Trailer-mounted Army Bakery
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
An Eight-trailer Set Gives Complete Mobility and Independence
FINDER modern war conditions com batant troops have to be far more mobile than has been the case in the past. It follows that their supply i,ervices have likewise to be capable of rapid movement and, at the same time. be able to fulfil their working function with the minimum of delay.
Brea& is a most important item in the ration issue, but it cannot be stored for long, which implies frequent production. To achieve this object a new type of mobile bakery unit has been developed for the Royal Army Service Corps. It can work in existing buildings • where they are suitable. but it can also be wholly self-contained in and around a large marquee designed for the purpose. Protection is necessary to safeguard the dough from climatic effects and to give an efficient black-out which will not interfere with consistent working.
The whole outfit is borne by eight trailers, all of which are towed by general-service lorries. The latter carry,. in addition to the equipment, a
seven-days' supply of flour. These eight trailers consist of three equipped with ovens, two for transporting dough troughs, one for carrying the doughpreparing machinery, and two are mobile generator sets providing electricity for various duties, which will be mentioned later. These generator trailers are of the two-wheeled type; but the other six are four-wheelers. The former work outside the marquee, but the latter are housed within it.
In addition to the trailers, there is a petrol-engined pump for water supply with filter and sterilizer, also two 1,200-gallon folding water dams. This equipment allows any, water supply to be tdrned to good account with safe results.
The complete equipment can be put to work Or packed up ready to move in a matter of eight hours. The
bakery has an output ranging from 21,000 lb. to 30,000 lb. of bread per 24 hours. Excluding the drivers, there are 54 men to operate the bakery and they can bake in a day sufficient to feed 40,000 troops.
• In operation; the machinery-carrying trailer is ranged beside the two carrying dough troughs, and bridging plates couple their platforms so that the men can move quickly from one to the other. On the former trailer are three major items ; one is the kneader which prepares the dough. Water for this is heated and measured into each batch by the , second plant group on the trailer, whilst the third item is the divider and hander-up, which automatically cuts and moulds the dough into portions of the right size.
The machinery trailer weighs 4i tons; each of its companions carrying the dough .troughs , weighs 2 tons ewt. 2 qrs. These three trailers have superstructures which are employed for protection when travelling, but can be put to work as temporary offices, or stores, when the bakery is in service.
The three oven trailers have pent
house covers which protect the furnace boxes, oil jets and burners when on the move, but they can be extended endwise during baking to act as windshields for the burners and to effect a black-out: Each of these trailers carries a double-deck oven. The standard arrangement is to use Diesel oil for firing—the same fuel as is used in the engines of the .mobile generators. Air for combustion is supplied by a motor-driven fan on each trailer, but the air pipes can be interconnected so that the fan equipment of one set can supply the air required by the heating equipment of the other trailers.
If it should be required to save liquid fuel, solid firing can be adopted, as provision has been made for this in the oven design. The weight of each oven trailer is 5 tons 5 cwt. 3 qrs., and it carries its own liquid-fuel tank.
Electricity is needed for driving the items mounted on the machinery trailer and for the fans on the oven trailers. In practice, only one of the mobile generating sets is needed, but two are provided to ensure that one is always available for service and to facilitate maintenance. Mounted on the trailer chassis is •at. steel sub-frame which carries a Lister four-cylindered oil engine rated at 40 b.h.p. at 1,100 r.p.m. It drives directly a 22-kw. direct-current generator. Beside the dynamo is an elastically supported switchboard and above -the dynamo is the engine's fuel tank. At the opposite end of this plant group is the radiator, beside which is the decompressor control that can be operated by one of the men turning the starting handle. The trailer's tailboard can be let, down to provide a convenient platform on which two men can stand for the ,engine-starting operation.