Automatic Flour Mill
Evans first invention of widespread importance was an automated flour mill which operated continuously through the use of bulk material handling devices including bucket elevators, conveyor belts, and Archimedean screws. Evans described this invention in The Young Mill-wright and Millers' Guide. He patented this invention in a few states and, when the US patent system was established, in the federal patent system (Third U.S. Patent).
Evans' description of his fully automatic flour mill:
" These five machines…perform every necessary movement of the grain, and meal, from one part of the mill to another, and from one machine to another, through all the various operations, from the time the grain is emptied from the wagoner's bag….until completely manufactured into flour…without the aid of manual labor, excepting to set the different machines in motion."
The automatic flour mill was built ca. 1785 in Newcastle County, Delaware.
The Evans material handling system became widely used in flour mills and breweries during the 19th century.
David Hounshell (1984) acknowledged the influence of Evans'es automatic flour mill in the sequence of innovations leading up to the assembly line.
Read more about this topic: Oliver Evans
Famous quotes containing the words automatic, flour and/or mill:
“What we learn for the sake of knowing, we hold; what we learn for the sake of accomplishing some ulterior end, we forget as soon as that end has been gained. This, too, is automatic action in the constitution of the mind itself, and it is fortunate and merciful that it is so, for otherwise our minds would be soon only rubbish-rooms.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)
“I wol bistowe the flour of al myn age
In th’actes and in fruit of mariage.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)