Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-31

hundredth part of second is ripped into
| shreds.
The hum of the cylinder reveals the
tremendous speed at which it works, and
the smaller bits of cane and the moisture
fly from it i'll spray. 1t would be beau
tiful instrument into which to drop a
Texas free trader.
Leaving the macerator the pulveriZed
plant is carried directly to the diffusion
cells, sixteen in number, which are ar
ranged in two rows of eight each. They
are like unto nothing i'll the world so
much as row of immense iron water
jugs, twelve feet in height, five or six
feet through, having capacity of two
tons each and connected by an intricate
system of pipes. Into these cells the
shredded cane is placed and is covered
with hot water until all of the sacchar-
inc matter is stewed out. There is a con-
slant interchange of juice between the
cells. The process is based upon pretty
much the same principle as making tea,
or better still, making coffee by the old
method of throwing it into hot water and
leaving it until it ran over and
put out the fire. When the SAT-
charine matter is taken from them,
the exhausted chips are dumped from the
cells which open ut the bottom. They
| fall i'll very wet condition upon another
| carrier, which takes them out of the
sugar house. They are then carted
away and dumped, being too wet TO
burn In the parlance of the plantation
| this refuse cane is known as ''bagasse''
and in most of the Louisiana establish
ments it is used us fuel, being much
dryer when it has been passed through the
rollers of the ordinary mill. The prob
lem of permanently disposing of it will
be solved next year by Colonel Cunning
| ham, who will move the mill which ut
| present assists him i'll taking off his crop
| TO Il spot near the site of the diffusion
| building, will run the bagasse chips
| through the rollers and will then place
them i'll the furnaces, saving some coal
and much wood.
When the expressed juice in the diffu-
sion battery has been lined to partially
correct the acids which 1t contains, it is
taken by pipe to the measuring tank,
which stand next to the laboratory with
| which, i'll these days of progress, every
| well-regulated mill is fitted. There the
chemist takes sample, of it, Iscertains
| its density, the amount of saccharine
matter taken from the cane and IL good
many other things known only to the mi
tiated. The juice goes thence to the
| scoop the frOth or scum from it with
| queerly- shaped paddles; thence to the
"double- effect, n brace of immense
| hollow mounds of metal in which it is
| boiled first by eXhaust-steam and Sec
| ondly by its own TapOr; thence to the
tanks; thence to the "strike pans;'
thence to the "mixer;' thence TO the
centrifugals, where all the molasses
is thrown from the sugar by rotary
motion of immense velocity and thence
| to the barrels in the form of sugar, every
| grain of which is separate, light in color,
tiinty and brilliant. That is the process
of making sugar by diffusion, told i'll
simple language with 10 attempt at
| ornate description and with great deal
of minor detail and major technicality
left out. If the public does not under
stand it, the remedy lies in visit to
'Sugarland,' - where with its own eyes
it may behold the manipulation, with its
own nose smell the pervasive and multi
tudinous vapor and wet its own trousers
clear up to the waiStband.
THE GOOD OF IT.
The benefits of diffusion are much more
easily appreciated. 1t is, of course, the
object of the sugar planter to extract the
Saccharine quality from the cane. The
more OF LnlS Ine HlOTe Inc more
sugar, the more money. The more
money, the more fun. Under the pres
ent mill system, even the best, where the
stalk is passed between five massive iron
rollers and mashed as fiat as the Mills
bill, the greatest percentage extracted is
not more that 10. In the majority of in
stances it is not more than So, and i'll
some cases it runs as low as 50. In other
words, the planter who uses this method
and burns his bagasse (Or the cane which
has been ground) burns up all the way
from % to 80 per cent of his sugar .
This calculation is made upon
an extraction basis of 100.
Theoretically cane contains only
80 per cent. of matter in solution, 10 per
cent. being allowed by fibre. Keeping
the 100 basis as simpler, by the diffusion
process from SO to 81 per cent. of saccha-
rine matter is extracted, the amount re-
naming in the pulp after it has gone
through the cells being practically inap-
probable. This is patent and potent
fact which the planter takes in at glance
and which the outsider can understand
with very little effort. When it has been
demonstrated that the thoroughly satur-
ated chips dropped from the cells may be
dried by mill pressure and burned, the |
day of the roller will have passed. And |
this demonstration will come within a
year. In fact it may be said at this date,
and with an absolute certainty of the cor
rectness of the assertion, that the |
future of the sugar planter is a
diffused one. It is his salvation. 1t |
is his only hope. 1t will be forced |
upon him. Passing his cane through |
rollers and losing even Is per cent of his |
saccharine matter is no joke. Afflicted |
i'll this manner, he cannot compete with |
his more discerning, enterprising and |
fortunate brother, who has diffusion bat
teries of the highest quality, and gets |
from his cane all there is in it worth haY-
ing. He will see staring him in the face |
the alternative which confronted the Gel
ebrated Luke, who was requested to
"shoot or give up the gum In the ex-
pressive language of Colonel Cunning
ham: eff he cant arrange it any other
way, it will pay him to burn up his roller
mill and go into debt for diffusion bat
terry
On the "Sugarland' place the five
roller mill was started on October Is,
and diffusion was in operation by Novem-
Der 8. Up to date over 3 900 200 pounds
of sugar have been made, and it
is expected that by February /, if no Sc
we're freeze Injuries the cane yet in the
fields < 0GO 600 mounds will have been