Diffusion of technology in flour milling and the emergence of the modern British milling industry

Abstract

The fact that traditional methods of producing flour were replaced by highly mechanised processes, using roller mills, is well known. The speed of technical change from the end of the 1870s and the emergence of the modern British milling industry has already been described in general terms, but a detailed and connected account and an analysis of the technological and organisational activity is lacking. The pioneering insights of Henry Simon and other milling engineers enabled the British milling industry to adopt gradual reduction methods of roller milling on a scale and at a speed sufficient to counter the growing challenge of foreign flour supplies. Several hundred British master millers soon became aware of the opportunities of innovative action and despite their largely individualist outlooks they associated closely for the discussion of technical matters and organisational problems. A record of technical changes exists in milling journals, in specialist milling literature and in patent specifications; the journal The Miller is the most important single source of information for the period 1875 to 1914. Using these principal sources, this study deals with the diffusion of roller milling in Britain, the connections with developments abroad and with commercial problems which resulted from major expansions of milling capacity at the ports. There is also discussion of the network of communication that resulted from the formation of the National Association of British and Irish Millers. Detailed business records were not available, but it has been possible to show the importance of individual initiatives and to present an account of the course of technological change. ‘This has involved an examination of the processes of decision-making during innovation.