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to elevators and machines. The mill wheel could generate 30 horse power but when all the machines were running or the water level was low, an auxiliary engine was used, a semi-diesel Fairbanks Morse. The engine didn’t have a battery; instead, a blowtorch was employed to heat to red hot a metal plug which in turn ignited the kerosene that fueled the engine.
Farmers bringing their grain to be milled backed up wagons and carts to a porch on the north side. Corn on the cob went through a window and to the corn sheller. Wheat and already-shelled corn were shoveled into a chute and carried directly upstairs to the cleaning machines. The grain then flowed back down to the first floor and into a 45-bushel bin set on scales to be weighed. From the scales, the grain was lifted to the upper floors by elevators—wooden, four-sided verticle chutes with continuously moving canvas belts studded every six inches by metal cup scoopers. Most of the storage bins were hoppered, sloped like inverted pyramids to ensure that the grain flowed freely out of the hole in the bottom.
Stone Ground Corn
The corn mill consisted of two large, round stones, the lower one stationary. The upper stone could be adjusted up or down by a lever to grind coarse of or fine meal. Near the corn mill was a large horizontal beam with a set of tongs, similar to ice tongs, hanging at one end. When it was time to sharpen the upper mill stone, the tongs were swung over the stone and attached to the sides by metal pins Then the stone could be lifted, turned over and set down.
Only a blacksmith could sharpen the chisel used to work on the stone. He heated the chisel red hot hammered out a sharp edge and then judged the temperature of the cooling metal by its color, he would plunge the chisel into water at just the right moment. The results was a “tempered” chisel hard enough to cut the mill stone.
Sharpening the stone was the miller’s most tedious task. The stone was lined with trenches about an
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