Ciechanowiec · mass balance model
One sack of grain
Nothing disappears on the table. The sack divides into tare, cleaning rejects, dust, bran and flour. Move the boundary between flour and bran and watch what happens to the kilograms.
49.0 kg
net mass: sack 50.0 kg gross − tare 1.0 kg
Practice model, not a measurement of any sack
70% of the clean grain goes into flour
Model range 50–90% of clean grain, in steps of 1 percentage point. You can also drag the boundary on the table.
Clean grain after cleaning: 48.0 kg, whatever the boundary. Flour 33.6 kg, bran 13.4 kg; nothing is added.
Without JavaScript you see the default example (70% extraction, 65% water). The sliders and examples need a script; the explanation and sources below work without it.
- Sack tare (empty sack)1.0 kg
- Cleaning rejectsweeds, dust, small stones1.0 kg
- Milling dustmilling loss1.0 kg
- Bran and husks28% of clean grain13.4 kg
- Flour70% of clean grain33.6 kg
The fields have equal height, so their width is proportional to mass. Full table width = 85.5 kg (1.71 × the gross mass of the sack). The scale is relative: 1.71 is the allowance for the largest dough in this model (90% extraction, 85% water, 5% additives), so changing the mass of the sack changes the numbers, not the proportions of the fields. The proportions change with the flour/bran boundary, water, additives, rejects, dust and baking loss. This is an original diagram, not a photograph or a map.
Mill assumptions: sack mass, tare, rejects, dust
The mill ends here. From this line, water that was not in the sack enters the table.
A separate scene: the kneading trough and the oven. Same scale as above, so the masses can be compared directly.The kneading trough: flour, water and oven
Flour arrives from the mill: 33.6 kg (70% of 48.0 kg of clean grain). The bran, dust, rejects and tare stayed on the previous table. Back to the grain table.
Dough: flour + water + additives
65% of the flour mass
Model range 45–85% of the flour mass, in steps of 1 percentage point.
- Flour from the mill33.6 kg
- Added waterfrom outside the sack21.8 kg
- Solid additivese.g. salt, from outside the sack1.0 kg
- Dough in total56.5 kg
Baking: bread + baking loss
12% of the dough mass
Model range 6–22% of the dough mass, in steps of 0.5 percentage points. This is baking loss (Polish: usus), mainly water vapour.
- Baked bread49.7 kg
- Baking lossmainly water vapour6.8 kg
Arithmetic division: 49.7 kg ÷ 0.80 kg = 62 full portions + 0.1 kg remainder. This is a division of numbers for the assumed portion mass, not a number of loaves from a bakery.
Same scale as on the grain table: full width = 85.5 kg. Original diagram, not a photograph.
Kneading trough assumptions: solid additives, portion mass
Why does bread have more mass than flour?
The flour weighs 33.6 kg. The bread weighs 49.7 kg, which is 16.1 kg more than the flour, because 21.8 kg of water and 1.0 kg of additives that were not in the sack were added in the trough. The oven took away 6.8 kg, which is why the bread is lighter than everything that came onto the table (72.9 kg). Compared with the sack (50.0 kg), the bread is 0.3 kg lighter.
Bread = flour + water + additives − baking loss: 33.6 + 21.8 + 1.0 − 6.8 = 49.7 kg. Values are rounded to 0.1 kg and the sums are calculated from the full values, so the components shown may differ from the result by 0.1 kg.
| Grain in the sack (gross) | 50.0 kg |
|---|---|
| Water added in the trough | 21.8 kg |
| Solid additives | 1.0 kg |
| Total in | 72.9 kg |
| Baked bread | 49.7 kg |
|---|---|
| Baking loss | 6.8 kg |
| Bran and husks | 13.4 kg |
| Milling dust | 1.0 kg |
| Cleaning rejects | 1.0 kg |
| Sack tare | 1.0 kg |
| Total out | 72.9 kg |
Difference between input and output: 0.0 kg. The balance closes by the construction of the model, so this is a check of the arithmetic, not a measurement. Bran, dust and rejects do not disappear: they are by-products of the same batch.
What comes from the museum's description and what is an exercise
From the museum's description (link carried over from V2)
- The Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec describes a wooden water mill in situ, a reconstructed undershot waterwheel, milling equipment, querns, stamping mills, measures and scales, and the Bread Museum.
- The ZPE (Integrated Educational Platform) describes an educational path from raw material to bread, including water and leaven.
- The links were carried over from V2 and were not opened when this version was built. They need checking.
An arithmetic exercise only
- All percentages (rejects, flour extraction, dust, water, additives, baking loss) and the mass of the sack are set by the exercise. They are not standards, recipes or museum measurements.
- The museum does not document the fate of any particular sack. The historical measures from Ciechanowiec are not a modern standard for every sack.
- Milling does not determine baking: the water, additives and loss must be known separately.
What changed compared with V2
- The seven “step” tabs with exhibit captions were removed: this section replaces them. Captions about sieves, bolters, vessels and troughs were left out, because the sources behind the links do not confirm them in this package.
- Saving in the browser (not needed) was removed, as was a separate results card that duplicated the totals.
- Nine sliders were reduced to three at the table and six fields in collapsible panels; the calculation dependencies of V2 remain.