A very elegant and compact corn-mill was constructed in France, and was adopted by Buonaparte for the uses of his vast army when he invaded Russia in 1812. Hence it was called the French military mill, and it was introduced subsequently into this country on account o1 its portability and convenience. It consisted of two circular cast-iron plates, about 12 inches m diameter, placed in a vertical position, one of which was fixed, and the other rotative, upon a horizontal axis, turned by a winch. The plates were indented all over with radiating grooves ; the corn was conducted to the centre, or eye, by means of a lateral hopper, and the meal, as it was ground, was projected from around the periphery by the centrifugal force of the revolving plate.
In 1824, Messrs. Taylor and Jones took out a patent for some improved appendages or adjustments to this mill ; but there is reason to believe that the undertaking failed from an inherent defect in the construction of the original. The verticdposition of the plates is unquestionably disadvantageous, as the effect of gravity is always counteracting the centrifugal action, and necessarily causes a larger portion of the meal to descend from underneath than from the sides or the top ; and this tendency, we suspect, must have rendered it expe dient to work very close, to prevent the meal dropping out in a coarse state : and from the greater resistance of the meal on the lower side than on the upper, the plates were liable to spring or separate more underneath ; or if unyielding, by reason of their solidity and perfect centering, a deterioration of the meal seems to be the necessary result.
Many attempts have been made to grind wheat by stones running vertically, both here and in America, but a little experience in their working has gene rally led to their abandonment. A variety of machines have, likewise, been constructed for domestic use, wherein the dressing-machine, or bolter, has been annexed to the mill, so that the two processes shall be conducted consecutively within the same framing. Such machines, therefore, represent the apparatus of the great public mills in miniature ; but they confer no advantages, because they are equally complex, and are put together in an inferior manner. Viewing the subject in this light, the writer, a few months ago, directed his thoughts to the simplification of the millering apparatus; and he so far succeeded, as to per fectly grind and dress upon the same continuous surface, which appears to be the limit of invention, at least as far as the principle is concerned. The
following account of this machine is extracted from the Mechanks Magazine, No. 885.
" Hebert's Pcdent Flour-making Machine.—From a personal inspection of the machine delineated in perspective on the following page, and from a careful perusal of the inventor's specification, it appears to us to be his design to con struct flour-mills of the utmost simplicity and durability ; in which, not only the grinding of the corn, but the dressing (sifting) of the meal into flour, pollard, bran, &c., are simultaneously performed. It is not, however, to be understood that these combined operations are effected by the mere annexation of a dress ing-machine to a mill, and driving them both together; for in such an arrange ment there would be neither novelty nor economy. But the combined operations of grinding and dressing are in this new patent mechanism so simplified, and so intimate, that they are continuously going on, upon one continuous surface. The essential members of the machine are thereby reduced to only two 1 one stationary, the other rotative. This remarkable simplicity conduces to many advantages, which our mechanical readers will at once appreciate, without our entering upon the details. The inventor has shown in his specification, and has actually put into beneficial practice, several modifications of the prin ciple so as to adapt the scale of their operations to any required magnitude. We have selected for the present article what the patentee denominates his patent domestic flour-make; which is adapted to the manual force of one man; but the power requisite to work this may be diminished or increased at the pleasure of the operator, by a corresponding reduction or augmentation of the feed, or quantity of corn permitted to pass under the operation of the grinders in a given time. In a subsequent number we purpose inserting a description of one of the same kind of machines, which is in use at the workhouse of All Saints, near Hertford, where it is worked by any number of men, from two to ten, (by a suitable alteration of the feed,) and is capable of properly grinding and dressing as much corn in a given time as other mills will grind only ; the estimated power required to work it efficiently being that of one horse, whether worked by that animal, or by wind, water, or steam.