, 1865-05-26

large cast-iron box 28 feet long, Is feet
high, and 6 feet wide. This box or she'll
is made up of cast iron plates, ribbed for
strength, and firmly screwed together.
When permanently placed, it will be
built on brick work, having under 1t a tiue
extending under its whole width and
length, the purpose Of which will shortly
be explained. Inside this box or frame
are placed, one above the other, four
"webs,' as they are technically called,
that is, four long stretches OF small NAL
leabIe iron rods horizontally placed and
revolving on o~ctagoual puIlles, fixed on
shafts, on which the wet megaSs viii be
thrown when it is to be dried. The to-
tai length of these webs is 230 feet, and
they weigh nearly three tons. They are
made up of 74O large rods and 230O small
ones. These are connected one TO the
other by iron links, which are again fast
ened by collars or ''Washers." The top
web projects beyond the box about four
feet, and on this the ''cane trash" or me-
gaSs is thrown. After trayerslng the
whole length of the machine to the other
end, it falls upon the second web, IS ear
ried back to the starting point, then falls
down on the third "Web," is taken again
through the box, to fall on the fourth
'weO," at.the other end, and is then once
more brought back aud discharged dry
at the bottom of the same end at which
it first entered. But now we have TO
speak of the drying power, WhIch IS hot
air. At the middle and outside OF the
box, there is an iron "uptake" tor convey
inr the heated air from any convenient
hue, s1ch as that going from the coppers
to the chimney (or it is purposed to utll-
Use the hot air that now is lost in the at
~mosphere), aud discharging it over the
ton Of the first "web." BY this arrange
mcnt, the warm air first comes IN contact
with the megass when III It's Wettest state.
THIS air is drawn into the machine by a
pair Of powerful patent exhaust fans, ca
pable Of exhausting 10000 cubic feet OF
air per minute, and which are placed at
the opposite end of the box from that at
which the cane enters, inside a small
chimney sufficiently high to carry the
cooled air and vapours off. The air finds
egreSs to the fan by the hue at the bot
tom of the machine, already referred to.
The speed Of the webs can be varied from
two feet up to II feet per minute. AT
the rate of five feet per minute, the cane
will take about 80 minutes to pass over
the series of ''webs," and it is supposed
that in that time the "megass' will be
perfectly dried before it is expelled. At
the principal end Of the machine there
are Two doors, one to receive the wet
me gass as it comes from the mill the
other to discharge it when dry, when IT
would be at once taken 10 the "copper"
fires and used as fuel. At the other end
there are four doors, one at each web;
but all are so arranged that they are as
near'y as possible air tight The "me-
gassiccator'' has been inspected by a
number of Glasgow gentlemen interested
in, and having experience of, sugar plan
tations in the West Indies, and they are
all of opinion that it will prove highly
efficient in discharging the work for
which it has been constructed. 70 those
acquainted with the difficulties attendant
on making sugar in a "r0iny "dry season."
the advantages of this apparatus will be
sufficiently obvious. to say nothing OF saw
ing the serious expense of building CHM
news ALTOGETHER: which point, strange