The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-03-11
A West India Sugar FACTORY.

The following short description of
large central factory, in the British West
Indies, is contributed by Brisbane gen
tleman who visited those islands. and re-
lates to the "Usine st. Madeline situated
near San Fernando in the island of Tri
nidad, the property of the Colonial Com
pany Limited) of Leadenhall street, Lon
don. The factory consists of large set
brick and iron buildings erected in tho
roughly substantial manner, standing in
slight hollow. On one side, short dis
lance from and overlooking the factory on
rising ground, is the Managers house
with stables, overseer's quarters, etc, in
close proximity; while short distance off
are the coolie barracks, hospital, etc.
About 1000 acres are under cultivation in
the district surrounding the Usine, from
which the requisite supply of cane is OBJ
tanned. Some of the land belongs to the
Colonial Company, and the remainder is
owned by planters, who grow cane and
sell it. A railway, four feet eight and a
half inches gauge, intersects the surround
ing country. The farmers cut their own
cane and deliver it upon railway trucks.
Locomotives convey the trucks to the mill
buildings, each truck going over weigh
bridge at the entrance to the buildings,
the farmer being paid for the net weight
of cane delivered at per ton. A company
own wharf few miles from the Usine,
to which the railway is laid Vessels can
lie alongside and discharge Goals, etc, di-
rect to the trucks while the sugar and rum
made at the Usine is trucked directly from
the factory to the ships side The loaded
trucks are run up to the entrance of the
building, and coolies unload the cane di-
rectly to the cane-carriers. There are two
large crushing mills, each having rollers
"a inches in diameter by Y inches long,
each mill being driven by 60 h. p. beam
engine having cylinder 26 inches in
diameter and 60 inches stroke, and fitted
with wrought iron beams. The fly wheels
of these engines are each "a feet in>dia-
meter, and the intermediate gearing is
very strong and massive The juice, after
expression in the mills, is pumped up in
to the CHARTERS, of which there are twenty,
each holding $50 gallons. They are cir
cular copper CHARTERS, fitted with cast
iron steam jackets. The CHARTERS dis
charge into Observation-Disclosures underneath,
forty in number. The juice is then fl
tered in charcoal filters; and, after flow
ing into large tank, is pumped up by
horizontal pumping engine through
juice heater, to large set of triple effect
pans. After partial evaporation in the
triple effect the sugar is finished in the
vacuum pans, from which it is discharged
into trucks running on rails, and is put
through mixers from whence it passes
into centrifugals, of which machines there
is long row of the suspended type The
centrifugals discharge the sugar down
wards into trucks which run on rails I'M
derneath and convey the sugar to the
stores ready to be bagged. The megass
is not dried, but it is taken direct from
the mills on an elevated platform, from
whence it is fed, mixed with coal, into fur
naces designed expressly for the pur-
pose. There are fourteen large boilers of
the locomotive type for supplying steam
to the various engines, pans, etc, through
out the factory, Several locomotives and
large number of trucks compose the
rolling stock During the season Of 1879
four thousand two hundred tons of sugar
were sent away from this factory. At
that time only one mill was crushing, the
second mill was being erected in readi-
ness for the ensuing season, and it was
estimated that during the crop of 1880 at
least 5000 tons of sugar would be the out
put. A large still on the continuous sys-
tenn is at work here and in 1879 it turned
out ,290 puncheons of rum. The labor
employed is almost entirely that of coolies,
and is found to be very satisfactory. The
Colonial Company, Qimited,) own a num-
Der of fine properties, have large amount
of capital embarked in the sugar industry
in the West Indies.-Brisbdne Paper