A REVOLUTION IN BREADMAKING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 122, 19 November 1914, Page 2

A REVOLUTION IN BREADMAKING

N.Z. AUTOMATICJJAKERIES, LTD. Baking methods which entail constant handling and fingering are being con* stantly improved. Enlightened opinion, demands a modern system which will produce hot only good, but well-baked bread. Such' a Bystem is now in opera' tion in the huge brick and concrete building elected in T&vanaki-street by the New Zealand Automatic Uakeries, Ltd. In the matter of equipment this new bakery ib said to have ao superior any» where. The plant is of the very latest pattern, constructed and erected by the leading firm in its line— Joseph Baker and Sons, Willesden Junction, hear London. Every process, in the evolution of the loaf follows automatically. Ingenious machinery does tho work. Man merely superintends. He touches levers, pulls, chains, watches gauges, and regu* lates speeds. A liberal education in uio science of making "the staff of life" is provided by a walk through the various departments of the Automatic Bakeries under the guidance of Mr. W. A. Kel* low, the managing director and a prac* tical baker of forty years' experience. Starting from the top of the scrupulously clean and brilliantly lighted building, and passing down from floor to floor, one's astonishment increases at the sight of the contontß of a bag of flour being steadily transformed into loaves of a beautiful texture and a crisp, brown ci'ust. Perhaps a few details o£ the various stages of this transforms* tion will interest the leader. The flour, as it comes from the miller, is conveyed by electric hoist to tho top floor, Over 1000 tons can be Btored. Here the sifting and blending operations are carried through at' the rate of one ton every five minutes. The housewife who thinks that flour in the bag is perfectly clean will have her eyes opened in this Bection. So searching is the refining process thai when the flour Jb carried by the endless chain of bucket* to the hopper it is free of every particle of dust and the smallest strand of string. The mouth of the great hopper^ which holds six tons of flour at a time, pierces' the floor and opens over the mixing machine in the flat below. The man at the mixer pulls a chain and watches- an automatic weighing machine. Down comes the flour from the hopper, and the mixer gets to work. It can put through one ton of flour in five short minutes. Fast as the dough is ready it is emptied into great troughs, each with a capacity of one ton. These troughs are oh wheels and so well balanced that they can be moved about as easily as a perambulator. ' Emptied from the troughs, the mixture passes down to the next floor, where the dividing machine weighs it out in 21b lumps, moulds it into circular form, and drops it into pockets at the amazing speed of forty-four a minute. These moulds ascend to, the "Prover," which is near the roof. (To "prove" dough is to give it time to rise.) Coming down from the "Prover" in fours, it is transformed to a second "Prover" in sixes. This is performed by & Bimple, clever c6ntriv. ance, which would take too long to de« scribe. After the second "proving" the lump is fashioned into the familial 1 ob* long shape, dropped automatically into a tin, and placed on racks for a final "proving" of forty minutes. The tins are then fed into a huge oven measuring sixty feet loug by twenty feet wide. The journey through the oven occupies i thirty-five minutes. As the tinß Blip out at the other end they are emptied and sent down a narrow track of steel rollers to be refilled. The finished loaves are quickly transferred to cupboards, j f fom ' which they are removed to hand* some motor vanß and speedily carried to the retailer. "Kellow" bread, as this automatically-baked loaf is named, t has been on the market only "a short time, but the management states that already the demand is large and widespread. Associated with Mr. W. A. Kellow in this enterprise of the N.Z. , Automatic Bakeries, Ltd., are Mr. W. M. Rann&y, as chairman of directors, and Messrs. J. A. Plimmer and 0. S. Watkins. The sec* retary of the company' is Mr. J. S. Burn.