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November 11, 2019

Irish mills and Irish millers

by Mildred Cookson, The Mills Archive

An article in The Miller in February 1903 was written to celebrate the setting up of the Irish Association of Millers. It pointed out that the millers had a good reputation for proficiency and commercial enterprise in their craft, and underlined "their plucky efforts and the fine fight" they made to compete with the large mills on their island and the great imports of American flour.

In the city of Cork, St John’s Roller Flour Mills, belonging to Messrs George Shaw and Son, were well known. ER & F Turner had fitted out the mill with an excellent five-sack plant. The installation, which was described as being on the most modern lines, was working very satisfactorily.

The milling arrangements in Ireland were not the same as England, with the arrangement of spouts, machines and flow of material requiring a great deal of business acumen to ensure the absolute perfection seen at the model plant of Messrs. George Shaw and Sons.
 


These problems did not deter Turners' engineers who "had entered into the work with their customary energy and nerve". The highly commendable results were demonstrated by Mr Pertwee, from the staff of Turners, who had managed the installation and showed the visitors round the mill.

Mr Brown, the managing partner, in charge of ensuring the mill’s prosperity, was a fine first-class practical miller. He was very willing to exchange views and give the benefit of his observations on flour mills and flour milling science.

The mill itself had the customary array of elevator bottoms on the ground floor. The spouts connecting these with the roll hoppers were built very symmetrically, the room being around 14 or 15 feet high. This loftiness was always a good starting point for milling engineers, as it cleared the way for building a plant on economical lines.

In the whole mill there were only three short worms for by-products, the rest falling into their appointed hoppers and elevators by gravity. Around the elevators and shafting on this bottom floor there was plenty of walking space, which was another good point.

Mounting the first flight of stairs led to the roller floor, where one was faced with a fine array of Turner rolls. The visitors were surprised at the stated capacity of five sacks an hour and were reassured that this was indeed the case. It was found that they employed more break roll surface than had ever been seen before either in England or elsewhere.

The number of inches allotted to the first break was a revelation. On closer inspection of the whole, each of the rollers had its own particular surface area which, when run conjointly with the others, resulted in a much superior performance to the generally accepted practice at the time. Detailed personal examination verified the innovation and the visitors had no doubt that this would ultimately stand as an additional principle in the technique of flour milling.


Read more HERE.
 

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