------------------------------------------------------------- Web Site http://www.survivalprimer.com/ Survival http://www.survivalprimer.com/Index_Survival.htm Christian http://www.survivalprimer.com/index_spiritual.htm -------------------------------------------------------------- not original to above site-this article was gleaned from the web Nuclear War Survival Skills, Cresson M. Kearny (Oak Ridge National Laboratories - ORNL) Improvised Grain Mill The grain mill described can efficiently pound whole-grain wheat, corn, etc., into meal and flour thereby greatly improving digestibility and avoiding the diarrhea and sore mouths that would result from eating large quantities of unground grain. TO BUILD: (1) Cut 3 lengths of pipe, each 30 inches long; 3/4-inch-diameter steel pipe (such as ordinary water pipe) is best. (2) Cut the working ends of the pipe off squarely. Remove all roughness, leaving the full-wall thickness. Each working end should have the full diameter of the pipe. (3) In preparation for binding the three pieces of pipe together into a firm bundle, encircle each piece of pipe with cushioning, slip-preventing tape, string or cloth in the locations illustrated. (4) Tape or otherwise bind the 3 pipes into a secure bundle so that their working ends are as even as possible and are in the same plane resting evenly on a flat surface. (5) Cut the top smoothly out of a large can. A 4-inch-diameter, 7-inch-high fruit-juice can is ideal. If you do not have a can, improvise something to keep grain together while pounding it. Fig. ORNL-DWO 73-11449 (Illustration) Saved in my files as Grain Mill, Expedient, NWSS, page 77 Book Page: 78 TO MAKE MEAL AND FLOUR: (1) Put clean, dry grain ONE INCH DEEP in the can. (2) To prevent blistering your hands, wear gloves, or wrap cloth around the upper part of the bundle of pipes. (3) Place the can (or open-ended cylinder) on a hard, smooth, solid surface, such as concrete. (4) To pound the grain, sit with the can held between your feet. Move the bundle of pipes straight up and down about 3 inches, with a rapid stroke. (5) If the can is 4 inches in diameter, in 4 minutes you should be able to pound 1-1/2 lb. (one cup) of whole-kernel wheat into 1/5 lb. of fine meal and flour, and 3/10 lb. of coarse meal and fine-cracked wheat. (6) To separate the pounded grain into fine meal, flour, coarse meal, and fine-cracked wheat, use a sieve made of window screen. (7) To separate flour for feeding small children, place some pounded grain in an 18 X 18-inch piece of fine nylon net, gather the edges of the net together so as to hold the grain, and shake this bag-like container. (8) To make flour fine enough for babies, pound fine meal and coarse flour still finer, and sieve it through a piece of cheesecloth or similar material. As soon as fallout decay permits travel, the grain-grinding machines on tens of thousands of hog and cattle farms should be used for milling grain for survivors. It is vitally important to national recovery and individual survival to get back as soon as possible to labor-saving, mechanized ways of doing essential work. In an ORNL experiment, a farmer used a John Deere Grinder-Mixer powered by a 100-hp tractor to grind large samples of wheat and barley. When it is used to grind rather coarse meal for hogs, this machine is rated at 12 tons per hour. Set to grind a finer meal-flour mixture for human consumption, it ground both hard wheat and feed barley at a rate of about 9 tons per hour. This is 2400 times as fast as using muscle power to operate even the best expedient grain mill. With its finest screen installed, this large machine can produce about 3 tons of whole wheat flour per hour. Unlike wheat and corn, the kernels of barley, grain sorghums, and oats have rough, fibrous hulls that must be removed from the digestible parts to produce an acceptable food. Moistening the grain will toughen such hulls and make them easier to remove. If the grain is promptly pounded or ground into meal, the toughened hulls will break into larger pieces than will the hulls of undampened grain. A small amount of water, weighing about 2% of the weight of the grain, should be used to dampen the grain. For 3 pounds of grain (about 6 cups), sprinkle with about one ounce (28 grams, or about 2 tablespoons) of water, while stirring constantly to moisten all the kernels. After about 5 minutes of stirring, the grain will appear dry. The small amount of water will have dampened and toughened the hulls, but the edible parts- inside will have remained dry. Larger pieces of hull are easier to remove after grinding than smaller pieces. One way to remove ground-up hulls from meal is by flotation. Put some of the meal-hulls mixture about 1 inch deep in a pan or pot, cover the mixture with water, and stir. Skim off the floating hulls, then pour off the water and more hulls. Sunken pieces of hulls that settle on top of the heavier meal can be removed with one's fingers as the last of the water is poured off. To produce a barley meal good for very small children, the small pieces of hulls must again be separated by flotation. Figure 9.1 illustrates sieving fine, dry barley meal and the smaller pieces of hulls from the coarser meal and the larger pieces. The sieve was a piece of window screen that measured 20 X 20 inches before its sides were folded up and form an open-topped box. (Illustration)Fig. 9.1. Sieving ground barley through a window screen sieve. To lessen their laxative effects, all grains should be ground as finely as possible, and most of the hulls should be removed. Grains also will be digested more easily if they are finely ground. The occupants of crowded shelters should be especially careful to avoid foods that cause diarrhea. Nuclear War Survival Skills This book should be in every American home and place of business. It should be a part of all civilian and military defense preparations. In this nuclear age, prior preparation and knowledge are the primary elements of survival during nuclear war, biological and chemical attack, and other man-made or natural disasters. This book provides that essential knowledge. It is published on a non-profit, non-royalty basis by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (a 501 [c] [3] public foundation). These low prices also are made possible by continuing donations to the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine given specifically to help meet the cost of publication and wide distribution of this updated and enlarged edition. Nuclear War Survival Skills is available postage paid within the United States at the following prices: 1 copy $19.75 5 copies $85.00 10 copies $150.00 100 copies $1250.00 larger quantities - quoted on request I understand I will receive, as a bonus, the two latest issues of Access to Energy. Books are sent book rate (allow 4-6 weeks for delivery). Include an extra $35 for express delivery on a single copy. Please send me: Nuclear War Survival Skills Books: _________ copies I enclose payment of $___________. Please send me more information about civil defense _____. I also am enclosing a tax-deductible contribution in the amount of $_____. Name ________________________________________________ Address_______________________________________________ City, State, Zip_________________________________________ Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, P.O. Box 1279 , Cave Junction, Oregon 97523