BAKING BY MACHINERY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10957, 23 December 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

BAKING BY MACHINERY.

Perhaps -nowhere else is machinery more closely related to health than in. a .bakery. When the flour is not touched by human hands from the wheatfield ,to the loaf of bread, cleanliness and sanitation* would seem to Jhaye little j more to ask. A notable installation :pf electric power for bakery machinery I in the plant of a company in Muskogee has a, capacity of 40,000 loaves of bread per twenty-four hours, in addition to several hundred pounds of pies and cakes. In one corner of the room is a revolving oven, having twelve shelves mounted after the manner of a Ferris wheel, each shelf being subjected to maximum heat when it is at the bottom. The use of electric power throughout has enabled the owners to appeal for patronage on the score of pure food. Ir. may seem remarkable to Eastern readers that this particularly up-to-date establishment should be found in a. State not long since unoccupied by white men, but this very fact has operated in Oklahoma to encourage new and progressive methods, since there has been nothing old-fashioned to displace. We read in part: "The flour is unsacked into a bin in the cellar and elevated by a flourlifter and conveyer into the large hopper which is suspended above* the doughmixer, the hopper being suspended from a lever connected with the scale-beam, so that it ca"n be weighed at any time. The hopper has a capacity of about seven barrels of flour. The doughmixer is provided with steam and water; connections, the latter being equipped with suitable meters so that an exact amount of material may be put into the mixer, day in and day out, in accordance with any specified formula, thus insuring a uniformity of product. As the bakery turns out several kinds of bread, several kinds of dough are, mixed by this device. "The dough-breaker is belt-driven from the countershaft that'drives the flour-lifter. The dough-divider is driven by a two-horse-power, 1,2000-revolution-per-niinute motor. The dough is transferred to this machine from the rising tubs and, with each revolution of the wheel, four loaves of any desired weight are punched out and. dropped upon the delivery belt. The weight of the loaves may be regulated at will by a single adjustment of the machine. This machine has an ingenious arrangement of small hoppers which sift flour on the dough at the proper intervals to avoid anv tendency of the- dough to stick. The belt upon which the loaves drop consumes one minute in making onehalf a revolution, i.e., one minute after a loaf drops upon the belt it is delivered to the moulding machine at .the other end of the table, thus allowing the loaves to recover from their compression.

"The loaf-moulder in this plant is driven by a two-horse-power, 1800-revo-lution-per-minute motor, the latter also being geared so as to drive the delivery belt. This machine kneads the loaves exactly as the old-fashioned baker did, turning them in twice from the end, then twice from the side, and finally rolling them around the big wheel at the bottom, where.they come tip and roll into the pan on the shelf, from whence they are carried to the oven. This machine is also equipped with a flour-sifter to keep the dough from sticking. A two-horse-power, 1200-rcvolution-per-minute motor, suspended from the ceiling, drives the revolving shelves of the oven through a countershaft belted to the large gearwheel on the side of the oven in order to reduce the speed. The capacity of the oven is 700 loaves, and it is so arranged that the rotating shelves may be stopped at any desired moment so as to bring any particular shaft exactly level with the" door for convenience in emptying or refilling. "The egg-beater in the plant is driven by "a one-horse-power, 1200-revo-lution-per-minute motor through gearing provided with sprocket-cones to admit of three different speeds. This egg-boater is provided with a steamjacket.

"To the right of the egg-heater is a hand-operated roll-divider,, which will strike out thirty-six equal pieces of dough from one large piece, leaving the whole in the shape of the round pan. in which they are baked. Hand operation of this 'machine is necessary, due to the fact that it is used but-very little. "Three-phase electric power at a frequency of sixty cycles and a potential of 220 volts, for operation of the motors, is supplied from the power circuits of the Muskogee Gas and Electric Companv. The installation, when running at "its full rated capacity, will use 800° to 1000 kilowatts per month."