The Millers

Glyn Jones has written a history of flour milling in the United Kingdom that extends into the present millennium. But much more than half of his text is concerned with the four decades before the outbreak of World War I, when the industry was revolutionized by the introduction of roller-milling technology, its raw material increasingly came to be imported grain, and very large mill complexes developed in port cities to the detriment of inland "country" mills. While the outline of these developments—which by tradition began with the celebrated exhibition of equipment at Islington in 1881—is well known from a variety of texts, this is the first authoritative account of the transformation. Jones suggests that British millers were not far behind those in the United States in taking up roller milling. His exposition of the technology involved in the new processes is lucid. He shows clearly that the changes involved not just the building of new mills and the installation of new machinery in some old ones, but the emergence of a substantial branch of the mechanical engineering industry that manufactured the plant. The account of the growth of the leading British company, established in Manchester by the Silesian-born Henry Simon (1835-99) is one of the best features of the book. While the tone, as indicated in the subtitle, may sometimes seem celebratory, it proves a thoroughly competent analysis of historical developments that were influential well beyond the United Kingdom

Art · Art history · Economic history · Exhibition · Exposition (narrative) · Literature · Mill · Subtitle · Variety (cybernetics) · Engineering · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Mathematics · Mechanical Engineering · Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts