THE NAVAL BAKERY, MALTA. [From the Malta Times, January 21.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 572, 8 October 1851, Page 4

THE NAVAL BAKERY, MALTA. [From the Malta Times, January 21.]

This magnificent establishment has now boon atwoik for some time. It is, peihap*, the most complete bakery in the woild. The building consists of tlirpe rooms, and is 250 feet in length ami 1.10 feet in breadth, and cost £30,000. The inachweiy cost £ 10,000 an addition. In one of t?ie turrets is the gianary, in which the wheat is deposited. There aie\ilso four washing machines, but these have not yet been used, as the wheat hitherto procured lias been clean and good. The grain passes fiom this floor through twelve hoitpd cjlindero, to dry ; thence through twelve other cylinders to cool, all the cylinders being formed of wne, to allow the refuse to escape, and all being worked by means of endless worms. In tbp floor below, at the not th end, we find the three principal hoppers, supplied from above, mid two cleaning machines. The wheat here emeiges from the cooling° cylindeis, and is conveyed by mean* oi a pipo and endless screw, which is constantly woilwug the grain forward, horizontally, into the adjoining compart- , ment, where by the same appaiatus it is deposited into buckets affixed to an endless strap, and by them cairied again into the room above, whence it descends into the j cleaning machines, having been sifted, dried, and cooled into its circuit. The southern portion of this flat forms the biscuit store, the floor being of marble. On the next floor are twelve pairs of stones, made by Kay and Hilton, of Liveipool, and four dressing machines for the flour. The bran is also deposited on this floor. On the ground floor the flour is received into troughs, and thence by means of endless screws, worked upwards again into the dressing machines. i3f>hind this portion of the floor are the engines — two of 25-horse power each, made by Fail bairn. The boilers are tubular. At the south end is the kneading and baking apparatus. The mixing trough is supplied by pipes iiom the floor above, and is mixed by knives, &c, turned by the engine, and made to fit the trough. The dough is then conveyed to the break rollers, by which it is kneaded, and thence it passes in a direct line under the sheet rollers, by which it is rolled into sheets 6 feet by 3 feet, and about three-eighths of an inch thick. These sheets are then passed on the tables over rollers to the •docking, or stamping machines, which mark the sizp of the biscuits, and stamp them with the broad arrow, &c. These machines also cut the sheets of dough in three, leaving them 3 feet by 2 feet. The sheets so cut and marked are then slided on to tables, and placed upon portable stands, holding 18 sheets each ; which, when filled, are immediately glided, or latber moved on their own wheels, to the ovens, each standful, that is, 18 sheets, or 100 lbs. being one baking. There aro 12 ovens, six on each side, which are heated by stoves. This insures the external cleanliness of the biscuits, as no Cue is put in the oven, and also secures an equal temperature throughout each oven. When the sheets ate baked, they are broken into biscuits, as marked by the docking machines, and then Loisted into the drying stoves above the ovens. Finally, they are removed to the store, where they are sifted, weighed, and sacked, each sack weighing 112 lbs. The sittings are sold every quarter, Weie the value of them for puddings, &c, fully known, especially for government hospitals and invalids, they should not be sold to feed chickens. The machinery was made by Gordon and Davies, Stockport. It is capable of " turning out," with but little of the aid of man, 15 tons of biscuits per day, being no less than 144,900 biscuits. At present, however, only half that quantity is required. Were it not that we know that, as though by a kind of fatality, the British Government always loses by every purchase and sale it makes, we would recommend that the whole of the machinery should be set to woik, and merchant ships supplied, in which case the broad arrow would have to be omitted.