ithout any human
intervention whatever, though as things are, the moulded dough can be
put into the oven without undergoing actual contact with human hands.
In practice, some of the machines mentioned above are often dispensed
with, even in so-called machine bakeries. The flour sifter and blender
is indeed found in many bakeries where mechanical kneaders are
unknown, while not in all machine bakeries would be found dough
weighers and dividers, still less moulding machines. The economical
side of the argument on behalf of machinery is presented in the
familiar shape that a properly equipped machine bakery can turn out
better work at a lower cost (by dispensing with labour), or at any
rate can carry on a bigger trade with the same staff. There is
plausibility in this argument, but it must be admitted that
innumerable bakeries of capacities varying from 10 to 20 sacks per
week are carried on more or less successfully without machinery of any
kind, beyond perhaps a sifter or blender. Moreover, some of these
bakehouses produce bread which can hardly be improved on.

One advantage claimed for flour sifters, besides removing the
impurities, is that by thoroughly aerating flour they cause it to
become more "lively," in which condition it kneads more readily. It is
also quite possible that the air which is thus incorporated with the
dough has a stimulating effect on the yeast, causing a more energetic
fermentation. A strong argument in favour of dough kneaders is their
hygienic aspect. It is agreed that the operation of dough stirring by
hand, since it involves severe labour conducted in a heated
atmosphere, must be liable to cause contamination of the dough through
emanations from the bodies of the operatives. In well-managed bakeries
the utmost personal cleanliness on the part of the staff is exacted,
but the unpleasant contingency alluded to is certainly possible. It is
also contended that the use of machinery for dough kneading and batter
whisking will ensure better work, in the sense that the mass under
treatment will be more thoroughly worked by mechanically driven arms
of iron or steel than by human limbs, liable to weariness and fatigue.
The better worked the dough, the greater its power of expansion, and
consequently the greater its bread-making value.

Dough kneaders.

The most widely known machine used in connexion with bread-baking,
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