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Break Roll System
28 August 2003

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After the application of steam to milling, the next advance was the introduction of iron and steel rollers instead of stone grinders. The power of the steam engine, the improvement in gearing, coupling, belting and other forms of power transmissions that resulted from the mechanical inventiveness of the Nineteenth Century were the conditions that made the small metal rollers possible, and gradually dispensed with the heavy and clumsy stones.

The first pair of rollers was not intended to break up the entire grain as the revolving stones had done, but rather to split the kernel, to tear it into pieces containing the valuable elements of the cereals, and to separate the bran. Each pair of rollers carries the process a stage further in separating the starchy materials from the bran, with the result that several different grades of flour are produced by every modern mill.

The whole process of flour-making is a triumph of mechanical skill, of scientific observation and of cleanliness.