USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
.
.
417
INVENTION OF ROLLER FLOUR MILL.
but was not the non-cutting roller mill invented in Neenah, now the universal milling method used in all the civilized world.
A finer taste in more refined England constantly urged upon the skill of the miller a whiter flour. The effort of the miller was put forth to the utmost to refine the pulverized mass that poured from between the millstones, but his highest effort had only re- sulted in about 20 per cent, or one-fifth good flour, or flour that was granular and light colored or white; but the bran and mid- dlings were still rich in products not removed and there was crude milling. At this state of the art Rochester became a great milling center, and about 1868 to 1870 Neenah, Wisconsin, was a leading Western milling mart.1 In 1860 Minneapolis was a sawmill town with a population of 5,809. In 1870 it had 13,066 people. Fifteen years later, after the introduction of the Stevens roller mill for grinding the hard spring wheat, she had a popula- tion of 129,200 and had sent a million people into Minnesota and Dakota to raise hard wheat.
The miller's difficult problem is best understood by a study of the wheat itself. After it had passed the primitive millstone his wits were worked overtime to separate the mass into its several parts. The hopelessness of success was in the mass made by the stones in so crushing the parts together, as to make it beyond the bolting cloth to separate the particles. This is best seen in a study of the wheat herry. The center is a fine starch. In the crease is located the germ, which is soft and oily. This makes the low grade flour. The outer coat is a hard, horny covering, called the bran. The inner coat is a finer covering called the middlings. Between these two there is a celular coat designed to keep the fruit from freezing. These cells in the winter wheat are dark; but in the spring or Minnesota red or hard wheat they are almost black, and in old process milling pulverized as fine as flour. Next beneath the middling coat is deposited the granular flour that is most highly prized as whitest and most nutritious, and sells for the highest price. There is more of this granular flour in the hard spring wheat than in the softer winter wheat. The winter wheat was largely raised in Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, and St. Louis became a center for the milling in winter wheat, as even if particles of the coats and cells became mixed with the flour it
' In 1879, Mr. Richard J. Harney stated in "History Winnebago County," published in 1880, that there were seven mills in the city of Neenah in 1879, making 1,425 barrels of flour daily, making an annual output of $2,565,000.
418
HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
still was the whiter flour, while the hard Dakota wheat, though richer in flour matter, was impossible as a profitable flour making berry, and sold for 30 cents less per bushel in 1870, than Wisconsin winter wheat. The hard northern wheat, which is the keystone of the flour milling world today, was rejected for want of mechanical devices to utilize it. Such in brief was the state of the art and industry when the invention of the Stevens non-cutting roller mill changed the whole milling prac- tice and industry.
Mr. John Stevens, the inventor of the roller flour mill, was born in Llechryd, four miles out of Cardigan, in Cardiganshire, Wales, December 4, 1840, son of John Stevens and Elizabeth . (Bowen) Stevens, natives of Wales. By trade the father was a landscape gardener, and was engaged en neighboring landed estates. With his family he early emigrated to Canada. Then in 1850, to Fremont, Ohio; and in 1854, to Neenah, Wisconsin, making the journey by the Michigan Southern Railway to Chi- cago, thence by boat to Green Bay, where they took the Fox river boat "Pioneer" to Kaukauna, and then by team to Nee- nah. With the father came the mother, his sons, Ebb, and John, and daughter Eliza. The daughter married Rev. R. W. Davis, a Welch pastor, and both soon returned to Wales, where she died. Ebb Stevens became a soldier and farmer. The father died in Neenah at 96 years of age in 1885.
John Stevens, the son and inventor, was thirteen years of age when he landed in Neenah, where he has made his home ever since. It devolved upon him at this early age to become the main support of the family, and he went to work in the flour mills. He was obliged to be self-supporting and maintain his parents, to be self-educated, and became in the broadest sense a self-made man. Ile commenced in the mills as a helper and sweeper, and in 1859, was elevated to flour packer at the mill of Smith & Proctor, and the next year went as miller with John Mills, in the brick mill on the upper race. Here occurred the events which changed the milling practice of the world. There came from the east at this time Mr. Tom Oborn, who Mr. Stevens regards as the best miller he ever knew, and he was engaged to peck stone in the brick mill, then operated by John Mills. Mr. Oborn was born in England, where he learned the trade of miller. After a milling career in Neenah of about ten years, he became head miller at Brandon, Fond du Lac county, where he died in 1874.
419
INVENTION OF ROLLER FLOUR MILL.
It was from Tom Oborn that Mr. Stevens learned how to peck or pick stone, and this was different from all milling practice then in use, and different from that taught in the books. It was the practice among all millers to pick the face of the stone in sharp-edged grooves, so that they would cut, slash and rip as well as crush and pulverize the mass between the stone. By this method the best bolting system devised could only sepa- rate twenty per cent of good flour. The practice discovered by Tom Oborn was not to peck the stone, but to leave it as smooth as possible. He merely pecked off the higher parts left by the wearing of the stone, and then when he started up the stone run water through them to aid in smoothing them down. By the stone pecking practice of Tom Oborn the mill was en- abled to produce twenty-five per cent of good flour, or five barrels more out of every 100 barrels made, than any other mill. This flour was worth $2.00 per barrel more than the other grade. Mr. Oborn taught Mr. Stevens the secret of his meth- ods, and thus assisted him to make a success as a miller. The stone mill had been erected by Smith and Lisk, and was oper- ated under lease. Mr. A. W. Patton had leased the mill and engaged Mr. Stevens as boss miller. He was now twenty-two years of age, and the year before had gone into business with Oborn as Oborn & Stevens in a mill rented of Mr. J. and II. Kimberly, and in 1861 the firm bought the stone mill, and in 1864 he sold out his interest to Sam Oborn. In this year he commenced his career with Mr. J. L. Clements by forming a partnership and purchase of the brick mill mentioned as built by John Mills, and which adjoined the old stone mill of Smith & Lisk. Mr. Olmstead then owned the stone mill, and in 1873 this mill was purchased by Clement & Stevens and the stone and brick mills were joined, under the name of Falcon Mills. After the successful operation of these mills for seventeen years until 1881, Mr. Stevens sold to his partner and quit milling. It was during this partnership that he made the invention of the roller mill, demonstrated its superiority and obtained his patents. When Mr. Stevens sold his interest in the flour mill- ing business, he was a wealthy man, having made a fortune at forty years of age, beginning with nothing, and having both to learn the language, the books, the science of milling, and all of which he accomplished and became a success as a miller and a business man. Asked where he obtained his mechanical ability he replied that his ancestors were all mechanics and in-
420
HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
ventors, so he came by inheritance to the inventor cult, and every device required at once suggested itself to his ready mind. He invented a self-priming pump; an automatic paint brush for marking barrel heads; but his patented automatic and register scale he regards as among his most useful of millers' devices. This scale was sold to the trust with his patents on the roller mills in 1893.
Pondering over the reason why the smooth milling stone as taught him by Tom Oborn would make better flour and more good flour than the old method, it occurred to him that the reason was in lessened cutting and powdering of the husk of the berry. The wheat berry was rolled open and the flour separated without quite so much pulverizing of the husk or "bran and the separation by the bolts resulted in a larger per- centage of good flour. IIis mind was constantly employed to think out some mechanical device that would open the berry and leave the bran practically intact. It was hard to suppose any device possible to change a milling system that had ex- isted in all the history of the world. Any radical change seemed impossible. However, the idea of the crushing between rolls occurred to him. He kept it constantly before him. Every new device that suggested itself repeatedly came back to the rolls. IIe made numerous drawings, then a crude model, then a wooden set; finally, he had, about 1870-72, some chilled rolls made about twelve inches diameter and two feet long. He sent them to Cincinnati to have a corrugation cut on their faces; but they could not cut the hard steel. He tried the Pusey & Jones machine shops at Wilmington, Delaware, but they could not cut his rolls. Finally he appeared at the famous Farrell & Sons, roll makers, at Ansonia, Connecticut, and they could not cut the chilled rolls; but they could make him a pair of rolls in which they could cut the corrugation in the face. He now obtained his rolls and had his frame made to actuate them, and then invented a device to feed the wheat evenly along the slight opening between the rolls, and began experiments to dis- cover the difference in speed each should run as to the other. Both rolls were actuated in opposite directions to carry the grain through between them, but one roll ran faster than its mate. The adjustment of the mechanism was simply a matter of experiment. The device was successful. He reduced the size of the rolls to nine inches diameter, and set up several of these new devices in his mill. As their superiority over the
421
INVENTION OF ROLLER FLOUR MILL.
stone was at once apparent he threw out the stones and replaced them by roller mills. He could make by the buhr stone process in his mills, running to the highest capacity of his power, 200 barrels of flour each day. By the new process he did make with the same power 500 barrels each day. By the old stone process he could only obtain 25 per cent good flour, other mills only 20 per cent, while by his new process he had 90 per cent good flour. The significance of this can better be understood when it is stated that the good flour brought $2.00 a barrel more than the other grade, and thus Clement & Stevens were making a big sum of money each day over their competitors. They had more than doubled their output and quadrupled the quality without any additional mill or power or expense of operation, and were making 1,000 dollars a day over the ordin- ary profits of competition. No wonder it created excitement. The mill was securely locked, but people broke in and took plans. A watchman was placed, but they evaded him.
The experiments began in 1870, continued until the mill was successfully operated in 1874. Then Mr. Stevens applied to the oldest patent law firm in the United States to draw his specifica- tions and obtain his patents. They filed the claim for the roll- ers and were refused a patent, as they would not grant a patent on rollers; they were very old, though never before used in this way. He finally, after two years' delay, sought Park- inson & Parkinson, a patent law firm of Chicago, who seemed to understand better what had been invented. They amended the claims and filed new ones and the patents were issued as allowed by the Patent Office.
Mr. Stevens' first patent is named "John Stevens, Neenah, Wisconsin, for Grain Crushing Roll." Application was filed December 28, 1877, on which patent was granted No. 225,770, dated March 23, 1880. This application is witnessed by his partner, Mr. J. L. Clement, and by Mr. A. W. Hart. The claim is: "In a grinding mill, the combination of rolls geared to re- volve at different peripheral rates of speed, and having a dress composed of fine parallel grooves laid near together. with appreciable plane surfaces between and so as to cross each other on the contiguous surfaces of the rolls."
As stated in the specification, "The mill is employed for. cracking wheat or other grain, and operating on the same, through the various stages of its reduction to flour and also for grinding and cleaning the bran." and the action of the spiral
422
HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
grooves operated, as stated as specified, was "admirably adapt- ed to strip adhering starch and gluten from the bran." These grooves, crossing each other in a manner as stated, leave "the husk and germ in the flakey or discoidal condition, most con- ducive to its effectual separation from the flour and middlings." This patent Mr. Stevens names "the fine scratch roll," and was the "foundation patent," and absolutely a new discovery in milling practice, the most profound in its results of any other device ever invented in the mechanics of flour milling.
In February 13, 1878, he made application for his patent is- sued May 25, 1880, No. 228,001, for "the Roller Grinding Mill," in which he claimed on the round rib in dressing the face of the roll, or washboard face. This application was witnessed by Solon C. Kemon and Chas. A. Pettit. As outlined in the specifi- cations, the object aimed at in milling is to increase the pro- portion of middlings and pure flour, leaving the bran and germ in a condition most favorable to their removal. Smooth sur- faced rolls would flatten the germ, and allow the bran to pass unpulverized, "and to this extent accomplish the object, but they also cause the middlings to cake or form into flakes or thin disks, that will not pass the meshes of the bolt, and therefore in the end not satisfactory. On the other hand, grooved rolls with sharp edges cut or tear the bran and germ into fine par- ticles," and it gets into the flour. The round rib was "de- signed to overcome these objections," and is the system of dress- ing roller mills in universal use today the world over.
It was in this patent that the system of "gradual reduction" was outlined and described by Mr. Stevens, by which the grain was to pass in succession from one set of rolls through another, being bolted or cleaned between each set, and each set having a different degree of fineness to its corrugation. The usual number of sets in the system was six. The first or break rolls have ten ribs or corrugated lines to one inch. The second set or second break had twelve to fourteen ribs, the third set had sixteen to eighteen ribs, the fourth set had eighteen to twenty, the fifth set had twenty-two to twenty-four, and the sixth set had as many as thirty-two ribs to the inch, being mere scratches and intended for middlings rolls. He made a claim in this patent on this system, which was allowed, and reads as fol- lows: "The process of reducing grain to flour, consisting in passing it through a series of sets of rolls, graded in respect to fineness of dress, and through bolts, intermediate between
.
423
INVENTION OF ROLLER FLOUR MILL.
each set, and the succeeding set of rolls." This system is now the universal practice in milling throughout the civilized world.
To offset a possible attempt to overcome his roller system operated in pairs, he devised and applied for a patent on December 16, 1879, for a "Grinding Mill," having a single roll and a concave stationary face between which the grain was to pass. Patent No. 230,834 was issued to John Stevens for this on August 3, 1880. On November 4, 1880, he applied for a patent on a dial indicator devised so the operator could in- stantly adjust the rolls to each other. The patent issued the next month, December 28, 1880, numbered 236,104. The appli- cation for this was witnessed by the late Hon. Robert Shiells, and Mr. Alex. McNaughton. In December 16, 1879. he made application for a blunt non-cutting crest, dressing of the rolls to supplement his system; and later patent was issued Janu- ary 24, 1882, No. 252,705. December 29, 1882, Mr. Stevens made application for a patent on his complete roller mill frame and housing with adjustments designed for single sets in one frame or double sets. This was witnessed by Mr. J. P. Shiells and the late Mr. Alex. McNaughton. Letters patent was issued September 2, 1884, No. 304,463.
These are the six essential patents Mr. Stevens obtained in the invention of the roller mill. The first two given are the basic invention, which places his name high in the annals of inven- tion. As soon as his mill was fitted, and operated at fabulous profits by the new system, it was next to impossible to keep it to himself. Very soon all the local machine shops were engaged nights and Sundays in secretly trying to form Iroller sets. Other machine shops did get at the system and mill furnishing concerns vied with each other in devising roller mills. The issue of his patent hung so long in the patent office that by 1880, when the patent was finally issued, the system had been mentioned in the press and talked of for six years.1
In 1878 occurred the great flour mill fire in Minneapolis, the one that was attended with disastrous explosion of the flour mill dust, and loss of life. Governor Washburn and others re-
'In "History of Winnebago County," by Richard J. Harney, published in 1880, he states under date of 1879, that "these mills at Neenah are chiefly large substantial structures with all modern improvements in flour mill machinery, to which within the last two years has been added the new patent machinery for the manufacture of patent flour. Patent flour now constitutes about eighty per cent of their product."
1
424
HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
built at once and soon introduced largely of new devices and gradual reduction rolls.
As soon as the basic patent for the roller mill was obtained by Mr. Stevens he arranged with John T. Noye & Sons Com- pany, of Buffalo, to manufacture on royalty, which was paid to him for thirteen years, and this great mill furnishing firm became very successful. As a contemporary word from one of the very well known flour mill firms of Milwaukee we quote their letter to John T. Noye & Sons Company, under date No- vember 22, 1880: "In reply to your inquiry as to how we like the Stevens Rollers, are pleased to say thay exceed 'our most sanguine expectations, both in the quality of the work, and the percentage of good middlings. The corrugations being non- cutting, do not cut up the germ nor bran, like the sharp cutting roll, consequently the break flour is very white. The longer we use them the better the results. We only regret that we did not know of them before we commenced our improvements, that we might have had them on all our reductions.
"Yours very truly, "S. H. Seamans & Co."
After thirteen years' operation, under a license to make, the Buffalo firm purchased in 1893, for the use of a syndicate of mill furnishers, which would now be called a trust, the entire rights of Mr. Stevens in all his mill patents, including patents on his automatic dumping and self-registering scale for weigh- ing grain. In 1880, soon after obtaining his first two basic patents. Mr. Stevens visited the mills at Minneapolis, and twenty-two operators settled with him, being all except one, and took shop rights to run the patent rolls on 2,200 sets. Most other mills that had introduced his new system settled at once and took shop rights. Mr. John Stevens also took out patents in Canada, England, Germany and Austria, which included Hungary.
The useful results of the invention are numerous and we can only outline a few of the important ones. In milling it is de- sirable to have the granular grain or atoms of flour all the same size, as the smaller grain takes the yeast first, and turns it black. This makes heavy bread. The new process milling ac- complished the regular, granular grain. And in the rolls the beard of wheat was not broken and pulverized into the mass, as in the old buhr stone system. The germ was so handled in the
425
INVENTION OF ROLLER FLOUR MILL.
new process as to be separated from the flour and passed off into the bran, though in the practice of some mills it is utilized into a low grade flour and sold to a cheap trade.
In the new process milling the husk or shell containing the black cells was crushed together and passed over the bolts with the bran, not pulverized into the mass as in the old process milling. This made it possible to use the hard wheat. Wheat grows only in the temperate zone and far north to a cold line, where it will not ripen. It is richest in nutritious parts useful as a food the nearest that northern cold line where it will not ripen. This wheat is characterized as hard or red spring wheat and grows best on the barren plains of the Dakotas, and throughout that almost unknown, but vast region of western Canada, now fast filling with wheat raising settlers. Under the buhr stone milling this wheat could not be used, and was sold for 30 cents less than winter wheat, as explained above. The roller mill has made it the head of the wheat grains and gives it the highest price, as it had the highest food value. Some day this invention of John Stevens will make Canada rival the United States in flour production. The introduction of the roller mills in the Minneapolis mills in 1880 added 100,000 people to the citizenship of that place in five years, and made it almost at a single bound the flour milling emporium of Amer- ica, sweeping into its mills annually 33,000,000 bushels of wheat by 1886, that ten years before was almost worthless; and set- tling the bleak prairies with several millions of hardy pioneers, all raising wheat. This invention drove wheat raising from Wisconsin and the Middle West, which was replaced by the product of cows and corn, and closed the flour mills of his own city.1
Not alone did it affect the activities of vast areas of farm lands, it made it impossible and unprofitable to mill longer with the buhr stone. There was no market for the product. The in-
'That this movement is still going on is illustrated by the last state census. "The acreage of wheat has decreased from 417,163 acres in 1895, to 210,010 in 1905, and the value from $4,225,728, to $2,263,701." The tobacco erop of Wisconsin is valued at three hundred thousand dollars more than the wheat erop. During the same period of the last ten census years, the cheese and butter output has increased in value $20,401,000 in the state. The total in- crease in the value of all other farm products is one hundred and six million dollars, while wheat fell off one-half in product and value. In 1895, accord- ing to reports made to the Oshkosh "Northwestern," 1,500,650 bushels of wheat was raised in Winnebago county. By the census of 1905, on an acreage of 2,894, there was 35,215 bushels raised in the same county; and by this year's report made by the assessors to the county clerk, the acreage has been reduced in two years to 1,272, or less than one-half.
.
426
HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
vention of the roller mill made a scrap heap of $500,000.000 invested in mill machinery around the civilized world. The writer was caught in the flood with two mills, and as no one would buy or sell the flour they made, though it was the good old flour of our childhood, his loss was $30,000.
Dr. Graham in the Graham or whole wheat flour was partly correct, as the best part of the flour was fed to cattle with the middlings; but, to use Dr. Graham's flour now would be a mis- take. There is no nutriment in the bran. The middlings are reground on the finest or last set of rolls in the series and the flour resultant brings the highest price and has the highest food value. The new system has made it possible to obtain this re- sult. This flour is richer than the wheat.
The term now so generally used, "Patent flour," came from these inventions.
The saving of power by the use of the roller mill was of great value in itself, as an economy in the art. The reason for this saving was in the short lever of the rolls, as compared to that of the old stone. From the center of the stone where the power of propulsion was applied to the edge where the power was expended, was twenty-five inches. In the roll the distance from the center to the edge was but four and a half inches. The relative value of energy saved was the difference between the shorter and longer lever. In reality it was much more be- cause of the saving in power necessary to actuate the new bolting systems made possible by the character of materials de- livered from the rolls, making it possible and desirable to dis- card the old and cumbersome system of reel bolts.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.