No description of Bournville would be complete without a mention of its picturesque alms-houses.  Here a haven of rest is provided for some of those who, in their best years, have rendered faithful service to the firm.  Thirty-three independent houses, brick and stone built, each with its own doorway to the quiet greensward, and its windows to the sun, form an inviting, reposeful quadrangle.  They were the last gift of a life devoted to the interests of others, and the happiness and peace which characterize them are fitting memorials of the late Richard Cadbury, the elder of the two brothers who founded this great industry, and who have in their lives been favoured to see such untold blessing upon their labours.

[Illustration—­Colour Plate:  Section of a Chocolate Factory.]

SECTION OF A CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

The accompanying diagram of a chocolate factory is reproduced by kind permission of the Berlin publishers of Dr. Paul Zipperer’s well-known work on “The Manufacture of Chocolate,” which contains much valuable information.  The machinery described is that of Messrs. Lehmann, of Dresden, one of the largest makers on the Continent.

By means of the lift (1) all the raw materials, sugar, cocoa, packing, etc., are carried up to the store-rooms (2).  Here are the machines for cleansing and picking the raw cocoa-beans, which are fed into the elevator boxes (3) above the cleansing machine (4), which frees them from dust; they then pass to the continuous band (5) on which they are picked over, and from which they fall into movable boxes (6).  They are thence transferred to the hoppers (7), and fed by opening a slide in the hopper, into the roasting machine (8).  The quantity contained in the hoppers is sufficient to charge the roasting machine.  When the roasting is completed the cocoa is emptied into trucks (9), and carried to the exhaust arrangement (10), where the beans are cooled down, the vapour given off passing out into the open air.  At the same time the air of the roasting chamber is sucked out through the funnel-shaped tube fitted to the cover.  The roasted cocoa is then passed to boxes (11), to be conveyed by the elevator to the crushing and cleansing machine (12).  After being cleansed, the cocoa is carried in trucks (13) to hoppers (14) by which it is fed into the mills (15) on the lower floor.  The sugar mill and sifting apparatus (26) placed near the crushing and cleansing machines are also fed by a hopper from above.  Cocoa and sugar are now supplied to the mixing machine (16), to be worked together before passing to the rolls (17) by which the final grinding is effected.  After passing once or more through the mill, the finished chocolate mass is taken to the hot-room (18), where it remains in boxes until further treated, after which it is taken to the moulding-room.  In the mixer (19) the mass acquires the consistency and temperature requisite for moulding.  The mass is then taken in lumps