The Machinery Floor
The Winnower
In early times, grain was cleaned by throwing it into the air utilising a breeze to blow away the lighter chaff and straw. The winnower is a mechanical device, which does the same thing, and would probably have been operated by a boy in a farmer's barn. We use it to clean up our grain before milling.
The Flour Dresser
During the eighteenth century it became fashionable to use white flour rather than wholemeal flour. The flour-dresser was designed to remove the bran (the brown fragments of grain husk in the wholemeal flour) using a wire mesh covered with a silk screen on a revolving drum. The fine white flour passes through, leaving the bran inside. Using a coarser material screen or just a fine mesh allows smaller particles of bran to pass through yielding brown flour.
UP to Meal Floor. DOWN to Exhibition Floor. OR click on the mill diagram.
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