FOOTNOTES:

[1] The areas are reduced from the planimetrical calculations made at

Gotha and used by A. Supan in _Die Bevolkerung der Erde_ (1904). They

are corrected to cover all boundary changes to 1906.

[2] The census of 1890 is the last one of which complete returns are

published. That of 1900 was notoriously inaccurate in many instances.

[3] The census returns are for municipalities, and not for cities

proper. As a municipality covers a large extent of country, the

population given is larger than that of the urban parishes, and is

therefore not strictly correct according to European practice.

[4] The Brazilian official titles are given for the state capitals:

Belem for Para; Sao Luiz for Maranhao; Sao Salvador for Bahia; and

Recife for Pernambuco.

[5] The capital of Minas Geraes in 1890 was Ouro Preto; it has since

been transferred to Bello Horizonte, or Cidade de Minas, which has an

estimated population of 25,000.

[6] Since the naval revolt of 1893-1894 the name of the capital of

Santa Catharina has been changed from Desterro to Florianopolis in

honour of President Floriano Peixoto.

[7] The "bran" exported is from imported wheat and cannot be

considered a national product.

[8] The "old metals" consist of old iron, brass, &c., derived from

railway material, machinery, &c., all imported, and should not be

considered a Brazilian product.

The "sundry products" would probably be included in the four general

classes were the items given.

[9] Previous to 1907 these two departments were united in one under

the designation of "Industry, Communications and Public Works." The

division was decreed December 29, 1906.

BRAZIL, a city and the county-seat of Clay county, Indiana, U.S.A.,

situated in the west central part of the state, about 16 m. E. of Terre

Haute and about 57 m. W.S.W. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 5905; (1900)

7786 (723 foreign-born); (1910) 9340. It is served by the Central

Indiana, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Evansville & Indianapolis

and the Vandalia railways, and is connected with Indianapolis, Terre

Haute and other cities by an interurban electric line. The principal

business thoroughfare is part of the old National Road. Brazil's chief

industrial importance is due to its situation in the heart of the

"Brazil block" coal (so named because it naturally breaks into almost

perfect rectangular blocks) and clay and shale region; among its

manufactures are mining machinery and tools, boilers, paving and

enamelled building bricks, hollow bricks, tiles, conduits, sewer-pipe

and pottery. The municipality owns and operates its water-works. The

first settlement here was in 1844; and Brazil was incorporated as a town

in 1866, and was chartered as a city in 1873.

BRAZIL NUTS, the seeds of _Bertholletia excelsa_, a gigantic tree

belonging to the natural order Lecythidaceae, which grows in the valleys

of the Amazons and generally throughout tropical America. The tree

attains an average height of 130 ft., having a smooth cylindrical trunk,

with a diameter of 14 ft. 50 ft. from the ground, and branching at a

height of about 100 ft. The lower portion of the trunk presents a

buttressed aspect, owing to the upward extension of the roots in the

form of thin prop-like walls surrounding the stem. The fruit of the tree

is globular, with a diameter of 5 or 6 in., and consists of a thick hard

woody shell, within which are closely packed the seeds which constitute

the so-called nuts of commerce. The seeds are triangular in form, having

a hard woody testa enclosing the "kernel"; and of these each fruit

contains from eighteen to twenty-five. The fruits as they ripen fall

from their lofty position, and they are at the proper season annually

collected and broken open by the Indians. Brazil nuts are largely eaten;

they also yield in the proportion of about 9 oz. to each lb. of kernels

a fine bland fluid oil, highly valued for use in cookery, and used by

watchmakers and artists.

BRAZIL WOOD, a dye wood of commercial importance, obtained from the West

Indies and South America, belonging to the genera _Caesalpinia_ and

_Peltophorum_ of the natural order Leguminosae. There are several woods

of the kind, commercially distinguished as Brazil wood, Nicaragua or

Peach wood, Pernambuco wood and Lima wood, each of which has a different

commercial value, although the tinctorial principle they yield is

similar. Commercial Brazil wood is imported for the use of dyers in

billets of large size, and is a dense compact wood of a reddish brown

colour, rather bright when freshly cut, but becoming dull on exposure.

The colouring-matter of Brazil wood, brazilin, C16H14O5, crystallizes

with 1-1/2 H2O, and is freely soluble in water; it is extracted for use by

simple infusion or decoction of the coarsely-powdered wood. When freshly

prepared the extract is of a yellowish tint; but by contact with the

air, or the addition of an alkaline solution, it develops a brick-red

colour. This is due to the formation of brazilein, C16H12O5.H2O, which

is the colouring matter used by the dyer. Brazilin crystallizes in

hexagonal amber yellow crystals, which are soluble in water and alcohol.

The solution when free of oxygen is colourless, but on the access of air

it assumes first a yellow and thereafter a reddish yellow colour. With

soda-ley it takes a brilliant deep carmine tint, which colour may be

discharged by heating in a closed vessel with zinc dust, in which

condition, the solution is excessively sensitive to oxygen, the

slightest exposure to air immediately giving a deep carmine. With tin

mordants Brazil wood gives brilliant but fugitive steam reds in

calico-printing; but on account of the loose nature of its dyes it is

seldom used except as an adjunct to other colours. It is used to form

lakes which are employed in tinting papers, staining paper-hangings, and

for various other decorative purposes.

BRAZING AND SOLDERING, in metal work, termed respectively hard and soft

soldering, are processes which correspond with soldering done at high

and at low temperatures. The first embraces jointing effected with

soldering mixtures into which copper, brass, or silver largely enter,

the second those in which lead and tin are the only, or the principal,

constituents. Some metals, as aluminium and cast iron, are less easily

soldered than others. Aluminium, owing to its high conductivity, removes

the heat from the solder rapidly. Aluminium enters into the composition

of most of the solders for these metals, and the "soldering bit" is of

pure nickel.

The hard solders are the spelter and the silver solders. Soft spelter

solder is composed of equal parts of copper and zinc, melted and

granulated and passed through a sieve. As some of the zinc volatilizes

the ultimate proportions are not quite equal. The proportion of zinc is

increased if the solder is required to be softer or more fusible. A

valuable property of the zinc is that its volatilization indicates the

fusing of the solder. Silver solder is used for jewelry and other fine

metal work, arid has the advantage of high fusing points. The hardest

contains from 4 parts of silver to 1 of copper; the softest 2 of silver

to 1 of brass wire. Borax is the flux used, with silver solder as with

spelter.

The soft solders are composed mainly of tin and lead. They occur in a

large range. Common tinner's solder is composed of equal parts of tin

and lead, and melts at 370 deg. Fah. Plumber's solder has 2 of lead to 1

of tin. Excess of lead in plumber's solder renders the solder difficult

to work, excess of tin allows it to melt too easily. Pewterers add

bismuth to render the solder more fusible, e.g. lead 4, tin 3, bismuth

2; or lead 1, tin 2, bismuth 1. Unless these are cooled quickly the

bismuth separates out.

The essentials of a soldered joint are the contact of absolutely clean

surfaces, free from oxide and dirt. The surfaces are therefore scraped,

filed and otherwise treated, and then, in order to cleanse and preserve

them from any trace of oxide which might form during subsequent

manipulation, a fluxing material is used. The soldering material is

compelled to follow the areas prepared for it by the flux, and it will

not adhere anywhere else. There is much similarity between soldering and

welding in this respect. A weld joint must as a rule be fluxed, or metal

will not adhere to metal. There is not, however, the absolute need for

fluxing that there is in soldered joints, and many welds in good fibrous

iron are made without a flux. But the explanation here is that the metal

is brought to a temperature of semifusion, and the shapes of joints are

generally such that particles of scale are squeezed out from between the

joint in the act of closing the weld. But in brazing and soldering the

parts to be united are generally nearly cold, and only the soldering

material is fused, so that the conditions are less favourable to the

removal of oxide than in welding processes.

Fluxes are either liquid or solid, but the latter are not efficient

until they fuse and cover the surfaces to be united. Hydrochloric acid

(spirits of salts) is the one used chiefly for soft soldering. It is

"killed" by the addition of a little zinc, the resulting chloride of

zinc rendering its action quiet. Common fluxes are powdered resin, and

tallow (used chiefly by plumbers for wiped joints). These, with others,

are employed for soft solder joints, the temperature of which rarely

exceeds about 600 deg. Fah. The best flux for zinc is chloride of zinc.

For brazed joints, spelter or powdered brass is employed, and the flux

is usually borax. The borax will not cover the joint until it has been

deprived of its water of crystallization, and this is effected by

raising it to a full red heat, when it swells in bulk, "boils," and

afterwards sinks quietly and spreads over, or into the joint. There are

differences in details of working. The borax is generally powdered and

mixed with the spelter, and both with water. But sometimes they are

applied separately, the borax first and over this the particles of

spelter. Another flux used for copper is sal ammoniac, either alone or

mixed with powdered resin.

As brazed joints often have to be very strong, other precautions are

frequently taken beyond that of the mere overlapping of the joint edges.

In pipes subjected to high steam pressures, and articles subjected to

severe stresses, the joints are "cramped" before the solder is applied.

That is, the edges are notched in a manner having somewhat the

appearance of the dovetails of the carpenter; the notched portions

overlap the opposite edges, and on alternate sides. Such joints when

brazed are stronger than plain overlapping joints would be. Steam dome

coverings are jointed thus longitudinally as cylinders, and the crown is

jointed thereto, also by cramping. Another common method of union is

that of flanges to copper pipes. In these the pipe passes freely within

a hole bored right through the flange, and the solder is run between.

The pipe is suspended vertically, flange downwards, and the spelter run

in from the back of the flange. The fused borax works its way in by

capillary action, and the spelter follows.

The "copper bit" is used in soft soldering. Its end is a prismatic

pyramid of copper, riveted to an iron shank in a wooden handle. It is

made hot, and the contained heat is sufficient to melt the solder. It

has to be "tinned," by being heated to a dull red, filed, rubbed with

sal ammoniac, and then rubbed upon the solder. It is wiped with tow

before use. For small brazed work the blow-pipe is commonly employed;

large works are done on the brazier's hearth, or in any clear coke fire.

If coal is used it must be kept away from the joint.

In "sweating on," a variation in soldering, the surfaces to be united

are cleaned, and solder melted and spread over them. They are then

brought together, and the temperature raised sufficiently to melt the

solder.

A detail of first importance is the essential difference between the

melting points of the objects to be brazed or soldered, and that of the

solder used. The latter must always be lower than the former. This

explains why soldering materials are used in a large range of

temperatures. A few will melt at the temperature of boiling water. At

the other extreme 2000 deg. Fah. is required to melt a solder for

brazing. If this point is neglected, it will often happen that the

object to be soldered will fuse before the solder melts. This accident

may occur in the soft Britannia and white metals at the one extreme, and

in the softer brasses at the other. It would not do, for example, to use

flanges of common brass, or even ordinary gun-metal, to be brazed to

copper pipe, for they would begin to fuse before the joint was made.

Such flanges must be made of nearly pure copper, to withstand the

temperature, usually 98 of copper to 2 of tin (brazing metal). A most

valuable feature in solder is that by varying the proportions of the

metals used a great range in hardness and fusibility is obtainable. The

useful solders therefore number many scores. This is also a source of

danger, unless regard be had to the relative fusing points of solders,

and of the parts they unite. (J. G. H.)

BRAZZA, PIERRE PAUL FRANCOIS CAMILLE SAVORGNAN DE, COUNT (1852-1905),

French explorer and administrator, founder of French Congo, was born on

board ship in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro on the 26th of January 1852.

He was of Italian parentage, the family name being de Brazza Savorgnani.

Through the instrumentality of the astronomer Secchi he was sent to the

Jesuit college in Paris, and in 1868 obtained authorization to enter as

a foreigner the marine college at Brest. In the Franco-Prussian War of

1870-71 he took part in the operations of the French fleet. In 1874 when

the warship on which he was serving was in the Gabun, Alfred Marche and

the marquis de Compiegne arrived at Libreville from an expedition in the

lower Ogowe district. Interested in the reports of these travellers, de

Brazza conceived the idea of exploring the Ogowe, which he thought might

prove to be the lower course of the Lualaba, a river then recently

discovered by David Livingstone. Having meantime been naturalized as a

Frenchman, de Brazza in 1875 obtained permission to undertake his

African scheme, and with the naval doctor, Noel Ballay, he explored the

Ogowe river. Penetrating beyond the basin of that river, he discovered

the Alima and Likona, but did not descend either stream. Thence turning

northwards the travellers eventually regained the coast at the end of

November 1878, having left Paris in August 1875. On arrival in Paris, de

Brazza learned of the navigation of the Congo by H.M. Stanley, and

recognized that the rivers he had discovered were affluents of that

stream.

De Brazza was anxious to obtain for France some part of the Congo. The

French ministry, however, determined to utilize his energies in another

quarter of Africa. Their attention had been drawn to the Niger through

the formation of the United African Company by Sir George Goldie (then

Mr Goldie Taubman) in July 1879, Goldie's object being to secure Nigeria

for Great Britain. A new expedition was fitted out, and de Brazza left

Paris at the end of 1879 with orders to go to the Niger, make treaties,

and plant French flags. When on the point of sailing; from Lisbon he

received a telegram cancelling these instructions, and altering his

destination to the Congo. This was a decision of great moment. Had the

Nigerian policy of France been maintained the International African

Association (afterwards the Congo Free State) would have had a clear

field on the Congo, while the young British Company would have been

crushed out by French opposition; so that the two great basins of the

Niger and the Congo would have had a vastly different history.

Acting on his new instructions, de Brazza, who was again accompanied by

Ballay, reached the Gabun early in 1880. Rapidly ascending the Ogowe he

founded the station of Franceville on the upper waters of that river and

pushed on to the Congo at Stanley Pool, where Brazzaville was

subsequently founded. With Makoko, chief of the Bateke tribe, de Brazza

concluded treaties in September and October 1880, placing the country

under French protection. With these treaties in his possession Brazza

proceeded down the Congo, and at Isangila on the 7th of November met

Stanley, who was working his way up stream concluding treaties with the

chiefs on behalf of the International African Association. De Brazza

spent the next eighteen months exploring the hinterland of the Gabun,

and returned to France in June 1882. The ratification by the French

chambers in the following November of the treaties with Makoko

(described by Stanley as worthless pieces of paper) committed France to

the action of her agent.

Furnished with funds by the French government, de Brazza returned in

1883 to the Congo to open up the new colony, of which he was named

commissioner-general in 1886. This post he held until January 1898, when

he was recalled. During his period of office the work of exploration was

systematically carried out by numerous expeditions which he organized.

The incessant demands on the resources of the infant colony for these

and other expeditions to the far interior greatly retarded its progress.

De Brazza's administration was severely criticized; but that its

comparative failure was largely due to inadequate support from the home

authorities was recognized in the grant to him in 1902 of a pension by

the chambers. Both as explorer and administrator his dealings with the

natives were marked by consideration, kindness and patience, and he

earned the title of "Father of the Slaves." His efforts to connect the

upper Congo with the Atlantic by a railway through French territory

showed that he understood the chief economic needs of the colony. After

seven years of retirement in France de Brazza accepted, in February

1905, a mission to investigate charges of cruelty to natives brought

against officials of the Congo colony. Having concluded his inquiry he

sailed for France, but died at Dakar, Senegal, on the 4th of September

1905. His body was taken to Paris for burial, but in 1908 was reinterred

at Algiers.

See D. Neuville et Ch. Breard, _Les Voyages de Savorgnan de Brazza,

Ogooue et Congo, 1875-1882_ (Paris, 1884), and _Conferences et lettres

de P. Savorgnan de Brazza sur ses trois explorations dans l'ouest

africain de 1875 a 1886_ (Paris, 1887); A.J. Wauters, "Savorgnan de

Brazza et la conquete du Congo francais," in _Le Mouvement

geographique_, vol. xxii., No. 39 (Brussels, 1905). Giacomo or Jacques

de Brazza (1859-1883), a younger brother of Savorgnan, and one of the

men he employed in the work of exploration, published in collaboration

with his companion A. Pecile, _Tre Anni e mezzo nella regione del

Congo e dell' Ogowe_ (Rome, 1887). (G. T. G.)

BRAZZA (Serbo-Croatian, _Brac;_ Lat. _Brattia_), an island in the

Adriatic Sea, forming part of Dalmatia, Austria. Pop. (1900) 24,408.

With an area of 170 sq. m. Brazza is the largest of the Dalmatian

Islands; it is also the most thickly populated, and one of the most

fertile. Its closely cultivated surface though ragged and mountainous

yields an abundance of olives, figs, almonds and saffron, while its

wines are of good quality. The corn-crop, however, barely suffices for

three months' food. Other local industries are fishing and

silkworm-rearing. The most important among twenty small villages on the

island is Milna (pop. 2579), a steamship station, provided with

shipwrights' wharves. The early history of Brazza is obscure. In the

first years of the 13th century it was ruled by the piratical counts of

Almissa; but after a successful revolt and a brief period of liberty it

came under the dominion of Hungary. From 1413 to 1416 it was subject to

Ragusa; and in 1420 it passed, with the greater part of Dalmatia, under

Venetian sovereignty.

BREACH (Mid. Eng. _breche_, derived from the common Teutonic root

_brec_, which appears in "break," Ger. _brechen_, &c.), in general, a

breaking, or an opening made by breaking; in law, the infringement of a

right or the violation of an obligation or duty. The word is used in

various phrases: _breach of close_, the unlawful entry upon another

person's land (see TRESPASS); _breach of covenant or contract_, the

non-fulfilment of an agreement either to do or not to do some act (see

DAMAGES); _breach of the peace_, a disturbance of the public order (see

PEACE, BREACH OF); _breach of pound_, the taking by force out of a pound

things lawfully impounded (see POUND); _breach of promise of marriage_,

the non-fulfilment of a contract mutually entered into by a man and a

woman that they will marry each other (see MARRIAGE); _breach of trust_,

any deviation by a trustee from the duty imposed upon him by the

instrument creating the trust (_q.v_.).

BREAD, the name given to the staple food-product prepared by the baking

of flour. The word itself, O. Eng. _bread_, is common in various forms

to many Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. _Brot_, Dutch, _brood_, and Swed.

and Dan. _brot_; it has been derived from the root of "brew," but more

probably is connected with the root of "break," for its early uses are

confined to "broken pieces, or bits" of bread, the Lat. _frustum_, and

it was not till the 12th century that it took the place, as the generic

name of bread, of _hlaf_, "loaf," which appears to be the oldest

Teutonic name, cf. Old High Ger. _hleib_, and modern Ger. _Laib_.

_History._--Bread-baking, or at any rate the preparation of cakes from

flour or parched grain by means of heat, is one of the most ancient of

human arts. At Wangen and Robenhausen have been found the calcined

remains of cakes made from coarsely-ground grain in Swiss lake-dwellings

that date back to the Stone Age. The cakes were made of different kinds

of grain, barley and one-grained wheat (_Triticum monococcum_) being

among the ingredients. This bread was made, not from fine meal, but from

grain crushed between some hard surfaces, and in these lake-dwellings

many round-shaped stones have been found, which were evidently used for

pounding or crushing grain against the surface, more or less concave, of

another stone (see FLOUR AND FLOUR MANUFACTURE). Perhaps the earliest

form of bread, if that word may be used, was prepared from acorns and

beech nuts. To this day a sort of cake prepared from crushed acorns is

eaten by the Indians of the Pacific slopes. The flour extracted from

acorns is bitter and unfit to eat till it has been thoroughly soaked in

boiling water. The saturated flour is squeezed into a kind of cake and

dried in the sun. Pliny speaks of a similar crude process in connexion

with wheat; the grain was evidently pounded, and the crushed remnant,

soaked into a sort of pulp, then made into a cake and dried in the sun.

Virgil (_Georgics_, i. 267) refers to the husbandman first torrefying

and then crushing his grain between stones:--"_Nunc torrete igni fruges,

nunc frangite saxo._"

The question naturally arises, how did the lake-dwellers bake their

cakes of bruised grain? Probably the dough was laid on a flat or

convex-shaped stone, which was heated, while the cake was covered with

hot ashes. Stones have been found among prehistoric remains which were

apparently used for this purpose. In ancient Egyptian tombs cakes of

durra have been found, of concave shape, suggesting the use of such

baking-slabs; here the cake was evidently prepared from coarsely-cracked

grain. In primitive times milling and baking were twin arts. The

housewife, and the daughters or handmaids, crushed or ground the grain

and prepared the bread or cakes. When Abraham entertained the angels

unawares (Genesis xviii.) he bade his wife Sarah "make ready quickly

three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth."

Professor Maspero says that an oven for baking bread was to be found in

the courtyard of every house in Chaldaea; close by were kept the

grinding stones. That bread prepared by means of leaven was known in the

days of the patriarchs may be fairly inferred from the passage in

Genesis ML, where it is said of Lot that he "made a feast, and did bake

unleavened bread." Whether the shew-bread of the Jewish tabernacle was

leavened is an open question, but it is significant that the Passover

cakes eaten by Jews to-day, known as Matzos, are innocent of leaven.

Made from flour and water only, they are about 12 in. in diameter, and

have somewhat the look of water biscuits.

The ancient Egyptians carried the art of baking to high perfection.

Herodotus remarks of them, "dough they knead with their feet, but clay

with their hands." The practice of using the feet for dough kneading,

however repulsive, long persisted in Scotland, if indeed it is yet

defunct. The Egyptians used for their bread, wheat, spelt, barley and

durra (sorghum). In the opinion of Dr Wallis Budge, barley was in Egypt

the grain of most primitive culture. However that may be, it is certain

that even in ancient Egypt white bread made from wheat was used by the

rich. The form of the bread is revealed by ancient monuments. A common

shape was a small, round loaf, something like the muffin of to-day.

Other loaves were elongated rolls, and curiously enough were sprinkled

on the top with seeds like modern Vienna bread.

The history of baking in classical Greece and Italy can be clearly

traced. Athenaeus in his _Deipnosophists_ minutely describes many

different kinds of bread, which may be assumed to have been currently

used in Greece. According to Pliny (_Nat. Hist_, xviii. II. S 28) Rome

had no public bakers till after the war with Perseus (171-168 B.C.).

That long after public bakehouses came into use the Romans and other

urban dwellers in Italy continued to make a great deal of bread at home

is certain. In Pompeii several private houses had their own mill and

bakehouse. That city must also have possessed bakers by trade, as loaves

of bread have been found, round in form, and stamped with the maker's

name, possibly to fix responsibility for weight and purity. In the time

of the Republic, public bakehouses were under the control of the

aediles. Grain was delivered to the public granaries by the _Saccarii_,

while another body called _Catabolenses_ distributed the grain to the

bakers. The latter were known as _Pistores_ or "pounders," a

reminiscence no doubt of the primitive time when grain was pounded by a

pestle in a mortar. Slaves were largely employed in the irksome work of

grinding, and when Constantine abolished slavery the staff of the

_pistrinae_ was largely recruited from criminals. The emperor Trajan

incorporated about A.D. 100 the college of _Pistores_ (millers and

bakers), but its members were employers, not operatives. The work of a

bakery is depicted in a set of bas-reliefs on the tomb of a master

Pistor named Eurysaces, who flourished about a century before the

foundation of the college. Here the grain is being brought and paid for;

mills driven by horse and ass (or mule) power are busy; men are sieving

out the bran from the flour by hand (bolters); bakers are moulding

loaves on a board; an oven of domelike shape is being charged by means

of a shovel (peel); and baskets of bread are being weighed on the one

hand and carried off on men's backs on the other.

_Regulation of Sale._--In the middle ages bakers were subjected to

special regulations in all European lands. These regulations were

supposed to be conceived in the interests of bread consumers, and no

doubt were intended to secure fair dealing on the part of bread vendors.

The legislators appear, however, to have been unduly biased against the

baker, who was often beset by harassing restrictions. Bakers were formed

into gilds, which were under the control, not only of their own

officials, but of the municipality. In London the bakers formed a

brotherhood as early as 1155, and were incorporated in 1307. There were

two distinct corporate bodies concerned with bread-making, the Company

of White Bakers and the Company of Brown Bakers; these were nominally

united in 1509, but the union did not become complete till the middle of

the 17th century. In Austria, bakers who offended against police

regulations respecting the sale of bread were liable, until

comparatively recent times, to fine, imprisonment and even corporal

punishment. In Turkey the lot of the baker was very hard. Baron de Tott,

writing of Constantinople in the 18th century, says that it was usual,

when bread went to famine prices, to hang a baker or two. He would have

us believe that it was the custom of master bakers to keep a second

hand, who, in consideration of a small increase of his weekly wage, was

willing to appear before the cadi in case a victim were wanted. A

barbarous punishment, inflicted in Turkey and in Egypt on bakers who

sold light or adulterated bread, consisted in nailing the culprit by his

ear to the door-post of his shop. In France a decree of 1863 relieved

bakers from many of the restrictions under which they previously

suffered, but it did not touch the powers of the municipalities to

regulate the quality and sale of bread. It left them the right conferred

in 1791, to enforce the _taxe du pain_, the object of which was to

prevent bakers from increasing the price of bread beyond a point

justified by the price of the raw materials; but the right was exercised

on their own responsibility, subject to appeal to higher authorities,

and by a circular issued in 1863 they were invited to abolish this _taxe

officielle_. In places where it exists it is fixed every week or

fortnight, according to the average price of grain in the local markets.

In England an act of parliament was passed in 1266 for regulating the

price of bread by a public assize, and that system continued in

operation till 1822 in the case of the city of London, and till 1836 for

the rest of the country. The price of bread was determined by adding a

certain sum to the price of every quarter of flour, to cover the baker's

expenses and profit; and for the sum so arrived at tradesmen were

required to bake and sell eighty quartern loaves or a like proportion of

other sizes, which it was reckoned each quarter of flour ought to yield.

The acts now regulating the manufacture and sale of bread in Great

Britain are one of 1822 (Sale of Bread in the City of London and within

10 m. of the Royal Exchange), and the Bread Act of 1836, as to sale of

bread beyond 10 m. of the Royal Exchange. The acts require that bread

shall be sold by weight, and in no other manner, under a penalty not

exceeding forty shillings. This does not, however, mean that a seller is

bound to sell at any particular weight; the words quartern and

half-quartern, though commonly used and taken to indicate a 4-lb. and

2-lb. loaf respectively, have no legal sanction. That is to say, a baker

is not bound to sell a loaf weighing either 4 lb. or 2; all he has to

do, when a customer asks for a loaf, is to put one on the scale, weigh

it, and declare the weight. When bread is sold over the counter it is

usual for the vendor to cut off and tender a piece of bread to make up

any deficiency in the loaf. This is known as the "overweight." There is

little doubt the somewhat misty wording of the bread acts lends itself

to a good deal of fraudulent dealing. For instance, when bread is sold

over the counter, two loaves may be 5 or 6 oz. short, while the piece of

makeweight may not reach an ounce. The customer sees the bread put on

the scale, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred does not trouble to

verify the weight, and unless he expressly asks for 2 lb. or some

specific weight of bread, it is very doubtful whether the seller, having

satisfied the letter of the law by placing the bread on the scales,

could be convicted of fraud. The provision as to selling by weight does

not apply to fancy bread and rolls. No exact definition of "fancy bread"

has ever been laid down, and it must be largely a question of fact in

each particular case. All bakers or sellers of bread must use

avoirdupois weight, and must provide, in a conspicuous place in the

shop, beams, scales and weights, in order that all bread there sold may

from time to time be weighed in the presence of the purchaser. The

penalty for using any other weight than avoirdupois is a sum not

exceeding L5 nor less than forty shillings, and for failing to provide

beams and scales a sum not exceeding L5. Also every baker and seller of

bread, delivering by cart or other conveyance, must be provided with

scales and weights for weighing bread; but since the Weights and

Measures Act 1889, no penalty is incurred by omission to weigh, unless

there has been a request on the part of the purchaser. The acts also

define precisely what ingredients may be employed in the manufacture of

bread, and impose a penalty not exceeding L10 nor less than L5 for the

adulteration of bread. (See further under ADULTERATION.)

Although the act of 1836 extends to the whole of the United Kingdom

(Ireland excepted) out of the city of London and beyond 10 m. of the

Royal Exchange, yet in many Scottish burghs this act is replaced by

local acts on the sale of bread. These are in all cases of a much more

stringent nature, requiring all batch or household bread to be stamped

with the reputed weight. Any deficiency within a certain time from the

withdrawal of the bread from the oven is an offence. The London County

Council desired to introduce a similar system into the area under their

jurisdiction, and promoted a bill to that effect in 1905, but it fell

through. The bill was opposed not only by the National Association of

Master Bakers, the London Master Bakers' Protection Society, and by the

West End metropolitan bakers in a body, but also by the Home Office,

which objected to what it termed exceptional legislation.

It may be noted that the acts of 1822 and 1836 define precisely what may

and may not be sold as bread. It is laid down in section 2 that "it

shall and may be lawful ... to make and sell ... bread made of flour or

meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas, beans,

rice or potatoes, or any of them, and with any (common) salt, pure

water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato or other yeast, and mixed in

such proportions as they shall think fit, and with no other ingredients

or matter whatsoever."

_Sanitation of Bakehouses._--The sanitary arrangements of bakehouses in

England were first regulated by the Bakehouse Regulation Act 1863, which

was repealed and replaced by the Factory and Workshop Act 1878; this

act, with various amending acts, was in turn repealed and replaced by

the Factory and Workshop Act 1901. By the act of 1901 a bakehouse is

defined as a place in which are baked bread, biscuits or confectionery,

from the baking or selling of which a profit is derived. The act of 1863

placed the sanitary supervision of bakehouses in the hands of local

authorities; from 1878 to 1883 supervision was in the hands of

inspectors of factories, but in 1883 the supervision of retail

bakehouses was placed in the hands of local authorities. Under the act

of 1901 the supervision of bakehouses which are "workshops" is carried

out by local authorities, and for the purposes of the act every

bakehouse is a workshop unless within it, or its close or curtilage or

precincts, steam, water or other mechanical power is used in aid of the

manufacturing process carried on there, in which case it is treated as a

non-textile factory, and is under the supervision of factory inspectors.

The more important regulations laid down by the act are: (1) No

water-closet, &c., must be within or communicate directly with the

bakehouse; every cistern for supplying water to the bakehouse must be

separate and distinct from any cistern supplying a water-closet; no

drain or pipe for carrying off sewage matter shall have an opening

within the bakehouse. (2) The interior of all bakehouses must be

limewashed, painted or varnished at stated periods. (3) No place on

the same level with a bakehouse or forming part of the same building

may be used as a sleeping place, unless specially constructed to meet

the requirements of the act. (4) No underground bakehouse (one of

which the floor is more than 3 ft. below the surface of the footway of

the adjoining street) shall be used unless certified by the district

council as suitable for the purpose (see Redgrave, _Factory Acts_;

Evans Austin, _Factory Acts_).

_Bread Sluffs._--As compared with wheat-flour, all other materials used

for making bread are of secondary importance. Rye bread is largely

consumed in some of the northern parts of Europe, and cakes of maize

meal are eaten in the United States. In southern Europe the meal of

various species of millet is used, and in India and China durra and

other cereal grains are baked for food. Of non-cereal flour, the

principal used for bread-making is buckwheat (_Fagopyrum esculentum_),

extensively employed in Russia, Holland and the United States. The flour

of pease, beans and other leguminous seeds is also baked into cakes, and

in South America the meal of the tapioca plant, _Jatropha Manihot_, is

employed. But, excepting rye, none of these substances is used for

making vesiculated or fermented bread.

Quality of flour.

A normal sample of wheat-flour consists roughly of 10 parts of moisture,

72 of starch, 14 of nitrogenous matter, 2.25 of fatty matters, and 1.75%

of mineral matter. Starch is thus the predominating component; it is

not, however, the dough-forming ingredient. By itself, starch, when

saturated with water, forms a putty-like mass devoid of coherence, and

it is the gluten of the nitrogenous matter which is the binding

constituent in dough-making, because when wetted it forms a more or less

elastic body. The proportion of gluten in wheat-flour varies from 7 to

15%, but the mere quantity of gluten is by no means the only standard of

the commercial value of the flour, the quality also counting for much.

One of the functions of gluten is to produce a high or well-piled loaf,

and its value for this purpose depends largely on its quality. This is

turn depends largely on the variety of wheat; certain races of wheat are

much richer in nitrogenous elements than others, but such wheats

usually only flourish in certain countries. Soil and climate are

undoubtedly factors in modifying the character of wheat, and necessarily

therefore of the flour. The same wheat grown in the same soil will show

very varying degrees of strength (i.e. of gluten) in different seasons.

For instance, the north-western districts of America grow a hard spring

wheat which in a normal season is of almost unequalled strength. In 1904

an excess of moisture and deficiency in sun in the Red River Valley

during the critical months of June and July caused a serious attack of

red and black rust in these wheat fields, the disease being more

virulent in the American than the Canadian side of the valley. The

result was that the quality of the gluten of that season's American

spring wheat was most seriously affected, its famed strength being

almost gone. Wheat from the Canadian side was also affected, but not

nearly to so great an extent. Flour milled from hard winter wheat in the

American winter districts is sometimes nearly as strong as the spring

wheat of the North-west. Hungarian flour milled from Theis wheat is also

very strong, and so is the flour milled from some south Russian spring

wheats. But here again the degree of strength will vary from season to

season in a remarkable manner. In the main each land has its own clearly

marked type of wheat. While the United States, Canada, Hungary and

Russia are each capable of growing strong wheat, Great Britain, France

and Germany produce wheat more or less weak. It follows that the bread

baked from flour milled from wheat from British, French or German wheat

alone would not make a loaf of sufficient volume, judged by present

British standards. As a matter of fact, except in some country

districts, British bakers either use strong foreign flour to blend with

English country flour, or, more frequently, they are supplied with flour

by British millers milled from a blend in which very often English wheat

has a small, or no place at all. If the baker's trade calls for the

making of household bread, especially of the London type, he must use a

strong flour, with plenty of staple gluten in it, because it is this

element which supplies the driving or lifting force, without which a

high, bold loaf cannot be produced. If the demand is for tin or (as it

is called in many parts of the north of England) pan bread, a weaker

flour will suffice, as the tin will keep it up. A Vienna loaf should be

made with at least a certain proportion of Hungarian patent flour, which

is normally the highest-priced flour in the market, though probably the

bulk of the Vienna rolls made in London contain no Hungarian flour. A

cake of flat shape can be very well made with a rather weak flour, but

any cake that is required to present a domed top cannot be prepared

without a flour of some strength.

Flavour of flour.

It is a general opinion, though contested by some authorities, that

soft, weak flours contain more flavour than strong, harsh flours. The

strong wheats of the American and Canadian North-West make less flavoury

flour than soft red winter from the American South-West. It would not,

however, be correct to say that all strong wheats are necessarily less

full of flavour than weak wheats. Hungarian wheat, for instance, is one

of the strongest wheats of the world, but has a characteristic and

pleasant flavour of its own. Indian wheats, on the other hand, are not

particularly strong, but are liable to give a rather harsh flavour to

the bread. English, French and German wheats, when harvested in good

condition, produce flour of more or less agreeable flavour. None of

these wheats could be classified as strong, though from each of those

lands wheat of fair strength may be obtained under favourable

meteorological conditions. The Australasian continent raises white wheat

of fine quality which has much affinity with British wheat--it is the

descendant in many cases of seed wheats imported from England--but it is

occasionally stronger. The resultant flour is noted for its sweetness.

Both millers and bakers who are concerned with the supply of high-class

bread and flour make free use of what may be termed flavoury wheats. The

proportion of English wheat used in London mills is very small, but

millers who supply West-End bakeries with what is known as top-price

flour are careful to use a certain amount of English wheat, if it is to

be had in prime condition. They term this ingredient of their mixture

"sugar." London bakers again, with customers who appreciate nicely

flavoured bread, will "pitch" into their trough a certain proportion of

English country flour, that is, flour milled entirely or chiefly from

English wheat, which under such conditions is strengthened by a blend of

strong flour, a patent flour for choice. It has been objected that as

English wheat contains a large proportion of starch, and as starch is

admittedly destitute of flavour, there is no reason why flour milled

from English wheat should possess a sweeter flavour than any other

starchy wheat flour. Experience, however, has amply proved that

well-ripened English wheat produces bread with an agreeable flavour,

though it does not follow that all English wheat is under all conditions

capable of baking bread of the highest quality. But it would be as

fallacious to hold that weak flour is necessarily flavoury, as that all

strong flour is insipid and harsh. Different wheats are undoubtedly

possessed of different flavours, but not all these flavours are of a

pleasing character. In some cases the very reverse is true. Californian

and Australian wheats have occasionally aromatic odours, due to the

presence of certain seeds, that will impart an objectionable flavour to

the resultant bread.

While the essential character of particular wheats will account for a

good deal of the flavour that may be detected in the bread made from

them, the baking process must also be responsible to some extent for

flavour. The temperature of the oven and the degree of fermentation must

be factors in the question. It has been asserted that the same flour

will bake into bread of very different flavour according as the

fermentation is carried out slowly or quickly, or as the oven is hot or

the reverse. A high temperature seems to have the effect of quickly

drawing out the subtle essences which go to give flavour to the bread,

but it is a question whether they are not subsequently rapidly

volatilized and partially or wholly lost. The rapid formation of a solid

crust is no doubt likely to retain some of these flavouring essences. A

moist, or "slack," sponge, or dough, appears distinctly favourable to

the retention of flavour, the theory being that under such conditions

the yeast, having more room to "breathe," works more easily, and is

therefore less likely to convert into food those soluble constituents of

the flour which give flavour.

Colour of flour.

The colour of flour is a valuable, though not an infallible, index to

its baking qualities. Thus, a flour of good colour, by which bakers mean

a flour of bright appearance, white, but not a dull dead white, will

usually bake into a loaf of good appearance. At the same time, a flour

of pronounced white tint may bake into a dirty grey loaf. This has been

particularly noted in the case of flours milled in Argentina. The colour

of flour will vary from a rich, creamy white to a dull grey, according

to its quality. The different shades are many and various, but the

prevailing tints are comparatively few. Perhaps Blandy's classification

of the colours as white, yellow, red, brown and grey is as serviceable

as any. Each of these tints is directly caused by the presence of

certain substances. White denotes the presence of a considerable

proportion of starch, while a pronounced yellow tint proclaims gluten of

more or less good quality. Red and brown are tints only found in flours

of low grade, because they are sure proofs of an undue proportion of

branny or fibrous particles. A greyish flour invariably contains

impurities, such as crease dirt, from the wheat, the intensity of the

tint varying in proportion to their amount. With regard to a yellow

tint, though this always denotes the presence of gluten, it is difficult

to estimate the baking quality of the flour by the shade of yellow. In

the best Hungarian patent flour the whole sample will be suffused by an

amber tint, known to Budapest and Vienna bakers as _gelblicher Stich_.

Rolls baked from the best Hungarian flour will not infrequently cut

yellow as if eggs had been used in making them up, though nothing more

than flour, yeast and water has been employed. Strong flour milled from

American or Canadian spring wheat is also yellowish in colour, but the

tint is not so deep as with Hungarian flour. On the other hand, there

are flours of no great strength, such as those from some Australian

wheats, which are apt to look yellow. When the colour of flour is not

maintained in the bread, the reason is generally to be found in the

baking process employed. Colour is a fairly trustworthy, but not an

absolute guide to the chemical composition of flour.

Damp and flour.

Unfortunately not all flour of good colour is sound for bread-making

purposes. Wheat which has been harvested in a damp condition, or has

been thoroughly soaked, by drenching showers previous to cutting, or has

got wet in the stook, is liable, unless carefully handled, to produce

flour that will only bake flat, sodden loaves. Wheat which has received

too much rain as it is approaching maturity, and has then been exposed

to strong sunlight, is peculiarly liable to sprout. This seems to happen

not infrequently to La Plata wheat, and though wheat shippers in that

country are usually careful to clean off the little green spikes, this

outward cleansing does not remedy the mischief wrought to the internal

constitution of the berry. Such wheat makes flour lacking in strength

and stability. Its gluten is immature and low in percentage, while the

soluble albuminoids are in high percentage and in a more or less active

diastasic state. The starch granules are liable to have weakened or

fissured walls, and the proportion of moisture and of soluble extract

will be high. With regard to the beneficial action of kiln or other

drying on damp flour, William Jago was convinced by a series of

experiments that the gentle artificial drying of flour increases its

water-absorbing capacity to about three times the amount of water lost

by evaporation. On the other hand, a damp flour dried too quickly and at

too great a heat is liable to be made more instead of less susceptible

to diastasic changes.

_Alum._--Strictly speaking, when employed with weak and unstable

flours alum is a remedial agent. The popular idea that it acts as a

kind of bleacher of flour, having the faculty of converting flour that

is dark-coloured through containing a sensible proportion of branny

particles and woody fibre, into white-coloured loaves, is erroneous.

Its action as a producer of white bread is indirect, not direct,

though it is none the less effective. It seems to act as a brace to or

steadier of unstable gluten. If from the same wheat a certain

proportion of gluten be extracted and divided into two parts, of which

one is placed in a glass of water containing a strong solution of

alum, and the other in a glass of plain water, the gluten in the

latter case will become spent days and perhaps weeks before the sample

in the alumed water is disintegrated. The place of alum in the process

of fermentation is well marked. By holding together unstable gluten,

it checks the diastasic action, and the proportion of starch converted

into glucose (grape sugar) is reduced, with the result that a whiter

and more porous loaf is produced. It is generally admitted that by the

use of alum more or less eatable bread may be baked from flour which

otherwise could hardly be made into bread at all. Strictly, therefore,

this substance is not an adulterant, inasmuch as it is not a

substitute in any sense for flour. But it is admittedly unwholesome,

and therefore its legal interdiction for alimentary purposes is quite

justifiable. Another aspect of the use of alum is that it is employed

for the purpose of enabling bakers to use poor flour.

A fairly satisfactory test for alum in bread (or flour) is afforded by

an alkaline solution of logwood and a saturated solution of ammonium

carbonate. The presence of alum is shown by a lavender or full blue

colour. The depth of the tint is said to be a rough guide to the

quantity of alum present. According to Jago this test is so sensitive

that it has resulted in the detection of 7 grains of alum in a 4-lb

loaf.

Besides alum, small quantities of copper sulphate have been used for

checking diastasis and retarding fermentation. This substance has the

same effect as alum, but as all copper salts are active poisons, the

employment of copper sulphate is most strongly to be condemned.

_Lime-water._--The object of using either alum or copper sulphate is

to check over-rapid diastasis during fermentation. Baron Liebig

pointed out a much less objectionable means of attaining the same end

by means of lime-water, about 1-1/2 oz. of fresh quicklime being

dissolved in the water used for doughing one sack of flour. Bread made

in this way is said to be spongy in texture, of agreeable flavour, and

perfectly free from acidity. In the baked loaf the lime is transformed

into calcium carbonate (chalk) by the carbon dioxide resulting from

the panary fermentation. It is said that an increased yield of bread

may be obtained by the use of lime-water; the explanation may be that

lime-water, by retarding the degradation of the gluten and the

diastasis of the starch, increases the water-retaining power of the

flour, so that the same weight of flour yields a greater volume of

bread.

_Unvesiculated and Vesiculated Bread._--Wheaten bread may be divided

into two main divisions, unvesiculated and vesiculated. The term

vesiculated simply means provided with vesicles, or small membranous

cavities, such as are found in all bread that has been treated by yeast,

leaven or any other agent for rendering it spongiform in structure by

the action of carbonic acid gas. Nearly all bread eaten by civilized

folk is vesiculated, though there are different methods and processes

for attaining this result. Into the category of unvesiculated bread

enter such products as the Australian damper, a flat cake prepared from

flour, water and salt, and baked in the hot ashes of a wood fire. The

dough is spread on a flat stone and covered with a tin plate, while the

hot ashes are heaped around and over it; the heat should not be much in

excess of 212 deg. Fahr. The scone, the bannock and other similar cakes,

still much appreciated in Scotland and the north of England, are also

examples of unvesiculated bread. They are baked on hot plates or

"griddles," on hearths, and sometimes in ovens. Biscuits differ from

these cakes in the fact that they are baked by a high instead of a

moderate heat. But they enter so far into the class of unvesiculated

bread that they are generally prepared without the aid of any such

aerating agent as carbon dioxide. (See BISCUIT.)

Vesiculated bread is now the only article of diet made from flour to

which the term bread is applied, and there are various ways of producing

the spongiform texture by which it is characterized. The ordinary and

doubtless the most satisfactory way is by developing the carbon dioxide

within the dough itself by the use of yeast (q.v.) or leaven, which sets

up alcoholic fermentation, splitting up the saccharine matters in the

flour into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The latter is retained by the

dough and distends it, causing the bread to "rise." Or the carbon

dioxide may be artificially introduced, as in the so-called "aerated"

bread (see below), or it may be produced by the agency of certain

chemicals, as for instance of baking powders.

Baking powders.

Such powders are mixtures which, under the influence of either water or

heat, evolve carbon dioxide. These powders have been divided by Jago

into three groups:--(1) _Tartrate_ powders, in which the acid

constituent is either free or partly combined tartaric acid; (2)

_Phosphate_ powders, in which the acid is some form of phosphoric acid;

(3) _Alum_ powders. All these powders have a more or less aperient

action on the human system. Tartrate powders have the disadvantage that

both commercial tartaric acid and cream of tartar frequently contain

lead, a poisonous substance. Phosphate powders are less open to

objection, as they are more easy to obtain free from lead and other

metallic impurities. Alum powders contain potassium bisulphate and alum.

It is somewhat remarkable that while the presence of alum in bread is

regarded by the law of England as adulteration, its use in baking powder

was pronounced legal in _James_ v. _Jones_, 1894, 1, Q.B. 304, on the

ground that baking powder is not food within the meaning of the Sale of

Food and Drugs Act 1875. In making wholemeal bread, hydrochloric acid

and sodium bicarbonate are often used in such proportions that they

neutralize each other. Carbon dioxide is evolved and raises the dough.

In preparing wholemeal bread the use of this combination has the

advantage that the acid acting rapidly on the sodium bicarbonate soon

produces enough carbon dioxide to aerate the dough, and thus hasten its

entry into the oven. Wholemeal flour contains so large a proportion of

cerealin that diastasis is apt to proceed rapidly, the result being a

clammy, sodden loaf. For this reason, perhaps the so-called aerated

process is even more suitable for making wholemeal than white bread.

Methods of making dough.

Methods of dough-making differ in different countries, and even in

different parts of the same land. In the _off hand_ method the dough is

made right off, without any preliminary stages of ferment or sponge.

This plan is sometimes adopted for making tin bread, and occasionally

for crusty loaves. For tin bread a strong flour would be used and made

into a slack dough, and about 1-1/2 lb. to 2 lb. of distillers' yeast

would be used for the sack (280 lb.) of flour, occasionally with the

addition of a little brewers' yeast. Salt is used in the proportion of 3

lb. to 3-1/2 lb. per sack. Formerly also it was the custom to add 10-14

lb. of boiled potatoes, but the use of potatoes has greatly decreased. A

tin-bread dough would be made slack, with about 70 quarts of water to

the sack, and after being mixed, would be fermented at a temperature of

76-80 deg. Fahr. It should lie for about ten hours. A dough for crusty

bread such as cottage loaves, would be made much tighter, not more than

60 quarts of water being allowed to the sack. It would be fermented at a

higher temperature, and would not lie more than about six hours. A slack

dough is much less laborious to work (when the dough is hand-made) than

a tight dough, for which a mechanical kneader is very suitable, but as a

matter of fact the use of machinery (see below) is still the exception,

not the rule. When a stiff dough is made by hand, it is usually made

somewhat slack to begin with, and then "cut back" and "dusted" at

regular intervals, that is to say, more and more flour is added till a

dough of the required consistency has been obtained. (In the British

baker's vocabulary "dust" means flour, and good dust stands for good

flour.) This system, on the one hand, saves the labour involved for

"sponging" and other operations, and the bread is produced in less time;

but on the other hand more yeast is used, and bakers generally hold that

the system sacrifices the colour and texture of the loaf to convenience

of working and yield. The high porportion of yeast enables the dough to

carry a large quantity of water, and about 104 4-lb. loaves to the sack

is said by Jago to be a not unusual yield in the case of slack doughs.

But such a result would only be possible with very strong flour. In an

ordinary way 96 loaves to the sack is a very high yield, unattainable

except with strong flour, and probably the average yield is not more

than 90 loaves to the sack. In London the manager of a "tied" shop is

usually held to account for 92 loaves to the sack.

In the _ferment and dough_ system, the ferment usually consists of 10 to

14 lb. of potatoes to the sack of flour, boiled or steamed, and mashed

with water, so as to yield about 3 gallons of liquor. There are several

substitutes for potatoes, including raw and scalded flour, malt, malt

extracts, &c.; brewers' or distillers' yeast may also be used. A ferment

should contain saccharine matters and yeast stimulants in such a form as

to favour the growth and reproduction of yeast in a vigorous condition.

Hence it should not be too concentrated. About six hours are required

for its preparation. It is added, together with 2 to 3 lb. of salt, to

the dough, which is prepared with about 56 quarts of water to the sack,

and worked at a temperature of 80-84 deg. Fahr. The dough is allowed to

lie from two to five hours according to the flour used, the character of

the ferment, and the working temperature. In this system the proportion

of strong flour is usually reduced to 40% of the dough, and no doubt in

some cases only soft or weak flours are used. Naturally the yield of

bread is not so high as in the case of an off hand dough made entirely

from strong flour, and it will probably not exceed 90 loaves to the

sack. This method has many advantages. After the ferment is made the

labour required is not much greater than with the off hand doughs, and

less yeast is required, while potatoes, which are somewhat troublesome,

from the necessary cleaning, can be replaced by the substitutes already

mentioned. The method produces good-looking and palatable bread, though

the loaves should be eaten within some twelve hours of leaving the oven.

The _sponge and dough_ system, which is probably in widest use in

England, is adapted to almost every kind of bread, and has the advantage

that any kind of flour can be employed. The stronger flours which need

long fermentation can be and usually are used in the "sponge" stage,

while soft flours are utilized in the dough. (The sponge is a certain

proportion, varying from a quarter to one-half, of the flour necessary

for making the batch.) In London the baker often uses for the sponge a

bag (140 lb) of American spring wheat flour, and for the dough a sack

(280 lb) of British milled flour, which, whether it be country flour

milled largely from English wheat or London milled, is always softer and

weaker than that used for the sponge. The sponge is made very slack, 26

to 32 quarts of water being used to say 100 lb. of flour. Yeast, either

distillers' or brewers', must be added, in proportions varying according

to its character and strength. Of distillers' yeast 6 to 10 oz. may be

used for 280 lb. of flour (including sponge and dough). Salt is added to

the sponge sparingly, at the rate of about 1/2 lb. to the sack of 280 lb.

The object of making the sponge so slack is to quicken the fermentation.

When set the sponge is allowed to ferment from six to ten hours,

according to temperature and other conditions. Sometimes all the water

it is intended to use is put into the sponge, which is then known as a

"batter" sponge. The sponge, when ready, is incorporated with the rest

of the flour to which the necessary amount of water and salt is added.

The whole mass is then doughed up into the requisite consistency, the

dough being allowed to lie for about two hours. Bread made by this

method, always assuming that over-fermentation has been avoided, is of

good appearance, presenting a bold loaf, with even texture and a nice

sheen. Owing to the use of soft flours, the flavour should be agreeable,

and the loaves ought to keep much longer than bread made by ferment and

dough. The yield may rise as high as 96 loaves per sack, if strong flour

has been used in the sponge.

A combination of the above two methods, known as the _ferment, sponge

and dough_ system, is often used with brewers' yeast. In this case the

yeast is not added to the sponge direct, but goes into the ferment. This

method is rather in favour with bakers who make their own yeast.

The system of bread-making generally used in Scotland is known as the

_flour barm, sponge and dough_. The barm is a combination of a malt and

hop yeast, with a slow, scalded flour ferment. To make the so-called

"virgin" barm a Scottish baker would use a 30-gallon tub; a smaller

vessel for malt-mashing; 10 lb. malt; 3 oz. hops and a jar for infusing

them; 40 lb flour; 2 to 3 oz. malt; 8 to 12 oz. sugar, and 18 gallons of

boiling water. With these materials a powerful ferment is produced,

which it is considered best to use in the sponge the fourth or fifth day

after brewing. The sponges used in Scotland are "half" or "quarter."

About 6 lb. of malt go to the sack, one-sixth going into the sponge. As

in England, strong flours are used for the sponge, but rather stronger

flours are used for the dough than is usual in England. Scottish loaves

are largely of the "brick" type, high and narrow. Such bread has an

attractive appearance and keeps well. It has a rather sharp flavour,

approaching acidity but avoiding sourness, while the large quantity of

malt used adds a characteristic taste. The yield rises in some Glasgow

bread factories to 100 loaves to the sack.

Leavened bread.

In many parts of Europe bread is still made from leaven, which, properly

speaking, consists of a portion of dough held over from the previous

baking. This substance, known to French bakers as _levain_, is called in

Germany _Sauerteig_ (_anglice_ "sour dough"). The lump of old dough,

placed aside in a uniform temperature for some eight hours, swells and

acquires an alcoholic odour, becoming the _levain de chef_ of the French

bakers. It is then worked up with flour and water to a firm paste double

its original volume, when it becomes the _levain de premiere_. Six hours

later, by the addition of more flour and water its amount is again

doubled, though its consistency is made rather softer, and it becomes

the _levain de seconde_. Finally, by another addition of flour and

water, the amount is again doubled, and the _levain de tous points_ is

obtained. This mass is divided into two parts; one is baked yielding

rather dark sour bread, while the other is mixed with more flour and

water. This second portion is in turn halved, part is baked, and part

again mixed with more flour, this last batch yielding the best and

whitest bread. In North Germany leaven is generally used for making rye

bread, and loaves baked from a mixture of wheat and rye flour. In the

bakery of the Krupp works at Essen, each batch of the so-called

Paderborn bread is prepared entirely with leaven from 270 kilos of rye

flour (patent quality), 100 of wheat flour (seconds), 2 of buckwheat

meal, 6 of salt, 5 of leaven, and one litre of oil. In Vienna leaven is

never used for making the rolls and small goods for which that city is

famous. Viennese bakers use either brewers' yeast or a ferment, prepared

by themselves, of which the basis is an infusion of hops. Brewers' yeast

is added to the ferment, which takes the form of a very slack dough.

With 100 kilos (220.46 lb.) of flour about 17 litres or nearly 2 gallons

of ferment are used.

Aerated bread.

In the original Dauglish process for the manufacture of aerated bread,

which was brought into operation in Great Britain in 1859, carbonic acid

gas was evolved in a generating vessel by the action of sulphuric acid

on chalk, and after purification was forced at high pressure into water,

which was then used for doughing the flour. In this process the flour

that had to be made into bread was submitted to the action of the

super-aerated water by direct transference. It was found, however, in

practice that much difficulty occurred in making the gas admix readily

with the flour and water, great pressure being required, and to lessen

the difficulties a new process, called the "wine whey," was introduced.

To carry this out, a vat placed on the upper storey of the factory is

charged with a portion of malt and flour, which is mashed and allowed to

ferment until a weak and slightly acid thin wine is produced; this after

passing through the coolers is stored until it is transformed into a

vinous whey. This whey is then introduced into a strong cylinder partly

filled with water, and is aerated by letting in the gas (now stored in a

highly compressed form in bottles), the pressure required being only a

quarter of that necessary with the original method. The flour having

been placed in the mixers, which are of globular form containing

revolving arms, the aerated fluid is admitted, and in a short period the

flour and fluid are completely incorporated. By means of an ingenious

appliance termed a dough cock, the exact amount of dough for a single

loaf of bread is forced out under the pressure of the gas, and by

reversing the lever the dough, which expands as it falls into a baking

tin, is cut off. Two sacks of flour can be converted with ease into 400

2-lb. loaves in forty minutes, whereas the ordinary baker's process

would require about ten hours. At first a difficulty was encountered in

the fact that the dough became discoloured by the action of the "wine

whey" on the iron, but it was overcome by Killingworth Hedges, who

discovered a non-poisonous vitreous enamel for coating the interior of

the mixers, &c. It has been claimed for the Dauglish process that it

saves the baker risks attendant on the production of carbon dioxide by

the ordinary process of fermentation, in that he is no longer liable to

have his dough spoilt by variations of temperature and other

incalculable factors, the results being certain and uniform. A further

claim is the saving of the proportion of starch consumed by conversion

into glucose during the process of fermentation. The original objection,

that, by the absence of fermentation, those subtle changes which help to

produce flavour are lost, is annulled by the use of the wine whey

process. The Dauglish process is well suited for producing small goods,

such as cakes and scones, where flavour can be artificially imparted by

means of currants, flavouring essences, &c. An undoubted advantage of

the aerating process of bread-making is adaptability for utilizing flour

with unstable gluten, which can thus be made into an excellent quality

of bread. For wholemeal bread, too, there is probably no more suitable

process than the Dauglish. The strong diastasic action of the cerealin,

inevitable in fermentation, is entirely avoided. The Aerated Bread

Company have about a hundred depots in London, which are supplied from a

central factory.

Apostolov process.

The essence of the bread-making process recently invented by Serge

Apostolov is the combination of a flour mill and bakery. The wheat,

after a preliminary cleaning, is ground into flour by a mill composed of

metal disks dressed, that is furrowed, very much like the surfaces of a

pair of mill-stones. The disks are not set to grind very close, because

it is desired, by minimizing friction, to keep the meal cool. From the

middlings obtained by this milling process about 10% of bran is

separated, and the remainder of the middlings is treated by a peculiar

process, akin to mashing, termed "lixiviation." The middlings are

saturated with tepid water containing a small proportion of yeast, which

causes a certain amount of fermentation. It is claimed that by this

process a solution is obtained of the floury constituents of the

middlings. From the vats the solution is poured on an inclined sieve

which has a gentle reciprocating motion. The floury particles pass

through the meshes, while the bran tails over the sieve; the proportion

of the wheat berry thus rejected is given as about 2-1/2%. On the other

hand, the milky-looking solution, called "lactus," is caught in a

special vessel, and delivered by a shoot into a trough, which may be

either a mechanical kneader of an ordinary trough. This lactus takes

the place of the ordinary sponge. The flour is added in the proportion

necessary to make the required batch and the whole mass is doughed,

either by hand or power. The resultant dough is moulded in the ordinary

way into loaves, which are baked in due course. The advantages claimed

for the process are that it permits of the utilization in bread-making

of about 87-1/2% of the wheat berry, that the resultant bread is fairly

white in colour and is agreeable in flavour, and that it is extremely

simple and provides a ready and cheap means of flour-making.

_Machine Bakeries._--Bread-baking, though one of the most important of

human industries, was long carried out in a most primitive manner, and

machinery is still practically unknown in the bulk of British

bakehouses. The reasons for this apparently anomalous condition of

things are not very far to seek. Bread, unlike biscuits, is a food

quite unfitted for long storage, and must be consumed within a

comparatively short time of being drawn from the oven. Hence the

bread-baker's output is necessarily limited to a greater or lesser

degree. This will be the more apparent when it is considered that the

cost of distributing bread is high relatively to the profits to be

realized. A baker's bread trade is therefore usually limited to local

requirements, and trading on a small scale he has less inducement to

lay out capital on the installation of machinery than other classes of

manufacturers. But there are now many machine bakeries (known in

Scotland as bread factories), both in London and in other parts of

Great Britain, where the manufacture of bread is carried out more or

less on a large scale. The evolution of the machine bakery has been

slow, and the mechanical operations of the bakehouse were long limited

to the mixing of the sponge and the kneading of the dough, but now the

work of the bakery engineer extends over almost every operation of

bread-making.

A bread-baking plant should be installed in a building of at least two

storeys. The ground floor may be used for the shop, with possibly a

bread-cooling and delivery room at the rear. The flour may be hoisted

to an attic at the top of the building, or to the top floor; in any

case there must be sufficient floor space to accommodate the flour

sacks and bags. Underneath the floor of the flour store should be

installed a flour sifter, a simple apparatus consisting essentially of

a hopper through which the flour enters a cylinder with a spiral

brush, by which it is thoroughly agitated previously to passing

through one or more sieves placed under the brush. A sack of flour may

be passed through this sifter in a couple of minutes, the operation

freeing the flour from lumps and pieces of string 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, without 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,

next to the sifter, is the dough kneadcr. The dough kneader is no new

invention. As far back as 1760, a kind of dough kneader was

constructed in France by one Salignac. It is described as consisting

of a trough, inside which the dough was agitated by arms shaped

somewhat like harrows. This machine is said to have been tested before

a committee of the Academy of Sciences, who reported that in their

presence dough had been prepared in fourteen to fifteen minutes. The

bread baked from this dough is said to have been most satisfactory,

but for some reason the machine never came into general use. For one

thing, the power problem would have been almost insuperable to a baker

in the France of those days. In general design this kneader

approximated to the machines which have since done good work in

bakeries all the world over. Salignac was quickly followed by another

inventor, Cousin, also a Frenchman, who brought out in 1761, or

thereabouts, a dough-kneading machine, which, however, had no better

success than its predecessor. The first kneading machine which appears

to have been in actual use in a bakery was constructed by a Paris

baker of the name of Lembert, after whom it was called the Lembertine.

Lembert is said to have been experimenting with this apparatus as

early as 1796. Be that as it may, it was not brought out till 1810,

when a prize of 1500 francs (L60) was offered by the Societe

d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale. This reward was won by

Lembert, and his machine thereupon came into a certain amount of use

in France. It is remarkable that France long remained the only country

in which dough kneaders were employed, but even there their use was

limited.

The Fontaine, another French kneader, called after its inventor, was

first made in 1835. It had a certain success, but has long passed out

of use. It appears to have been a copy to a great extent of the

Lembertine. The objection against both these machines was that their

blades, while exercising a mixing action, were deficient in kneading

effect. Probably the first machine which achieved the task of

efficiently replacing the work of human arms in sponge breaking and

dough kneading was the Boland kneader. This was also a French machine,

and dates back to about the middle of the 19th century. It is believed

to have been first used in the Scipion bakery in Paris. It consists

essentially of a trough, inside which revolve a pair of blades so

arranged as to work somewhat like alternate screws: it is claimed for

these blades that their action has the effect of tossing the dough

backwards and forwards when it is slack, and of drawing it out when it

happens to be stiff. It is further claimed that the blades are so

shaped that their revolution has the effect of moving the dough from

right to left and left to right in the trough. The machine is geared

to give two speeds, the faster being suitable for sponge setting,

while the slow and most powerful speed is intended for the doughing.

The Boland machine has been widely adopted in other countries than

France, and was certainly one of the first dough kneaders to be used

in the United Kingdom. It was installed in the great Boland bakery in

Dublin, where it proved a great success. The proprietor of this

bakery, with which was also connected a flour mill, is said to have

had his attention first drawn to this machine by the fact that its

inventor was his namesake, though no relative.

The Deliry-Desboves dough kneader, also of French origin, and in

general use in France, consists essentially of a cast iron trough,

shaped somewhat like a basin, and turning on a vertical axis. The

kneading arms inside the trough are shaped after the pattern of a

lyre, and have the effect of first working up and then dividing the

dough right through the kneading process. Two helical blades, which

also form part of the mechanism, serve to draw out and aerate the

dough, as effectively, it is claimed, as can be done by the most

skilled operative. The force of the kneading operations can be

regulated without stopping the machine. A thoroughly kneaded dough

can, it is said, be made in this machine in twelve to fifteen minutes.

In Great Britain the type of machine that used to be most in favour

was the trough within which the kneading arms worked on horizontal

axis. The trough was either open or provided with a lid. The kneading

blades were variously shaped, but generally were more or less

straight, and were designed to both mix and aerate the dough. In some

cases the kneading blades were worked on a single axis, in others two

different sets of arms worked on two axes running parallel to one

another. Generally the kneader was geared to two speeds, the fast

motion being most suitable for sponge setting, and the earlier stages

of dough-making, while the slower motion was intended to draw out and

thoroughly aerate the dough. To discharge the dough, the trough was

tilted by means of a worm and worm wheel, the latter being secured to

the trough. Several variations of this type of kneader are still in

use. The machine known as the "Universal" kneader consists of a trough

set horizontally, within which rotate on horizontal axes a pair of

blades lying in the same plane. These blades are curved and are geared

together by means of differential spur wheels, with the object of

running the two spindles at unequal speeds. The bottom of the trough

is divided into two semi-cylindrical cavities, separated by a ridge.

Each blade plunges into its own cavity, and the action of these arms

tends, while pressing the dough against the sides and base of the

trough, to bring it quickly back towards the centre. The differential

speed has the advantage of effecting a more thorough mixing of the

dough, as it brings together pieces of dough which have not yet been

mingled, the blades pushing the dough from one cavity to the other. To

hasten the kneading process it is desirable occasionally to reverse

the motion by a turn of a hand wheel on the same shaft as the two

pulleys. This wheel governs all the motions of the blades. The trough,

which is set low, is tilted over, when the dough is ready, by an

endless chain operated by a hand winch. The effort required for this

operation is very slight, as the trough is balanced by two weights.

The action of tilting does not interfere with the blades, which

continue rotating until stopped by the hand wheel. The Universal

kneader was designed to imitate as closely as possible the action of a

pair of skilled human arms and hands, but of course works at a much

greater speed.

Another form of dough mixer which is extensively used consists simply

of a drum made of sheet steel supported by two A-shaped standards at a

sufficient height from the floor to allow a trough to be run

underneath to receive the dough when ready for the moulding board. In

this drum are two tight-fitting doors. The interior is fitted with no

blades or knives, but presents a free cylindrical space, with the sole

exception that, set not very far from the circumference, there are

several fixed rods passing from one side of the drum to the other.

These act as mixers of the dough. The door is opened and the flour and

water poured in, whereupon the door is again fastened and the drum is

made to rotate. As the rotation proceeds, the dough begins to form,

and being lifted up by the revolving drum falls by its own weight. In

this process, which is repeated again and again, the dough is caught

by and tumbled over by the rods, which act as mixers and take the

place of the revolving arms of the trough kneader. The kneading action

of the rotating arms is absent, but the steady tumbling over these

rods appears to have a thorough mixing effect, and the dough is

discharged from the drum in good condition for moulding. The time

occupied for making a dough by this apparatus varies from four to six

minutes. The advantages claimed for this machine are that it consumes

comparatively little power, and that there is not so much danger of

"felling" or over-kneading dough as in some of the machines with

revolving blades. The compactness of this rotating drum mixer, often

known as the Rotary mixer, recommends it on shipboard and in other

places where space is limited.

Dough dividers and moulders.

In the earlier days of machine bakeries the accurate dividing of

dough, and still more the moulding of loaves by mechanical means, was

considered an unattainable ideal. The first step in this direction was

made by the Lewis-Pointon dough divider and weigher, which was

intended for dividing and weighing out dough ready for the moulding

table. In an ordinary way a baker who wishes to bake a batch of

half-quartern or 2-lb. loaves scales off 2 lb. 2 oz. of dough for each

loaf. The 2 oz. are a sort of insurance against light weight. The

evaporation of moisture from dough in the oven is bound to reduce to

some extent the weight of the baked loaf, but with normally baked

bread, 2 lb. 2 oz. in the case of half-quarterns, and 4 lb. 4 oz. in

the case of quartern loaves, is sufficient to ensure full weight. As

the accurate scaling of dough requires some pains and trouble, it

would be surprising if hand scaling were always accurate. The

Lewis-Pointon machine can, it is claimed, be set to turn out lumps of

dough of the exact weight required either for 1-lb., 2-lb., or 4-lb.

loaves. The apparatus does not measure the dough by weight but by

volume by an ingenious piston arrangement. The machine when first put

on the market was a little complicated, but its mechanism has since

been simplified. It has been successfully worked on doughs of all

descriptions, ranging from the tightest to those made with 20 gallons

of water to the sack. The same firm which brought out this dough

divider has also produced a dough-moulding machine, which has a wide

range of work. In this apparatus the dough is introduced between a

trough and a revolving table at a point on the outer periphery of the

latter. The order of things observed in hand moulding is here

reversed, as the trough, unlike the hand, is fixed, while the table

revolves around a vertical axis. This table is sharply coned, and can

be made to work the dough as much or as little as may be required. In

working dough for tin or Coburg loaves only one trough is used, but

for cottage loaves two parallel troughs are fitted, one taking the

lower and the other the upper half of the loaf. In the latter case, a

single piece of dough is fed into the machine and passed through an

automatic splitter, the two portions being automatically carried into

the troughs and simultaneously delivered at the other side of the

machine ready to be put together. With doughs which require

"handing-up," two machines may be used for moulding, the dough being

automatically fed from the divider to the handing-up machine, and

after a short proof passed through the finisher. But the moulding

machine may also be used as a "hander-up."

Another ingenious dough moulder, known as the Baker-Callow, works on a

rather different principle. Here the pieces of dough coming from the

divider are fed into the moulder by a canvas band, and are worked

between a large cylindrical roller and a vertically running canvas and

leather belt. To prevent pieces from dropping through, and to assist

the moulding process, a smaller roller is placed under and between the

cylindrical roller and canvas belt. A wooden puncher also assists in

working the loaves, which are finished by being rolled between a band

and a special shaped wooden moulding. This machine delivers the dough

in spherical shaped pieces. If intended for cottage bread they are at

once placed on the dough table at the side, and one piece is put on

the top of the other ready for the oven. It is claimed the machine

will deal equally well with large and small pieces at the same time,

so that the tops and bottoms can be made together. Should the machine

be intended for tinned bread, a special attachment is used, into which

the spherical pieces are delivered from the machine and rolled into

cylindrical shapes, ready to be dropped into the pan. A capacity of

sixty loaves per minute is claimed for this moulder.

_Ovens._--The ordinary baker's oven is a vaulted chamber, about 10 ft.

in length, by 8 ft. in width and 30 in. in height; it is constructed

of brick or stone, and has a small door in front through which the

oven is charged (by means of a "peel" or long wooden shovel) and the

batch withdrawn. The furnace and fire-grate are often placed at the

side of the oven door, but with the oldest ovens, which were heated by

wood, there generally was only one door for the fuel and for the

bread. Whether the furnace is heated by coal, as is usual in England,

or by coke, as is often the case in Scotland, the oven mouth remains

in the bakehouse itself; hence the stoking and scuffling must be

carried out within the bakehouse. This is in many ways objectionable.

For one thing, the fuel must almost of necessity be kept in the

bakehouse itself, and it is obvious that the products of combustion

are liable to get into the oven. In the old type of oven a flue was

frequently placed on the other side of the furnace door, both furnace

and flue being on the front of the oven. After firing the furnace, the

oven is allowed to "lie down" for a certain time, and secure an even

distribution of heat. The furnace and flue are then shut, and the oven

charged, the batch being baked by the heat stored within the oven

chamber. With ovens of this type, each batch of bread requires a

separate firing. This kind of oven has undergone several improvements

of detail, but the principle of internal heating, that is, of firing

the furnace inside the bakehouse, has remained unchanged.

A new era in bakers' ovens began about the middle of the 19th century

with the introduction of the "Perkins" oven, a system which, with

slight modifications, has persisted till to-day. In this oven the

baking chamber is heated by steam pipes. The latter consist of tubes

of iron or mild steel which are partly filled with water and are

hermetically sealed by welded ends. The pipes are arranged in two

parallel rows, the one at the crown and the other at the sole of the

oven. The pipes project at one end into the furnace, which is set at

the back of the oven and is usually outside the bakehouse. This is

termed an externally heated oven. As the ends of the pipes get red hot

the water is converted into superheated steam, which being under high

pressure soon raises the chamber to baking heat, say 450 deg. to 500

deg. F. In an oven of this description the heat can be continuously

maintained, and batch after batch can be baked without refiring. The

only drawback is that a flash heat cannot be raised. In another type

of externally fired oven the heat is conveyed by flues placed at the

bottom and top of the oven, which discharge into a chimney. Excellent

results have been attained with ovens of this kind. The distribution

of the heat can be well regulated; for instance, it is quite possible

to build ovens to be cooler at the back than front, an arrangement

which is useful when the bread is withdrawn by means of a hand peel.

As the baker has to withdraw each loaf one at a time, it is clear that

the withdrawal of the batch through the oven door must take time,

probably not less than half-an-hour. Hence the bread drawn from near

the oven's mouth may be underbaked as compared with that at the back

of the chamber. The latter, on the other hand, may be overbaked and

deficient in weight.

By means of a draw-plate, however, an oven can be expeditiously

charged. This appliance consists of a sliding plate or tray, mounted

on wheels running on rails, which is drawn out of the oven loaded with

bread, and then returned. The plate itself is often made of iron, but

one well-known oven is fitted with a withdrawable iron frame, in which

are laid, edge to edge, tiles of a special make, which are cemented in

place, and form a continuous baking surface. This seems an excellent

arrangement, as the baker has all the advantages of a brick oven, that

is to say, his bread is baked both on top and bottom by heat evolved

from tiled surfaces, and the undoubted drawbacks incidental to baking

bread on an iron surface are avoided. A draw-plate fitted to an oven

capable of baking a batch made from a sack (280 lb) of flour can be

run out, charged and run in again, in about two minutes. The

draw-plate has the incidental advantage, by expediting the loading and

discharge of the oven, of ensuring a more uniform baking of the batch,

and therefore of minimizing the loss of weight. Some bakers have gone

so far as to estimate the saving in this respect from the use of a

draw-plate at half an ounce per 2-lb. loaf. With decker ovens a double

draw-plate may be used, the feet of the pedestal supporting the upper

draw-plate running on a rail outside, but parallel to the rail on

which the lower draw-plate runs. This arrangement, however, is more

applicable to small than large ovens. Or the lower oven may be fitted

with a draw-plate while the upper oven is served with a peel. The

draw-plate being at a lower level than the sole of an ordinary oven,

the upper deck may be worked with a peel without much difficulty.

The _decker_ oven is, as its name implies, an oven built over another

oven: in fact, sometimes a tier of three ovens is employed, placed one

above the other. The object is to secure a double or treble baking

surface without a very much larger outlay on fuel than would be

necessary for one oven. It is easy to understand that a double or

three decker oven might be constructed under conditions where it would

be impossible to place two or three ordinary ovens side by side.

Practical bakers are somewhat divided as to the actual economy of the

decker system; possibly it is a question of management. The upper oven

is heated by the gases which have passed under the oven beneath. A

double-decker oven on the flue principle could be heated by three

flues, one beneath the lower oven, another passing between the crown

of the lower and the sole of the top oven, and the third over the

crown of the upper oven. If a third oven were built over the second,

then a fourth flue would pass over the crown of the third and top

oven. In such an arrangement of flues the distribution of heat to the

ovens would be fairly equal, but no doubt the lower oven would be the

hottest. In addition to the flues, which should be straight and

accessible for cleaning, there ought also to be auxiliary flues by

which heat may be allowed to pass dampers to the upper portions of the

series of ovens. In this way the heat of the upper oven or ovens can

be regulated independently to a great extent of the bottom oven. The

power of regulating the heat of the ovens is very necessary, because a

baker doing what is called a mixed trade, that is to say, producing

cakes and pastry in addition to bread, must work his ovens at varying

temperatures. Cakes cannot be baked at the heat (about 450 deg. F.)

required by a batch of household bread. The richest fancy goods, such

as wedding and Christmas cakes, require the coolest ovens. Flue ovens

are best worked with coke, as coal is apt to choke the flues; retort

coke is recommended in place of oven coke. An oven should be fitted

with some kind of thermal register, and both high-temperature

thermometers and pyrometers are used for this purpose. (G. F. Z.)

BREADALBANE, JOHN CAMPBELL, 1ST EARL OF (c. 1636-1717), son of Sir John

Campbell of Glenorchy, Bart., and of the Lady Mary Graham, daughter of

William, earl of Airth and Menteith, was born about 1636. He took part

in the abortive royalist rising under Glencairn in 1654, and was one of

those who urged Monk to declare a free parliament in England to

facilitate the restoration. He sat in the Scottish parliament as member

for Argyllshire from 1669 to 1674. As principal creditor he obtained in

October 1672, from George, 6th earl of Caithness, a conveyance of his

dignities, lands and heritable jurisdictions; and after the latter's

death he was created on the 28th of June 1677 earl of Caithness and

viscount of Breadalbane. In 1678 he married the widowed countess of

Caithness, an economical step which saved him the alimentary provision

of 12,000 merks a year he had covenanted to pay. In 1680 he invaded

Caithness with a band of 700 men and defeated and dispossessed the

earl's heir male. The latter, however, was subsequently confirmed in his

lands and titles, and Campbell on the 13th of August 1681 obtained a new

patent with the precedency of the former one, creating him earl of

Breadalbane and Holland, viscount of Tay and Paintland, Lord Glenorchy,

Benederaloch, Ormelie and Weick in the peerage of Scotland, with special

power to nominate his successor from among the sons of his first wife.

In 1685 he was a member of the Scottish privy council. Though nominally

a Presbyterian he had assisted the intolerant and despotic government

of Lauderdale in 1678 with 1700 men. He is described as having "neither

honour nor religion but where they are mixed with interest," as of "fair

complexion, of the gravity of the Spaniard, cunning as a Fox, wise as a

Serpent and supple as an Eel."[1] He was reputed the best headpiece in

Scotland.[2] His influence, owing to his position and abilities, was

greater than that of any man in Scotland after Argyll, and it was of

high moment to King William to gain him and obtain his services in

conciliating the Highlanders. Breadalbane at first carried on

communications with Dundee and was implicated in the royalist intrigue

called the "Montgomery plot," but after the battle of Killiecrankie in

July 1689 he made overtures to the government, subsequently took the

oath of allegiance, and was entrusted with a large sum of money by the

government to secure the submission of the clans. On the 30th of June

1691 he met the Jacobite chiefs and concluded with them secret articles

by which they undertook to refrain from acts of hostility till October,

gaining their consent by threats and promises rather than by the

distribution of the money entrusted to him, the greater part of which,

it was believed, he retained himself. When asked to give an account of

the expenditure he replied: "The money is spent, the Highlands are

quiet, and this is the only way of accounting between friends."[3]

On the 27th of August a proclamation was issued offering indemnity to

all those who should submit and take the oath of allegiance before the

1st of January 1692, and threatening all those who should refuse with a

military execution and the penalties of treason. All the chiefs took the

oath except MacIan, the chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, who

postponed his submission till the 31st of December, and was then

prevented from taking the oath till the 6th of January 1692 through the

absence of a magistrate at Fort William, whither he had repaired for the

purpose. This irregularity gave Breadalbane an immediate opportunity of

destroying the clan of thieves which had for generations lived by

plundering his lands and those of his neighbours. Accordingly, together

with Argyll and Sir John Dalrymple (afterwards Lord Stair), Breadalbane

organized the atrocious crime known as the "Massacre of Glencoe," when

the unfortunate MacDonalds, deceived by assurances of friendship, and at

the moment when they were lavishing their hospitality upon their

murderers, were butchered in cold blood on the 13th of February 1692.

Breadalbane's astuteness, however, prevented the disclosure of any

evidence against him in the inquiry afterwards instituted in 1695,

beyond the deposition of a person who professed to have been sent on

Breadalbane's behalf to obtain a declaration of his innocence from

MacIan's sons, who had escaped. The discovery of his former negotiations

with the Jacobite chiefs caused his imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle in

September, but he was released when it was known that he had been acting

with William's knowledge.

Breadalbane did not vote for the Union in 1707, but was chosen a

representative peer in the parliament of Great Britain of 1713-1715. His

co-operation with the English government in securing the temporary

submission of the Highlands was inspired by no real loyalty or

allegiance, and he encouraged the attempted French descent in 1708,

refusing, however, to commit himself to paper. On the occasion of the

Jacobite rising in 1715 he excused himself on the 19th of September from

obeying the summons to appear at Edinburgh on the ground of his age and

infirmities; but nevertheless the next day visited Mar's camp at

Logierait and afterwards the camp at Perth, his real business being,

according to the Master of Sinclair, "to trick others, not to be

trickt," and to obtain a share of the French subsidies. He had taken

money for the whole 1200 men he had promised and only sent 300. His 300

men were withdrawn after the battle of Sheriffmuir, and his death, which

took place on the 19th of March 1717, rendered unnecessary any inquiry

into his conduct. He married (1) Mary, daughter of Henry Rich, 1st earl

of Holland, by whom he had two sons, Duncan, styled Lord Ormelie, who

was passed over in the succession, and John, and earl of Breadalbane;

(2) Mary, daughter of Archibald, marquis of Argyll, and widow of George,

6th earl of Caithness, by whom he had one son, Colin. By Mrs Mildred

Littler, who has sometimes but probably in error been named as his third

wife, he had a daughter, Mary.

JOHN CAMPBELL, 2nd earl of Breadalbane (1662-1752), an eccentric

nobleman, who was known as "Old Rag," was succeeded by his only son,

John (c. 1696-1782). This earl was a diplomatist, being British

ambassador to Denmark and to Russia, and a politician, being for a long

time a member of the House of Commons and a supporter of Sir Robert

Walpole, in addition to holding several official positions. All his sons

having predeceased their father, the title passed on his death, on the

26th of January 1782, to a cousin, John (1762-1834), who became 4th earl

and was created a British peer as marquess of Breadalbane in 1831. His

son John, the 2nd marquess (1796-1862), a prominent leader of the Free

Church during the ecclesiastical disputes in Scotland, died without sons

in November 1862. The marquessate now became extinct, but the Scottish

earldom passed to a cousin John Alexander (1824-1871), whose son and

successor, Gavin (b. 1851), was created marquess of Breadalbane in 1885.