In Cyrus McCormick invented a mechanical reaper. The two wheeled, horse-drawn invention pushed a series of moving, scissor-like blades against the grain to clip if close to the ground.
A rotating paddle wheel swept the stalks against the cutting bales so they fell on a platform as the machine moved forward. The modern farmer usually takes a sample of wheat to a local elevator for testing to check moisture content, which determines whether or not it is ready to harvest and can be stored.
Wheat is relatively hard and dry when ripe. At this time, the crop is also an easy target for destructive fire, wind, rain or hail during a critical week to day period when the grain must be cut. A number of methods can be used to thresh out the cut grain and remove the wheat from its glumes. For thousands of years, wheat heads were spread on a plot of bare, hard ground or threshing floor.
Cattle or horses were driven around and around until hooves accomplished the removal of the wheat from the chaff. Separation was completed by winnowing-or tossing the mixture into the air so that the wind blew away the lighter chaff and the heavier wheat dropped back.
The mechanical ingenuity that led to the development of a reaper also led to the development of the threshing machine. Industrialization- the use of new sources of power in steam and internal combustion engines, the improvement of transportation, and the growth of cities with greater need for food- served to revolutionize agriculture. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the time required for cultivation and complete harvest of one acre of wheat declined from an estimated 83 hours to little more than two man-hours.
The invention of several machines made this saving possible. One of the inventions, the threshing machine, used power fans to separate the chaff from the grain. The machines were expensive and often purchased by companies of farmers or independent businessmen. The shocked grain was hauled in from the field and fed into the threshing machine.
Chaff and straw were blown out into the pile on one side. Clean grain poured into a wagon or bags on the other side. This annual migration of thousands of harvest hands came to an end after the end of the First World War with the development of the combine, first as a unit to be drawn by horse or tractor and finally self propelled.
The modern combine, in one operation, performs the five basic jobs in harvesting once done by hand labor:. The combine reduced the man hours of work of harvesting one acre of wheat from 46 hours to 30 minutes or less and freed thousands of men for productive work outside the farm.
Wheat is transported from the field to a storage facility and eventually to a mill. Since prehistoric times, the goal of milling has been the separation of outer bran and germ from the inner, more digestible, endosperm of the wheat berry. While primitive man probably simply chewed wheat as food, and later learned to parch it for easier eating, archeological excavations of even the earliest known villages indicate forms of grinding.
The teeth of people from excavated villages dating back to 6, BC show no signs of wear that would indicate they chewed wheat. Apparently those early people already knew the use of stones for milling wheat.
Pairs of stones, one for pounding or rubbing against another, are found at sites of ancient settlements in almost all parts of the world.
Although crude, the pounding or rubbing of whole grain effectively reduces the kernel into flour or meal. The pounding of two stones together would create wear at the point of impact. A depression was created. If two stones of the right shape are rubbed together the same wearing action evolved into simple mills in which wheat was poured in from the top and flour emerged from the grinding surfaces.
The ancient Egyptians used saddlestones and mixed their crudely sifted four with a liquid containing natural yeast to create loaves of leavened bread in many different shapes and varieties.
The process is illustrated in crude murals found in Tombs along the Nile River. The addition of levers to millstones gave millers more power to grind greater quantities of wheat. Fabric or mesh was used to sift the flour even as today, and the stones were dressed or scored with furrows to direct the flour out from the center to the outer edge of the grinding surface. A combination of sifting and grinding produced white flour.
The application of wind or waterpower to the task of turning the grinding stones made possible larger mills with increased output of flour to sell in bigger markets. I have been wanting to read read about these types of flour. We hardly eat refined white flour. We always take whole wheat flour as per tradition. We are switching Oils, Flours, Sugars etc. I will be switching to unbleached unbromated whole wheat flour.
Thank you for sharing your findings. It is really disturbing and my stomach churned as I was reading. This is very interesting! Thank you for writing this article. It will help a lot with my science project. Email Facebook Pinterest. Types of Flours: refined white flour cake flour self rising flours white whole wheat flour whole wheat bromated bleached unbleached The list seems endless!
Q — What are the different types of flours? The germ is the nutrient dense embryo that will sprout into a new wheat plant. And the endosperm is the largest part of the grain. Q — So how does the flour become bleached? This brings us to bromated flour … Q — What is bromated flour? Q — What should I look for? Q- Where can I find non bromated flour? Comments Very interesting.
Thanks for your guidance. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Some recipes use both self-raising flour and an additional raising agent — this will give a lighter texture, and is usually added when the dough or batter is heavier than normal to give it additional lightness.
Wholemeal flour is made from the whole of the wheat grain. If the flour is steel-crushed, the wheat-germ is separated from the white part of the grain and returned to the white flour at the end of the grinding process.
Wholemeal flour produces heavier results than white flour, so is often used in combination. This makes it ideal for bread-making where dough needs to expand and rise well in order to produce a light loaf. Strong flour is not suitable for cake recipes.
A ground wheat flour that looks like plain flour, but is a special grade, which is the perfect blend for making delicate pasta or noodles. Some cake recipes replace part or all of the wheat flour component with rice, cornmeal, chestnut or other wheat-free flours, ground almonds or ground polenta.
This provides a wealth of different textures and flavours, but as baking is an exact science, you cannot simply swap one for another, look for specific recipes containing these ingredients. Try making basic biscuits , easy pancakes or a plain and loaf of white bread. Bleached flour is a type of refined flour that had added whitening agent. Four most commonly used agents are: potassium bromate, benzoyl peroxide, ascorbic acid and chlorine gas.
Plain flour or all-purpose flour is flour that does not have a leavening agent. Self-rising flour is flour is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. It is used for baking of lighter and softer baked products. Enriched flour is a flour with replaced flour nutrients that are lost during processing.
Other flours that are made from other materials and that can be found on the market are: acorn flour, almond flour, amaranth flour, atta flour, bean flour, brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, cassava flour, chestnut flour, chickpea flour, coconut flour, corn maize flour, cornstarch, rice flour, hemp flour, maida flour, mesquite flour, nut flours, peasemeal or pea flour, peanut flour, potato flour, rice flour, rye flour, sorghum flour and tapioca flour.
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