The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-06-27
MODERN MACHINERY FOR SUGAR.

MODERN MACHINERY FOR SUGAR,
Louisiana has more than twenty millions
of dollars invested In her sugar machinery
Her planters are investing more ev ~ year
to keep pace with the modern improvements
In this machinery and to place themselves "
q position where they can, by producing the
highest quality and the greatest quantity 81
their manufactured products compete with
sugar manufacturers all over the world.
One Of the first great requisites to success
and profit in manufacturing sugar from cane
Ia To extract therefrom the greatest possible
quantity Of Juice. The use of inferior mills
In the State results In q loss Of at least thirty
per cent Of the juice that could be possibly
extracted from cane that has borne the
heavy cost Of cultivation, cutting and haul
ing. The State produced in 1878 about twenty
million dollars worth Of sugar and molasses.
Ten millions more were thrown away In
bagasse that passed as refuse from imper-
feet mills.
The next most important step In the mail
ufacturing process is to get the greatest pos
sible quantity Of crystalzed sugar from the
cane juice extracted and to convert this into
the highest attainable grades in quality;
which objects can only be accomplished by
means Of the vacuum boiling apparatus and
centrifugal drying machines. Ii all OF Lou
isiana's last crop had been manufactured
into the higher grades OF clarified sugars, it
would have brought four million dollars
more to the State.
Or, with the universal use Of modern I'M
proved sugar machinery throughout the SUI
gar region the sugar interest would have in
creased the value of the products made In
small part of the State about fourteen mill
lions of dollars,
A few powerful single or three roller mills
and q smaller number of five roller mills have
been erected in the State recently. The
largest mill that will be in Louisiana, and one
Of the largest in the world, will be put up on
the Ashton plantation, in st. Charles parish,
Id time for grinding the present cane crop.
This will be constructed In the Leeds foundry,
In this city. 70 give some Idea OF the kind Of
machinery needed to properly manipulate
cane we publish the dimensions Of this pom
derous MILL on which work Ia about to be
commenced.
The total weight OF the mill and engine
will be 100000 pounds. The engine will
be about 3O0-horse power. The rollers are
to be seven feet long and forty inches in
diameter, weighing each $4,000 pounds.
or all 81, 900 pounds. The shafts are of wrought
iron, eighteen aud a half inches In diameter,
with journals sixteen inches In diameter and
twenty inches long. The housings, made OF
the best gun metal, are each fourteen feet
long, with eighteen-inch face. Their weight
will be $4,000 pounds. The mill will be
double-geared, that is, run with two sets OF
pinions and spur-wheels Of enormous size and
| weight. The shafts Of all these wheels, with
that Of the hy-wheel, will be Of the best
| wrought iron, while the journal bearings OF
the roller shafts in the housings will be manu-
featured Of the purest Babbitt metal. With
such machinery as that described above, cane
can certainly be pressed till it yields at least
| Is per cent of Its weight or 1890 OF its juice.
This will be "a gain OF more than 80 per cent
on the work of our ordinary mills, or where a
given amount of cane is ground In an ordi-
nary mill to make 700 hogsheads of sugar,
the same amount of cane brought to the
heavier mill at the same COST with small
extra expense In evaporation and handling,
the excess Of manufactured product will yield
1000 hogsheads OF sugar. These are figures
determined by actual experience as the com.
parative results In the grinding Of the best
mills now In the State, and the average sugar
mill used here
I The erection Of these powerful and ponder
GUS mills, and the employment Of the vacuum
boiling process, are the first steps requisite te
the general adoption Of the central factory
system In Louisiana. It is utterly useless K
talk about the application Of this system tx
our sugar interest without the erection O
such machinery. On a large majority Of the
J plantations in this State the mills now EN-
ployed are too light to take off, In our shor
season, the crops Of cane that can be pro
duced on their own acreage. These vii
scarcely grind cane for 10, 900 pounds of sugal
day In fair weather; while a mill, such Oh
has been described, with proper boiler power
and evaporating apparatus to work off thu
juice would easily average $4,000 pounds 0
sugar day, and manipulate the cane from
1000 acres Of land without forcing grinding
operations into the month Of January, o
even February, as Is the case with some o
our manufactures now. The only hope TO
the desired separation Of the manufacturing
and planting interests, lies in the erection 9
such machinery wherever It Is needed
throughout the sugar region.
A great advantage over our present mode
OF work would even be gained If the ligh
mills were retained and vacuum pans were
, generally employed to boil the juice they ex
tract. AS we have shown before, the 100000,
900 pounds Of open kettle sugar manufac
tured in Louisiana last year would have beel
J increased in quantity at least Is per cent
and SO improved In quality as to command
price at least two cents higher than tina
l which 1t brought; or the crop would hav
E sold for over four million dollars more thai
/ our planters received for it, had it been pos
sible for them to have universally use
t vacuum pans and manufactured clarifies
? sugars
number Of VACUUM pans were built by the
| New Orleans Foundry and other leading
i foundries of this city last year, while th,
.Is,Irr