by Mildred Cookson, The Mills Archive, UK
In the days before civil aviation and high-speed railways, professional conventions held a particular place in the calendar. Bringing together the movers and shakers of the industry (the people as well as the machines) they provided opportunities and ideas for progress and re-affirmed their status as heads of industry, commerce and innovation. One such was the 1902 Convention to be held in Edinburgh.
Conventions also provided an opportunity for national and global advertising and so Milling, the precursor of Milling and Grain, announced that its edition of May 31st, 1902 would be a Convention Number in accordance with their regular custom. Less than a decade old, the publication was determined to set itself apart in both content and production values.
It promised a Number containing "specially written articles by the best literary talent in the trade on subjects of interest to all the many British and colonial readers … other pages will be replete with illustrations of several important Scotch mills, together with others in different parts of the Empire."
I will use the descriptions and illustrations from the convention number over the next few issues to describe the important mills of East Scotland as they appeared at the close of Queen Victoria's reign. The first two are East Bridge Mills and Central Mills in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire (more properly referred to as Fife).
East Bridge Mills: Messrs. Robert Hutchison & Co
Kirkcaldy is situated on the northern slope of the Firth of Forth where the estuary broadens out into a wide expanse of over 15 miles from bank to bank.
In the early millstone days, East Mills had 10 pairs of stones. Rolls were first introduced in the 1870s and the mill worked by rolls and partly by stones until 1892 when the firm employed Henry Simon was to install a six-sack plant.
In 1897, Simon was called in again to update the mill. A complete washing and drying plant were installed along with other improvements to increase capacity to ten sacks-per-hour. The head of the family firm at the time of the convention was the local Provost (Mayor), Mr Alex Hutchison, appointed as the new President of the Association of British and Irish Millers.
He had introduced the next improvements that year, including a covered railway siding, with a bulk grain receiving house, a preliminary cleaning plant along with a 20-tonne elevator, 12 large silos and 10 smaller ones with a horizontal conveyor for transporting the full sacks of flour and offals from warehouse to railway trucks.
The re-organised roller plant consisted of two lines of ‘Simon’ double rollers, six sets being on the breaks and scratch processes, and nine on the reductions. The different separations were done with reels, centrifugals, scalpers and purifiers of the ‘Simon’ make.
Read more HERE.
In the days before civil aviation and high-speed railways, professional conventions held a particular place in the calendar. Bringing together the movers and shakers of the industry (the people as well as the machines) they provided opportunities and ideas for progress and re-affirmed their status as heads of industry, commerce and innovation. One such was the 1902 Convention to be held in Edinburgh.
Conventions also provided an opportunity for national and global advertising and so Milling, the precursor of Milling and Grain, announced that its edition of May 31st, 1902 would be a Convention Number in accordance with their regular custom. Less than a decade old, the publication was determined to set itself apart in both content and production values.
It promised a Number containing "specially written articles by the best literary talent in the trade on subjects of interest to all the many British and colonial readers … other pages will be replete with illustrations of several important Scotch mills, together with others in different parts of the Empire."
I will use the descriptions and illustrations from the convention number over the next few issues to describe the important mills of East Scotland as they appeared at the close of Queen Victoria's reign. The first two are East Bridge Mills and Central Mills in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire (more properly referred to as Fife).
East Bridge Mills: Messrs. Robert Hutchison & Co
Kirkcaldy is situated on the northern slope of the Firth of Forth where the estuary broadens out into a wide expanse of over 15 miles from bank to bank.
In the early millstone days, East Mills had 10 pairs of stones. Rolls were first introduced in the 1870s and the mill worked by rolls and partly by stones until 1892 when the firm employed Henry Simon was to install a six-sack plant.
In 1897, Simon was called in again to update the mill. A complete washing and drying plant were installed along with other improvements to increase capacity to ten sacks-per-hour. The head of the family firm at the time of the convention was the local Provost (Mayor), Mr Alex Hutchison, appointed as the new President of the Association of British and Irish Millers.
He had introduced the next improvements that year, including a covered railway siding, with a bulk grain receiving house, a preliminary cleaning plant along with a 20-tonne elevator, 12 large silos and 10 smaller ones with a horizontal conveyor for transporting the full sacks of flour and offals from warehouse to railway trucks.
The re-organised roller plant consisted of two lines of ‘Simon’ double rollers, six sets being on the breaks and scratch processes, and nine on the reductions. The different separations were done with reels, centrifugals, scalpers and purifiers of the ‘Simon’ make.
Read more HERE.
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