The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1882-04-19
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 Pharoahs baker, and the ap-
pearance of the functionary in nursery
lore in connection with the butcher and
tho 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 industr.-
from an enlargement of the domestic
process into ono of the branches of
trade. employing labor-saving ma
chinery.
Let us first inspect the cracker de-
partmenk The cracker is peculiar
institution" The dough is first pre-
pared in long troughs. 1t is then put
into "worm," whore device which
resembles huge corkscrew turns and
twists il, gives it it's final kneading and
forces it into a trough, from which it is
passed through rollers and appears in
long sheet, ready to be cut into crackers.
This work is performed by a cutting
machine, which by sliding the sheet of
dough on table under a die cuts out
100 crackers a minute. These are taken
from the table on fiat 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 a spacious compartment
which we are told measures twenty feet
square and thirty feet deey. 1t is heated
by furnace in the basement of the
building.
The 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 filled again from the cutting table.
The baked crackers are conveyed to
bins in the upper story by an arrange
ment somewhat similar to that by which
grain is elevated. The buckets empty
the crackers into bin where they are
allowed to cool and fall into q recep-
tacle beneath, from which they are
taken and packed. The packing ma
chine is a curiously contrived device,
andI 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 establishment
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 a stroke or 864 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
$4,000 snaps per hour, or 100000 per
day is the product.
After all, bread is the most import
ant product of the baker. Here we see
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 number of loaves turned
out every day is 3,100. About 500
loaves of brown bread are baked. daily,
some cooked by heat and some by
steam, the latter process requiring six
hours.