Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-05-02
IN A SUGAR REFINERY.
Following the Process from the Tenth
Floor Down to t he Basement,
M Quad's letter.

floor Down TO he Basement
IN. Quad's letter.
You know that sugar-cane is grown
the same as corn, though it must be
more highly cultivated. 1t is cut in
season and carried to the sugar mill,
where the cane is crushed and the Juice
extracted The juice or sap is the flat
test stuff you ever tasted, and not at all
like the sap from sugar maple. 1t is
run into pans and boiled down until
sugar is left-a wet, coarse, dark stuff,
the taste OF which would disgust you.
Our southern sugar men seldom at
tempt to make nice brown sugar, but
barrel up the coarse material. spoke of
and send it to the refner, or rather, sell
it to him. 40
To 60 through a refinery You must
jump from the basement to the tenth
floor and follow the process down in
stead of up. The sugar goes first into
the basement and is dumped into the
meters. These are iron caldrons eight or
ten feet across the top and five or six feet
deep, with perforated bottoms. Steam
pipes are used to melt the sugar; and the
liquid drops down into the tanks. From
these tanks it is pumped directly to the
tenth floor into CHARTERS. These are
large iron tanks, steam heated, and the
liquid is now kept at heat of 200 de-
grees. The next move takes it down to
the ninth floor Pipes conduct it from
the clarifefs to spouts below, and at
each spout is bag made of coarse ma
terial. The liquid strains through the
bags into iron tanks on the eighth floor.
These bags must be kept very clean, and
the tubs to wash them in are handy by,
while men, stripped to the waist, do the
washing.
The liquid runs from the eighth floor
to the seventh, and falls into huge iron
pots sunk flush with the floor. Each
one of these great pots is full of bone
black-70, 900 pounds in each pot Bone
black is the dust of the bones of horses
and cattle, and it looks and feels like
coarse blasting powder. 1t is a
filter and a purifier. The liquid
makes its way down through the bone
black to the sixth floor, and you now
notice a great change in color. 1t has
lost its dark and muddy look, and is as
clean as common water. Iron tanks
receive it as it filters through, and it is
run off in pipes to other tanks on the
fifth floor. From here it takes a
boost back to the sixth door, to go into
the pans to be reheated, as the liquid
is now getting cooled off. These pans
are iron tanks with steam coils inside,
and the syrup is boiled for two hours
and half. AS it comes down to the
fifth floor again it runs into the mixer,
and from that into the centrifugals on
the fourth floor. These centrifugals are
open iron tanks, lined with brass, and
perforated with thousands of small
holes. They make l, 200 revolutionsper
minute as they turn the thick, sticky
stuff into fair grade of brown sugar.
If you ever visit steam laundry you
will see them drying clothes by the
same process. The centrifugal revolves
with such speed that all the dampness
is thrown out through the perforations.
Close at hand as the iron tanks
go spinning around, are tubs of blue
water, and the contents are ladled in to
"tone" the sugar and further purify it.
1t runs now to the floor below, and
comes out in hopper in which are re-
yolving knives. These knives mix and
turn and dry the sugar, and if the grade
is the one the refinery is running on,
the sugar is thrown on the floor to be
barreled. If higher grade is desired
it falls into bin on the floor below,
and man shovels it to an endless ele
vator, and it is hoisted up one story
again, and goes into the granulator
This is large iron cylinder, kept con-
stantly hot, and revolving like coffee
rooster. The Office of this is to separate
the grains and further dry the sugar. II
comes out hot to the touch, and runs il
spouts to the floor below.
You have seen a miller place barre
under a spout and let it fill with flour
But this beats the miller all hollow. HI
must shake his own barrels to settle thu
contents, while in this case each barre
stands on an iron plate which keeps VI
a steady jolting, fitting the barrel abou
until the sugar packs as hard as sand
One man has charge of three Spouts
and as he wheels the filled barrels of
the shaker, a cooper stands ready to pu
in the head and crowd on the hoops
The barrels are sent up from the side
walk on two endless chains, to whicl
arms are attached at regular distances
The barrel rests against these arms unit
it is carried to a certain height, and it
then dumped off and rolls to the coop
er's feet.
Education in Mexico.
(Tacubaya Cor. New York Tribune.
The temperament of this nation is a
varied as its climate, and serious ant
studious people abound | have oh
served that especially at school exam
nations and distribution of prizes Re
Gently | attended the distribution @
prizes by the governor of the fedora
: district, to the scholars of the munici
, pal schools. The hall was well file
with scholars of both sexes and thei
, parents and relatives. Two young lad
teachers sat near the dias, and thei
different types showed the difference i
/. the races which people this country; on
mac foil and foir ond rocv ctro irhI