The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-03-17
The Baking Business.

The baker comes down to us from an
tiquity, and has always figured more or
less prominently in sacred and profane
history. Witness the conspicuous part
played by Pharoah's baker, and the APP
pearance of the functionary in nursery
lore in connection with the butcher and
the candle-stick maker. The baker and
his cavernous oven belong to many lands
and many ages, but it was reserved for
modern days to transform the industry
from an enlargement of the domestic
process into one of the branches Of
trade employing labor-saving machinery.
Let us first inspect the cracker de-
partment. The cracker is peculiar
| inetitution." The dough is first pre-
/ pared in long troughs. It is then put
into "worm," where device which
| resembles huge corkscrew turns and
twists it, gives it its final kneading and
forces it into trough, from which it is
passed through rollers and appears in a
long sheet, ready to be cut into crackers.
This work is performed by cutting ma
chine, which ny sliding the sheet Of
dough on table under die, cuts out
| 100 crackers minute. These are taken
! from the table on q flat wooden shovel
and deposited in the oven, and the clip
pings are thrown back into the dough
trough. Gazing in at the mouth of the
oven we see spacious compartment
which we are told measures twenty feet
square and thirty feet deep. 1t is heated
by a furnace in the basement Of the
building.
aThe oven contains eight shelves. nine
feet long and three feet wide, arranged
on a revolving frame and holding two
| and half barrels of crackers. Eight
minutes are required for the baking, and
as soon as one shelf is emptied it is filed
again from the cutting table. The baked
crackers are conveyed to bins in the up
per story by an arrangement somewhat
similar to that by which grain is ele-
waited. The buckets empty the crackers
into bin where they are allowed to cool
and fall into receptacle beneath, from
which they are taken and packed. The
packing machine is a curiously- contrived
device, and arranges the crackers in
rows so as to greatly facilitate the work
| of the packer. About thirty two barrels
per day is the product of the establish
ment of which we speak.
Let us pass to that part Of the bakery
where ginger snaps are made. Long,
thin sheets of "snap" dough pass be-
meath cutting machine, similar to that
used for crackers, which punches out
twelve snaps at stroke or 1854 per min
ute The cakes are then passed through
steam and water to give them. glossy
appearance, and are then placed in the
oven, which has tables revolving hori-
zontally. One turn of the tables bakes
the thin snaps, and two turns does the
business for the thicker ones. The time
taken to convert the dough into baked
snap is only about five minutes, and So
900 Snaps per hour, or 500, 900 per day is
the product
After all, bread is the most important
product of the baker. Here we see a
revolving crank in an iron trough mixing
ten barrels of flour in eight minutes.
The bread is given four " risings," and
the weight of each loaf is ascertained
before it passes to the oven. The mum
Der of loaves turned out every day is
3,100 About 500 loaves Ct brown bread
are baked daily, some cooked by heat
and some by steam, the latter process
requiring six hours.