The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1873-06-10
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SUGAR REFINERY.
Fns Fun, Novelty and wisdom
Of It.
from the New YORK pailv eranbio1

a 10 you WISH 10 know all about til
sugar which you eat every day-how
!. is made in filth, shoveled over in dir,
and how it is finally purified till it /
|, white and immaculate
New York has thirty-fve out of th
fifty sugar refineries in the United
States-the other reflneries being il
philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and ST
Louis The largest sugar feGneryi IL Obi
, world is that of Constance Sey, in Paris
Sey refines 5000 barrels per day. Th
next largest is that of Havemeyer anc
! Elder, New York. They refine 3,OOt
barrels per day.
How does sugar come here2
Last year 54S,7 tons of sugar ship
ped to this country came mostly from
Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil, Manila, ia
maica, San Domingo and Barbados. L
came in hogsheads weighing 1,Got
pounds. boxes weighing 450 and bag,
weighing $50 pounds A large part o.
it came in black, dirty, "raw" state
and some called centrifugal" hac
the water whirled out of It in centrifugal
machines before it left Cuba. So suga,
Is quoted as "raw" and Centrifugal -
Raw sugar is worth about 8 cents anG
centrifugal 9 cents per pound. Cubs
sugar is the best sugar, but it all has tc
be cleaned before it is fit for use, and
then the raw sugar WHOLESALERS for about
three cents per pound more From dir.
lty 8 cent sugar they make white lump
sugar worth III, light yellow worth 1ol
dark yellow worth 81, and syrup worth
IA.
How do they do thiss
This is what l saw for the Graphic
yesterday, in the largest sugar refinery
in the United States:
| First, the sugar in filthy black bags
ho2sheads covered with mud, and boxes
hsmeared over with bilge water and filth
was landed at the Williamsburg docks,
where you see those immense sugar.
houses Then stevedores carried il
back to big copper vat filed with hot
water, broke open the boxes, cut open
the bags, and knocked in the heads of
lthe hogsheads and let it all--dirt, mud,
Isticks, niggers' shoes, old hats, pipes
bones, undissolved newspapers, sleeve,
less shirts-yes, let it all slide into the
vat together.
What all this dirt?
Yes, and more, too. They placed the
Nthy old hogsheads, soiled bags and
dirty boxes into steam val, steamed and
washed off the dirt and sugar, and then
fisas IL in, too. Then a greasy old Dutch,
man stirred it up occasionally, expecto-
rating tobacco juice here and there, and
scraping his Williamsburg mud into the
future frosting of our wedding cakes.
What next?
Well, the hogshead slaves, after the
sugar and dirt are worked of, are sent
back to Cuba,and 400 hogsheads of sugar
and dirt per day are pumped, in a liquid
form, into the fifth story, to be cleaned
and purified.
What! can they take out filthy cigar
stubs, dead rats, negro babies, bilge wa.
ter, and everything? a
Yes in five hours they draw from this
witches chowder syrup as pure and as
colorless and odorless as ice water, and
as clean, too. All dirts, salts, smells,
and every material obstacle or gaseous
odor or oxyd, is separated, and transpa-
rent liquid sugar runs out as water trick,
les from a crystal spring.
,, How do they do it2
First the dirty liquid is pumped into
1000 gallon cauldrons, with steam pipe
in the bottom. Then blue litmus paper
(paper soaked in blue cabbage juice) is
Dipped into it to see if it is sour If it
is sour, the blue paper is changed to red.
Then they throw in pale of lime. This
kills the acid, or the acid leaves the SUI
gar to attack the lime, when, like the
Kilkenny cats, they are both eaten UP.
If you pour acid in soft soap, the alkali
another form of lime) will leave the
grease to feed upon the acid. ...
What next2
Then the half-naked men who work
the hot cauldrons pour five gallons of
warm bullock's blood, fresh from the
slaughter houses, into each 1000 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 per gallon.
This blood settles the sugar, ,as an egg
"settles' your eoffae--that is, the aIhu.
men seizes hold of every particle of dirt
and holds it. Then when they raise the
temperature to lSG degrees, tue blood,
lime, dirt, sticks, etc, float to the surface,
while the syrup, yellow and quite trans
parent, is drawn off through strainers at
the bottom, leaving the scum on top
The scum and dirt are rinsed with Gear
water, the sweet part saved to wet up a
fresh lot of sugar, and the dirt carted off
as fertilizer They take a ton Of rich
manure out Of the sugar every day
How is the syrup sfrainedg
Through 5ags-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 nine
ty-three per cent pure sugar, whereas it
was but eighty per cent five hours ago
There remains seven per cent Of color
ing. foreign salts and gases yet to be re-
moved.
How are these gases and salts re-
moved?
This is done by filtering the yellow
syrup through bone black or animal
charcoal, homes burnt black and ground
up.) Large iron tanks, looking like up
right steam boilers, are filled with 30,-
900 pounds of bone Black each Through
this the syrup is made to trickle AS it
comes out at the bottom it is as pure
and transparent as rock crystal. A COB.
let of it looks like pure water.
'Is it perfectly pure now?' l asked
the chemist. @ 80. ts-..s
"Yes. as near as possible. 1t is 991
per cent pure sugar. You might pour
i've gallons of kerosene and smallpox
patient cut mp into. sausage meat into
That first tank, and Itell you, Perkins,
Touldn'I have tile slish'e:t o'jeofinn 70 :