SOUTHBROOK FLOUR AND OATMEAL MILLS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9512, 7 September 1891, Page 6

SOUTHBROOK FLOUR AND OATMEAL MILLS .

The new mill erected by Messrs Moir and Co. at. Southbrook, to replace that destroyed by fire about five months ago, is now on the eve of completion. It is so far advanced, indeed,>s to permit of the oat. meal milling plant being put in operation. The new building is a most substantial four-storey structure, erected by Messrs Boyd and Keir, of Rangiora. The foundations are of concrete,,and are exceedingly massive. The space covered by the ground floor is SOft by 30rt. The height of the building on the stud is 29ft, and the,pillars and other main supports of the floors are very substantial, ranging in size from 13in by 12in in the lower x>art of the building, to Sin by Sin in the upper. The machinery, which has been set up by Mr G. Ferguson, of Sydenham, is of the most modern stone-grinding type, calculated to work, with the very best results. The plant at present consists of four pairs of 4ft stones run by a turbine wheel, which develops fourteen horse-power with a 9ffc Sin head of water; but to meet the frequent demand for roller flour the proprietors of the mill have provided for the erection before next harvest of a small roller' plant-which will occupy one side of the building, and be worked by steam power; Two pairs of the stones already referred to will be-used for flour-making, and the others in the manufactured oatmeal. The capacity of the mill is four tons of flour and five tons of oatmeal in twelve hours. The process of oatmeal as carried out by the machinery under notice, is entirely automatic. The oats are first shotfrotnthe bag into a hopper or bin on the ground floor, from which, they are carried by a set of elevators to the cleaning machine, which separates from them any; rubbish or damaged grain. Passing fronl the cleaning-machine, the grain runs through a shoot back to the ground floor, and is then carried by an. endless screw to another set of elevators, which deposits it in tke kiln. This part of the premises is a large brick chamber, with a floor constructed of perforated iron places, on which from eighty to eighty-five bushels .of cits can be spread to dry at one time. Below the floor, a coke fire is kindled; and, the grain being kept constantly stirred, and yet at an even depth, by a machine which keeps travelling round the floor, the moisture is quickly withdrawn, leaving the grain dry and crisp for shelling. From the jcilu the oats pass to a pair of stones, which take off the husk without breaking the kernel; and on leaving the stones the ,husks and kernels are elevated to a machine which separates them. To make the cleaning process complete, however, the grain is again passed through the stones ; and, after another dressing in the cleaning machine, is carried to the second pair of stones, by which it is ground. The m«al, on leaving the stones, _is conveyed to a riddling machine, which divides the coarse particles from tho fine and the former return to the stones for a second grinding. The riddling machine having done its work, the meal drops from it on to .an elevator which carries it to a trough on tke ground floor, where, by means of an endv less screw, it is bagged ready for the market. In arranging the mill, care has been exercised in placing the cleaning appliances well away from the finishing machinery, so that a perfectly pure and clean sample of meal can be guaranteed. Tho new machinery has already been proved to do excellent work, and Messrs Moir and Go. will certainly maintain the high reputation gained in this and the other Colonies for the first-class quality of their oatmeal and flour.