Ancient wheat process of milling

It is generally believed that wheat had its origins in the regions of the ancient Eastern region of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant, around 7000 B.C, although it had likely been gathered as a wild grain much earlier.

The grain was placed in a large saucer-shaped stone, a smaller rounded stone was used to crush it. Saddle querns seem to be the most common cereal grinding tools through all prehistory and early history of Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.

The process of milling wheat into flour was revolutionized around 800 BC in Mesopotamia, when animal, water and wind power were harnessed for the first time to run the large stones used for grinding.

These mills were often constructed using good quality stones, the grinding process could have been repeated several times and finally flour was sieved.

In ancient Rome the mill and the bakery were the very same enterprise. The grains were milled and worked up without delay to dough and bread.

In the Middle Ages the milling of four became the monopoly of a few professional millers who were granted this concession by the wealthy landholders who built the large mills.

The first wind-powered mills were built in England in the 11th century, and in Belgium Luxemburg and the Netherlands in the 12th century.
Ancient wheat process of milling

General Mills – American Fortune 500 corporation

In 1856 Cadwallader C. Washburn opened a flour mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He named the company as the Minneapolis Mill Company, which began to mill four in 1866.

In 1880, after winning the gold, silver and bronze medals at the first International Millers Exhibition, the company changed the brand name to Gold Medal.

When John Crosby joined as partner in Washburn’s business in 1877 the company changed its name to the Washburn Crosby Company.

In 1921, the company introduced Betty Crocker and it was to become one of the most successful brand names ever introduced by an American food company.

In 1928 the Washburn Crosby Company introduced a cereal, Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes. Its name was shorted to Wheaties.

In the same year, under President James Ford Bell, the Washburn Crosby Company merged with a number of leading regional mills to become General Mills, Inc.

After World War II, consumers demanded products that required less time to prepare. In response, General Mills introduced Betty Corker cake mixes in 1947 and presweetened cereals in 1954.

General Mills introduce many new cereals, including Trix (1954), Lucky Charms (1963), and Honey Nut Cheerios (1979).

In addition to cereal, General Mills has also introduced many snack foods and junk foods, such as Bugles (1965) and Milk ‘n Cereal Bars.

The company diversified into industries such as toys and fashion in the 1960s but by the 1990s was again delaying exclusively with consumer foods.

General Mills acquired one if its chief rivals, Pillsbury Co., in 2001. Its headquarters are in Minneapolis.
General Mills – American Fortune 500 corporation

History of windmill

The invention of the ancient world was used by the flour millers of the Middle Ages, but in the twelfth century a new construction reached the European continent: the windmill that probably originated in the Orient.

It is known that windmills began to appear in Europe in the 12th century AD, in flat areas where rivers ran too slow to turn waterwheels for mills.

For areas that did not have easy access to running water but still required flour for bread, the windmill was the solution. The revolving sails, which can be trimmed according to the direction of the wind, turn the mill shaft.

The invention of the windmill appeared to some scholars to have originated in the east, because of the prior evidence of vertical, rather than horizontal axle, windmills in China and Afghanistan as early as the 700s.

Windmills were used first to grind wheat and later to pump for drainage. In Afghanistan they were used to grind flour.

Although the windmill was probably not a European invention, medieval Europeans made significant improvements.

Around AD 1100, the Mediterranean windmill began to appear in Italy. However, Mediterranean windmills only worked when the wind blew from the correct direction and when it blew within the correct range of velocities.

The first practical windmill emerged sometime around 1250. This design called ‘post mill’. Post mills were first developed in the Low Countries and spread very quickly to England.

Fifteenth-century windmills were larger, more stable and more efficient than earlier versions.

Probably the first windmill in United States was one erected at the Flowerdew Hundred Plantation on the James River not far from Jamestown, Virginia in 1621.
History of windmill

Flour milling during ancient Egypt

One of Egypt’s indigenous grains, wheat, grown in flat fields, flourished in the country’s hot climate and , once the canals that supplied them with water had been constructed, required little care.

In order to harvest the grains, the ancient Egyptians made sickles out of sharpened flint and mounted them on wooden sticks. These were the perfect instruments for chopping down the tall grasses.

It was then dried in the sun, winnowed and sieved and finally milled. Grain was winnowed and soaked, the ground in a rehaaya.

After collection, several handfuls were placed on a stone quern with a gently curved surfaced for milling. A stones shaped like rolling pin with a curve to match the curvature of the grinding surface was rolled back and forth, grinding the grain into flour, which was caught in a container at one end of the quern.

Excavations and the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptian indicate that the primitive milling implements were first wooden, then stone, and later on metal mortars, on which the grain was crushed by blows from pestles.

Ancient Egyptians then advanced to grinding the grain (grist) between two large flat stones (grooved or dressed to let the fine flour particles escape) , moving in opposite direction and driven by animal power.

Grist mills soon employed the power of running water to drive wheels.

After the grain was milled, it was transferred to baskets. A scribe counted and recorded the number of basket before they were transferred to the granary where the grain stored.
Flour milling during ancient Egypt