How grain was milled in previous centuries
In the mill, all the original equipment is still there.
In theory, all of this can be brought back into operation, but already since the 1990s the mill has only been used to generate electricity.
Below is an overview of which devices are still there, and what function they fulfilled.
The abundant precipitation on the BOIS NOIRS meant that the flow of the CREUZIER at the Pont Ligonnet was such that the construction of a millstone became possible.
This was converted into a roller mill in 1926 by an engineer from the house of LAFON in Tours, as shown according to the account book of the miller at the time: Jules Saint ANDRE.
A water supply channel of about 100 meters carries water from CREUZIER to a metal wheel with buckets, with a water column, 4.20 m in diameter and 1 m wide.
It is perfectly constructed and restored.
Flour is ground in this device. (Bluterie)
These are cylinder machines. A double crusher of 400×200 for repeated grinding. A double converter of 500×200 for grinding semolina and semolina.
The grinding stone rotates in an octagonal wooden “arch.”
The funnel placed on the arch consists of angled wooden cheeks that form a funnel in which the grain is kept.
The mobile “bucket” in which the grain is transported
the “eye” of the grinding stone is perpendicular to the
funnel, it is suspended at the back by two leather straps and at the front by two ropes, one on each side of the small iron, twisted and held at the front of the arch at the level of the funnel by a vertical wooden support.
The strings pass through a hole and are held in place by a wooden pin.
By turning the pin by hand, the ropes are more or less twisted, making them shorter or longer, raising or lowering the front part of the hopper, controlling the speed of arrival of the grain with great precision.
A fixed sharpening stone, the lower “sleeping” or “lying” sharpening stone.
Farmers from the surrounding villages bring bags of grain to the mill, which are exchanged for flour from which they will make their bread: custom mill.
The bags are weighed and then emptied into a hopper.
From this hopper, the grain is led to a combined cleaner (or even to a mechanical tarare if there is no more sophisticated device).
Via an elevator it is then taken to the upper floor.
The grain is moistened in an Archimedes screw: the amount of water to be added is measured using a metering container (the rye is not wet).
The grain is led through the Archimedes screw to the scoop, a so-called scoop of clean wheat, located above the first crusher, closed by a hatch.
The process is as follows:
1° SLIDING:
After the 1st stage of grain preparation and a rest period of 24 to 36 hours.
The hatch opens and the grain goes down into the hopper of the milling machine.
A lever can be used to turn on the distributor.
The wheat falls in a thin and uniform sheet between the rollers of the first crusher where it undergoes an initial grinding to open up the grains (the rollers have about 6 grooves per cm2)
This coarse grind is taken via a bucket conveyor in a wooden elevator to the 2nd floor where it is “thrown” into the first channel of the planichter (a kind of sieve)`to be graded on the sieves.
The first sieve, lined with metal mesh No. 22/24, sheds large particles of grain, which are led through a conduit to the second crusher, whose closest rollers have about 8 grooves per cm2.
This second crusher will rise through its elevator to the second channel of the plansichter, whose first sieve No. 26/28 sheds the upper particles, which go into the “REPRISE” bushel, adjacent to the bushel, by means of an Archimedes screw.
scoop of clean wheat (in the mill).
The subsequent sieves of the planer extract the flour that may have been produced in small quantities (called grinding flour) and classify the larger particles into coarse, fine and fine semolina.
These three products are collected in service bags through the three packing machines on the 1st floor.
2° THE RECOVERY
The valve of the clean wheat bushel is closed and that of the recovery bushel is open.
The first crusher becomes the 3rd crusher (the cylinders are brought together) using the lever provided for that purpose on the machine, the second crusher becomes the fourth crusher (the cylinders are almost pressed together).
The small hatch on the screw that goes to the collection canister is closed so that the waste can be sent to the sound chamber after passing through the large sound brush.
3° CONVERTING
The products stored in the bags (coarse, fine and fine semolina) are emptied by category into the hopper that feeds the CONVERTER.
It has smooth rollers whose pressure can be adjusted and which will “convert” large particles into finer particles through successive passages until flour is obtained.
The products of this conversion are transported by an elevator to the centrifugal mill, which efficiently extracts the flour and sends it to the flour chamber.
Insufficiently ground waste goes to the distributor, which classifies fines, mediums and grits and ejects fine bran and germs, if not removed during cleaning.
All these grits are passed through the converter and ironed, and this is where the miller’s “know-how” comes in handy, to find the optimum pressure of the converter so as not to “burn” (excess pressure) or damage the flour.
‘have too much loss (insufficient pressure).
The flour is spread in the flour chamber, in successive layers corresponding to the different stages of grinding.
It is mixed with the wooden scoop, turning it around at least three times.
All that remains is to put it into the customer’s bags, where it is taken out for processing.
The taste of different types of bread and gourmet pastries will depend on their quality, combined with the skill of the housewife or baker.