The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-06-03
VOL. XVII.-NO. 20.

basket is either suspended by a perpendic
ular shaft from above, or mounted on ON
from below, independent of the curb whiel
surrounds it. After being filled from one
third TO one-half its weight with semi
liquid sugar from the pan, it is made tt
revolye in horizontal plane one Thousand
and fifteen hundred times per minute
The sugar Immediately rises in yertiea
walls at the sides, the sirup being thrown
out through the perforations, and from the
native yellow color it begins to grow white
Immediately, and after very few minutes
if it be of first quality, little cold water
from sprinkler makes it beautifully pure
and white 1t is now in condition to be
removed and sold as confectioners or cof-
fee A sugar, or by further treatment to be
madeaehto the well-known granulated sugar
of commerce.
GRANULATED SUGAR.
This very popular and strictly American
style of sugar was first made and introduced
BY our highly respected fellow-citizen, Mr..
Thomas Lamb, who conceived the idea and
devised the first apparatus for making it,
which he put in operation about thirty
years ago at the Boston Sugar Refinery in
East Boston, of which he was then pres
ident and agent. Although extremely
popular in the United States since its orr
gin, it has become popular in England only
within few years past The apparatus
at first consisted of steam table fifteen or
twenty feet long and three to FIVE feet wide,
on which the moist sugar was, by an ingen-
ious process or movement of wooden rakes,
gradually worked the length of the table,
becoming thoroughly dried in so doing.
Afterward ii was separated by sleeves of
different grades or mesh, into coarse and
fine. and barreled and sold accordingly.
This apparatus was superseded ten or
twelve years since by large cylinder of
wood or iron, some four feet in diameter
and fifteen TO eighteen feet long slightly
depressed at one end. The inner surface
carries small projecting buckets, by which,
as the cylinder reyolyes, the sugar, entering
at the upper end, is lifted and poured
through the heated interior. The heat Is
supplied by a small steam cylinder running
through the length and center of the large
one, and the position Of the buckets Is such
as gradually 10 work the sugar through the
length of the cylinder, during which it be
comes thoroughly dried. An arrangement
of Sieves, as before, completes the opera
tian.
Loaf and crushed sugar, now somewhat
rare, i made in refneries in moulds, much
a the clayed sugar was described rs being
made on the plantations, but the process is
carried out far more perfectly.
Cube sugar, so attractive, and now quite
generally found in hotels and elsewhere
here and in Europe. is made by saving the
large leaves, or BY the centrifugal process,
using moulds fitted to the machine, and
with partitions dividing the sugar into thin
layers, or BY COMPRISING the sugar when
moist, and baking ID instead of passing it
through the grannlator.
The polariscope, or saceharIIneter. now
used for determining the strength Of raw
sugar, i beautiful instrument, Of which,
or Of its operation, can convey only very
imperfect idea. Ii is based upon the sci
eatikc fact that beam of polarized light
in passing shFoagh solution of a given
strength Of pure cane sugar in water, i M
tated or twisted toward the right 10 a Ger
tain and uniform extent, and the relative
extent to which similar solution of any
other sEgar, under the same conditions, ro-
tafes the light, indicates the relative purity
or crystalizing power of that sugar. The
arrangement of lenses in the instrument is
not easily made plain without diagrams, but
it is such that the operation in itself Is very
simple, only requiring care, and the result
Is read in figures ON scale attached to the
adjusting thumb-screw Various elements
possibly existing in the raw sugar makeex-
perience and judgment in using the instru-
ment very necessary, and subtle and differ
ing conditions in the samples tested require
great care and appreciation in arriving at
the result.
Mr.. Dresser showed samples Of the raw
beet sugar and the loaf; also the Museova-
do, and the various raw sugars as brought
from the countries producing them; also
the Dutch numbers Of standard eolors re
ferred TO in our tariff act, and for many
years acknowledged in the commercial
world
President Rogers said
When | think of the time when Black,
Of Scotland. not long after the middle of
the last century, discovered the reduction
of the boiling point of liquids by diminu-
tion Of pressure, and then think Of the
beautiful and practical application of this
principle in the vacuum pan, where the
water is extracted from solution of sugar,
am struck with most foreible illustra.
tion Of the application Of science to the
practical affairs Of life.
Another such illustration is again fur
nished when We observe that the absorbent
power Of animal charcoal was determined
in the chemical laboratory as scientific
fact, aud that it is now OF such great inn
portanee in the refining af sugar.
The explanation If this fact Is, however,
not so easy as that of the other. Both an
imal charcoal and vegetable charcoal pos
sess this absorbent power to great degree,
and it seems TO be clear that it depends
largely on the great increase OF surface due
to the enormous subdivision in the interior
Of the mass. The amount Of adhesion and
detention of liquid in mass depends on
the amount of surface with which it comes
in contact. As very striking illustration
Of this, we know that platinum will, with
very great difficulty, combine with oxygen
or hydrogen, but spongy platinum, or plat
inum black, absorbs enormous volumes of
gaseous matter, so that if such a mass be
plunged into vessel containing mixture
of oxygen and hydrogen it win imbibe so
much and eondense them to such an extent
that they combine and the platinum is
brought to condition of intense ignition.