During the period under review Messrs Scott (engineer) and Richard (bread baking manager) had made some improvements on a type of draw-plate oven. These alterations were patented in the joint names of the two gentlemen and the Baking Society, and arrangements were made with Messrs Baker & Son, bakery engineers, London, for the manufacture of the oven. Messrs Scott and Richard were also the joint inventors of a divider and moulding machine. THE SOCIETY’S POSITION. Much important work was done in the three years from 1902 to 1905. Clydebank bakery was erected; Belfast Bakery was commenced, as was St Mungo Halls, and both were nearing completion; three tenements of houses had been erected in Govan Street, with shops on the street level, and these shops were ultimately all occupied by Kinning Park Society. One result of this policy was that the Baking Society ceased to retain the bread damaged in manufacture, and this trade was taken over by Kinning Park Society. Henceforth, until for a short time they retailed the bread they made in Rothesay Bakery, the Society did a wholesale business only. Notwithstanding the opening of Clydebank Bakery, the sales of loaf bread from M‘Neil Street were greater than they had been at the beginning of the period, while the turnover in smallbread, oatcakes, and biscuits had all increased considerably, and the total production for the last six months of the period under review was 92,336 sacks for the three bakeries, as compared with 73,821 at the beginning of 1902. During the four years the membership had increased by thirty-four societies, and the value of the sales by £61,092 for six months. The rate of surplus had been fluctuating between 2/ per £ and 1/8 per £, and for one half-year it was 2/2. Big things were also in prospect. The need for new offices was forcing itself on the attention of the directors; and, with the prospect of increased trade in front of them, consideration was already being given to the utilisation of their ground at the north-west corner of South York Street, although the time for extensions there had not yet arrived. CHAPTER XVI. FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH. STEADY PROGRESS—EXTENSIONS—NEW OFFICES—THE QUALITY OF THE BREAD—THE TEAROOMS—ORDERS FROM EGYPT—ORGANISATION—A SPECIAL COMMITTEE—MR ALEXANDER HAMILTON RETIRES—THE SOCIETY JOINS GLASGOW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE—AUSTRIAN CO-OPERATORS VISIT THE BAKERY—ANOTHER UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS—RAILWAYMEN’S CONGRESS ENTERTAINED—BAND SUCCESSES—PROPAGANDA WORK—CLYDEBANK BAKERY SECURES FIRST PRIZE FOR BREAD AT S.C.W.S. BAKING COMPETITION—THE SOCIETY AND ITS EMPLOYEES—COMPULSORY TRADE UNIONISM—A SHORTER WORKING WEEK—THE OLDEST SCOTTISH SOCIETY—THE CO-OPERATIVE INSURANCE SOCIETY.