Birmingham, so says the _Times_, is famous for 'lacquered shams;' and
any one who has sojourned for a while in the huge, smoky toy-shop will
add--for not a few genuine realities! To walk from factory to factory,
from workshop to workshop, and view the extraordinary mechanical
contrivances, the ingenious adaptations of means to ends, to say
nothing of the eager spirit of application manifested by the busy
population, produces an impression on the mind of no common character.
Besides which, the town itself, so ill-arranged and ugly, is a
spectacle; and in the people that inhabit the dismal streets, the
visitor may find studies in morality as well as manufactures.
We have something to say about one of the realities alluded to
above--not the making of pens, or tea-pots, or papier-maché; but of
something in which breakfasts are implicated all over the kingdom--the
making of cocoa and chocolate as carried on by Messrs Cadbury,
Brothers. These gentlemen having kindly invited us to a sight of their
establishment, we took the opportunity of witnessing their processes
for converting raw produce into an acceptable article of diet, aided
by the ample explanations of one of the partners. Such a manufacture
seems out of place among bronze and brass and hardware, but the
factory stands away from the fuliginous quarter, on the verge of
Edgbaston--that Belgravia of Birmingham--where sunshine and blue sky
are not perpetually hidden by smoke. What we saw there is worth the
telling, as we hope to shew.
Here, however, we must say a few words concerning the raw material. It
appears that the Spaniards were the first Europeans who tasted
chocolate; it was part of their spoil in the conquest of Mexico.
Bernardo de Castile, who accompanied Cortez, describing one of
Montezuma's banquets, says: 'They brought in among the dishes above
fifty great jars made of _good cacao_, with its froth, and drank it,
the women serving them with a great deal of respect;' and similar jars
were served to the guards and attendants 'to the number of two
thousand at least.' The Spaniards enjoyed the rare beverage, and with
a slight transformation of the native Mexican term _Chacoc-atl_, they
introduced chocolate, as they named it, into Spain, monopolising the
article for a time, and it was only by slow degrees that the knowledge
of it spread into other parts of Europe. Gage, an old traveller who
had visited the tropics, writing in 1630, remarks: 'Our English and
Hollanders make little use of it, when they take a prize at sea, as
not knowing the secret virtue and quality of it for the good of the
stomach.' In the reign of Charles II., it was so much esteemed in
England that Dr Stubbe published a book, entitled _The Indian Nectar,
or a Discourse concerning Chocolata_, &c., giving a history of the
article, and many curious notions respecting its 'secret virtue;' and
recommending his readers to buy it of one Mortimer, 'an honest, though
poor man,' who lived in East Smithfield, and sold the best kind at 6s.
6d. the pound, and commoner sorts for about half that price. Of
course, none but the wealthy could drink it; indeed, we find writers
of the past century alluding to it as an aristocratic beverage.
Linnæus was so fond of chocolate, that he called it _food for the
gods_ in the distinguishing name which he gave to the tree that
produces it--_Theobroma cacao_. The tree is a native of tropical
America, but is now largely cultivated in other parts of the world. It
grows from twelve to sixteen feet high, with evergreen leaves, and
fruit of a deep orange colour when ripe, resembling a cucumber in
shape, and containing from ten to thirty seeds. These seeds are the
cacao-nuts or cocoa-nibs of commerce; in the trade, they are commonly
spoken of as cocoa-nuts. The best kind are brought from Trinidad; and
such has been the effect of lowering the duty, which was formerly 4s.
per pound, to one penny, the present charge, that the quantity
imported in the year ending January 5, 1852, amounted to 6,773,960
pounds. Among the colonial produce shewn in the Great Exhibition,
cocoa-nuts held a conspicuous place; and it ought to be understood,
that from such as these cocoa and chocolate are made--both from the
same article.
To return to the factory. We first saw a storehouse filled with bags
of nuts or nibs, two hundredweight in each, the only kinds used on the
premises being those from Trinidad and Grenada. In an adjoining room,
imbedded in a huge mass of brickwork, are four cylindrical ovens
rotating slowly over a coke-fire, each containing a hundredweight of
nuts, which were undergoing a comfortable process of roasting, as
evidenced by an agreeable odour thrown off, and a loss of 10 per cent.
in weight at the close of the operation, which lasts half an hour.
Thus, in a day of ten hours, the four ovens will roast two tons of
nuts, the prime mover being a twenty-horse steam-engine. The sight was
one that would have gladdened Count Rumford's heart, for the cylinders
and their fittings comprised all the economical principles of his
roaster--certainty of effect without waste of fuel.
The next step is to crack or break the nuts in what is called the
'kibbling-mill.' The roasting has made them quite crisp, and with a
few turns of the whizzing apparatus, they are divested of their husk,
which is driven into a bin by a ceaseless blast from a furious fan;
while the kernels, broken into small pieces, fall, perfectly clean,
into a separate compartment, where their granulated form and rich
glossy colour give them a very tempting appearance. The husk is
repacked in the empty bags, and exported to Ireland, where it is sold
at a low price to the humbler classes, who extract from it a beverage
which has all the flavour of cocoa, if not all its virtues.
Thus prepared, the mass of broken nut is ready for more intimate
treatment, which is carried on in a large room where shafts, wheels,
and straps keep a number of strange-looking machines in busy movement.
Some of these are double-cylinders, highly heated by a flow of steam
between the inner and outer cases--an arrangement by which any degree
of temperature can be produced in the interior. Inside of cacti works
an armed iron-breaker, which, as soon as a quantity of the cracked
nuts is introduced, begins to rotate, and, by the combined influence
of heat and pressure, liberates the oil of the cocoa bean, and soon
reduces the mass to a liquid which flows, 'thick and slab,' into a pan
placed to receive it, leisurely as a stream of half-frozen treacle. In
this state it is ready for grinding between the millstones, to which
it is successively transferred, being poured into 'hoppers,' which,
like the cylinders, are heated by steam. The cocoa flows rapidly from
the stones in a fluid smooth as oil; but it is the best kinds only
that are favoured with the most trituration, the commoner sorts being
more summarily dismissed. At the time of our visit, a pair of new
stones were in course of erection, which of themselves will turn off a
ton of chocolate per day.
The process, so far, is that employed for all kinds of cocoa and
chocolate, the nuts, as before stated, being the basis of all: the
variety depends on subsequent admixture, the best kinds being, of
course, the purest and most delicately flavoured. Up to this point, we
have the cocoa in its native condition, merely altered in form; but
now it has come to the stage of sophistication.
A given portion of the cocoa liquid is poured into a pan, and weighed
with other ingredients, which consist, in the main, of arrow-root,
sago, and refined sugar--the latter reduced to an impalpable
powder--besides the flavouring substances. The quality depends
entirely on the proportions of these ingredients, and on their
unexceptionable character. The unpractised eye may not detect any
difference between a cake of genuine chocolate, and another two-thirds
composed of red earth and roasted beans. We have seen documentary
evidence laid before the Board of Excise, shewing that a certain
manufacturer of cocoa used every week a ton of a species of umber for
purposes of adulteration; and recent investigations have shewn, that
such practices are only too frequent. No wonder that muddy and
insoluble grounds are found at the bottom of breakfast-cups! No one
pretends that manufactured chocolate or cocoa is unmixed; but it is a
satisfaction to know, that the admixture is not only of good quality,
but nutritious.
The necessary quantities having been weighed and duly stirred together
with a large wooden spoon, are poured into a mould nearly three feet
in length, about nine inches wide, and from three to four inches deep;
and in from four to five hours the mass is sufficiently solid to bear
removal, when it is turned out as a large cake or block, which might
very well pass for a huge sun-baked brick from Nineveh. In this way
any number of cakes may be produced, those made on one day being
finally worked up on the next, by which time they have become somewhat
more hardened.
In this final process, the cakes are laid one at a time in what
resembles a chaff-cutting machine, except, instead of the ordinary
broad knife wielded by grooms, that a wheel, armed with four sharp
blades, whirls round at the open end. The block of cocoa, held by
machinery, advances with a slow continuous motion, until it touches
the blades on the wheel, when immediately a cloud of most delicate
slices or shavings is thrown off, as rapidly as sparks from a
knife-grinder's wheel. Cake after cake is thus comminuted, at the rate
of a ton per day from a single machine. The shavings are collected as
fast as they fall, and passed through a sieve, which reduces them to
that coarse powdery form so well known to all consumers of soluble
chocolate. It is then put into barrels, and despatched without delay
to the packing-room by means of a railway.
That there is something in a name, is as true of cocoa and chocolate
as of other things, and the difference of name implies, in most
instances, a difference of manufacture. Hence there is a variety of
processes going on within the building, the results of which are shewn
in 'Cocoa Paste,' 'Rock Cocoa,' 'Eating Vanilla Chocolate,' 'Penny
Chocolate,' 'French Bonbons,' 'Flaked Cocoa,' 'Homoeopathic,' &c. So
numerous are the sorts, that a purchaser is as much puzzled in his
choice as an untravelled Cockney with a Parisian bill of fare. The
making of the flaked cocoa is peculiarly interesting, and is, we were
informed, peculiar to this establishment. To see how the amorphous
mass comes from the mill in long curling ribbons, uniform in thickness
and texture, is a sight that provokes astonishment, as much by the
rapidity of the operation as by the ease with which it appears to be
accomplished, but which has only been arrived at by a persevering
circumvention of vexatious difficulties.
But however interesting the results, one grows tired at length of the
noise and clatter of machinery; and it was with a feeling of relief
that we mounted to the packing-room, where all was so light, cheerful,
and orderly, as to prove that the good management everywhere
perceptible had here put on its pleasantest expression. The most
perfect cleanliness prevails. The half-score or more of girls, who
work under the superintendence of a forewoman, are all dressed in
clean Holland pinafores--an industrial uniform. All were packing as
busily as hands could work: one weighed the cocoa; a second placed the
paper in the mould, and turned the cocoa into it; a third compressed
the contents by means of a machine-moved plunger; while a fourth
released the packet, pasted down the loose ends, and laid it aside.
This party, by their combined operations, weigh and pack a
hundredweight per hour. Some were wrapping the 'homoeopathic' in
bright envelopes of tinfoil; others boxing the 'bonbons;' others
coating the 'roll' with its distinctive paper; while others helped the
forewoman to count and sort the orders--all performing their duties
with that celerity which can only be attained by long practice.
Finally, the respective orders are packed away in boxes of various
sizes, from fourteen pounds to a hundredweight; and to give full
effect to the system of cleanliness, none but new boxes are used, so
that not the slightest ground is afforded for even a suspicion of
uncleanliness.
In these professedly enlightened days, commercial progress cannot well
be considered apart from moral progress; we want to know not only how
work is done, but who and what they are who do it. Are they benefited
by the 'mighty developments of commercial enterprise?' We may
therefore very properly say a few words respecting the _employés_ in
the cocoa-factory. No girl is employed who is not of known good moral
character. Some at first are found to be good rather passively than
actively, but they have example daily before their eyes, and a spirit
of emulation gradually develops their better qualities. Their hours of
work are from nine A.M. to seven P.M., with an hour off for
dinner--tea is supplied to them on the premises. Their earnings range
from 5s. to 9s. per week. Once a week, during the summer season, they
have a half-holiday for a little excursion to the country, and twice a
week they leave work for evening school an hour before the usual time.
With few exceptions, these elevating influences are found to tell
favourably on their conduct; and besides the direct benefit to
themselves, we may be permitted to take into the account, the benefit
to the homes and families to which the girls belong. Accustomed to
order and cleanliness through the day, they can hardly fail to carry
these virtues with them to their dwellings. The men employed exhibit
the good effects of proper management not less than the girls. Some
have acquired a steady habit of saving, and with nearly all, from the
mere force of example, teetotalism is the rule. Instances of
misconduct are rare, and when reproof is called for, it is
administered by an appeal to the better feelings in preference to
angry demonstration. Factories conducted on such a system must be at
once schools of morality and industry.
There is one more point which we feel bound to notice in closing our
article. While going about the premises, we were asked to look to the
top of the tall engine-chimney, where, to our surprise, none but the
faintest whiff of vapour was visible. 'There is no need,' said our
conductor, 'that any chimney in Birmingham should smoke more than
that. I have told the people so over and over again, but to little
use, for they will persist in wasting fuel, and blackening the
atmosphere. This is Beddington's patent, and you shall see the effect
of it.' The fireman was then told to shut off the apparatus from the
flue; immediately a dense black smoke poured from the chimney-top, and
when at the murkiest, the order was given: 'Now turn on again.' In
five seconds, the smoke had vanished, and the almost imperceptible
vapour alone remained. Thus, of the coal consumed daily, not a
particle is wasted, and a considerable portion of the atmosphere is
saved from deterioration. So perfect an example of what can be done
towards the abatement of a nuisance, made us wish to be autocrat for a
week--our reign should be signalised by the extinction of smoke!