Milling & Baking News - April 12, 2016 - 46

2016 Baking Hall of Fame

19 British patents for various types
of steam-powered machinery, although it was his son, Angier March
Perkins, who first applied steam to
baking ovens. Another son, Loftus
Perkins, is credited with making the
crucial breakthrough, the stoppedend steam tube oven, which he patented in 1865. This innovation transformed baking of bread in ovens
because, until this time, there was
no satisfactory way of controlling
oven temperature. The ovens were
sold to some of the most important
bakeries in the country and rapidly
accelerated the growth of commercial baking. Later, rights to the first
ram-and-knife dough divider were
acquired, which, along with the
steam tube ovens, laid the foundations both of the company and modern plant bakery equipment.
The key invention by Mr. Baker
was a handheld flour sifter. Mr. Baker had watched his wife spend a lot
of time sifting her stone-milled flour
to remove the impurities and, tapping into his inventive side, decided
to make a machine that would make
the chore easier. The sifter worked
well, and Mr. Baker decided to take
a few to try and sell as he went
house to house to sell books, maps
and pictures as part of his regular
job. The sifter was met with good
response, and Mr. Baker decided to
quit selling books, maps and pictures and instead focus full time on
the sale of the sifter. The sifter was
patented in Canada in 1870 and the
United States in 1871.

John Cowx, left, owner and managing director of Baker Perkins, with John Del Campo,
chairman of the A.S.B. Baking Hall of Fame Evaluation Committee.

Only three years after transferring
his business to the United Kingdom, he developed biscuit-making
machinery, the first time that a sector of the food industry had been
mechanized. Invention of traveling
and stationary ovens soon followed.
Joseph Baker & Sons Ltd. rapidly
became the most important food
machinery manufacturer in the U.K.
A.M. Perkins & Son Ltd., the
business established in 1830 by Mr.
Perkins' son, Angier, continued
his father 's fascination with steam
technologies. At one point, its steam
engines and boilers were represented by Joseph Baker & Sons. When

Perkins came out with its own
steam oven, the two companies became fierce rivals. During World
War I, however, they teamed up to
build automated baking equipment
for armies in the field. In 1920, they
merged to form Baker Perkins Ltd.
Just as the companies combined, the Bakers bought a factory in Saginaw, Mich., that became the company's manufacturing base in North America for
the next 60 years. Baker Perkins
operations in North America were
later shifted to Grand Rapids,
Mich., after the company in 1978
acquired Werner Lehara, a business

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46 / April 12, 2016 XMilling & Baking News

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Milling & Baking News - April 12, 2016

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