Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-05-22


This is what saw tor the Graphic YES.
terday, in tho largest sugar refinery in the
Uaited States.
First, tho sugar in filthy black bags,
hogsheads covered with mud, and boxes
snaeared over with bilge water and filth,
was landed Mt the Williamsburg docks,
where You see those immense sugar
houses. Then stevedores carried it back to-
big copper vat filed with hot water,
broke open the the boxes, cut open the
bags, and knocked in the heads of the
hogsheads and let it all-dirt, mud, sticks,
niggers' old hats, pipes, bones, undissolv.
ed newspapers. and sleeveless shirts-yes,
let it all slide into the vat together.
What all this dirt?
Yes, and more too. They placed the
filthy old hogsheads, soiled bags and dirty
boxes into steam vat, steamed and wash
ed of the dirt and sugar, and then put
that in too. Thsn . greasy old Dutohman
stirred it up, occasionally expectorating
tobscco;juice hero and there, and scrapinc
his Williamsburg mud into the future
frosting Of our wedding-cake.
What next.
Well, the hogshs'al 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 q LIQUID
form, into the fifth stsry!to bo olsansed and
purified.
What! can they take out filthy cigar
stubs, dead rats. negro babies bilge water
and everything2
Yes; in five hours they draw from this
witches chowder syrup as pure and a.
colorless and od.,rless as ice-water, and
az clean too. All dirt, salts, smells, and
every material Obstacle OF gaseous odor
or oxyd ie separated, and transparent
LIQUID sugar runs out ~ water trickles
from a crystal spring.
How do they do its
First the dirty liquor is pumped into one
Thousand gallon cauldsrons; with steam
pipe in the bottom. Then, blue litmus
paper soaked in blue cabbage juice is
Clipped into it to sec if it is sour. Ii it is
sour the blue paper il changed to red.
Then they throw it in pail Of lime. This
kills the acid, for tho aci d leaves the cugar
to attack the lime, wh''n. like Kilkenny
cats, they are both eaten up. If you pour
acid into soft soap, the alkali (another
form of lime) will leave the grease to
feed upon the acid.
What next.
The half.naked men who work over
the hot cauldrons pour i've gallons Of
warm bullock's blood, fresh from tho
slaughter houses, into each 1000 gallons
OF melted sugar. The white Of eggs would
he better, but eggs cost too much, whilo
blood, which is almost as oil ~ albumen,
only cost eleven cents per gallon. This
blood "scttles'' the sugar as an egg set.
ties" your coffee-that is tho ulbumen
seize holds of every particle Of dirt and
hold it. Then, when they aise che TEN.
perature to $50 degree, the blood, lime.
Dirt, sticks, &c., float to the surface, while
the syrup, yellow and quite transparent.
is drawn of through strain,,rs from the
bottom, leaving the scum on. top. This
scum and dirt are rinsed with clean water;
the sweet part saved to wet up fresh
lot of sugar, and the dirt carried off as a
fertilizer. They take a tun of rich manure
out Of the sugar every day.
How is the syrup strained ?
Through bags-long cloth bags having
four or Eve thicknesses of cloth in them.
They catch all the heavy dirt, little stones,
sand, ETC., and the syrup leaves them
transparent, only slightly ti,ged with yell
low. ibis bag takes out about four per
cent, dirt.-real black, mucky dirt-the
same as you see in the streets. The syrup
is now ninety.three per cont. pure sugar,
whereas it was eighty per cont. five hours
ago. There remains seven per cent.
coloring, foreign salts. and gassss yet to
be removed.
IT. q, oro thaso GA ssos md ss1fs ~o,oo,,
ed.
This is done by 6ltering yellow syrup
through bone black or animal charcoal
Clones burnt black and ground up).
Large iron tanks, looking like upright
steam boilers, are filed with $4,000
pounds Of bone black each. Through this
the syrup is made to tr1ckle. As It comes
out at the bottom it is 40 pure and trans.
parent as rock crystal. A goblet Of it
looks like pure water.
"lsit perfectly pure now ~ I asked
the chemist.
eyes, sir, as near as possible. 1t il 80
par cent pure sugar. You might pour
i've gallons of kerosene and . small pox
patient cut into sausage.meat into that
first tank, and I tell you, Perkins, that I
wouldn't have the. slightest objection to
drinking the syrup five hours afterw ards.
It's perfectly clean and pure.''
How is this white, transparent syrup
made into sugar.
This is simply dono by taking the water
out Of it. This is accomplished by boil.
ing it in Z vacuum. 1t would boil like
water in the open air anil volitiliso at PIP
degrees Fahrenheit, but remove tho air
pressure and it will boil at $50, Fnhren-
heit; $50 degrees never burns it, and tho
sugar is white. Aiter boiling the syrup
down to thick paste, it is drawn off in
pots shaped like the old-fashioned sugar
loaf. These pots hold five GALLONS, aud
are open at the large end. The small end
has hole in it, through which the water
runs cut, leaving the sugar to crystalize in
hard white cake, such US used to DO sold
in the market. But nowaday the pure
white sugar loaves IRE sawed up into regu.
lar-shaped cubic pieces Of sugar. The
soiied sugar-loaves or those with yellow
streakf them, are crushed into Jumps,
and Iii, .wdust and leavings are made |
into gra"ulated and pulverizcd sugar.
Where does the yellow sugar come