Fig. 65.
Yet these processes are becoming obsolete, and the chocolate slabs or plates are at the present time superseded by the two forms of apparatus constructed by A. Reiche, which we accordingly describe below.
Fig. 66.
In the first of these simply constructed machines, fig. 64, the material oozes through perforations in a square sieve-like arrangement, at length issuing on the sheet-iron plate fitted underneath. The process is aided by repeated shaking, and when sufficient chocolate has penetrated to the plate, the box is raised on its hinge and chocolate mass left ready for further treatment. By gentle additional shaking, the still irregular heaps are rounded off to perfection; they are now cooled down and finally detached. The coating of the lozenges with coloured sugar grains is effected by passing them, together with the plate to which they still adhere, through a box containing sugar dust.
This machine is scarcely used now; in its place come the two constructions of A. Reiche, as already stated, the one being intended for solid material, and the other for semi-liquid chocolate mass.
Fig. 67.
By means of his pastille machine Nr. 14091, which we give in Figs. 65 and 66, chocolate lozenges of the most diverse size can be prepared very rapidly and to advantage. The chocolate material, which in this case is solid, is pressed through perforations in a metal plate and otherwise treated as in previous cases.
In working with this machine, it must be previously and sufficiently warmed, then partially filled with chocolate material of a proper consistency (not more than 75 % of the total capacity may be utilised). It is highly important in the preparation of lozenges that the material should neither be too hard nor too plastic, but strike a just medium.