Page 5 Advertisements Column 2

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9016, 31 March 1888, Page 5

By a new process, milk is now being utilised for the manufacture of a powder resembling sugar both in form and appearance. The milk is reduced by evaporation to a solid state. It is called "powdered milk/ 1 and must become exceedingly valuable for travellers by sea or land, making what are known as instantaneous beverages, such as those concocted from extract of coffee, chocolate, and cocoa. Indeed, in scores of ways powdered milk will be found invaluable in the culinary art. The process of manufacture is thus sketched in Chambers' Journal :—Fresh cows' milk, having been treated for the removal of a portion of its cream, is placed in a vacuum pan, surrounded by a water jacket, or outer vessel charged with hot water. The milk is gradually reduced to a viscid substance of the consistency of ordinary condensed milk. Granulated white sugar is now added, to render the mass sufficiently friable, and the temperature is lowered some -Odeg to 30deg to prevent any discolouration or loss of flavour in the powdered milk. Nothing further remains but the removal of the contents from the vacuum pan, which can either be distributed in the form of lumps or as a granulated powder, after grinding in a revolving burr-stone mill. Tho apparatus employed consists essentially of a copper vacuum pan connected with an air-pump, capable of producing the requisite vacuum. A water-jacket surrounds the vacuum chamber. A pipe, furnished with a stopcock to regulate the supply, delivers the fresh milk into the vacuum pan, whilst an air-tight door is provided for the removal of the solidified material. A circular shaft, running through the pan, is furnished with stirring arms and scrapers for actuating and mixing the viscid milk, and is driven by suitable belting and gearing. The watertight jacket is furnished with three pipes, giving admission to cold water, hot water, and steam respectively, so that the requisite heat can be maintained and regulated with the greatest nicety. An overflow pipe is also provided.