The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-01-05
BARE-FACED SWlNDLE.
HOW THE ELECTRIC SIGAR REFINING
WORKS YICTIMlZED ITS Dl PES.
4 BUBBLE BURSTS AFTER TAN
ING ~ MANY INTENTORS
Other Telographic News.

NEW YORK. January 4-The Electric
Sugar Refining Company has collapsed,
and the alleged mode of refining sugar
by electricity has been proved TO be a
fraud Tho shares of the Electric Sugar
Refining Company were quoted to-day M
London at en- per share. ON Monday
they sold at tS3 The capital stock OF
The company consists of 10000 share oi
a par value of 120 Only about 5000
shares however, have been hoated
upon che confding public, and
nearly an of them are held
i'm England The alleged process
vas announced as q wonderful discovery
i'm 1889. Professor Henry G. Friend
claiming 10 Doe its inventor lie said ii
would save six dollars per ton in refining
raw sugar. and would produce finer SUI
gar than any other method. Al q meet
Inc of prominent citizens Of This city hc
pretended 90 explain the process After
ihe Professors speech several prominent,
Wall street business men announced
themselves as convinced Of the utility of
the invention About % year and a half
AGO the professor died Mrs Friend
and % Mr. Howard and Mrs Howard
then followed mp ihe scheme They did
SID t0 some purpose. and fooled many OF
Che shrewdcst sugar brokers IN New
York A factory for the refining of
sugar was started ON Hamilton avenue.
Brooklyn From time to time 10 was
given ont that the company. which bV
This time was well on lbs legs, was get
ting along finely Stock sold freely Do
foreign markets. The stock advanced
from sale 90 sale with startling rapidlly.
Mcssr- Wilctt 6 lIamlen, of lO2 Wal.
street in their printed circulars this
afternoon say "Ihe Development of the
electric process has come much earlier
in 1850 than anticipated, and ln way
quite the opposite of our anticipation
Do what was previously published Wc
have confined ourselves t0 just what we
saw and heard, hut in the matter
of confidence in the results We must
say We have been grossly deceived.
From Developments now coming 90 light
70 appears evident that fraud has been
porpcfratcd. the extent of which win no
doubt soon Doe made known. The pro-
duct exhibited at the several tests was
probably produced from refined sugar as
d basis. and not from raw sugar
The process was kept secret. bat
sample. of the sugar. said 90 be refined.
were exhibited. 10 win probably be
shown chat the samples were never made
from the raw material The promoters
Ot the scheme promised from time To
time to make known the process to the
conhdmg stockholders Only last week
they declared that in % few days things
would Doe ripe for making the secret pub
Dc The bomb shell came IN the shape of
cable sent t0 Liverpool day before yes
tcrdav. in which 10 was stated that the
secret would not Doe given out just now,
a- the owners had some doubt about get
ting their dues This was regarded as q
ru.e. and. when the stock collapsed, led
to further investigation the details of
which are given above.
Mrs. Henry C. Friend and the How
ards are now in Michigan They viii De
arrested. a5 detectives are already on
their trail The arrest of the ringleaders
will probably Doe followed by other
arrests.
At the factory ON Hamilton avenue.
BROOKLYN. where The secret trials of
flNIIIlI lfIUlII MEl' hNl lA'A 'il NV 'it'
was permitted 90 see the machinery but
ihr promoters of the scheme. \ trial was
made Just amonth ago, and % 1j3 pounds
net of raw sugar were used in the secret
room Tie sugar was delivered IN
half bags for convenience of hand
linz The machinery was started,
and inside ~ ten minutes refined
sugar began To appear two stories
below. and continued until foy barrels
were filled which weighed 22,3ll pounds
net. The running time, not counting in-
teryals. was 2l7 minutes, or at the rate of
one barrel every 2t minutes The ope-
rat0rs were TWO women and six men.
Bv listening 40 the wall of the see
cfet room the dupes who were
present heard the empiying of each
bag of sugar in tAe crushing-machlne,
followed hy o quiet interval. The Ie-
currence of sound continued during the
running Nothing more could bee noted
ON the floor except that the serious
vibration of the luildmg indicated the
running of machinery OF great power
ON The floor below the "granulaiors
could be distinctly heard as they manlp-
ulated The sugar and sent it down through
the spouts in short pulls of much
f.r.a