COLONIAL INDUSTRIES—HUDSON'S BAKERY.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2357, 21 October 1870, Page 2

COLONIAL INDUSTRIES—HUDSON'S BAKERY.

We Colonists come here to work. The Colonies are not lands where men congregate together who inherit broad acres, and can afford to live upon tlr ir rents. Those who o 'me hither expect to labor, and they thrive the best here as elsewhere who do the greatest amount of work at the least expense. Much of the true labor of the Colony is done in out-of-the-way places. Up-stairs in the rear of Princes striei is Mr Hudson’s biscuit bakery. He has not much room to spare. In fact we are perfectly confident he would like to have a more extended area to move about in. But of that which he has, he makes the most. Very possibly very few of our readers have any idea of the process by which those nice water biscuits, wine biscuits, and sponge cakes, for which Mr Hudson has so large a sale, are made. Dough ma'' ing, we suppose, every lady understands, though we very much doubt if there are many who, in the absence of the baker, could make and hake their own bread. We know some who could—Yorkshire or Scotch country-born girls, who, however, would scarcely believe how much more easily the hard work of kneading can be got over with the help of one of Mr Peters’s hydraulic engines and a few pairs of rollers. They would he delighted to have the flour first placed in a nice clean zinc-lined mixing pan, like that in Mr Hudson’s bakery, within which are placed rakes revolving on an axle moved by a strap attached to the engine. All they would have to do would be to see that flour and water in proper porportions were supplied ; the machinery would do the rest -while they stood looking on. By its help all that hard work that used to make them look so rosy before it was finished is saved. No pummelling of the dough ; no pulling it about and turning it over, to punch it again ; no puffing and pant ng over it. As soon as the mixing process is completed, the dough is passed between rollers in the breaking down machine, moved by the same engin". Backwards and forwards it is passed until it becomes homogeneous throughout. It is then transferred to the other end of the machine, where are a pair of rollers and a biscuit die. These rollers are placed at exactly the thickness of the intended biscuit | from each other, so that when the dough basses through the aperture, it is re duced to that uniform thickness. It is conveyed from between these rollers on to an endless baud, whi hj, in the course of its revolution, places it under a die moving perpendicularly up and down by means of an eccentric. This die cuts and stamps a number of b’seuits at one stroke, varying according to the size, but some idea may be formed of the amount of work done by the consideration that at the usual rate of working 30,000 water biscuits can be prepared for the oven every hour. By a skilful turn of the hand in using a flat wooden shovel, they are taken off the moving band and passed <o a man at the side table, by whom they are ranged on baking tins, to be placed in the oven Nor must the oven he overlooked. It differs very much from old fashioned bakers’ ovens. We recollect the time when in English country towns the common bakehouse used to be a great institution. Boys and girls used to he seen on a Sunday morning carrying pics of all sizes to be baked ; or on bread days, they might be observed in droves carrying each a loaf in ’» baking tin, and occasionally hurrying lest the oven should be made up before they got there. There used to be stories too, of how bakers converted small, loaves of their own, or small legs of mutton into large ones by a graduated process of exchange It was very curious how the baker’s six pound leg of mutton a twelve pounder, while every body elsc’s lost so much in weight; but such is said to have been the case as a rule. We only mention this as a reminiscence suggested by the sight pf a baker’s oven, for it really has nothing to do with the qld method of shutting in and fastening the mouth of the qven to prevent the heat escaping. Mr Hudson adopts a different process, for by a judicious arranger ment of flues hs can regulate the temperature to suit the clas< of goods in course of manufacture. This is necessary, as all could not bear an equal degree of heat. Water biscuits require a higher temperature than sweet bisuuits, 'and so on. We, of course, cannot give a minute description of every part of the works, nor of half that is done there; but it may not he uninteresting to our readers to learn that, amongst other ingenious contrivances, is one for beating eggs by machinery. Many contrivances have

been adapted for shortening that househould operation. Egg-beaters are made by wmcn the process is much 4 facilitated by hand; but to do this on a large scale would-increase the cost of the sponge cakes so much as to deprive many of the luxury who now feel justified in indu'ging in it. By a simple process one hundred eggs can be beat up in a quarter the time the cook requires to prepare her s for use, and thus an imnense saving of time and labor is effected. Of course Mr Hudson’s attention is not altogether confined to the manufacture of fancy goods, although from the specimens we have had of his work in that line, we consider he excels. Cabin biscuits and biscuits for ships’ stores form part of his manufacture ; and as he is both an active worker and a keen supervisor, we have no doubt that ho will extend his already large trade to which he refers with justifiable pride as having been founded by his own industry and skill.