Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-09-19
How White Sugar is Made.
ewistown, Maine Journal.

ldDlc lOOhS llOlO llhS SdMuuoU THAN
anything, and very course, dark saw
dust at that, when it is landed at the
refinery in Portland, from Porto
Rico, Barbados or Martinique. In
the basement of the Forest City Re-
finery, down in the ground, bubbling
and kissing, is an immense vat, with
steam issuing from it and sugar and
chips boiling in it. This is themeter,
and here is the first process through
which the raw sugar passes Oh its
way through the refinery. Two
stout fellows roll hogshead to the
brink of this vat. 1t is on end in an
instant, and they knock in the head
with a crowbar and a sledge. A
hundred dollars slips into that vat in
just about thirty seconds. The hogs
head is scraped out, the men shovel
what is spilled into the abyss, and
then the hOgshead is steamed, so
that every particle of saccharine
value is CLEANED from the slaves.
The hogshead is knocked into its
original piecies, the shocks packed
for shipment back to the sugar is
lands and the hoops burned for the
sake of getting out the old nails,
which are worth sixty cents per
hundred pounds, as we'll as for fuel.
twill beinteresting to look through
this great establishment and follow
the sugar from the hogshead to the
barrel. After the raw sugar is melt
ed, it is pumped in its liquid form
through capacious pipe to the top
story of the building, 100 feet in the
air, where it goes into the "blow-ups."
A blOw-up is a large reservoir, in
which the melted sugar receives air
blasts, which drive scum, contain
ing the courser impurities to the sur
face, where it is SKINNED off. From
the blow-up the syrup is carried in
pipes to the bag filters. These are
just what their name indicates
cloth bags hanging in iron watts,
through which the syrup is poured.
A large percentage of the foreign
substances in the syrup adheres to
these bags. After the bags have
been used short time they are taken
out, washed very thoroughly and re-
placed. Now the sugar is ready for
Qualification, and this is the most in
teresting process Of all. The Clarity
ing agent is bone black-animal bone,
burnt and powdered. 1t looks eX-
actly like course gun-powder. This
blackness makes the sugar white.
The chared bone costs three cents a
ID, and is so valuable that after it has
been used in the CHARTERS it is dried,
re-burnt and used over again. Some
of the most ingenious and expensive
machinery in the refinery is employ
ed in returning the bone black, and
$4,000 worth of this sOoty substance
is in process all the time. The burn
ing of the black is a delicate opera.
ton. To procure evenness and pre-
vent waste, the brains of inventors
and chemists have been taxed fol
many years, and the result is com.
pick arrangement of furnaces, fiues,
pipes and belts, which roasts the pull
verified bone to the exact degree re-
quired, draws it off when cooked and
carries it to its destination-all auto.
matically, without the aid of mans
hand. Night and day, burnt bone
black is dripping from these flues anC
running off on bucket belts.
The CHARTERS are rows of great iror
vessels twenty-One feet long. Bone
black is put into them and the melt
ed sugar soaks through. The amount
of impurities removed by clarified
ton is about u per cent. of the bulk
In another room men and boys are
at work with very little clothing on
and the heat is almost intolerable
There is great copper cauldron, call
ed vacuum pan," that cost $40, 900
The sugar is boiled two and one-hal
to three hours in this pan, and wher
it comes out is ola light yellow color
and of pulpy consistency. Next i
goes into the centrifugals."
Out of the centrifugals it comes il
warm white crystals-moist sugar
Acentrifugal is an iron basin ofabou
- the size of an ordinary wash-tub
and inside oft is ametalic basket jus
enough smaller to revOlve in it with
out chatting. The boiled-down suga
goes into this wire basket, power i,
let on, and the basket is whirleC
around at the rate of 1900 revolution
per minute. The centrifugal fore,
generated by this speed throws ou