A huge device in the Furthmühle in Egenhofen, which mill owner and museum operator Albert Aumüller is particularly proud of, is around 100 years old: his grandfather designed and built the flour mixer, which is over ten meters high.
Egenhofen -
In the Furthmühle, a massive, mostly wooden machine extends over three floors of the building.
The large device, however, is not, as one might suspect, the grinder of the mill, but rather a flour mixing machine that is actually oversized for the mill.
In the 1920s, Johann Aumüller, the grandfather of the current mill owner and museum operator Albert Aumüller, designed the machine, which is more than ten meters high and three by three meters wide, by hand.
He worked with a mill builder who is no longer known by name.
The wooden parts for the system were specially made in the Furthmühle sawmill.
“The mixer is individually adapted to this mill.
There are also no trademarks on it that would allow a manufacturer to be identified, ”reports Aumüller.
The so-called lying flour mixer is actually too big for the Furthmühle.
“You usually find cylindrical mixers in small mills,” he says.
Sometimes the flour was simply mixed by hand with a wooden shovel.
Testimony to earlier mill construction art
The large wooden machine, which is driven by leather belts and cast-iron gears, is a testament to earlier mill construction.
Because the basic functional principle of the large machine is still used today in modern large mills.
In the system in the Furthmühle, wood and metal parts work together in a complicated way to mix the different results of the grinding process into a uniform type of flour in several passes over up to three hours.
The flour moves up and down the entire height of the machine several times over rollers, screws, rollers and a large, rotating wooden plate with prongs.
According to Aumüller, this even mixing of the flour is one of the central tasks of the milling profession, along with the milling itself.
But even after the flour has been mixed and then bottled, the miller's work is not over yet.
Aumüller remembers that cleaning the mixer was very time-consuming and also harmful to health: "My father invented a dust mask made of foam rubber to be able to deal safely with the dust in the mixer."
The series
In the series "Treasures from the local museum", special exhibits from local museums in the region are presented in loose succession - as a substitute for museum visits that are not possible due to Corona.
When the pandemic subsides and museums reopen, the exhibits can then be viewed live.
Also interesting:
Treasures from the local museums: Precious view of the world from 1674
