Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE MANUFACTURE OF leaps and bounds. First steeped in water for the purpose of being softened, a process which is in some instances accelerated by the use of a weak caustic lye, the grain swells and becomes fit to be deprived of its gluten, the sticky ingredient of the seed, which is at the proper stage floated away and dried into cakes as a food for swine. This separation, however, is preceded by the process of grinding between mill stones, with the result that the material assumes a cream-like form, in which state it is pumped into vats, in whose sides are inserted glazed windows through which the condition of the various strata of the mass can be inspected. Water being added, the whole mass is agitated, and the starchy particles are held in suspension in the water, just as chalk would be if it were treated in the same way. At this point it is drawn off into settling tanks, and being allowed to settle there comes a time when it is ready to be dug out and packed in the form of small lumps into huge calico-lined boxes. Agitation being once more set up, the starch is reduced to a liquid form by virtue of its inherent moisture, MUSTARD AND STARCH. 215 and the application of the tender mercies of an hydraulic press removes the moisture, and leaves the mass dry and solid. It is now sawn into cubes about 4 lb. in weight, hardened for a day or two in a stove at a temperature of 170° Fahr., scraped free from its outer crust—the work often of girls— wrapped in paper, and restoved for weeks at a time in ovens, each of which frequently contains about a dozen tons. The bundles are at length removed to flat tables, and scarcely a touch is required to cause the cube, apparently a mass of glittering in- destructible rock, to fall to fragments, in the strange crystaline forms in which starch is known to the washerwoman. The packing of starch for sale is essentially the work of deft, tireless women. One oi them seizes a heap of straw boards and feeds a machine which swiftly cuts them into shape, and at the same time scores them halfway through with the invisible lines with whose aid the four sides of the box are formed. The making of the box, with its inside lining, its top, its label, and so forth, is the labour of a dozen specialists. When dry INTERIOR OE STARCH HOUSE.