g or other foreign
substances which may have found their way into the sack. The sifter
may also be combined with a blender or mixer, so that the baker may by
its means thoroughly blend different flours in any desired proportion.
The operation of blending is usually effected by a revolving blade of
suitable design or by a worm conveyor placed underneath the sieve or
sleeve. From the sifter and blender the flour descends by a sleeve
into the dough kneading machine on the floor below. But in cases where
it is desired merely to sift and blend flour ready for future use, it
may be received in a worm and elevated again to the storage floor by
an ordinary belt and bucket elevator. The water required for doughing
purposes is contained in an iron tank, fixed to the wall in convenient
proximity to the dough kneader. This tank, known as a water
attemperating and measuring tank, is provided with a gauge and
thermometer, and from it the exact quantity of water needed for
doughing can be rapidly drawn off at the desired temperature. The cold
water supply may be let into the tank at the top, and the hot water
supply at the bottom, the idea being that each supply shall permeate
the whole mass by gravity, the hot water ascending and the cold
descending. The chief types of dough kneader will be described
subsequently, but here it should be noted that not only have machines
been devised for cutting out the exact sizes of dough required for
small goods, such as buns and tartlets, but that the operations of
weighing and dividing dough for quartern and half-quartern loaves can
also be neatly and economically effected by machinery. Further, at
least two machines have been built which successfully mould loaves (of
simple shape), and the problem of moulding household bread by
machinery has certainly been solved, but whether delicate twists and
other fancy shapes could be equally well moulded mechanically is less
certain.

The machine bakery, however complete, is not likely ever to be quite
automatic and continuous like a modern flour mill, where the plant is
connected throughout and virtually forms one machine (see FLOUR AND
FLOUR MANUFACTURE), and though the engineer has at least managed to
effect every operation of the bakehouse by mechanical means, it is not
yet possible to shoot a sack of flour into the hopper of the sifter on
the top floor, and to turn it into bread, w