The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-04-16
HOW SUGAR Is MADE.
short Talks with the Boys.
BIZ Df. QUAD.

BIZ N. QUAD.
Take this lump of white sugar and
bold it under your microscope and wha'
do you see? 1t looks like coarse, wh1!e
sandstone, but at the same time there 10
such delicious look that your mouth
begins to water, and you long for taste.
Take the finest powdered white sugar
so fine that it feels like flour in your
fngers--and under the microscope you
can sec grains as if quartz rock had been
broken up.
Take the lightest, driest brown sugar
you can find and put it under the glass
and you see a damp mass, with here and
there speck Of dirt. Every grain
stands out by itself, and you wonder that
the sugar did not wet your fingers. :.
Now. then, how are sugars made p
"Dont know" as usual. asked a boy
standing at the door of big sugar re.
fnery, in New Orleans, this question,
and he replied
Don't know, mister-never bin in
there"
"Why not?"
"Druthcr go fishing"
Let's see if the process won't be Of
interests to the thousands Of lads who
have no opportunity to get at The facts
from personal observation.
You know that sugar cane is grown
the same az corn, though it must be more
highly cultivated. 1t is cut in ses5on
and carted TO the sugar mill, where the
cane is crushed and the juice extracted.
The juice or sap is the ha:est 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 leit-a
wet, course, 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 refincr, or, rather, sell
it To him.
To go through refinery you must
Jump from the basement to the tenth
floor and follow the process down instead
of up. The sugar goes first into the
basement and is dumped iuto the melters.
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 tanks. From
these tanks it is pumped directly to tie
tenth floor into clarifers. 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 purifiers to spouts below, and at each
spout is a bag made of coarse material.
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 wash
ing.
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
7O,0OO pounds in each pot. Bone. black
is the dust of the bones of horses aud
cattle, and it looks and feels like coarse
blasting powder. 1t is filter and
purifier. The liquid makes its way down
through the bone black to the sixth floor,
aud you now notice a great change in
color. 1t has lost is dark and muddy
look, and is rs clea~ as common water.
Iron tanks receive it as il filters through,
and 1t is run of in pipes 10 other tauks
on the fifth floor. From here it takes
boost back TO the sixth floor, to 60 into
the pans to be reheated, as the liquid is
now getting cooled off. These pans are
iron tanks with ateam coils inside, and
tho 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 centrifugaIs ON the fourth
floor. These centrifugais are open iron
tanks, lined with brass, aud perforated
with thousands of small holes. They
make 1900 revolutions per minute as
they turn the thick, sticky stuff into Il
fair grade Of brown sugar. If you ever
visit steam laundry you will see them
drying clothes by the same process. The
centrifugal revolyes with such speed that
all the dampncss is thrown out through
the perforatiOns.
Close at hand, az the iron tanks 20
spinning around, are tubs of blue water,
and the conten,s are ladled in to ''tone''
the sugar aud further purify it. 1t runs
now to the floor below, and comes out in
hopper III which are revolving knives.
These knives mix and turn aud dry the
sugar, and ii the grade is the one the
refinery isruDning on, the sugar is thrown
on the floor to be barreled. If higher
grade IL desired it falls into a bin on tho
floor below, and q man shovels it 10 an
endless elevator, and it is hoisted up one
story again, and goes into the granulator.
This is large iron cylinder, kept constant
ly hot, and revolving like q coffee rooster.
The office OF this is 10 separate the grains
and further dry the sugar. ]. comes out
hot to the touch, and runs in spouts To
the fl or below.
You have seen miller place barrel
under spout aud let it fill with -four
But this beats the miller all hollow. He
must shake his own barrels to settle tie
contents, while in this case each barrel
stands on an iron plate which keeps I'D a
steady jolting, tilting the barrel about
until the sugar packs rs hard as sand.
One man has charge of three spouts, and
as he wheels the filled barrels off the
shaker, a cooper stands ready to put in
the head and crowd on the hoops. The
barrels arc sent up from the sidewalk on
two endless chains, TO which arms are
attached at regular distances. The bar.
rel, rests against these arms until il ia
carried to certain height, and il is then
dumped of and rolls 70 the cooper's feet.
Now, then, you know how sugar 10
made-coarse brown, light brown, powd.
eyed, granulated and coffee, but three
hours tramp through such an institution
reveals many other interesting facts. It
is the place above all others to find a
perfect system. Everything goes like
clock.work, from basement TO the top
floor. Every employee has ce ettain task
to do, and there is no confusion. Steam
all k-<n So 4 f.