BISCUIT

compounded of two words meaning ttnce hakedf is applied to a kind of hard, dry bread which keeps long, and is hence the common bread used at sea. Biscuits are either fermented or unfermented. The kinds of biscuits in ordinary use are generally fermented, while the unfermented biscuit is that which is used in the navy, and hence called sea biscuit. Its good quality chiefly depends on the thorough kneading of the dough, and the subsequent division of it into portions of equal size and thickne . When properly prepared it will continue perfectly sound for eighteen months to two years, and in regard to nutritive properties it has been ascertained that eighteen ounces of biscuit are exactly equal to twenty-four ounces of fresh-baked ordinary bread. Owing to the immense quantities of biscuit required for the navy, manual labour in the preparation of it has been supplanted by machinery. First the meal, consisting of a mixture of fine flour and middlings, is conveyed into a cylinder 4^ feet long and 3 feet 2 inches in diameter, and the exact quantity of water ascertained to be nece ary, and regulated by a gauge, is let in from a cistern. A shaft armed with kmves, and placed in the centre of the cylinder, is made to revolve horizontally through the meal and water, and in two minutes the mixture is converted into 5 cwts. of well-mixed dough. The dough, removed by a simple but ingenious proce , is placed under two breaking rollers of 1500 lbs. each, which by pa ing over it backwards and forwards perform the proce of kneading, and in the course of five minutes give to the dough a solid, perfect, and equal consistency. The dough is now cut into pieces 18 inches square, placed on boards 6 feet long by 3 feet wide, and conveyed to a second set of rollers, which pre ing upon each square give it the requisite thickne by spreading it evenly over the whole surface of its board. In this state the board b placed under the stamping plate, which instantly cuts and stamps, or as it is called dockSf the dough into forty-two hexagonal biscuits, which are forthwith conveyed on carriages to the oven. The hexagonal form being the only one which will cut the whole dough without leaving interstices is justly preferred to any other; and the stamping is not only to separate and perforate the biscuits, but to Impre each with the broad arrow and the number of the oven in which it is to be baked. Each oven, made of wrought iron, has an area of about 160 square feet, and receives at one time 112 lbs. of raw biscuit, afterwards reduced by baking to about 100 lbs. The advantages gained by the machinery are both in the unlimited power of supply and the great saving of expense. Bakehouses have been erected at Deptford, Gosport, and Plymouth; and by working only eight hours a day could annually turn out 735d tons of biscuit. Previously, though double gangs of workmen were constantly employed, the demand in time of war could not be met by the government establishments, and required the employment of con* tractors often at an extravagant price. The tons would formerly have cost in labour and utensils 19c/. per cwt., but would now cost only 5 jd per In other words, the whole cost without machinery U £llf6i3f and with it only £3217, showing a saving in the latter of £8426. 219