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from the book from 1900 "practical break making-a usefull guide for all in the trade" (this book reports on ovens in the late 1800's)
This brings us briefly to the baker and his wood oven as found at the end of the seventeenth century, which was continued away into the eighteenth or until coal came into use, which it did very gradually. With the advent of coal, the geniuses of the trade had to look around for means of heating their ovens, for wood began to get very scarce and dear. The first expedient adopted was the arrangement made from sheet-iron, and placed partially over the doorway of the oven, thus giving a sharper draught and allowing the cold air to pass underneath, and so to feed the fire. This was known as a "blower," and came very generally into use, the fire being made in one corner of the oven, sunk somewhat below the floor of the oven, and fed with fresh coals from the one doorway. From this beginning, iron having become pretty common, or rather more generally used, a door was cast for the oven mouth, and then some happily inspired individual hit upon the idea of having a special door for the furnace; at first it was placed below the oven floor, and was, I believe, known as the "Chaffer dven." Whether named after the inventor, or for other reasons, I know not; but it was here, and the principle being once evolved of having a separate fire, a special flue was not very long in following, and then came the side-flue oven, which was once, I believe, the subject of a patent, to serve mankind. This oven, with very many improvements, is with us to-day, and there seems every likelihood that it has come to stay. In almost every village or town this same oven is to be found, and is admitted to do its work both economically and well.
Its principle needs very little description, as it is very well known to almost every baker in the kingdom. The ironwork has been strengthened to such a degree that it is practically everlasting; the brickwork, too, is so very solid and substantial that its life is almost unlimited. I know ovens that have been in constant use for over fifty years, and they seem in quite as good condition as when first built, excepting, of course, the tile floor, which has to be renewed periodically, and so also does the furnace lumps; but then so do all furnaces, no matter where they may be situated, either at the back, underneath, or at the side.
For general work these ovens have stood the test of time well, and there are many who would not change them for any other; and, when you come to think of it, there are very few advantages to be gained by change. In the first place, where only a small trade is being done, the advantages offered by the patent ovens over the sideflue are more imaginary than real, besides which they are more expensive to fire. A side-flue oven can be filled, emptied, and again filled with the second batch, in much about the time necessary to carry out the operation in the continuous ovens now upon the market, and I have seen very large trades built up and maintained with them; but then there have been little inconveniences to contend with, and so there are with the patents.
I think that a few examples of oven work with the side-flue oven may serve a very useful purpose here, so, first of all, we will commence by firing the oven. For starting the oven either shavings, straw, or wood, would have to be used. Clean out your furnace free from clinkers with an oven raker (Fig. i57); then lay in a good handful of shavings, and then a few sticks of wood, flatten down close on to the bars, and on
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top of the wood place a few shovelsful of coal; apply the match, draw out the register, pull down the flap, open the draught door under the furnace, close the furnace door, and, providing your oven has a good sharp draught, she has fairly started away. Given decent fuel and a fairish draught, the oven furnace requires very little stoking, though, of course, some is necessary. When fairly away, just lift up your fire with the back of your shovel, and then place more coals at the back of the fire; never by any chance throw them right over the top of the fire, and into the oven, but always lift the fire forward to the oven, and place the fresh fuel just at the back. This is the plan generally adopted to ensure the fire burning with the smallest possible amount of smoke, and was practised with unvarying success in London during the worst days of the smoke nuisance Act, which, although not extinct, is practically a dead letter, its administration being shifted to the local authorities, who very seldom put it into force; I believe for the very simple reason that it is for the public to take the initiative, instead of the much-abused and often interested official vulgarly known to the baker as a "smoke jack," whose duty it used to be to spy out all infringements of the Act, and put it in force.
Usually your oven will not require more than three good fires, or four at the outside, and when "she" is clear "she" is ready for your batch, after, of course, being "scuffled," "cleaned," or "wiped" out.
For an oven which has a somewhat sluggish draught, it is usual to leave the outer furnace door open : this will aid combustion considerably, and help your oven along immensely, but " she" will require more constant attention, and must be stoked often and have a smaller quantity of coal fed into "her" at the time.
Another thing, you may have been too liberal with the coal, with the consequence that your furnace is full, and the oven-door commences to "chatter." The remedy for this is just to open your furnace, and draw the fire back a little with the raker, and so cause the fire to beat upon the "drop-lump " placed across the top of your furnace, instead of going directly into the oven as it did to cause the "chatter." Very simple, is it not? yet I know hundreds who cannot explain it away, or remedy it.
The worst evil, and luckily one that seldom visits the baker, is to have his oven do what is termed "blow back," which is generally caused by the draught being interrupted, or changed in some way or other. The fire will spout out under the bars, and smoke and soot deluge the bake-house. Remedy there is none, but it can to some extent be prevented. It is usually caused by the fire being banked up too high, or by too much dusty fuel being fed into the furnace, and so checking the draught, with the consequence that it blows back. Of course, the obvious prevention is not to fill up the furnace too full, and it would be much better if your oven is inclined to blow
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back to fire "her" little and often, and in that way reduce the risk to a minimum, if you cannot entirely abolish it altogether.
Your oven being ready for filling, you will run the batch in the best way you know; to please your customers, which is the principal thing to do in these days of competition.
That is the first batch. Now it often follows that you have to turn out a second, and possibly a third, from the same oven, when your management and abilities will be called into play. Usually the second dough would be ready to throw out as soon as your first was drawn from the oven. Now, if your oven is empty, get away the fire at once, and stoke pretty frequently to get as much fire as possible into " her," and by the time you have your dough scaled off and partially moulded up, "she" will be ready for scuffling out. And when ready, "run," or set in your second batch; give your third dough a turn over, and get ready to throw out. When the second batch is drawn from the oven, start "her" away, and throw out and follow along as quickly as possible in the same way as before.
If you have got your oven a good solid heat for the first batch, the second will require less fire, and the third less again. And usually two hundred-weights of coals would be sufficient for the three batches, at a cost of is. 8d. for, say, three sacks of bread, a cost of less than 8d. per sack, not a very large amount, all things considered, and I may say that I have often accomplished three batches with this amount of fuel, and in about six and a half hours. I do not mean that the doughs have been made and got into the oven in that time, as the doughs were all made in the first part of the night, but only so far as scaling and getting into the oven is concerned. Of course, if the dough-making time was added, it would work out to about nine and a half to ten hours.
So much for the side-flue oven. We now get along to the "patents," which in this connection are generally known as "continuous baking." The principle is nearly the same in them all, although it is carried out in a different manner, some being fired externally and others internally; but to my mind those into which the fire goes are to be preferred to those in which it does not. The principle on which they are constructed is that the baker is able to get a considerable quantity of bread out in a given time; but, whichever oven you have, you will have to take very particular care to keep up the "gauge " or " pyrometer," or your batches will be more boiled than baked. Again, do not think to add on more fuel after you have set your batch, without you are able to draw it up through the main flue, in which case take care to shut all dampers connecting with the baking chamber, or you will have a fiasco, for besides drawing up the fire you will be drawing all the heat and steam out of the oven, with Tthe result that you have many headless loaves, and a very dry batch into the bargain.
This brings us briefly to the baker and his wood oven as found at the end of the seventeenth century, which was continued away into the eighteenth or until coal came into use, which it did very gradually. With the advent of coal, the geniuses of the trade had to look around for means of heating their ovens, for wood began to get very scarce and dear. The first expedient adopted was the arrangement made from sheet-iron, and placed partially over the doorway of the oven, thus giving a sharper draught and allowing the cold air to pass underneath, and so to feed the fire. This was known as a "blower," and came very generally into use, the fire being made in one corner of the oven, sunk somewhat below the floor of the oven, and fed with fresh coals from the one doorway. From this beginning, iron having become pretty common, or rather more generally used, a door was cast for the oven mouth, and then some happily inspired individual hit upon the idea of having a special door for the furnace; at first it was placed below the oven floor, and was, I believe, known as the "Chaffer dven." Whether named after the inventor, or for other reasons, I know not; but it was here, and the principle being once evolved of having a separate fire, a special flue was not very long in following, and then came the side-flue oven, which was once, I believe, the subject of a patent, to serve mankind. This oven, with very many improvements, is with us to-day, and there seems every likelihood that it has come to stay. In almost every village or town this same oven is to be found, and is admitted to do its work both economically and well.
Its principle needs very little description, as it is very well known to almost every baker in the kingdom. The ironwork has been strengthened to such a degree that it is practically everlasting; the brickwork, too, is so very solid and substantial that its life is almost unlimited. I know ovens that have been in constant use for over fifty years, and they seem in quite as good condition as when first built, excepting, of course, the tile floor, which has to be renewed periodically, and so also does the furnace lumps; but then so do all furnaces, no matter where they may be situated, either at the back, underneath, or at the side.
For general work these ovens have stood the test of time well, and there are many who would not change them for any other; and, when you come to think of it, there are very few advantages to be gained by change. In the first place, where only a small trade is being done, the advantages offered by the patent ovens over the sideflue are more imaginary than real, besides which they are more expensive to fire. A side-flue oven can be filled, emptied, and again filled with the second batch, in much about the time necessary to carry out the operation in the continuous ovens now upon the market, and I have seen very large trades built up and maintained with them; but then there have been little inconveniences to contend with, and so there are with the patents.
I think that a few examples of oven work with the side-flue oven may serve a very useful purpose here, so, first of all, we will commence by firing the oven. For starting the oven either shavings, straw, or wood, would have to be used. Clean out your furnace free from clinkers with an oven raker (Fig. i57); then lay in a good handful of shavings, and then a few sticks of wood, flatten down close on to the bars, and on
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top of the wood place a few shovelsful of coal; apply the match, draw out the register, pull down the flap, open the draught door under the furnace, close the furnace door, and, providing your oven has a good sharp draught, she has fairly started away. Given decent fuel and a fairish draught, the oven furnace requires very little stoking, though, of course, some is necessary. When fairly away, just lift up your fire with the back of your shovel, and then place more coals at the back of the fire; never by any chance throw them right over the top of the fire, and into the oven, but always lift the fire forward to the oven, and place the fresh fuel just at the back. This is the plan generally adopted to ensure the fire burning with the smallest possible amount of smoke, and was practised with unvarying success in London during the worst days of the smoke nuisance Act, which, although not extinct, is practically a dead letter, its administration being shifted to the local authorities, who very seldom put it into force; I believe for the very simple reason that it is for the public to take the initiative, instead of the much-abused and often interested official vulgarly known to the baker as a "smoke jack," whose duty it used to be to spy out all infringements of the Act, and put it in force.
Usually your oven will not require more than three good fires, or four at the outside, and when "she" is clear "she" is ready for your batch, after, of course, being "scuffled," "cleaned," or "wiped" out.
For an oven which has a somewhat sluggish draught, it is usual to leave the outer furnace door open : this will aid combustion considerably, and help your oven along immensely, but " she" will require more constant attention, and must be stoked often and have a smaller quantity of coal fed into "her" at the time.
Another thing, you may have been too liberal with the coal, with the consequence that your furnace is full, and the oven-door commences to "chatter." The remedy for this is just to open your furnace, and draw the fire back a little with the raker, and so cause the fire to beat upon the "drop-lump " placed across the top of your furnace, instead of going directly into the oven as it did to cause the "chatter." Very simple, is it not? yet I know hundreds who cannot explain it away, or remedy it.
The worst evil, and luckily one that seldom visits the baker, is to have his oven do what is termed "blow back," which is generally caused by the draught being interrupted, or changed in some way or other. The fire will spout out under the bars, and smoke and soot deluge the bake-house. Remedy there is none, but it can to some extent be prevented. It is usually caused by the fire being banked up too high, or by too much dusty fuel being fed into the furnace, and so checking the draught, with the consequence that it blows back. Of course, the obvious prevention is not to fill up the furnace too full, and it would be much better if your oven is inclined to blow
N
back to fire "her" little and often, and in that way reduce the risk to a minimum, if you cannot entirely abolish it altogether.
Your oven being ready for filling, you will run the batch in the best way you know; to please your customers, which is the principal thing to do in these days of competition.
That is the first batch. Now it often follows that you have to turn out a second, and possibly a third, from the same oven, when your management and abilities will be called into play. Usually the second dough would be ready to throw out as soon as your first was drawn from the oven. Now, if your oven is empty, get away the fire at once, and stoke pretty frequently to get as much fire as possible into " her," and by the time you have your dough scaled off and partially moulded up, "she" will be ready for scuffling out. And when ready, "run," or set in your second batch; give your third dough a turn over, and get ready to throw out. When the second batch is drawn from the oven, start "her" away, and throw out and follow along as quickly as possible in the same way as before.
If you have got your oven a good solid heat for the first batch, the second will require less fire, and the third less again. And usually two hundred-weights of coals would be sufficient for the three batches, at a cost of is. 8d. for, say, three sacks of bread, a cost of less than 8d. per sack, not a very large amount, all things considered, and I may say that I have often accomplished three batches with this amount of fuel, and in about six and a half hours. I do not mean that the doughs have been made and got into the oven in that time, as the doughs were all made in the first part of the night, but only so far as scaling and getting into the oven is concerned. Of course, if the dough-making time was added, it would work out to about nine and a half to ten hours.
So much for the side-flue oven. We now get along to the "patents," which in this connection are generally known as "continuous baking." The principle is nearly the same in them all, although it is carried out in a different manner, some being fired externally and others internally; but to my mind those into which the fire goes are to be preferred to those in which it does not. The principle on which they are constructed is that the baker is able to get a considerable quantity of bread out in a given time; but, whichever oven you have, you will have to take very particular care to keep up the "gauge " or " pyrometer," or your batches will be more boiled than baked. Again, do not think to add on more fuel after you have set your batch, without you are able to draw it up through the main flue, in which case take care to shut all dampers connecting with the baking chamber, or you will have a fiasco, for besides drawing up the fire you will be drawing all the heat and steam out of the oven, with Tthe result that you have many headless loaves, and a very dry batch into the bargain.
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