Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-05-22
sUGAR REFINERY.
The Fun. Hovelsy and wis,iom OF IL

| SUGAR REFINERY.
The Fun. novelty and wistiom Of it
From the New York Daily Graphic
Do Won wish to know all about the
sugar which you cat every day-how
il is made in fifth shoveled over in
dirt. and how it is finally purified till
it is white and immaculate
New York has thirty-fye out OF the
fifty sugar refneries in the United
States--ihe other refineries being in
Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and
st. Louis. The largest refinery in the
world is that OF Constance Sey, in
Paris. Sey refines 5000 barrels per
day. The next largest is that of Have
meyer s. Elder, of New York. They
refine 1900 barrels per day.
How does the sugar come here?
Last year the 54S, ,766 tons of sugar
shipped to this country came mostly
from Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil. Manila,
Jamaica, San Domingo, andBarbadoes.
1t came in hogshcads weighing 1000
pounds, boxes weighing 450 pounds,
and bags weighing $50 pounds. A
large part Of it comes in black, dirty
ssraw" state. and some called "centri-
fugai" had tho water M-.irled out Of it
in centrifugal machines before it left
Cuba. So sugar is quoted as "raw,'
and Centrifugal Raw sugar is worth
about s cents and centrifugal 8 cents
per pound. Cuba sugar is the best
sugar, but it all has 10 be cleaned be-
fore it is fit for use, and then the raw
sugar WHOLESALERS for about cents
per pound more. From dirty s cent
sugar they make white lump sugar
worth ~, light yellow worth l0R,
dark yellow worth ~, and syrup
worth cents per pound.
How do they do this?
This is what saw for the Graphic
yesterday, in the largest sugar refinery
in the u. s.:
First the sugar in filthy black, hogs
heads, covered with mud, and boxes
smeared over. with bilge water and
filth, was landed at the Williamsburg
docks, where you see those immense
sugar houses. Then stevedores car
ried it back to big copper vat filed
with hot water, broke open the boxes,
cut open the bags, and knocked in
the heads of the hogsheads, and let all
dirt, sticks, niggers' shoes, old hats,
and sleeveless shirts-yes, let ii all
slide in together.
What ell this dirt2
Yes, and more too. They placed the
filthy old bags, and hogsheads and box
es into a steam vat, steamed and wash
ed off the dirt and sugar, and then put
that in too. Then greasy old Dutch
man stirred it up, occasionally expec-
torating tobacco juice here and there,
and scraping his Williamsburg mud
into the future frosting ofour wedding
cake.
What next?
Well, the hogshead slaves, after the
sugar and dirt are worked off are sent
back TO Cuba, and 400 hogsheads Of
sugar and dirt per day are pumped in
to the fifth story, in liquid form, to
be cleaned and purified.
What can they take out filthy cigar
stubs, dead rats, negro babies, bilge
water and everything?
Yes; in five hours they draw from
this witches chowdec syrup as pure
and as colorless and odorless as ice-
water, and as clean, too. All dirt, salts,
smells, and every material or gaseous
odor or oxyd is separated and trans
r.-.-1l;anid- sugar runs out as water
trick'es from crystal spring.
How do they do it?
First the dirty liquid is pumped into
one thousand gallon caldrons, with
steam pipe in the bottom Then blue
liunus paper (paper soaked in blue
cabbage juice), is dipped into it to see
if it is sour. Ifit is sour the blue pa
per is changed to red. Then they put
In pail OF lime. This kills the acid,
or the acid leaves the sugar to attack
the lime, when, like the Kilkenny cats,
they are both eaten up. If you ponr
acid into soft soap, the alkali (another
form of lime), win leave the grease to
feed upon the acid.
What next?
Then the halt naked men who work
over the hot caldrons pour FIVE gallons
of warm bullock's blood, fresh from
the slaughter houses, into each 1,000
gallons Of melted sugar. The white
of eggs would be better, but eggs cost
too much, while blood, which is almost
as full of albumen, only costs IL
cents gallon. This blood settles" the
sugar the same as an egg Settles" your
coffee--that is, the albumen seizes hold
of every particle of dirt and holds it.
Then when they raise the temperature
to $50 degrees, the blood, lime, dirt,
sticks, ETC., float to the surface, while
the syrup, yellow and quite transpar-
ent, is drawn off through strainers at
the bottom, leaving the scum on top.
The scum and dirt arc rinsed with
clean water, the sweet part saved to
wet up fresh lot of sugar, and the
dirt carted of as fertilizer. They
take ton of rich manure out of the
sugar every day.
How is the syrup strained?
Through bags-long cloth bags, hav-
ing four or five thicknesses OF cloth in
them. They catch all the heavy dirt,
little stones, sand, etc., and the syrup
leaves them transparent, only slightly
tinged with yellow. These bags take
out about four per cent. of dirt--real
black, mucky dirt--the same as you
see in the streets. The syrup is now
ninety-three per cent. pure SUI
gar, whereas it was but eighty per
cent five hours ago. There remains
SCNth DCE CSuts vi NOtOllHSS 1OACiS II
salts and gases yet to be removed.
How arc these gases and salts re-
moved?
This is done by filtering the yellow
syrup through bone black or animal
charcoal (bones burnt black and
ground up.) Large iron tanks, look
ing like upright steam boilers, are
filed with $4,000 pounds OF bone black
each. Through this the syrup is made
to trickle. AS it comes out at the bot
tom 1t is as pure and transparent as
rock crystal. A goblet of it looks like
| pure water.
SIS it perfectly pure now ?" i asked
the chemist.
"Yes, as near as possible. 1t Is nine
ty-nine aud half per cent. pure sugar.
You might pour five gallons of ker-
oscne and smallpox patient cut into
sausage meat into that first tank and |
tell you, Perkins, that wouldn't have
the slightest objection to drinking the
| syrup five hours afterward. It's per.
fectly clean and pure"
Il