The Northwest Cracker Factory

A few months ago, J. P. Lechnor, E. Baumeister, and John Dooley established a business under the name of the Northwestern Cracker Company, and set to work preparing a plant. All the most improved machinery was entered from the East, and on Monday they began the manufacture of crackers at their new building on Front Street. The machinery is located on the ground floor. A number of the most improved power-driven machines are employed, and the cracker-making is turned into something akin to clockwork. The dough of which the yeast is made is cooked by steam. The mixing, kneading, rolling of the biscuit, and the stamping from the hard, thin floor are all done by machinery. Thence it passes to some brick ovens in which moves a large wheel, like the paddle of a steamboat. On this wheel the pans, on which the crackers are to be baked, are placed, and also revolving as the wheel travels through the baking. The hot crackers as cooked are then conveyed the rest of the way by a rolling canvas belt, where they are taken by girls and boys employed to the packing department. There they put the baked product into cartons, do the marking and labeling, while the men simply place the machines or crackers into the ovens. Hard work they learn 50 cents per 100, and they earn from $2.00 to $3.00 per day according to their skill.