ymmetry of their
construction, and the continued repetition of the same form, are never
better shown than when the men, climbing up the sides of a stack against
which they look small, unbuild the mighty heap, the bags falling on to a
continuous band which carries them jauntily out of the store.

[Illustration: PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND
CONVEYOR.
(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).]

(_b_) _Sorting the Beans._

As all cacao is liable to contain a little free shell, dried pulp (often
taken for twigs), threads of sacking and other foreign matter, it is
very carefully sieved and sorted before passing on to the roasting
shop. In this process curios are occasionally separated, such as palm
kernels, cowrie shells, shea butter nuts, good luck seeds and "crab's
eyes." The essential part of one type of machine (_see illustration_)
which accomplishes this sorting is an inclined revolving cylinder of
wire gauze along which the beans pass. The cylinder forms a continuous
set of sieves of different sized mesh, one sieve allowing only sand to
pass, another only very small beans or fragments of beans, and finally
one holding back anything larger than single beans (_e.g._, "cobs," that
is, a collection of two or more beans stuck together).

[Illustration: CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE.
Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden.]

Another type of cleaning machine is illustrated by the diagram on the
opposite page.

This machine with its shaking sieves and blast of air makes a great
clatter and fuss. It produces, however, what the manufacturers desire--a
clean bean sorted to size.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE.
This is a box fitted with shaking sieves down which the cacao beans pass
in a current of air. Having come over some large and very powerful
magnets, which take out any nails or fragments of iron, they fall on to
a sieve (1/4-inch holes) which the engineer describes as "rapidly
reciprocating and arranged on a slight incline and mounted on spring
bars." This allows grit to pass through. The beans then roll down a
plane on to a sieve (3/8-inch holes) which separates the broken beans,
and finally on to a sieve with oblong holes which allows the beans to
fall through whilst retaining the clusters. The beans encounter a strong
blast of air which brushes from them any shell or dust clinging to
them.]

(_c_) _Roasting the Beans._