ALL POWER EQUIPMENT
Several conditions of manufacture are changed as the quantity of production is increased.
You should pop your corn in a separate room from the place in which the cooking is done. The heat from the poppers—even with the windows open in summer—is very uncomfortable and the escaping gas and burning dust makes the air very unhealthy. Have your poppers so arranged that the bad air will rise and escape without disturbing the workers. Ordinary windows are not enough. Put a ventilator over the poppers. Place a hood, or canopy over your stoves connected by pipe to outdoors, so that when any syrup or molasses gets on the stove and creates a smoke, it will pass off without making the workers uncomfortable.
The arrangement of your factory space as to the location of the doors, windows, stairs and elevator will effect your placing machinery.
Whether you use individual motor drive, or shaft driven machines, will effect the arranging of your plant.
What you intend to manufacture and what machines you buy will also determine how you use your floor space to the best advantage.
Individual motor drive enables you to locate your machines to better manufacturing advantages.
As your business changes in what you make, as you increase or change your goods and as you add more machines, you can more easily move machines to keep the best manufacturing arrangement.
As to cost of operation, it is hard to say under modern conditions whether one way is cheaper than another. With separate motor to each machine, you have no overhead shafts and belts to drop oil and dust and compel you to locate by them. You are not liable to have your plant idle because the one motor is out of order, or one belt has parted, you can keep making something if one machine is out of order, for all the others will be running.
POP-CORN POPPER
Many manufacturers make a stand for their popper out of three-quarter inch gas pipe, which is fireproof, clean, simple and cheap. It is best to have three pipes for the popper to rest on, one across near the front and two across near the back. These two project to the right twelve inches for the shelf for mill (Stock No. [2001-1]). By the use of elbows, tees, flanges and piping you can make a stand to rest on the floor or hang from the ceiling and bring the popper to the right height for your barrels. When hung from the ceiling it leaves the floor clear, and in every way is to be preferred if you make the construction rigid. Determine the height of the barrel you are to use under your Knott Rotary Sifter (Stock No. [112]) and have the top of the stand for popper twelve and one-half inches higher than that.
Use an iron box or barrel under the popper to catch the unpopped kernels. In that way you risk no fire should a blazing kernel fall into it. A blaze in pop-corn is easily smothered by stirring up the corn.
You are urged to use an iron barrel under the Knott Rotary Sifter (Stock No. [112]) to catch the siftings.
Order your popper made ready to attach Knott’s Rotary Sifter, it costs no more.
To Operate Popper.
Remove the pop-corn popper cylinder.
Directions for Gasoline Fuel.
See that the valves are closed.
Use only the best gasoline.
Do not fill the tank while the burners are lighted, nor remove the tank to fill it. Do not let the tank run dry.
If gasoline burners should leak at any time at the hexagon stuffing box on the valve stem, tighten with pliers. Repeat this operation if any further trouble occurs from this source. If this doesn’t overcome the trouble remove the stuffing box and wrap some cotton cord or linen thread well saturated with common soap around the valve stem. Then tighten stuffing box.
To prevent smoking up the cylinder you are recommended to use alcohol (denatured or wood) in generating cups; light and allow to burn out, then turn on gasoline and light at the perforated cone at top of burner; turn low.
If you are not used to gasoline burners, get some one who knows how to show you.
Directions for Gas Fuel.
It is essential to have an uninterrupted and sufficient supply of gas.
Do not use a rubber tube to carry gas to the popper if you can connect the popper directly by pipe. The tubing greatly reduces the pressure. Run a three-quarter-inch pipe to a small sized Popper; and an inch pipe to the large sized Poppers. See that the gas comes to this through no smaller pipe.
Light the burner and turn low.
The distance the pop-corn cylinder is away from the burner is very important. If your cylinder is too near the burner, your corn will be really under the heat and not in it. If the cylinder is too far away from the burner, the corn will be too far away from the hottest part of your fire. This will show by your corn being roasted instead of popped and by your popped kernels being small. The distance between cylinder and the burner should be about 1 inch. This does not mean ¼ inch or ½ inch, neither does it mean 1¼ inch or 1½ inch. The pressure of the gas may require that you make a new adjustment of the burner up or down to get absolutely the best results with the gas you must use.
To Pop the Pop-Corn.
Make yourself thoroughly familiar with the motions of operating the popper with raw corn without fire before trying to pop corn.
A power-driven machine should have the power turned on before the burner is lighted. This prevents the liability of your forgetting to keep the cylinder revolving over the fire. If the cylinder is not in motion, the fire will burn a hole in it or get it out of shape.
Having oiled the shaft with heavy oil, replace the cylinder.
Put in a scoopful of corn.
This illustrates method of placing corn in cylinder
Turn up the fire and revolve the cylinder clockwise, eighteen or twenty revolutions to the minute.
The popping should begin in one and one-half to two and one-half minutes.
After the popper has been running a little while and becomes thoroughly warmed up, popping may begin in one and one-half minutes.
When the popping is about two-thirds completed, if you are using gasoline fuel, turn down the inside burner only. When gas is used turn the valve off about half-way.
In case pop-corn catches fire in the cylinder, put in a scoop of raw corn, which will extinguish the blaze.
After a little practice you will know from the discharging corn just what moment to turn the cylinder slowly backward and stop to dump the unpopped kernels. On the power machines you must draw the bolt on the crank before you can turn it backwards.
Put in another scoopful of corn.
Turn up the burner, and if you are using gasoline, first the outside and then the inside one, so that the lighting will be from the outside.
Proceed as before.