The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-10-21
.CBe Gully JourmL
BREAD FOR THE MILLION.

The following is the description of an over
recently invented and elected in New York
which is to supply the whole city with bread
and root out all competition of private estab-
lishments for baking the staff of life:
The oven is to be worked night and day
and by the contraction and expansion OF a
long metallic strip inside, connected to the
damper in the chimney, perfectly uniform
temperature is maintained in it's interior. The
oven is twenty eight feet in length steam
engine in constant operation outside gives mo-
ton to ingeniously arranged machinery, by
which almost every operation is performed
with more dispatch and perfection than hand
labor is capable of. In the interior of the oven
sixteen cars. or fiat platforms, slowly descend,
and an equal number rise, all loaded with
bread. The cars each measure three by five
feet. A car loaded with dough is drawn in at
the top, and in twenty minutes afterWard dis
charged at the bottom and dumped into bas-
ket. After waiting thirty seconds to be load
ed, it again enters the oven with cold dough,
to be in its turn expelled at the top, all by self
acting mechanism. Doors are provided, also
self-acting, by which the openings are tightly
stopped, except at the moment car is entering
or emerging; and as there are never two doors
open at the same time, there will never be
draught through the heated interior, but all
the alcoholic or other valuable exhalations
from the loayes will be retained and, as expe-
riments seem to indicate, with great advan-
tage to the equality of the product.
Machinery previously invented by others is
availed Of for mixing and kneading the dough,
and for stamping and cutting out the shapes
in the manufacture of crackers, though the
bread is kneaded by hand. The yeast is pro-
duced by steam heat, keptin oak tanks at any
temperature desired, and in case, despite these
precautions, tank should become in the
slightest degree too souri, it is subsequently
made available in producing soda biscuit, for
which purpose considerable acidisy is neces-
sary.
The baking business, as usually conducted
on very small scale, requires very liberal
profit to pay expenses. With the facilities
described, the manufacture of bread has been
contracted for by an experienced baker, who
will take charge of the establishment for so
cents per barrel of -four consumed. The busi-
ness of supplying bread will be commenced on
the 2Sth of the present month, and according
to the figures furnished us 81 pounds of first
quality of bread will be sold to the retailers
for IL cents. and will get into the hands of con-
sumers for 1215 cents, while about 2 3 pounds
is the quantity now procurable for the like
sum. Viewed in this light, the experiment
becomes interesting, not merely as a new form
of industrial enterprise but as one of immedi-
ate practical importance to the struggling
thousands with whom the relative price and
nutritiye value of loafis almost question of
life or death.
There are various opinions with regard to
the value of bread baked on oven floors as COM
pared with that introduced in pans, &c. but
we believe all agree that much volatile materi- |
al rises from bread in baking which might be
saved by successful tight oven. An expert
ment tried in baking in air-tight retorts
strongly illustrates this point. Equal quanti-
ties Of similar dough were placed in tight re-
torts, one ten inches higher than the other, (
and a pipe opened which put them in commu-
nication. The whole being placed in an oven
for sufficient time, the lower half was found
to have lost 1611s per cent of nutritive matter,
and the upper one to have gained l6 per cent
the missing fraction being supposed to have
been diffused in the end of the retorts.