NOT A DISHCLOTH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 38, 10 April 1942, Page 8

NOT A DISHCLOTH

USED IN WASHING UP AFTER MEAL FOR 7000 WORKERS Housewives may well envy the great kitchens which are now part of Britain's war factories, serving substantial meals at 1/5 and washing up in one hour 12,000 plates, cups, saucers, knives, forks and sjjoons without a single dishcloth. Here is one of their meals: Scotch broth 2d; roast lamb, mint sauce end two vegetables 9d; apple 1 tart 2%d; roll and butter l%d; coffee 2d. The new kitchens which prepare these meals are themselves factories in miniature, with ovens as high as five feet. Into one machine goes the potatoes which are peeled at a speed of 561bs a minute; another machine mashes the potatoes; a third rolls out the pastry for the apple tart. When they are all cooked, the dinners go into a vast hot cabinet, 180 at a time; and 7000 workers sit down to this good hot meal little more than ten minutes after they have knocked off work. Anything left over is tipped into a bin and a warm spray is played upon each side of a line' of empty plates as they pass along a conveyor belt. The plates are then dowsed with cold water, a hot spray is turned on them and they dry at once as they meet the cold air. And not a dishcloth is used in the washing up of this dinner for a family of 7000 workers for the war.