh 
several hundred pounds each. Flowers imported into this country 
are received in bales done up in burlap, containing on an average 
about 440 pounds net each. The contents of the bales are emptied on 
the floor, and any large stones, which are sometimes added to give 
weight, removed. The flowers are then shoveled or dumped into the 
box which surrounds one of these stone chaser mills, where they are 
kept in the path of the revolving stones, which are mounted about 2 
feet apart, by means of a revolving arm. The flowers are soon reduced 
to a fine dustlike powder which in some mills is periodically shoveled 
out, and in others is removed from pockets in the sides of the inclosing 
box. The powder is so fine that it is carried up by the air currents 
produced by the revolving stones, and settles into pockets provided 
for that purpose. The top, as well as the sides of the mill, is boxed in 
very tightly to keep the powder from flying everywhere. After grind- 
ing, the powder is put through a sieve or bolted, and the tailings re- 
ground. In some cases a sieve of only 40 meshes to the inch is used, 
whereas other firms employ 110-mesh bolting cloth. 
The steel disc mill, used by some firms in grinding insect flowers, 
consists of a series of perforated steel discs with lugs on the edge which 
