In the former, grindstones were used, which often reached so great a degree of heat as to injure the flour; and repeated siftings gave the various grades.

In the new, the outer husk is rejected, and a system of knives is used, which chop the grain to powder, and it is claimed do not heat it.
The product is more starchy, and for this reason less desirable.

We eat far too much heat-producing food, and any thing which gives us the gluten of the grain is more wholesome, and thus "seconds" is really a more nutritious flour than the finer grades.

Try for yourselves a small experiment, and you will learn the nature of flour better than in pages of description.
Take a little flour; wet it with cold water enough to form a dough.

Place it on a sieve, and, while working it with one hand, pour a steady stream of water over it with another.