Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - X. Manufacturing Industries. By Å. G. Ekstrand, Ph. D., Chief Engineer, Control Office of the Department of Finance - 1. Articles for Nutriment or Indulgence - Flour-Mills - Starch Factories
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ARTICLES FOR NUTRIMENT OR INDULGENCE.
777
of the grain produced in the country and in effecting a thorough sorting
of the yield of grain from different districts, this being rendered
obligatory by the difficulty of disposing of flour of varying quality.
Rye-flour is used a good deal in Sweden, especially in the country
districts; the farmers, however, each get the amount they require for
private use ground at a neighbouring mill.
In the Factory Statistics for 1900, the number of large mills registered was
1,445, provided with a total of 1,238 pairs of rollers and 4,949 pairs of stones;
the number of workmen employed was 4,259. The total production amounted to
3,681,287 quintals of flour, and 1,304,767 quintals of groats, grits, and bran
(a quintal = 1’9 7 cwts.), with a total value of 83 58 million kronor. Of the
more important mills may be mentioned: Svanberg dt Co., Wennberg & Ramstedt,
the Saltsjökvam (kvarn sign, mill), and the mill Tre Kronor, all in or near
Stockholm; further, Uppsala Ångkvarn (i. e. steam flour mill), the great cylinder
mills at Malmö and Gothenburg, etc.
As is shown in Tables 70 and 71 (page 532), the import of flour during
recent years has decreased. For the decade 1881/90 the annual import works
out at 505,000 quintals of rye and wheat flour, but during the latter half of the
succeeding decade at only 150,000 quintals. As the import of unground corn has
not decreased and the yield of the home harvests has increased, it is evident
that the milling industry must have made considerable advance; when it is
remembered, too, that, as above stated, the large mills that are worked on better
and more business-like lines, are continually driving the old-fashioned small mills
out of the field of competition, it will be seen that the output of flour at the former
must be even larger still. Actual figures, however, as to this increase cannot be
given, as statistics of the milling industry were not collected until the year 1896.
Starch Factories.
The manufacture of potato-flour has probably been carried on almost ever
since potatoes were known; it was a home industry at the majority of farms. Since
the production of spirits decreased in consequence of the temperance movement,
a certain, although but a small percentage (about 2 %) of the annual potato-crop
has been applied to the manufacture of starch in special starch-factories. The
chief districts for these factories are the Läns of Kronoberg, Blekinge, and
Kristianstad. At most of them potatoes form the raw material used. The length of the
season is dependent upon the quantity of the potato-crop; it usually embraces the
period from October to February inclusive.
Potato starch is turned out in three qualities: best firsts, best seconds, and
thirds (Gråmjöl). The first-named is about 90 % of the whole output.
Potato-starch is used as an ingredient in German yeast (about l1/* millon kilogr. in 1902),
in the production of dextrine, liquid and dextrine glucose, in the preparation of
pearl-sago, as a stiffening material in cotton weaving, and, perhaps in the largest
quantity of all, in the preparation of food for household consumption. The poorer
qualities are used as a makeweight in soft soap, and in some districts as an
additional mash in the distillation of potato-spirit. — In some factories rice is
employed as the raw material, and rice-starch is used both in washing and, in
refined qualities, as macaroni, pearl-sago, dextrine, and liquid glucose. Rice-starch
factories are to be found chiefly in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
The number of starch-factories in Sweden in 1900 was 95, employing 533
workmen; the turnout was 75,807 quintals (à 1-9 7 cwts.), being sufficient to cover
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