William de la Barre (April 15, 1849 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– March 24, 1936 in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born civil engineer who developed a new process for milling

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

into flour, using energy-saving steel rollers at the Washburn-Crosby Mills (now known as General Mills, Inc.) in Minneapolis, and later served as chief engineer for the first hydroelectric power station built in the United States, at

Saint Anthony Falls Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony ( dak, italics=no, Owámniyomni, ) located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1 ...

, also in Minneapolis.

Early life

William de la Barre, son of Carl and Josephine (Friedl) de la Barre, was born in Vienna, Austria on April 15, 1849. In 1863, he entered the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna (now known as the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

), where he studied for two years before being recruited into the Austro-Hungarian Navy as a machinist. In the Navy, he received his first mechanical experience and training. De la Barre immigrated to the United States in October 1866, landing in New York, then settling in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

where he found employment as a draftsman and engineer. He served as engineer for the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

held in Philadelphia in 1876. He was married to Louisa Verena Merian, daughter of Louis and Marie (Glaser) Merian of Philadelphia, in 1870 in Philadelphia. They had three children.

Career

In 1878, he and his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. He became a salesman for Behrns' Exhaust, a patented apparatus for the prevention of dust explosions in flour mills, and for several years sold and installed this apparatus in various mills in Minneapolis. Because of his extensive knowledge of flour mills, in 1880 he was hired by

Cadwallader C. Washburn Cadwallader Colden Washburn (April 22, 1818May 14, 1882) was an American businessman, politician, and soldier who founded a mill that later became General Mills. A member of the Washburn family of Maine, he was a U.S. Congressman and governor o ...

(better known as C. C. Washburn), founder of the Washburn-Crosby Mills in Minneapolis, to be head engineer and superintendent of his mills.William E. Lass, "Minnesota: A History", W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 199

/ref> While at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, de la Barre had learned that a new process for milling flour had been invented in Europe that involved passing the grain through a series of rollers, rather than the large round

millstones Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...

used in America. Washburn sent him to Europe to learn about the process firsthand. What de la Barre discovered was that in Hungary, the mills were using large

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

rollers shaped more or less like rolling pins and that each series of rollers ground the grain finer and finer. On his return to Minneapolis, de la Barre designed rollers made from steel instead of porcelain. Using de la Barre's steel rollers, the Washburn-Crosby Mills could mill flour that was cleaner, more uniform, and with less energy than ever before. The process was no less than a revolution in milling.

References

External links

William de la Barre in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barre, William De La 1849 births 1936 deaths American civil engineers Austrian civil engineers General Mills people People from Minneapolis Engineers from Vienna