Delaware Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1843-1874, 1873-04-28
In a Sugar Refinery.

Last year the 51s, 100 tons of sugar sbipned
to the United States came in hogsheatls weighing
l,oOO pounds, boxes weighing 1JU and baGs
weighing 100 pounds. large part of il came
in black, dirty, ''raw" state. Raw sugar il
worth about cents and centrifugal o cents per
pound. Cuba sugar Is the best sugar, but il all
mas 10 oe cleaned before it Is fit to use, and then
The raw sugar WHOLESALERS for about 3 cents per
pound more. From dirty cent sugar they
make White lump sugar worth III, light yellow
worth 10 IL, Gark yellow worth 8 l-2, and syr,,r
worth 4.
Refining sugar is not the neatest business To
De found. FIRST the sugar in filthy black bags,
hogsheads covered with mud, and boxes smear
ei over with bilge water and filth, is landed at
Inc DOCKS, where yOn see those immense .u ar,
houses. Then steyedores carry II back to a hi
copper vat filled with hot water, break OPEN t!l,.
boxes, cat open the BAGS, and knock in the
heads oil the hogsheads, and let 1t all-,lirt.
mud, sticks, shoes, old hats, pipes bones, I'M
dissolved newspapers, and sleeveless shirts-yes,
let all slide into the vat together.
They place the filthy old hogsheads, soiled
bags, and dirty boxes into a steam vat, steam
and wash off the dirt and sugar, and then put
that In too. Then greasy old man stirs it up,
occasionally expectorating tobacco Juice here
and there, and scraping his filthy mud into the
future frosting of our wedding-cake.
In five hours they draw fiom this witches
chowder syrup as puIe and as colorless and o ior-
less as ice-water, and as clean, too. All dirt,
salts, smells, and every material obstacle or gas
eous odor Is separated, and transparent LIQUID
sugar runs out us water triekles from Il crystal
spring.
First, the dirty liquid is pumped into one
thousand-gallon cauldroiis, with a steam pine
in the bottom. Then, blue litnus (paper soak
ed in blue cabbage juiceI is dipped into it to
see II 1t is sour. If il is sour, the blue paper Is
rla.a.tt 81 =
lime. This Kills the aci'l, or the acid leaves the
sugar to attack the lime, when, like the Killsen.
ny eats, they al, both eaten up. II you pour
acid in soft soap, the alkali (another form Of
lime) viii leave the grease to feed upon the
aclu.
Then the half-naked men who work over the
hot caiil,.rons pour five gallons of warm buock,s
blood, fresh from the slaughter-houses, into each
l,OO0 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 eleven cents per gallon. This blood
.settles" The sugar as an egg "settles" your cuf-
fee-that is, the albumen seizes hold Of every
particle of dirt, and holds it. Then. when tbey
raise the temperature to $50 degrees, the blood.
lime, dirt sticks, &c, float to the surface while
the syrup, yellow and quite transparent, is drawn
oil through strainers from the bottom, leaving
the scum on top. This scum and dirt are rims.
ed with clean water, the sweet part saved to
wet up fresh lot of sugar, and the dirt carted
oil as fertilizer. They take ton of rich man
ure out OF the sugar every day. The syrup
is strained through bags-long cloth bags hay
ing four or f1ve thicknesses of cloth in them
They catch all tho heavy dirt, little stones, sand.
&C., and the syrup leaves them transparent,
only slightly tinged with yellow. These bnos
take out about four per cent. of dIrt--real black
mucky dirt--the same as you see la the streets.
lie syrup Is now nnety-thlee per ceut pure
sugar, whereas ii was but eighty per cent, five
iours ago. There remains seven per cent. of
eoloring, ioleigh salts, and gasses yet to be re-
moved. ~
This is done by ftering the yellow svrun
through pohc ulack or animal charcoal (bones
burnt black and ground up.) Large iron tanks
looking like upright steam boilers, are filled
with 30,0uO pounds of bone black each Tbrourh
this the syrup is made To trckle. As il comes
out al the toitom IL Is as pure and trausparenl
as rock crystal. a goblet of il looks like nure
water.
"ls it perfectly pure now ?'' | asked the
chemist. "
ayes, sir, as near as possible. IL Is 90l.2
per cent. pure sugar You might pour five gal
Ions OF Kerosene 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 after
wards. It's perfectly clean and pure"
How is this white, Transparent syrup made
into sugar?
ms IS simply done by taking the water out
oil It. This is accomplished by boiling il in A
vacuum. 1t would boil like water in The open
air and volatilize at Pig degrees Fahrenheit, but
remove the air pressure and il will boil at 1870.
fahrfnheit, l5O DEGREES lie, er burns II, and the
sugar Is white. After boiling the syrup down
" thick paste, 1t is drawn of in pots shaped