This day in history: Kaiser planned to cut output by 10% in Mead. S-R reporter raved about Sperry Flour Mill.

From 1975: Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. plant announced another in a series of cutbacks at its Mead plant.

Kaiser said it would reduce output by 10% at Mead and at two of its other reduction plants in the U.S. Earlier in the year, Kaiser had shut down two of its eight potlines. Kaiser’s Trentwood rolling mill was not affected.

Kaiser officials said the cutbacks will have a “minimal impact” on jobs. The company planned to adjust “operating rates and practices” rather than reduce employment.

From 1925: A Spokesman-Review reporter toured one of Spokane’s towering commercial operations: the Sperry Flour Mill on Sprague Avenue.

“Passersby are familiar with the beautiful structure, seven stories high, with its artistic pressed-brick front, its luxurious window boxes, its flanks of tulips and shrubbery and its velvety lawns,” The S-R said. “In some other locations, it might be mistaken for a modern apartment building.”

The interior was dazzling in a different way. It was a “jumble of diagonal lines, circles, triangles, cylinders and other geometric designs, and dabs of color suggest the complicated assortment of wheels, endless belts, grinders, rolls, pulleys, separators and dust collectors.”

The mill produced about 7,500 bushels of wheat daily. About 55% was marketed under three premium brands: Drifted Snow, Olympic and Sperry Special (a hard-wheat bakers flour). The rest was marketed as “clear grade” and “mill run.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

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