"It was in the Brandywine Mills that Kiln-dried corn meal was first invented and produced, more than half a century ago, since which time it has constituted a specialty of this house, and forms a very important item of its trade, immense quantities being annually shipped to the various West Indian ports."
Industries of Delaware: Historical and Descriptive Review. 1880
1888
1847
1888
Laws were also framed in the several States prior to the adoption of
the Federal Constitution regulating intercourse with foreign nations. The laws
bearing upon this matter were much more stringent in Pennsylvania than in
Delaware, and consequently a large shipping trade sprang up between Wilmington
and the West Indies Corn-meal was in great demand in this trade and was shipped
in large quantities, but it invariably spoiled before reaching destination. It
was then suggested at the Brandywine Mills that the corn be dried before
grinding.
An experiment was tried by drying some in a malt-house, and being
found to answer, drying-houses, similar to malt houses, were constructed
alongside the mills, with brick floors and heated by flues and turned over with
shovels every half-hour. In this primitive way about two hundred bushels could
be dried every twenty-four hours.
The proprietors of these mills, anxious to
improve their facilities, purchased in 1812, of John R. Parry, of Montgomery
County, Pennsylvania, for eighty dollars, the right to construct and use his “patent machine for kiln-drying corn, etc.”
but whether it was found a success is not known.
About 1816 one Crook, of New
Hope, Pennsylvania, invented the pan-kiln, which, until lately, was used very
much as originally constructed; and even now, though large quantities are
manufactured in other parts of the country, the Brandywine meal is largely
preferred by shippers.
Scharf, J. Thomas. History of
Delaware: 1609-1888. Phila: 1888
1847
Messrs. Tattnal and Lea of the Brandywine mills have just informed me
that they have complied with my request and sent to their agents, Messrs. Allen
and Paxson, New-York, a small specimen of white kiln-dried corn meal, which is
at your service to exhibit to the "Farmers' Club," or to experiment
with as a Marylander so well knows how, and thus enable him to testify to its
merits as an article suitable to the English market, under the favorable
prospect of an increased corn trade with that country. The sample sent is by no
means as good as may be manufactured when several hundred or thousand bushels
are kiln-dried together, as they now do the yellow corn.
The enclosed letter from Mr. James Canby, whose experience reaches to
half a century, will not be without its interest at your discussions on corn
and corn meal at the “Institute." The long-standing celebrity of the
Brandywine mills in the manufacture of flour has not been surpassed by their
success, and, indeed, almost monopoly of the kiln-dried com meal business—for
now upward of fifty years.
During the whole of this period, except to the West Indies, and
principally in the shape of kiln-dried meal, but comparatively very little of
this great and native grain has been exported from the United States to other
countries. As a new era is, however, opening upon us, and a requisition is
about to be made upon the inexhaustible supplies of Indian Corn which can be produced
in our country, every fact in relation to the best kinds, and modes of
manufacture adapting it for transportation, are sought after with interest.
The facts I have been enabled to collect principally through the
politeness of the Brandywine millers, agreeably to your request, are cheerfully
communicated. Those disposed to investigate the numerous varieties of maize
grown in our country, can readily be gratified by referring to Emerson's
American Encyclopaedia, Lorraine's Husbandry, and the pamphlet of Peter A.
Brown, Esq. of Philadelphia, on this particular subject. The only reference to
varieties necessary to be made in this communication, is to the white and
yellow corn of commerce; the best of which will of course be selected to suit
the market and taste of the consumer.
Early in the history of our country, you are aware that both public and
private attention were directed to the vast importance of this grain—that
repeated attempts to rear it in countries uncongenial to its growth have
failed, and shipping it abroad in bulk has been nearly abandoned, for the
reasons assigned in Mr. Canby's letter; for when it cannot be safely conveyed
from New-Orleans to New-York and Boston without heating and injury, it cannot
be exported to Liverpool and London, as one or more cargoes recently tried on
account of the English government has fully tested.
Experience therefore teaches, so far as yet ascertained, that Corn
intended for exportation must be kiln-dried if not manufactured in the country
which produces it. This process, I am informed, was attempted in Connecticut at
the close of the Revolution, and about the same time at the Brandywine
mills—the Connecticut millers using the
white corn, and producing an inferior article of meal, owing to want of skill in
preparing it and defects in the construction of the kiln. The Brandywine millers perfected their kiln and adopted
the yellow corn by way of distinction, more for the purpose of signalizing
their brand, than any supposed superiority over the white. From greater
proficiency in kiln-drying and manufacturing Meal, they soon engrossed the West India markets for their yellow meal, and
thus induced our farmers to grow so extensively here the yellow corn. This fact
is not generally known, and is interesting in the history of kiln-dried corn
meal.
At the several mills on the Brandywine, there are annually thus dried and ground some half-million bushels of corn. It is
packed into hogsheads and barrels, and is shipped principally to the West
Indies—keeping for a long period perfectly good, and does not appear to be
deprived of any of its nutritive properties by having been subjected to heat.
Chemical analysis will test this, and can decide the question which of the two
is to be preferred—white or yellow corn.
Journal of Agriculture 1847
The Corn Mill is five stories in height and fifty-five feet square. It
is provided with two sets of rolls and one pair of mill-stones. The “Jog”
mill, seventy feet square and three stories high, has four sets of rolls. The
two mills just described are used in the production of the “Brandywine
Kiln-Dried Corn Meal.”
The “B” Mill, the most recently erected, five stories high, and eighty-six
feet by seventy-two feet in dimensions, is devoted exclusively to the
manufacture of fancy articles of white and yellow corn specialties, such as
hominy, grits, granulated corn-meal, corn flour, etc., and is one of the most
complete in the country. This large mill is equipped with eleven sets of rolls,
and with all of the latest adjuncts for scientific milling, and the convenient
and expeditious handling of grain. In addition, it has an automatic
hoisting-machine which lifts the full barrels from the lower floor and delivers
them into the cars.
These mills have a storage capacity of seventyfive thousand bushels of
wheat, and about one hundred and twenty-five thousand bushels of corn, besides
ample storage capacity for flour, meal, empty barrels and packages necessary to
the business. At these mills about two thousand five hundred barrels of flour
and corn meal are manufactured each day, besides the specialties mentioned
above. The brands of flour made at these mills are known as “ Best,” “ Clifton
Mill FFF,” “ Poutaxat,” “Kirk wood,” “Avalon,” “Occidental” and " Southern
Extra,” and the corn meal “ Lea's Brandywine Kiln-dried Corn Meal.”
Scharf, J. Thomas. History of
Delaware: 1609-1888. Phila: 1888
KILN DRIED CORN MEAL. 1831
We know not whether the manufacturing of Kiln Dried
Corn Meal is attended to in this country; but, whether it is or is not, the
following instructions from the Journal of Commerce, may be of some use:
Kiln dried meal must be made of the best yellow
corn; while would not ‘sell. Hogsheads should be made of the best seasoned white
oak stuff, 4 feet 5 ½ inches long, and be 2 feet 3 ½ inches across the head.
Four iron hoops on each hhd. The rest of the hoops strong, smooth, hickory. The
hhds. must be made tight, as they are sold for rum hhds. in the West Indies—the
only market for them.
The corn is dried in a large sheet-iron cylinder, or
in pans, (put in motion by the mill) in a heated air-chamber of brick. The meal
is sifted; the cloth as open as the common middlings cloth in a sup-reel, and
about 4 feet long.
The weight in each hhd. 800lbs. and the hhd. must be
branded with the name of the maker and kiln dried corn meal, ‘No. 1. 80016.9.
The meal must be of a bright yellow, and smell strongly of the kiln, or it will
not pass inspection. Ten hhds. per day is moderate work for a good pair of
burrs and a good kiln, sixteen bushels of good corn will make a hhd.—old corn
less. Ten to 12.000 hhds. are in New-York yearly for the West Indies.
It would not be safe for a new hand to construct a
kiln, without the presence of an experienced workman who has put them up. The
sheet iron pans are better than the cylinders.
The price in New-York varies from $13 to 15 through
the year, when corn is plenty. The cost of a complete kiln with pans, is $400
to 3500.
The vegetating principle must be entirely destroyed,
and the point of sufficient dryness can be easily ascertained by the smell of
the meal while grinding. Great pains must be taken in making the hhds. Well and
of stuff lsng seasoned; or the meal will make them shrink so much that they
will fall to pieces before they reach the market.
The Genesee Farmer.
Dec. 24, 1831
The Repertory of Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture. London: 1824
“Description of a Vertical Kiln for drying Corn. By Mr. James Jones, of
Holborn.
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD
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