BREAD BY MACHINERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2339, 4 November 1908, Page 7

BREAD BY MACHINERY.

AN ELECTRICAL APPARAI'US

Twenty-five thousand loaves of bread a day ! Such is the record output (says a London paper) of a ponderous, electrically-worked machine, weighing .nearly two hundred tons, which was shown in operation at the. opening of the Bakers’ and Confectioners’ Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall last month. Eight men, standing at the levers of the machine, do the work which formerly- employed twenty-five. Two parts of the apparatus are considered by experts to be unique—a mechanical kneader and tempering device, and an adjustable moulder, which .adapts itself automatically to any sized loaf. So that no human hand should touch flour, dough, or loaf, rolling, continuous tracks, and little wagons- running upon rails connect the various' parts of this wonderful machine. The flour rises in an elevator to a sifting machine, which automatically -rids it of impurities -or foreign matter. An automatic pathway bears it thence to the kneading machine, where the mixing takes place. The dough when made is tilted automatically into a wagon, which runs down an incline into the “proving” room, the doors of which open-automatically. After lying-four hours 'here, the dough, is carried upon another .line to a dividing machine, which, set to a certain gauge, cuts the dough into pieces. These pieces, traversing an endless band, -are seized upon by the moulder, which shapes them into cottage, coburg, or “tin” loaves. From this thev clrop upon an electrically propelled rack and are swept into the 100-ton oven, which bakes them' to any desired condition in forty-two minutes.