First in Pittsburgh, and then in a steady stream of new bakeries opened or acquired in St. Paul, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and Providence, the Ward brothers developed the country’s most advanced mechanical mixers, kneaders, loaf shapers, and bread wrappers. While most of the country’s bakeries still shuttled batches of bread in and out of hearths not that different from those that supplied the Roman Empire, Ward loaves flowed continually through long “tunnel ovens,” assembly-line style.
