The machine at 6:50 is a sifter, it has a fine grate in it that sifts out un-ground bits of wheat from the flour as it goes into bags. As for where they made the actual flour, there should have been a room near the top with two giant round flat stones in it, the wheat was puches into the middle while the stones roatated. They might have been sold/stolen as they're highly sought after, even if they do weigh a good 1-2 tonnes each! (I was forever going to working flour mill museums with my school or family as a kid >.>)
+Larry Bundy Jr Sifters have more than just 1 fine grate, Our sifters at the flour mill i work at have 24. At 5:24 you can see a roll stand which is used in making flour. The stone ground flour is not for mass production. Modern mills use steel rolls, bucket elevators and pneumatic lines to transfer flour.
Thank you! We bought a historic gristmill last year and are trying to learn everything we can. This is all new to us. We're from CA and the mill is in TN. The original mill in this location was built by my ancestors in the late 1700s. It was rebuilt and repaired in the mid 1800s. The mill has some equipment but is missing several pieces and things have been moved from their original location. It was VERY helpful to see your video so THANKS again. Cheryl
To a guy who grew up in farm country, hearing you talk ask about how flour is made reminds me of the old cliche of teachers asking inner city kids where milk comes from, only to get the response "from milk cartons". ;) Long story short, an old style mill in it's most basic form has two millstones, shaped liked wheels laid on their side and stacked. The top one spins, the bottom is stationary. Grain is fed in so that the grain is crushed by the spinning millstone in to a fine powder we call "flour". Whole wheat flour is the entire body of the grain kernel (which has 3 parts, the germ, endosperm, and the bran), while white flour is only made from the endosperm, which is white and mostly starch. I'm assuming some of those machines were the ones used to split the endosperm from the bran and the germ before it was milled to make white flour. "Bleached" flour is white flour made more white by being chemically treated by being run through a chlorine gas bath... which is why they call it "bleached". My Grandmother used to make her own whole wheat flour with an electric wheat grinder and bake bread with it. IMO it tasted a thousand times better than the store bought stuff, especially soaked in real butter (not that margarine crap).
i used to have a Magic Mill grinder & we made all of our own flour; usually ancient grains like kamut, spelt, etc. we ground it for immediate use, bc it could go rancid. we also had a hand-crank flaker which took whole oat groats & flaked them into "quick oats". they were very moist, & that was my secret to the best meatloaf ;-)
That thumbnail looks like - it is!!! This mill is only like 10 minutes from my house haha. I've always thought it seemed so cool from afar so a friend and I finally visited last year. I've found some county government documentation about it from 1980 so it was open until at least then but closed a couple years later. There has been a mill here since 1795, but this building has been around since 1813. They actually took most of the machinery out - this is the dredges of it. There was a plan at one point to make the bottom floor into a restaurant and the upper floors into offices so they took I guess the most easily removed stuff out. The busy road is actually a new thing - until really recently that road was dead but now it's a nightmare and none of us are really sure how to deal with it. It's cool you went back on the first attic level - we were too concerned about the floors up there to stray that far back but it looks really cool. We didn't go all the way up to attic either.
Ok apparently there's a character limit and I hit it. There were two things I found interesting that you didn't bring up here: 1) the stacks of windows everywhere. I imagine these were intended for the ill-fated renovation but they were interesting all the same. 2) floors one through three, I believe? at least floors two and three - have the same layout with the little room in the front corner across from the stairs. On the second floor I believe it was, every inch of the (external white) walls of that little room were covered in math or numbers in pencil, which seemed a little eerie but mostly interesting. I'm sorry if you knew any (all) of this stuff already I'm just kind of passionate about this place.
+This is Dan Bell - great location, i lived in a restored grist mill establ in the late 17th century, that later also ground spices, making it part of the Triangle trade in early New England. It was unique because it is a tidal mill - driven by a gate works that holds the tide until the tide "overtakes" the gates, pushing them open with a rush of speed that lasts about two hours in, and later drains fairly quick. The mill stood right on the main byway, with the works built over the water, with wooden beams driven into the creekbed, which meant the part over the water swayed and moved like yu were on a ship. When earth tremors moved along the creekbed, they could be felt; in spurts of vibration that rose and fell in magnitude for sometimes hours on end. It would get as high as a level three in magnitude, which meant your bed would shake, or clothes in the closet sway, or water tilt/shake. The part on land had brickwork, but the part over the water was all wood. Great film!
Those cups feed the grinding stones whole seed like millet or cracked corn in a controlled manner by way of a belt which you can see them attached to there, as the stones can only handle being fed small but steady amounts to grind to flour. The big box suspended from the ceiling with tubes coming out from below are shaken to feed the finished ground through the tubes and into bags which are usually held by hand until filled and then they are clamped closed using a lead seal in the old days with the name of the mill on it to ensure the security of its contents. Lead seals are dug to this day by people using metal detectors to search for ancient artifacts, particularly in Europe and some people collect them. The seals can date as far back as medieval times, if not earlier, as they were commonly cast aside where ever the people stood at the time that a bag was eventually opened for use and they became worked into the soil where they would form some slightly protective oxidation on its surface, where they were sometimes artfully decorated.
This is Dan Bell. When you said you had discovered a marriage certificate dating back to 1962 in an office my heart nearly sank into my stomach. The reason I say that is because that particular Cadillac you had in your opening was indeed a 62/63 model. We can put ideas together and possibilities, but I'd venture to say that Cadillac may have been that particular couple's Cadillac.
Hello Dan Bell, I don’t ever really message on videos but I thought I would on yours. I own a still operable historic flour mill and the good thing about these is with a little “a lot” of oil on all the wheels and replacing some of the belts it should still run like it did originally. Depending on the year the mill was built either a stationary engine or very large water wheel would operate the mill. If you were to go out back or saw a lake/river on the property it would probably would have had a water wheel. Which would turn a large usually cast iron wheel on the inside connected to many smaller wheels going to other parts of the mill once at enough speed each machine “should” generate enough power by the wheels spinning to operate the next machine and so on. Very simple set up still often used in Amish communities and also a very good way to “even today” mill flour it takes a lot more time which is why people don’t usually mill it this way anymore. But usually the wheat would be on conveyor’s up to the top of the building then the start of the wheat break down will begin with bagging of the actual finish product on the main floor. Looking at the video 7:03 (would be a swifter it would shake the flour side to side removing any debris) I will try watching the video again and reply again with what the other machines were used for. Its really a beautiful building and a shame it is in such disrepair. I would love to have it in my collection for a restoration project but I already have way to many projects. Also Thanks for the videos.
Awesome. We did try to go around back to look for the wheels but the overgrowth was too dense and the ticks are really bad this year. I'll try to make it back here sometime this coming winter. Stay tuned!
For those wondering what the opening song is I do believe it's Jack Denny And His Orchestra - I've Told Every Little Star (Song by Jerome Kern) slight sped up. RUclips Link - ruclips.net/video/BJ0MHoiRoyw/видео.html
Another great video Dan. Loved the old corvette at the beginning. Watch those holes in the floor...LOL Awesome machinery/gears and great video work.. I have this added to my urbex playlist and my favorites. Keep up the great work!
I live in Massachusetts near an old mill city during the industrial revolution which produced a lot of textiles. I've been through many of these old, now abandoned, mills many times and many still have their old machinery. The belt driven machinery in this place looks similar to some of the old machinery used in the textile mills around the late 1800's to early 1900's. Very interesting stuff.
Dan, if you're ever in Minnesota, you should visit the Mill City Museum here in Minneapolis; we were known as the "Flour Milling Capital of the World" for years. It's pretty cool how they turned an abandoned mill into a museum and kept a lot of the old equipment. They also have an accurate miniature on exactly how flour is made in the mills.
Look up Sickman's mill, here on youtube. Its pretty similar. Most of these mills carried the grain to the top floor, and ran it down through a series of separators and fanning mills to clean the grain and blow away the chaff. Then it was ground and sifted to separate grits from cornmeal from flour, or bran from cream of wheat, from whole wheat flour from white. The grain was either crushed between spinning stones, or rolled between rollers to grind it.
+userunavailable3095 The belts with the cups are elevators. They picked up grain from a bin and carried to a higher floor and dumped it into a machine. You are also seeing a line shaft on just about every ceiling, which is running off a wheel or turbine turned by water. The line shaft has a series of pulleys from which belts power each individual machine. If you look up Old Time Steam Powered Machine Shop here on youtube, you'll see a steam powered shop running off line shafts, which will explain some of it.
+userunavailable3095 Excellent explanation. I've watched videos on this process too and find it so interesting. The huge gristmill stones are so sought after someone may have gone in there and got them out years ago for that reason. They are definitely collectables
+Susie LaLonde I'm pretty sure this one is a roller mill. Most of the stone mills were converted to rollers at some point, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bank of rollers in the video. The stone mills took constant watching to be sure you didn't burn the flour, which is why you "kept your nose to the grindstone." One man could only run one mill at a time. With rollers, you could run four or five at a time.
Awesome info, thank you so much. I also seen the rollers you mention. I love learning about things like this. Love the phrase too "keeping your nose to the grindstone" never associated it with making flour. :)
Nice to see the old lineshaft (the long shaft with all the pulleys and belts). You'd have one prime mover (engine, water wheel, electric motor) driving the lineshaft and the power for every machine would feed off it.
Your channel is great and I went through just about all of your works and really enjoyed this one because it showed a process plant from yesteryear and seemed to have pleanty of history keep up the great work
+ This is Dan Bell. I looked up milling equipment while watching this video. The machine that looks like a gold fish is used for cleaning wheat and there was another that was used for cleaning flour. Everything in the mill is used for the processing and cleaning of flour all the way to bagging it. Hope this helps and I love your videos!!
The belt with cups (buckets) are the insides of a grain leg. The grain was put in at ground level and elevated up to the top level. At the top level I was looking for the leg distributor in your video. Should have been two square shafts with a rounded hood and funnel. How it works is the grain is scooped up at the bottom and flipped out as the belt makes the turn at the top. Looked like a canvas belt, but many were chain. Todays grain legs are same style but triple the size using rubber belts and plastic buckets.
Thanks for the video!!!! Gave me goosebumps when the old 1950s music was playing along with shots of decay! When will you be doing another dead mall video!!? Me and many others are wondering and that's how I found your channel too! Thanks for the video Dan :D
Awesome video! It's obviously in bad shape, so it's nice to see you have taken the time to document it. If it sells, it will probably be demolished and the history lost forever.
Hi Dan, great exploration video! Flour back in the day was made from grinding wheat kernels between two large stone wheels. I didn't see the mill stones which leads me to believe that they were either removed or there is a piece of more modern equipment that ground the flour. The belts with the cups on them were most probably a system that scooped up the wheat kernels and brought them to the top of the hopper. The thing that makes me feel as though the stones were there at one time was seeing the round hole in the floor, that might have been where the stones were and the flour dropped down to the bagging machines below. The thing that made me chuckle was the label on the scale, "Richardson Scale Co. Clifton NJ" Clifton was my old home town and the scale factory is now gone. In it's place is an apartment/condo type place called "Scales Plaza" where they house a lot of people on section 8.
Dan does "impressions," and impression is about you, not about direct history, but distilled history lessons. And those lessons are not specific, or factual, they are emotional or relation to sprit. But he does draw a discussion, for the viewer's goals.
that one machine that said Silver Creek NY was probably manufactured by the S. Howes Co. they are still in business today. any machine in there that had the name Eureka was made by them. I have a cereal cutter that came out of a friends mill before he had it torn down. I have a photo copy of the original bill of sale. You did a good job filming, glad you didn't get hurt, it looked pretty ratty in there. I liked the belt and pulley configuations. I collect and demonstrate antique farm machinery.
dan, those double "hoppers" are what they are called, they funnel the grain down to the grindstone, the belts w/the cups on them are also for sending grain to the grind stone. Basically the water turns the wheel & turns the grindstone by gears. They would also add on belts/gears to the other floors for sewing machines to be hooked up to those, they sewed blankets/cloth & stuff during the wars we had. Usually corn or wheat was ground, sometimes they were converted to lumber mills, ect. I should know, my grandpa used to run a lumber mill back in the 30's or 40's in north carolina. ty for video
in Arcola, PA, on the banks of the Perkiomen, is a beautiful old mill that looked much like this one, in terms of being trashed, that has been converted into gorgeous luxury apartments, keeping much of the old integrity of the structure. I happenend to go inside it a few times while it was under construction, and it was pretty raw. I don't know where this is, but if it's a pricey, educated area, the right developer could fix it and rehab it to offices or apartments and make a mint.
Your right about it being ground up wheat that has ground into a power and separated from the husks. the grinding takes place between two 1500lbs. stones, the stones are changed out depending on how fine you want the flour. The separator I mentioned earlier separates the husks from the wheat germ so the wheat germ can be ground, but the bleaching process; hasn't come into being at this time (the time of this mill). The water wheel actually turns the stones by belts and pulleys. I don't know if you remember physical science class from high school, but the more pulleys you have the less effort it is to do work, this is why all the pulleys and belt and the larger the wheels the easier the work will be.
+This Is Dan Bell we have a dying mall in Moorhead MN. The Moorhead center mall is close to death but not dead yet. it was given hope after a furniture store moved in. It also still has it's major anchor store, Herbergers, but I'm not sure how long that is going to be there.
+Sara Moneer Same here. Freshman year at WFHS and if you plan on going there, don't. They have like 1 or 2 good stores and everything in their food court is gone. Estimated time left: 2 or 3 years
This is really cool Dan! I love all that vintage equipment - the Invincible Flour Packer lol. Glad you survived the floorboards without breaking your neck so you can do more for us!!
Hey Dan you should put the names of these songs in the description. You've used some cool songs before and it's a pain to find them because their so old. What is this from the 20s or 30s? Can't be beyond the 40s.
hi dan, the cups on the belt r linked between two pulleys. used to pick up flour or whatnot from one place n likely dump it on a belt or another storage container. basically a dredge type machine.
If you want to see how the flour making process works and you're ever in the Youngstown, Ohio area visit Lanterman's Mill located in beautiful Mill Creek. It was built sometime in the mid 1800s and is still in working order today. I think it's only open during the weekends this time of year but it only costs about a dollar to tour the place and it's pretty cool. I recommend going in the spring or summer though so that you can see the park in it's entirety. It's quite a big park and in spring and summer months when everything is in full bloom the park is just gorgeous. And in Youngstown there are an infinite number of abandoned places to visit. Though some areas in the city are admittedly quite dangerous and I would not venture into without a swat team to back me up.
In Susquehanna State Park, near Havre de Grace, there is an operating mill. Rock Run Grist Mill. They offer tours of the mill and are happy to explain how everything works. It's a really interesting place to visit and is local too!
if you ever travel here to Indiana, there is a working mill at Bridgeton, and another mill about 15 min from that called the Mansfield Roller Mill. it is non operational, but has lots of machinery, and a tour guide
The belts with the cups were used to transport the wheat kernels to the top and they would be ground up at the top and trickled down the different floors to get the best consistency and uniform size.
yes, the grain was loaded from the top of the mill, ran down into those machines you saw, down to the grindstone or rollers on the first floor-most of them had the elevator(small)that took the grain through the beams-i know, i have a picture of an old mill my grandpa used to work in-he told me all about them as a child-ty for the video!
At 6:46 into your Flower Mill video you asked what that square box was... it is a flower shaker. The belt with cups moved either water or flower. The hole in the building wall may have been where heavy equipment was removed and sold.
Cool place! Love your videos! Flour is made from those little pods on the wheat. They extract them and get rid of the hull from the pods and then bleach it. Not with household bleach lol! It's a process.
Fascinating, thanks. It's rather sad though when you think about it. All the lives effected when this once ran, jobs, people falling in love, trying to earn a living, loved ones died, businesses shut down... I often wonder about those stories, all the ones we never heard of. I see a lot of that in these sorts of videos, like in some abandoned homes I have seen where all the clothes and much of what they owned still remained, which usually tells you something tragic happened.
Oh, my gosh I'm in love. That beautiful multi panned window is stunning with the ivy and the light coming through it. What a perfect place for still pictures, I love the shot out of the collapsed window. I don't know what it is about old paint and rusting gears and cogs and wheels but it's beautiful. Is there water nearby? It looks like that cool machine was at the end of the line when the flour was packed. OOh, thank goodness Will is there for still photos, does he have a channel? Those squeaking floors would be kind of scary to walk on. From what I've read there was a round stone that laid horizontal and the grain was ground on or against it by another stone. The last part of the video there was a picture of a stone that looked like a wheel but the main stone would have been a lot bigger. Those cups were on a large wheel that was in the water. As the cups went under water they filled and as the wheel turned they dumped or emptied at the top. The wheel kept turning that way. I've read about the cups getting full of stuff under water and men would have to dive down and clear it out before "the power" could turn back on. This is one of my favorite videos of yours so far. I could almost feel the people scurrying about and feel the dry grain husks that would float in the air tickling the nose and throats. I love it!
Hi Lottie! This is Will. This is my channel I put all my video stuff on and all my photography is at ZT Photograffie on FB or @zombietrill on Instagram and Twitter :)
that touch-tone dtmf hand set in green from ma bell began to appear when all in the family hit tv. circa 1971-1972. production of cake flour and pastry flour requires either special grain or special manufacturing refinements as the bag says bleached. low protein low gluten producing flour for baked confection without yeast. they produced a specialty product!
Judging from the plastic shop vacuum amongst the equipment, someone was working here not so long ago. Flour mills were among the earliest electric customers, so the owners would certainly have electrified their equipment a long time ago. But any electric motors would have been quickly sold, or stolen for scrap. The belt with the many cups simply transports flour up those rectangular wooden chutes. The wooden chutes were a concession for safety. They confine the highly explosive dust from the flour and reduces fires. Watson's Mill is a very similar preserved water-powered gristmill museum just south of Ottawa. Check it out.
Развлечения
The machine at 6:50 is a sifter, it has a fine grate in it that sifts out un-ground bits of wheat from the flour as it goes into bags.
As for where they made the actual flour, there should have been a room near the top with two giant round flat stones in it, the wheat was puches into the middle while the stones roatated. They might have been sold/stolen as they're highly sought after, even if they do weigh a good 1-2 tonnes each!
(I was forever going to working flour mill museums with my school or family as a kid >.>)
+Larry Bundy Jr Sifters have more than just 1 fine grate, Our sifters at the flour mill i work at have 24. At 5:24 you can see a roll stand which is used in making flour. The stone ground flour is not for mass production. Modern mills use steel rolls, bucket elevators and pneumatic lines to transfer flour.
Thank you! We bought a historic gristmill last year and are trying to learn everything we can. This is all new to us. We're from CA and the mill is in TN. The original mill in this location was built by my ancestors in the late 1700s. It was rebuilt and repaired in the mid 1800s. The mill has some equipment but is missing several pieces and things have been moved from their original location. It was VERY helpful to see your video so THANKS again. Cheryl
I was amused by the hoot owl drowning out the location name. :)
Greetings from beautiful Hoo Hoo. Wish you were here.
This mill should totally be preserved/restored for tours. Such a waste of history to let it fall to decay.
To a guy who grew up in farm country, hearing you talk ask about how flour is made reminds me of the old cliche of teachers asking inner city kids where milk comes from, only to get the response "from milk cartons". ;)
Long story short, an old style mill in it's most basic form has two millstones, shaped liked wheels laid on their side and stacked. The top one spins, the bottom is stationary. Grain is fed in so that the grain is crushed by the spinning millstone in to a fine powder we call "flour".
Whole wheat flour is the entire body of the grain kernel (which has 3 parts, the germ, endosperm, and the bran), while white flour is only made from the endosperm, which is white and mostly starch. I'm assuming some of those machines were the ones used to split the endosperm from the bran and the germ before it was milled to make white flour.
"Bleached" flour is white flour made more white by being chemically treated by being run through a chlorine gas bath... which is why they call it "bleached".
My Grandmother used to make her own whole wheat flour with an electric wheat grinder and bake bread with it. IMO it tasted a thousand times better than the store bought stuff, especially soaked in real butter (not that margarine crap).
i feel the same way about white bread, i know they process it to get it that white and much prefer wheat bread.
i used to have a Magic Mill grinder & we made all of our own flour; usually ancient grains like kamut, spelt, etc. we ground it for immediate use, bc it could go rancid.
we also had a hand-crank flaker which took whole oat groats & flaked them into "quick oats". they were very moist, & that was my secret to the best meatloaf ;-)
That thumbnail looks like - it is!!! This mill is only like 10 minutes from my house haha. I've always thought it seemed so cool from afar so a friend and I finally visited last year. I've found some county government documentation about it from 1980 so it was open until at least then but closed a couple years later. There has been a mill here since 1795, but this building has been around since 1813. They actually took most of the machinery out - this is the dredges of it. There was a plan at one point to make the bottom floor into a restaurant and the upper floors into offices so they took I guess the most easily removed stuff out. The busy road is actually a new thing - until really recently that road was dead but now it's a nightmare and none of us are really sure how to deal with it. It's cool you went back on the first attic level - we were too concerned about the floors up there to stray that far back but it looks really cool. We didn't go all the way up to attic either.
Ok apparently there's a character limit and I hit it. There were two things I found interesting that you didn't bring up here: 1) the stacks of windows everywhere. I imagine these were intended for the ill-fated renovation but they were interesting all the same. 2) floors one through three, I believe? at least floors two and three - have the same layout with the little room in the front corner across from the stairs. On the second floor I believe it was, every inch of the (external white) walls of that little room were covered in math or numbers in pencil, which seemed a little eerie but mostly interesting. I'm sorry if you knew any (all) of this stuff already I'm just kind of passionate about this place.
It was an awesome spot. I'd never been in a gristmill before so I found it very interesting. Very beautiful place.
Those float glass windows are quite old and valuable... I'd grab them before the place collapses...
Aiden, have there been any historical societies that have expressed interest in restoring it lately? I think it would be restorable in some fashion.
@@ThisisDanBell i like explanations like this one :-) i really like it when they're pinned XD
+This is Dan Bell - great location, i lived in a restored grist mill establ in the late 17th century, that later also ground spices, making it part of the Triangle trade in early New England. It was unique because it is a tidal mill - driven by a gate works that holds the tide until the tide "overtakes" the gates, pushing them open with a rush of speed that lasts about two hours in, and later drains fairly quick. The mill stood right on the main byway, with the works built over the water, with wooden beams driven into the creekbed, which meant the part over the water swayed and moved like yu were on a ship. When earth tremors moved along the creekbed, they could be felt; in spurts of vibration that rose and fell in magnitude for sometimes hours on end. It would get as high as a level three in magnitude, which meant your bed would shake, or clothes in the closet sway, or water tilt/shake. The part on land had brickwork, but the part over the water was all wood. Great film!
Where is the lovely state of, "hoot hoot".
The first huntress it joins on 2 the fantastic state of tweet tweet
The traffic noise doesn't bother me. The unnecessary vandalizion does.
Those cups feed the grinding stones whole seed like millet or cracked corn in a controlled manner by way of a belt which you can see them attached to there, as the stones can only handle being fed small but steady amounts to grind to flour. The big box suspended from the ceiling with tubes coming out from below are shaken to feed the finished ground through the tubes and into bags which are usually held by hand until filled and then they are clamped closed using a lead seal in the old days with the name of the mill on it to ensure the security of its contents. Lead seals are dug to this day by people using metal detectors to search for ancient artifacts, particularly in Europe and some people collect them. The seals can date as far back as medieval times, if not earlier, as they were commonly cast aside where ever the people stood at the time that a bag was eventually opened for use and they became worked into the soil where they would form some slightly protective oxidation on its surface, where they were sometimes artfully decorated.
HappyQuailsFarm THANK YOU!
This is Dan Bell. When you said you had discovered a marriage certificate dating back to 1962 in an office my heart nearly sank into my stomach. The reason I say that is because that particular Cadillac you had in your opening was indeed a 62/63 model. We can put ideas together and possibilities, but I'd venture to say that Cadillac may have been that particular couple's Cadillac.
Hello Dan Bell, I don’t ever really message on videos but I thought I would on yours. I own a still operable historic flour mill and the good thing about these is with a little “a lot” of oil on all the wheels and replacing some of the belts it should still run like it did originally. Depending on the year the mill was built either a stationary engine or very large water wheel would operate the mill. If you were to go out back or saw a lake/river on the property it would probably would have had a water wheel. Which would turn a large usually cast iron wheel on the inside connected to many smaller wheels going to other parts of the mill once at enough speed each machine “should” generate enough power by the wheels spinning to operate the next machine and so on. Very simple set up still often used in Amish communities and also a very good way to “even today” mill flour it takes a lot more time which is why people don’t usually mill it this way anymore. But usually the wheat would be on conveyor’s up to the top of the building then the start of the wheat break down will begin with bagging of the actual finish product on the main floor. Looking at the video 7:03 (would be a swifter it would shake the flour side to side removing any debris) I will try watching the video again and reply again with what the other machines were used for. Its really a beautiful building and a shame it is in such disrepair. I would love to have it in my collection for a restoration project but I already have way to many projects. Also Thanks for the videos.
Awesome. We did try to go around back to look for the wheels but the overgrowth was too dense and the ticks are really bad this year. I'll try to make it back here sometime this coming winter. Stay tuned!
I wish you had a list or library of songs that you use I love them
All of those beautiful cars just sitting there to rust and be forgotten. Such a shame!
You narrating your videos makes the experience of watching them better. Keep up the great work Dan. God Bless.
***** Thanks, Steve!
The cars were cool. I think my dad had one back in the 60's. Loved the mill.
For those wondering what the opening song is I do believe it's Jack Denny And His Orchestra - I've Told Every Little Star (Song by Jerome Kern) slight sped up. RUclips Link - ruclips.net/video/BJ0MHoiRoyw/видео.html
Thank you! :)
Another great tour. Thanks again for sharing your great talent.
Thank you SO much for narrating through the whole video...LOVED it!
Another great video Dan. Loved the old corvette at the beginning. Watch those holes in the floor...LOL Awesome machinery/gears and great video work.. I have this added to my urbex playlist and my favorites. Keep up the great work!
I kind of like hearing your voice, its so proffesional.. like a broadcaster on radio 🤓
I love all the editing you do mixed in with all the different music!
I love your videos. I think it's amazing seeing what these places look like abandoned this type of stuff is always fascinating to me.
Lots of quick access to the floors below. ;) Very cool building!
Another awesome one and I LOVED that you narrated the whole thing!
Awesome. The music you choose is great too. Thanks
I live in Massachusetts near an old mill city during the industrial revolution which produced a lot of textiles. I've been through many of these old, now abandoned, mills many times and many still have their old machinery. The belt driven machinery in this place looks similar to some of the old machinery used in the textile mills around the late 1800's to early 1900's. Very interesting stuff.
Dan, if you're ever in Minnesota, you should visit the Mill City Museum here in Minneapolis; we were known as the "Flour Milling Capital of the World" for years. It's pretty cool how they turned an abandoned mill into a museum and kept a lot of the old equipment. They also have an accurate miniature on exactly how flour is made in the mills.
Look up Sickman's mill, here on youtube. Its pretty similar. Most of these mills carried the grain to the top floor, and ran it down through a series of separators and fanning mills to clean the grain and blow away the chaff. Then it was ground and sifted to separate grits from cornmeal from flour, or bran from cream of wheat, from whole wheat flour from white. The grain was either crushed between spinning stones, or rolled between rollers to grind it.
+userunavailable3095 The belts with the cups are elevators. They picked up grain from a bin and carried to a higher floor and dumped it into a machine. You are also seeing a line shaft on just about every ceiling, which is running off a wheel or turbine turned by water. The line shaft has a series of pulleys from which belts power each individual machine. If you look up Old Time Steam Powered Machine Shop here on youtube, you'll see a steam powered shop running off line shafts, which will explain some of it.
+userunavailable3095 Excellent explanation. I've watched videos on this process too and find it so interesting. The huge gristmill stones are so sought after someone may have gone in there and got them out years ago for that reason. They are definitely collectables
+Susie LaLonde I'm pretty sure this one is a roller mill. Most of the stone mills were converted to rollers at some point, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bank of rollers in the video. The stone mills took constant watching to be sure you didn't burn the flour, which is why you "kept your nose to the grindstone." One man could only run one mill at a time. With rollers, you could run four or five at a time.
Awesome info, thank you so much. I also seen the rollers you mention. I love learning about things like this. Love the phrase too "keeping your nose to the grindstone" never associated it with making flour. :)
Very interesting. Loved the video thanks for taking all of the risks that you to so you can bring these old places alive for us one last time.
Nice to see the old lineshaft (the long shaft with all the pulleys and belts). You'd have one prime mover (engine, water wheel, electric motor) driving the lineshaft and the power for every machine would feed off it.
Your channel is great and I went through just about all of your works and really enjoyed this one because it showed a process plant from yesteryear and seemed to have pleanty of history keep up the great work
Great job as always, thanks Dan!
+ This is Dan Bell. I looked up milling equipment while watching this video. The machine that looks like a gold fish is used for cleaning wheat and there was another that was used for cleaning flour. Everything in the mill is used for the processing and cleaning of flour all the way to bagging it. Hope this helps and I love your videos!!
The belt with cups (buckets) are the insides of a grain leg. The grain was put in at ground level and elevated up to the top level. At the top level I was looking for the leg distributor in your video. Should have been two square shafts with a rounded hood and funnel. How it works is the grain is scooped up at the bottom and flipped out as the belt makes the turn at the top. Looked like a canvas belt, but many were chain. Todays grain legs are same style but triple the size using rubber belts and plastic buckets.
not sure if anyone's said this before but your videos are super relaxing -- your voice is bordering on ASMR levels of soothing
That desk was beautiful! Great video.
Great video! Enjoyed this so much!
Thanks for the video!!!! Gave me goosebumps when the old 1950s music was playing along with shots of decay! When will you be doing another dead mall video!!? Me and many others are wondering and that's how I found your channel too! Thanks for the video Dan :D
Awesome video! It's obviously in bad shape, so it's nice to see you have taken the time to document it. If it sells, it will probably be demolished and the history lost forever.
more videos with commentary please, its so much more interesting and you explain great!
These are great. Can't stop watching.
Excellent Dan, love abandoned properties! I also LOVE the old, creepy music/song! I'm into that stuff.
Grant Grindle Thanks, Grant!
Hi Dan, great exploration video! Flour back in the day was made from grinding wheat kernels between two large stone wheels. I didn't see the mill stones which leads me to believe that they were either removed or there is a piece of more modern equipment that ground the flour. The belts with the cups on them were most probably a system that scooped up the wheat kernels and brought them to the top of the hopper. The thing that makes me feel as though the stones were there at one time was seeing the round hole in the floor, that might have been where the stones were and the flour dropped down to the bagging machines below. The thing that made me chuckle was the label on the scale, "Richardson Scale Co. Clifton NJ" Clifton was my old home town and the scale factory is now gone. In it's place is an apartment/condo type place called "Scales Plaza" where they house a lot of people on section 8.
Awesome Dan!! This was actually the first video I've watched of urs a while back
Awesome, Awesome, Awesome.. Nice job Dan!
Florida UrbanX Thanks, man!
This is Dan Bell. what do is it where you live
Awesome video! That was an amazing location, but the vintage cars were the most amazing part of the video. Thanks for uploading.
Oliver Derking Thanks, Oliver!
Dan does "impressions," and impression is about you, not about direct history, but distilled history lessons. And those lessons are not specific, or factual, they are emotional or relation to sprit. But he does draw a discussion, for the viewer's goals.
Always a great day when Dan posts...keep 'em coming!! :)
Another great video, Dan. Thanks!
hookman73 TY!
Absolutely love the video with narration all the way through dude. Thanks for listening :)
Arcade Adventures TY!
Yet another great find Dan keep up the good work!!
Coolgarrett02 Productions Thanks!
I'm digging this music you have in your vids.
that one machine that said Silver Creek NY was probably manufactured by the S. Howes Co. they are still in business today. any machine in there that had the name Eureka was made by them. I have a cereal cutter that came out of a friends mill before he had it torn down. I have a photo copy of the original bill of sale. You did a good job filming, glad you didn't get hurt, it looked pretty ratty in there. I liked the belt and pulley configuations. I collect and demonstrate antique farm machinery.
dan, those double "hoppers" are what they are called, they funnel the grain down to the grindstone, the belts w/the cups on them are also for sending grain to the grind stone. Basically the water turns the wheel & turns the grindstone by gears. They would also add on belts/gears to the other floors for sewing machines to be hooked up to those, they sewed blankets/cloth & stuff during the wars we had. Usually corn or wheat was ground, sometimes they were converted to lumber mills, ect. I should know, my grandpa used to run a lumber mill back in the 30's or 40's in north carolina. ty for video
Another awesome video! And I just wanted to say how much I love your music selection. Thank you!
Kathy Stidham Thanks, Kathy!
in Arcola, PA, on the banks of the Perkiomen, is a beautiful old mill that looked much like this one, in terms of being trashed, that has been converted into gorgeous luxury apartments, keeping much of the old integrity of the structure. I happenend to go inside it a few times while it was under construction, and it was pretty raw. I don't know where this is, but if it's a pricey, educated area, the right developer could fix it and rehab it to offices or apartments and make a mint.
"Corvair: Unsafe at Any Speed."
My Grammy had a nice convertible Corvair. My uncle restored it-nice!
im I the only one whos super happy when I see dan made a new video on my youtube timeline
I like the narration in this video you should do it in all your videos because it' makes them really good.
Not sure if it's intended or not Dan, but your opening music is always super creepy! It works nicely
Another awesome video....thanks so much!
Fleotus Bing TY!
There is an operating mill just north of Westminster, MD that operates as a museum. You can go there and see how it would have operated.
you make amazing videos man, keep up the great work!
Your right about it being ground up wheat that has ground into a power and separated from the husks. the grinding takes place between two 1500lbs. stones, the stones are changed out depending on how fine you want the flour. The separator I mentioned earlier separates the husks from the wheat germ so the wheat germ can be ground, but the bleaching process; hasn't come into being at this time (the time of this mill). The water wheel actually turns the stones by belts and pulleys. I don't know if you remember physical science class from high school, but the more pulleys you have the less effort it is to do work, this is why all the pulleys and belt and the larger the wheels the easier the work will be.
I love the fact you walk round and talk with us about it no other RUclipsrs do this so thank you I love your video's xx
+monica sheldrake (Monicalovestormsheldrake) I like this narrated video, too. But lots of other explorers do this. Obsolete Oddities for one. :)
+Carol Carpenter yeah I know what you mean x
;-)
awsome dan, another excellent video, top job! :)
+This Is Dan Bell
we have a dying mall in Moorhead MN. The Moorhead center mall is close to death but not dead yet. it was given hope after a furniture store moved in. It also still has it's major anchor store, Herbergers, but I'm not sure how long that is going to be there.
+Jerrod Baetsch Our mall in southern MN is dead.
Sara L what mall?
+Jerrod Baetsch I live in West Fargo ND and I have never been there
+Sara Moneer Same here. Freshman year at WFHS and if you plan on going there, don't. They have like 1 or 2 good stores and everything in their food court is gone. Estimated time left: 2 or 3 years
ty
This is really cool Dan! I love all that vintage equipment - the Invincible Flour Packer lol. Glad you survived the floorboards without breaking your neck so you can do more for us!!
Kimberley Wright Thanks, Kim!
Hey Dan you should put the names of these songs in the description. You've used some cool songs before and it's a pain to find them because their so old. What is this from the 20s or 30s? Can't be beyond the 40s.
Another excellent video. Really like the Dead Motel Series,aint nothing creepier than an abandoned motel lol
Take care
Great video! Going by the telephones in the building, I would say it pay have shut down in the 70's
Wait did some freak who watched your videos end up searching for the Birth certificate barer you showed in some other video? Some people are nuts LOL
when you hit one billion views You Tube will arrange with the local authorities to halt traffic for one hour while you record. This is what I dreamt.
hi dan, the cups on the belt r linked between two pulleys. used to pick up flour or whatnot from one place n likely dump it on a belt or another storage container. basically a dredge type machine.
Thanks for the trip .
If you want to see how the flour making process works and you're ever in the Youngstown, Ohio area visit Lanterman's Mill located in beautiful Mill Creek. It was built sometime in the mid 1800s and is still in working order today. I think it's only open during the weekends this time of year but it only costs about a dollar to tour the place and it's pretty cool. I recommend going in the spring or summer though so that you can see the park in it's entirety. It's quite a big park and in spring and summer months when everything is in full bloom the park is just gorgeous. And in Youngstown there are an infinite number of abandoned places to visit. Though some areas in the city are admittedly quite dangerous and I would not venture into without a swat team to back me up.
In Susquehanna State Park, near Havre de Grace, there is an operating mill. Rock Run Grist Mill. They offer tours of the mill and are happy to explain how everything works. It's a really interesting place to visit and is local too!
Wow there is so much history here. I love how you can just google all of the machine and company names and find out about them.
if you ever travel here to Indiana, there is a working mill at Bridgeton, and another mill about 15 min from that called the Mansfield Roller Mill. it is non operational, but has lots of machinery, and a tour guide
The belts with the cups were used to transport the wheat kernels to the top and they would be ground up at the top and trickled down the different floors to get the best consistency and uniform size.
yes, the grain was loaded from the top of the mill, ran down into those machines you saw, down to the grindstone or rollers on the first floor-most of them had the elevator(small)that took the grain through the beams-i know, i have a picture of an old mill my grandpa used to work in-he told me all about them as a child-ty for the video!
I thought , maybe the 1962 Cadillac, was your new ride,, ,, really, Ive found a lot of people really enjoy old abandoned cars,, very good video,
drfalcon4102 TY!
That Corvair was obviously one of the few that didn't explode, upon starting it. This place is full of history, would make a nice home.
grindings from Denmark ... you make some amazing video ... Thanks for sharing.
BushcraftMilo Thank you!
At 6:46 into your Flower Mill video you asked what that square box was... it is a flower shaker. The belt with cups moved either water or flower. The hole in the building wall may have been where heavy equipment was removed and sold.
Cool place! Love your videos!
Flour is made from those little pods on the wheat. They extract them and get rid of the hull from the pods and then bleach it. Not with household bleach lol! It's a process.
really intresting dan
great video and music😊
Kelly Snow Thanks, Kelly!
The belt cups are transportation for the final product of flour to the packages, they were small because any more and the belt would colapse
Hi Dan. Thanks for another interesting video. It looks dangerous. Take care. Cheers from Denmark.
Fascinating, thanks. It's rather sad though when you think about it. All the lives effected when this once ran, jobs, people falling in love, trying to earn a living, loved ones died, businesses shut down... I often wonder about those stories, all the ones we never heard of. I see a lot of that in these sorts of videos, like in some abandoned homes I have seen where all the clothes and much of what they owned still remained, which usually tells you something tragic happened.
Oh, my gosh I'm in love. That beautiful multi panned window is stunning with the ivy and the light coming through it. What a perfect place for still pictures, I love the shot out of the collapsed window. I don't know what it is about old paint and rusting gears and cogs and wheels but it's beautiful. Is there water nearby? It looks like that cool machine was at the end of the line when the flour was packed.
OOh, thank goodness Will is there for still photos, does he have a channel?
Those squeaking floors would be kind of scary to walk on.
From what I've read there was a round stone that laid horizontal and the grain was ground on or against it by another stone. The last part of the video there was a picture of a stone that looked like a wheel but the main stone would have been a lot bigger. Those cups were on a large wheel that was in the water. As the cups went under water they filled and as the wheel turned they dumped or emptied at the top. The wheel kept turning that way. I've read about the cups getting full of stuff under water and men would have to dive down and clear it out before "the power" could turn back on.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours so far. I could almost feel the people scurrying about and feel the dry grain husks that would float in the air tickling the nose and throats. I love it!
Hi Lottie! This is Will. This is my channel I put all my video stuff on and all my photography is at ZT Photograffie on FB or @zombietrill on Instagram and Twitter :)
Yet again another fantastic video, keep it up :)
Some Fairlife Milk TY!
that touch-tone dtmf hand set in green from ma bell began to appear when all in the family hit tv. circa 1971-1972. production of cake flour and pastry flour requires either special grain or special manufacturing refinements as the bag says bleached. low protein low gluten producing flour for baked confection without yeast. they produced a specialty product!
Great tour. Floor seemed a bit sketchy. Stay safe!
Great video ! :)
Judging from the plastic shop vacuum amongst the equipment, someone was working here not so long ago. Flour mills were among the earliest electric customers, so the owners would certainly have electrified their equipment a long time ago. But any electric motors would have been quickly sold, or stolen for scrap.
The belt with the many cups simply transports flour up those rectangular wooden chutes. The wooden chutes were a concession for safety. They confine the highly explosive dust from the flour and reduces fires.
Watson's Mill is a very similar preserved water-powered gristmill museum just south of Ottawa. Check it out.
Excellent video and commentary.
Jim Hatch Thanks, Jim....or are you the Captain? Captain Kangaroo!!!!
This is Dan Bell. No I'm Jim. I grew up watching the Captain.
Love your creepy spooky videos watch them every day!:-D