HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

built at once and soon introduced largely of new devices and
gradual reduction rolls.
As soon as the basic patent for the roller mill was obtained
by Mr. Stevens he arranged with John T. Noye & Sons Com-
pany, of Buffalo, to manufacture on royalty, which was paid
to him for thirteen years, and this great mill furnishing firm
became very successful. As a contemporary word from one
of the very well known flour mill firms of Milwaukee we quote
their letter to John T. Noye & Sons Company, under date No-
vember 22, 1880: "In reply to your inquiry as to how we like
the Stevens Rollers, are pleased to say thay exceed our most
sanguine expectations, both in the quality of the work, and
the percentage of good middlings. The corrugations being non-
cutting, do not cut up the germ nor bran, like the sharp cutting
roll, consequently the break flour is very white. The longer we
use them the better the results. We only regret that we did not
know of them before we commenced our improvements, that we
might have had them on all our reductions.
Yours very truly,
S. H. Seamans & Co."

After thirteen years' operation, under a license to mnake, the
Buffalo firm purchased in 1893, for the use of a syndicate of
mill furnishers, which would now be called a trust, the entire
rights of Mr. Stevens in all his mill patents, including patents
on his automatic dumping and self-registering scale for weigh-
ing grain. In 1880, soon after obtaining his first two basic
patents. Mr. Stevens visited the mills at Minneapolis, and
twenty-two operators settled with him, being all except one,
and took shop rights to run the patent rolls on 2,200 sets.
Most other mills that had introduced his new system settled
at once and took shop rights. Mr. John Stevens also took
out patents in Canada, England, Germany and Austria, which
included Hungary.
The useful results of the invention are numerous and we can
only outline a few of the important ones. In milling it is de-
sirable to have the granular grain or atoms of flour all the same
size, as the smaller grain takes the yeast first, and turns it
black. This makes heavy bread. The new process milling ac-
complished the regular, granular grain. And in the rolls the
beard of wheat was not broken and pulverized into the mass, as
in the old buhr stone system. The germ was so handled in the

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