TESTING OF FLOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 11

TESTING OF FLOUR

A...mechanical device, styled the farinograph, which plots quickly and in graphic form the kneading qualities of different flours, was demonstrated to the committee of the Wheat Research Institute this week,-states the "Press." The instrument was recently imported for use in the institute's laboratory. Taking a sample of .flour which has been mixed with water, the farinograph works it' by means of an arm which operates in a manner which is a modification of the mechanical means used in some of the big bakeries. The movement of the arm is timed, and the resistance offered by'the mixture is plotted on a revolving chart. Flours which mix well, with the maximum degree and retention of elasticity, produce a straight, wide, mark upon the chart. When the flour is of a quality so that the mixture soon loses its'elasticity and becomes of a less favourable consistency, they' graph dwindles and drops in its course. The instrument allows the measurement of I the mixing qualities of. flour to an exact degree. The finest graph was produced at the demonstration by pure Canadian flour, and many of its characteristics were shown in. the graph produced from cross seven, the wheat which has been developed by the j director of the institute, Dr. F. W. ! Hilgendorf.