Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-08-07
About Sugar.

dllt, and now hnally purlhed ll]' II Is
white and immaculate
New York has thilty-fve out Of the
fifty sugar refnelies in the United
States-the other refnelies being in
Boston, Philadelphia, 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
IIavemever and Elder, of New York.
They refine 5000 barrels per day.
How does the sugar come here?
Last year the 549,760 tons Of sugar
shipped to this country came mostly
from Cuba, Polo Rico, Brazil, Manila,
Jamaica, San Domingo and Barbados.
1t came in hogsheads weighing l,6OO
pounds, boxes weighing 45O and bags
weighing $50 pounds. A large part
of it came in a black, dirty, "raw'
state, and some called Centrifugal"
had the water whirled out of it in
centrifugal machines before it left
Cuba. So sugar is quoted as ''raw'
and Centrifugal" Raw sugar is
worth about 8 cents and centrifugal
9 cents per pound. Cuba sugar is the
best sugar, but it all has to be clean
ed before it is fit to use, and then the
raw sugar WHOLESALERS Tor about 3 cents
per pound more. From dirty eight
cent sugar they make white lump
sugar worth III, light yellow worth
1OI, dark yellow worth 81, and syrup
worth 4.
How do they do this?
This is what I saw for the Graphic
yesterday, in the largest sugar refinery
| III lile Unllcu OlateS
First, the sugar in filthy black bags,
hogsheads covered with mud, and
boxes smeared over with biloe water
and filth, was landed at the Williams
burg docks, where you see those i'm
mensc sugar-houses. Then stevedores
carried it back to big copper vat fill
ed with hot water, broke open the
boxes, cut open the bags, and knock
ed in the heads Of the ho9sheads and
let it all-dirt, mud, sticks, niggers'
shoes, old hats, pipes, bones, undis-
solved 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 a stream vat,
steamed and washed off the dirt and
sugar and then put that in too. Then
a greasy chap stirred it up occasional
ly eXpectorating tobacco juice here
and there, and scraping his Williams
; burg mud into the future lrosting of
our wedding-cake.
What next?
Well, the hogshead-stayes, 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 a liquid form, into the fifth story, tt
be cleaned and purified.
t 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 chowder syrup as pure
l and as colorless and odorless as ice
; water, and as clean, too. All dirt
f salts, smells and every material OBJ
. stacle or gaseous odor or oxyd is sep
, arated, and transparent liquid sugal
runs out as water trickles from crys
+ tai spring.
, How do they do it?
+ First, the dirty liquid is pumped
s into one thousand gallon caldrons
: with a steam pipe in the bottom
Then, blue litmus paper (paper soaked
e in blue cabbage juice is dipped int
f it to see if it is sour. lfit is sour, th
Y blue paper is changed to red. The'
e they throw it in pail of lime. Thi
n kills the acid, or the acid leaves tn
:, sugar to attack the lime, when, lik
J. the Kilkenny cats, they are both eatel
up. Ifyou pour acid in soft soaT
the alkali (another form Of lime) vii
u leave the grease to feed upon the acio
:, What next?
" Then the halfnaked men who wor
over the hot caldrons pour tive-gallon
of warm bullock's blood, fresh trol
y the slaughter-houses, into each LOU
=" - gallons of melted sugar. The whit
of eggs would be better, but eggs CO..
too much, while bleod, which is a
most as full of albumen, only COS
It eleven cents per gallon. This bloc