The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-01-18
WESTERN BAKING
PLANT IS PERFECT
MODEL IN new TYPE
!
Machinery Take: Place Of Old
Hand Drudgery When House.
wife Made Own Bread
NONE BETTER NORTHWEST
Like Pressing Button When Me-
chanicaI Processes Start
Dough to Ovens

Dough to Ovens
The mechanical process Of com.
mercial bread baking has added that
industry to the frightening list o.
manufacturing activities Of which the
boast might well be, "You press the
button, we do the rest"
Massive but intricate machines
have taken ove the baking drudgery
which once was the lot Of the house
wife. There Is much Of this button
pressing aspect about their operation
and the 'rest" Is the type that is the
opposite Of labor and fatigue.
So exact and accurate have the me-
chanized. processes Of all baking be-
come, 1t Is an undeniable fact that
never in all the history Of the world
have better bread and pastry been
baked than the product which is
pouring out Of modern ovens these
days.
For example, ovens like those in
stalled in the new plant Of the West
ern Baking company at Main
and Sixteenth street, which recently
went into operation. The bread oven
at this plant can turn 1000 pounds
Of dough into crisp, brown leaves
every hour, 50 that II put on ~ hours
operation the bakery could with the
n installation alone bake $4,000 of
the 24-ounce loaves q day. More
over, the loaves are evenly baked and
uniform in the tan put on their crusts
as they make the perfectly timed
round Of the big gas-heated drum
within which the hanging baking
trays revolve.
All Equipment Latest Make
Not all Of the equipment of the
new plant Is as massive as this bread
oven Is, but intricacy Of fixtures con.
trollable by a few simple operations
Of the hand is the prevailing feature
in every department of the Western
company's new home.
So that the story of Bismarck's
bakery is one in which mechanical
and chemical science combine to give
this city the finest and best equipped
bread and pastry bakery between the
Twin Cities and Spokane, II not the
Pacific coast even. Hardly a process
is carried On there in which mechan-
ical means are not applied, or. in
which some form of chemical activity
has not q part in producing the nut
brown products out of the flood of
dough debouching out of mechanical
mixers and conveyors. About the only
hand processes one will note in the
plant are the filling of the oven racks
with the pans of dough and their
subsequently removal as hot, brown
bread.
There Is, then, nothing Of the anna
flourish OF Of the obsolete about the
new plant of the Western company.
It was designed by experts. The w.
E. Long company, of Chicago, builds
modern bakeries all owe the country.
It's experts took over the old Lahr
automobile warehouse and the new
two-story main building and convert
ed them into a laboratory wherein
every fixture is placed with an eye to
system and to operation by automatic
processes.
Basement Is Storage Department
This plant operates from the base.
ment, partly underground. up through
the two super-stories. It starts its
processes in the storage department,
which is in the basement. There Is q
space approximately IS by 80 feet in
which are kept all materials used in
the bakery. from containers, wax pa
pers, crates and the like up through
other ingredients as sugar, salt and
lard, to sifted flour in huge storage
bins which blend 1000 pounds at q
time to produce those qualities the
various types Of baked goods require.
This blended flour then passes up
ward to the mixing floor. through the
operation Of spiral-cored carriers.
A portion Of the operating battery
of the plant is in the basement also.
The boiler which furnishes heat and
steam, for one, and the brine tank Of
the refrigerating system are located
in this department of the building.
There also Is q large Ignite storage
bin which receives the fuel through
incline chute from the car tracks
in the ear Of the plant. The chute
Is adapted to the receive Of
flour also. The bagged product Is
shot down into the basement and
moved by hand to sections Of the
floor and stacked there.
Making Flour Into Dough
Starting from the basement, the
flour which Is to become bread or
Is carried by enclosed hopper
buckets to the third floor to begin its
travels to the oven by being turned
dough. It is conveyed to an en-
closed hopper regulated by . scales.
There Is another hopper Of like APP
pearance in which water and milk
are. like the flour. weighed by these
scales. When the desired quantities
have been weighed in, the scales act
automatically and empty the hoppers
into the dough mixer. q large metallic
bowl In which revolving fixtures stir
up the ingredients and yeast until
they have become viscous mass OF
dough.
The dough now Is emptied into long
metallic trows and these are assem-
bled In . fermentation room With
mechanical regulators Of It's tempera-
ture. one set Of coils cooling. while q
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