The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-25
SUGAR MAKING.
THE PROCESSES OF MANUFAC.
TURE IN LOUISIANA.
A Machine Which Chews up the
Cane Into Pulp Operating
the Juices The Three
Products Of the Mill.

! Lut JULIUS - i hC AhFSo
Products OF the Mill.
The Magnolia sugar house is generally
known in Louisiana as having the best
machinery and all the new processes. 1t
is not much initiated, for two reasons !:
First, the conservatism of the older class
of planters, which leads them to stick to
the methods they understand, and Sec
ond, the tact that the business of sugar
making has not been sufficiently profit
able in recent years to enable planters of
moderate capital to purchase new ap-
paratus. They are obliged to hold on
to their old pans and kettles for want of
money to buy new. Let us now 60 into
the great irregular brick building, with
its three tower-like chimneys and its
general big factory air, which contains
the sugar making plant, promising at
the start to 60 through hastily, and not
to bore the reader with details about
machinery, or with the fine scientific
points of the business.
First the owner OF 'Magnolia" calls at
tention to his bagasse burner, which
makes more than half the steam used to
run the mill. Formerly the bagasse,
which is the cane after it has parted with
as much of its juice as the mill will eX-
tract, was either burned in furnace to
get rid of it or thrown out on the levee
to help fight off the river from eating
away the bank. Now every econom-
ically managed mill burns it to make
steam by the aid OF the draught of an
enormous chimney. The Lest method is
to burn it on the CRATES, under which air
is forced by blower.
The canes, hauled in the big carts from
the fields, are dumped upon an endless
band and carried into the mill, usually
direct to the big iron rollers, but at
Magnolia first to "shredder." There
are only two shredders in the State, the
machine being a new invention. Its re-
volving teeth chew up the cane into pulp.
The pulp and juice fall upon rubber
apron, which carries them into the mill !;
grinding is simply squeezing between
three or four sets of iron rollers. Now
the juice runs in a trough to strainer,
where woman gathers up now and then
| these shrcds of cane remaining and takes
them back to the mill. Next the juice
is pumped into an iron cylinder called
the "juice heater" land heated with ex-
haust steam to 100 degrees. This is a
new process not much in use. Next it
runs into the CHARTERS or defecators,
which are large iron watts with rows Of
steam pipes at The bottom. Here Stacked
quicklime is added, which brings to the
top all impurities, to be skinned off into
division of the pan at the end. The
juice is then boiled and "brushed with
o long paddle until the bubbles become
white, when it is allowed to settle for
fifteen minutes. There is a side oper-
alton for saving the sugar in the skim
mings by putting them through filter
presses.
In the advanced process at Magnolia
the juice next goes through bone black
filters instead OF to the ordinary settling
tanks, to settle for six or seven hours. A
filter is big iron drum containing 10,-
900 pounds of animal bone black. The
"char" must be washed with hot water
every two days and dried in kiln. After
filtering, the juice, still thin as when
first pressed from the cane, goes to the
s'double effects" This is q new appa.
ratus, resembling two upright boilers of
o portable engine. Each cupola.like
machine contains 500 tubes, in which
the juice is boiled in vacuum by exhaust
steam. The usual plan is to boil in au
open cylindrical pan, having coils of
steam pipe at the bottom. Now the
juice goes to fresh filters, and next to
the vacuum pan, which is not a pan, but
big iron cupola, shaped cylinder, with
an apparatus for cyhausting the air and
multitudinous coils of steam pipe. This
is the process requiring most skill. The
chief sugar maker attends to it himself,
watching his vacuum gauge and ther-
mometer carefully, and testing every
few minutes his boiling mass by drawing
out tube which does not break the
vacuum.
lie seeks to keep the temperature
down to 1870 degrees. If it is too high
some of the surcose will ''invert" or
caramel" into glucose, and the pro-
portion of sugar will be lcsscncd. First
he fills the pan only in part. Then
when he sees fine granulations of sugar
against the light in his test tube he ad-
mits more juice, and thus builds up the
grains little by little to larger size.
When sufficiently boiled the thick syrup
is called the ''massa cutie" The "strike"
is now done, air is admitted to the pan
and the contents are run off into the
"mixer'-a huge oblong iron pan in
which steam arms revolve. Next the
''masse cutie" falls into the 'centrifu-
gals" which are small drums holding
about 12O pounds of sugar. Within the
drum is a wire screen basket revolving
at the rate of 1000 turns per minute.
The centrifugal force throws out the
molasses through the wire network and
leaves the sugar. Perfectly clear water
is then spurted into the drum from
a syringe. This water is thrown out
through the sugar, washing out the re-
naming coloring matter. The motion
of the centrifugal is now stopped and
the sugar LET ont of trap in the bottom;
into screw convcyor, from which a
bucket band is carried to a big bin. A
man stands in The bin and shoycls the
sugar, rs if it were wheat, into tube
under which the barrels are placed one
by one 10 receive it.
THIS first product of the sugar mill is
called "firsts," and is the whitest and
best sugar. The molasses is boiled
again in the vacuum pan, goes again
through tho centrifugals, and light
brown sugar called seconds" results.
Yet again the remaining molasscs goes
the pans, hut the "masSe cutie" is now
sticky AID stringr, and will not Yield