IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BREAD
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hypolitte Mège, Chemist, of Paris (Empire of
France), for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
BREAD."
Sealed the 5th December 1856, and dated the 14th June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hypolitto Mège at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
June 1856.
I, HYPOLITTE MÈGE, Chemist, of Paris (Empire of France), do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF BREAD," to be as follows, and consists in making white bread,
having all the properties of bread of the first quality, and in employing all
the properties of wheat or rye, that is to say, making white bread with the
materials which until now have only made brown bread. The means to
obtain this new product are,-
1st, the destruction, by strong fermentation at low temperature, of the
ferment that I call "céréaline," which is contained in the remains of bran,
and in the impure flours and meals, which ferment produces directly the
acidity, and the sweet, and hygrometric state of the brown bread, and destroys
a great part of the gluten.

page_text: 2nd, purifying completely by fermentation the said impure flours and meal
diluted in water, and the sifting the remains of the bran, strewed by the mill-
stone, in those products of the flour.
3rd, the employment of part of the flour which produces the brown bread in
a coarse state, or of meal, in the state that they leave the millstone, for
facilitating their purification by the fermentation and the humid sifting.
4th, the employment of water, acidulated with any acid or acid salt, so as to
prevent the fermentation, leaving pure the strong or racy fermentation, and to
prevent the yellow color of the bread becoming brown (ulmic acid) and have
the taste of brown bread.
5th, the application of the above to the corn ground with millstones, which
crush it completely, and augment the quantity of pure meal, which is very bad
for the ordinary process, and very advantageous for this.
6th, the application of any of the above means to washed or decorticated
wheat.
7th, the application of the whole of the above means to ferments of every
sort to the rye, and any alimentary corn which enter in the manufacture of
bread.
This process may be applied to the fabrication of sea biscuit, with the
modifications that are needful for this special article, the sea biscuit being
different to the bread, as the dough is not allowed to be leavened, and all
moisture removed therefrom.
It will be found advisable to place on the surface of the loaf before to put
it in the oven a seal or imprint (made with unfermented bread, for instance),
or with a mark made with a liquid impregnable to the heat. This seal or
imprint, &c., after the bread is baked, makes part of the crust, and forms a
mark to distinguish the loaf.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hypolitte Mège in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th
December 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HYPOLITTE
MEGE, Chemist, of Paris (Empire of France), send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
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page_text: One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Hypolitte Mège, Her special licence that I, the said Hypolitte Mège, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Hypolitte
Mège, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the terin therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF BREAD," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Hypolitte Mège, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hypolitte Mège, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My Invention consists in making or manufacturing more nutritive, assimi-
lable, substantial bread, and reducing its net cost.
I will not state in this Specification the causes of the nutritious richness of
bread, and its various effects on public salubrity, which important tenets have
been long elucidated and pronounced upon by learned men, nor will I describe
the chemical phenomena I have ascertained in the various periods of bread-
making, which phenomena, though highly interesting as regards science, I
shall only hint at as far as concerns their practical applications. However I
must state that the causes of acidity, sourness, bad taste, brownish colour, and
heavy unpleasant looking of brown and rye bread, not being pre-existing in
the corn itself, are necessarily the results of ordinary panification or usual
practice; and such alterations are caused by peculiar ferments existing in the
brown and rye flour, and which produce the lactic, acetic, glucosic, ammoniacal,
ulmic fermentation, together with the bad taste and brownish color always
resulting from such fermentations. These investigations I only hint at as
having led me to a result that I wish to secure by these Letters Patent.
My improvements cousist, therefore, in manufacturing white bread, having
the characters of first quality bread, with using either all the white or raw
elements that constitute either corn or rye, or in manufacturing white bread

page_text: with such substances as could produce to this day but brown bread. It is
well known that all the contrivances used till now never conduced to any
important results; thus chemical agents have been employed, which proved
more or less unwholesome, such as alum, magnesia, chalk, lime, the washing
of brans, and other foul parts has been also tried, which afforded a larger
amount of product indeed, but at a greater expense, and finally could yield
but brown bread. The following are the means I employ to obtain my new
product :-
1st, the application of vinous fermentation, produced by alcoholic ferment
or yeast, to destroy the ferment that I call "cerealine" existing, together with
the fragments of bran in the raw flour, and which in some measure produces
the acidity of brown bread directly whilst it destroys indirectly most part of
the gluten.
2ly, the thorough purification of said flour, either raw or mixed with bran,
(after dilution and fermentation,) by the sifting and separating of the
farinaceous liquid from the fragments of bran disseminated by the millstone
into the inferior products of corn.
3ly, the employing that part of corn producing brown bread in the rough
state as issuing from the mill after a first grinding, in order to facilitate its
purification by fermentation and wet sifting.
4ly, the employing an acidulated water (by any acid or acid salt) in order
to prevent the lactic fermentation, preserving the vinous fermentation, pre-
venting the yellow color from turning into a brown color (the ulmic acid), and
the good taste of corn from assuming that of brown bread. However, instead
of acidulated water, pure water may be employed with an addition of yeast, as 2
the acid only serves to facilitate the vinous fermentation.
5ly, the grinding of the corn by means of millstones that crush it thoroughly,
increasing thereby the quantity of foul parts, a method which will prove very
bad with the usual process, and very advantageous with mine.
6ly, the application of corn washed or stripped by any suitable means.
7ly, the application of all these contrivances to wheat of every description,
to rye, and other grain used in the manufacture of bread.
8ly, the same means applied to the manufacture of biscuits.
I will now describe the manner in which the said improvements are carried
into effect.
FIRST INSTANCE. When flour of inferior quality is made use of.-This descrip-
tion of flour, well known in trade, is bolted or sifted at 73, 75, or 80 per cent.
(a mark termed Scapion mark in the French War Department), and yields
bread of middle quality. By applying to this sort of flour a liquid yeast, rather
3
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page_text: different from that which is applied to white flour, in order to quicken the work
and remove the sour taste of bread, a very nice quality will be obtained, which
result was quite unknown to every body to this day, and which none ever
attempted to know, as none before me was aware of the true causes that
produce brown bread, &c.
Now, to apply my process to the said flour (of inferior mark or quality) I
take a part of the same, a fourth part for instance, which I dilute with a
suitable quantity of water, and add to the farinaceous liquid 1 portion of beer
yeast for 200 portions of water, together with a small quantity of acid or acid
salt, sufficient to impart the said water the property of lightly staining or
reddening the test paper, known in France by the name of "papier le
tournesol." When the liquid is at full working I mix the remaining portions
of flour, which are kneaded, and then allowed to ferment in the usual way. The
yeast applied, which is quite alcoholic, will yield perfectly white bread of a very
nice taste, and I declare that if similar yeast were ever commended before, it
was certainly not for the purpose of preventing the formation of brown bread.
the character of which was believed to be inherent to the nature of the very
flour, as the following result will sufficiently prove it, thus divesting such an
application of its industrial appropriation.
SECOND INSTANCE. When raw flour is made use of.-By raw flour I mean
the corn crushed only once, and from which 10 to 15 per cent. of rough bran
have been separated. Such flour is still mixed with fragments of bran, and is
employed in trade to the manufacture of so called white flour and bran after
a second and third grinding or crushing. Instead of that, I only separate, and
without submitting it to a fresh crushing, the rough flour in two parts, about
70 parts of white flour and 15 to 18 of rough or coarso flour, of which latter
the yeast is mado; this I dilute with a suitable quantity of water, sufficient to
reduce the whole flour into a dough, say, 50 per cent. of the whole weight of raw
flour. To this mixture have been previously added the yeast and acid
(whenever acid is applied, which is not indispensable, as before stated,) and
the whole is allowed to work for 6 hours at a temperature of 77° Farbenheit
for 12 hours at 68°, and for 20 hours at 59°, thus proportionally to the tem-
perature. While this working or fermentation is going on, the various elements
(cérealine, &c.) which by their peculiar action are productive of brown bread,
have undergone a modification; the rough parts are separated, the gluten
stripped from its pellicles and disaggregated, and the same flour, which, by the
usual process could have only produced deep brown bread, will actually yield
first-rate bread, far superior to that sold by bakers, chiefly if the fragments of
bran are separated by the following process, which consists in pouring on the

page_text: sieve described hereafter, the liquid containing the rough parts of flour
thus disaggregated and modified by a well-regulated fermentation.
The sieve alluded to, which may be of any form, and consist of several tissues
of different tightness, the closest being ever arranged underneath or the most
forward, when the sieve is of cylindrical or vertical form, is intended to keep
back the fragments of bran, which would by their interposition impair the
whiteness of bread, and by their weight diminish its nutritive power. The sifted
liquid is white, and constitutes the yeast with which the white flour is mixed
after being separated, so as to make a dough at either a first or several
workings, according to the baker's practice. This dough works or ferments
very quickly, and the bread resulting therefrom is unexceptionable. In case the
whiteness or neatness of bread should be looked upon as a thing of little con-
sequence, a broader sieve might be employed, or even no sieve used at all, and
yet a very nice bread be obtained.
The saving secured by the application of my process is as follows:-By the
common processes, out of 100 parts of wheat 70 or 75 parts of flour are
extracted, which are fit to yield either white or middle bread, whilst, by the
improved process, out of 100 parts of wheat 85 to 88 parts will be obtained,
yielding bread of superior quality, of the best taste, neatness, and nutritious
richness.
In case new yeast could not be easily provided, the same should be dried at
a temperature of about 86° Fahrenheit, after being suitably separated by
means of some inert dust, and previous to being made use of it should be
dipped into 10 parts of water, lightly sweetened, for 8 to 10 hours, a fit time
for the liquid being brought into a full fermentation, at which time the yeast
has recovered its former power. The same process will hold good for manu-
facturing rye bread, only 25 per cent., about, of coarse bran are to be extracted.
For manufacturing biscuits, I use also the same process, only the dough is
made very hard and immediately taken into the oven, and the products thus
obtained are far superior to the common biscuits, both for their good taste and
preservation. Should, however, an old practice exclude all manner of fermen-
tation, then I might dilute the rough parts of flour into either acidulated or
not acidulated water, there to be left to work for the same time as before, then
sift the water and decant it, after a proper settling of the farinaceous matters
of which the dough is to be made; thus the action of the acid, decantation,
and sifting, would effectively remove all causes of alteration, which generally
impair the biscuits made of inferior flour.
The apparatus required for this process is very plain, and consists of a
kneading trough, in which the foul parts are mixed mechanically, or by manual

page_text: labour, with the liquid above mentioned. From this trough, and through an
opening made therein, the liquid mixture drops into the fermenting tub, deeper
than wide, which must be kept tightly closed during the fermenting work.
At the lower part of this tub a cock is fitted, which lets the liquid mixture
down upon an inclined plane, on which the liquid spreads, so as to be equally
distributed over the whole surface of the sieve. This sieve, of an oblong
rectangular form, is laid just beneath, and its tissue ought to be so close as
to prevent the least fragments of bran from passing through; it is actuated
by the hand, or rather by a crank. In all cases that part of the sieve which is
opposite to the cock must strike upon an unyielding body, for the purpose of
shaking the pellicles remained on the tissue, and driving them down towards
an outlet on the lower part of the sieve, and thence into a trough purposely
contrived for receiving the waters issuing from the sieve, and discharging them
into a tank.
The next operation consists in diluting those pellicles, or rougher parts,
which could not pass through the sieve, sifting them again, and using the
white water resulting therefrom to dilute the foul parts intended for subsequent
operations. The sieve or sieves may sometimes happen to be obstructed by
some parts of gluten adhering thereto, which I wash off with acidulated water
for silk tissues, and with an alkali for metallic ones. This washing method I
deem very important, as its non-application may hinder a rather large opera-
tion, and therefore I wish to secure it. This apparatus may be liable to some
variations, and admit of several sieves superposed, and with different tissues,
the broadest, however, to be placed uppermost.
Among the various descriptions and combinations of sieves that may be
employed, the annexed Sheet of Drawings show one that will give satisfactory
results.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section, and Fig 2 an end view, of the machine
from which the bran is ejected. The apparatus rests upon a cast-iron framing
a, consisting of two cheeks, kept suitably apart by tie pieces b; a strong cross
bar on the upper part admits a wood cylinder c, circled round with iron, and
provided with a wooden cock d. The cylinder c receives through its centre an
arbor f, provided with four arms e, which arbor is supported by two cross bars
9&h, sccured by means of bolts to the uprights i. Motion is imparted to the
arbor by a crank j, by pulleys driven by the endless straps k, and by the
toothed wheel gearing into the wheel m, which is keyed on the upper end of
the arbor f. Beneath the cylinder c, two sieves n & o are borne into a frame
1, suspended on one end to two chains q, and on the other resting on two
guides or bearings r, beneath which, and on the crank shaft, are cams s, by

page_text: which that end of the frame that carries the sieves is alternately raised and
lowered. A strong spring u is set to a shaft borne by the framing a, whilst a
ratchet wheel provided with a click allows the said spring, according to tho
requirements of the work, to give more or less impulse or shaking as the cains
s are acting upon the frame sieve carrying the sieve. Beneath the said frame
a large hopper t is disposed, to receive and lead into a tank the liquid passing
through the sieves. The filter sieve is worked as follows:-After withdrawing,
by means of bolting hutches, 70 per cent., about, of fine flour, I take out of
the remaining 30 per cent. about 20 per cent. of groats, neglecting the
remaining 10 per cent., from which, however, I could separate the little flour
still adhering thereto, but I deem it more available to sell it off in this state.
I submit the 20 per cent. of groats to a suitable vinous fermentation, and have
the whole taken into the cylinder c, there to be stirred by means of the arbor f
and the arms e; after a suitable stirring, the cock d is opened and the liquid
is let out, spread on the uppermost sieve n, which keeps back the coarsest
bran. The liquid drops then into the second sieve or filter o, by which the
least fragments are retained; the passage of the liquid through the filters is
quickened by the quivering motion imparted by the cams s to the frame
carrying the sieve.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein described,
nor do I confine myself likewise to the strict form or shape of the apparatus or
parts of the apparatus herein described; but what I claim as novel, and
therefore as being secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is,
First, manufacturing white bread and biscuits of superior quality, by em-
ploying the whole flour contained in the corn, or, in other words, with such
flour as never yielded till now but bread of an inferior quality.
Second, the use, in the coarse state, or in the state of groats, of all those
parts of the flour which never procured but brown and coarse bread.
Third, the employing at need of an acidulated water for the purpose of
proventing the lactic fermentation, colouring, &c.
Fourth, the destruction by vinous fermentation of the ferment productive of
other alterations, which constitute the chief features of brown bread.
Fifth, the thorough purification of the foul groats, above alluded to, by the
wet sifting previous to or after fermentation.
Sixth, the revivification of dry beer yeast.
Seventh, the sifting apparatus above described, and the method of

page_text: cleaning the sieves and washing off the adherent gluten that would hinder
the work.
Eighth, the application of this principle to every description of grain em-
ployed in the manufacturing of bread.
Ninth, all the applications and details, substantially as described in the
above Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hypolitte Mège, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.