The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-09-24
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER "a, 1874
THE WEATHER To-DAY.-From our re-
ports this morning The probabilities are that
the ,ceather to-day ,oiH be clear.
LOCAL MATTERS.

n Nk" SfbSlhhN OF kGlCdntND
ENGINE AND VACUUM PAN FOR A CUBAN SUGAR
PLANTATION. Tredegar Company have
recently constructed an engine and vacuum
pan for a sugar plantation 10 Cuba, which is
the commencement of a new branch in their
business, and a splendid specimen Of the
skill of their mechanics and the capacity of
their works. The pan is colossal structure
and is Of the shape of common copper soda
water fountain. 1t is just about 81 feet
in diameter on the inside, and about 15} feet
in height, with cupalo feet higher, and
rests on iron columns feet in height, and is
surrounded by gallery, which enables the
operatives to approach the pan to witness the
process of boiling and to make the proper tests.
From the floor to the gallery is flight of steps
like the gallery Of iron, with band-railing
of nickel plate, which continues all around
the gallery. The instruments for testing are
of brass and were required to be made with
great exactneSs. The pan has in it three
hundred and eighty copper tubes, each i've
feet ia length and three and half inches
in diameter. These are set Ia circular tube
sheets about nine feet in diameter and
about one and quarter inches in thick
ness-probably the largest brass casting of
the kind ever made in Richmond.
The Juice of the cane is pumped into the
pan and is there boiled in vacuum by steam,
and descends the tubes to c0ncaVe copper.
bottom, and from thence is drawn OF into
the cooling pans, where the sugar crysfallzes
and gets into form ready for the refners'
bands. The old plan was to boil the juice
in the open air, when it had to be heated to
q temperature Of PIP degrees, and had to be
continually stirred and then often times was
burnt. BY this vacuum process. now in gen.
eral use, temperature not exceeding l2O
degrees is required, and there are testing ap.
paratuses which enable the operatives not
only to see the syrup boiling, but to draw
small portions Of it out of the vacuum pan to
taste, and that without in the slightest degree
interfering with or impeding the process.
The pan will hold about eighteen hogsheads
of cane.juce, and two "strikes OF" I" hls "
can be made in the course Of twenty-four
hours. Its heaviest piece weighs about six
tons and the whole structure is over twenty
four feet high.
The engine is vertical stationary one of
one hundred.horse power, and is built after
an English model, care having been taken to
make it as simnle in its workings and as
solid as possible. Attached to it, or rather
TO the pan, is condenser and regulating
valve of new design, patented by Mr.
Charles Hughes, the Tredegar's Cuban
agent, and is said to be very great i'm
provement upon anything of that kind now
in use either in this country or Europe.
The castings of the engine and pan are of
what is known as loam work, and not an ex.
pert has looked at them without pronounc-
ing them of the very best character of that
sort of work.
With the vacuum pan are ten immense
cooling pans or "gavetas," large quantity Of
water pipe, and three iron tanks for holding
the iuice, The latter have each a capacity
of 1000 gallons.
A second engine of about thirty horse
power is 10 go along with the large engine
and pau, and is to be used in driving the
| " centrifugals" or machinery for extracting
the molasses from the sugar after it comes
| from the cooling pans.
The lot of machinery was made for the
| "Recompensa plantation, owned by the
heirs of DonJ. +. .Zuaznayra, and will be ship
ped direct from this port to Cardenas on the
" George z. HaIlock," which has been char
tered for the purpose, and will commence
loading about the 1st of October. The
| {" Hallock" will take out in addition four
hundred tons of West Virginia splint
coal, to be shipped by the Tredegar Com
psny to the Cardenas railroad. Last
Spring the Tredegar sent them hogshead
OF this splint coal as sample, and they
were so pleased with it as to induce them
to give large orders. The vessel will thus
have a full cargo going out, and will prooa.
bly, return to the United States with full
cargo of sugar.
The Tredegar Company are employing sew
eral hundred men, and it will be gratifying
to the entire public to know that their busl-
ness is steadily improving. At this time they
are making car-wheels at the rate of htty per
day, and have nearly finished the heavy ma
chinery for HaNall, CrenshaW ~ COS. new
mills, and besides are manufacturing spikes'
railroad fastenipgs, horse-shoes, and connec.
t;on pines for the Richmond water works.
TIE CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN.-IOWn-