The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-05
sPkECKELs, DISCOVERY.
The Sugar King Makes Building
Blocks of Sugar.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.

/
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Sugar king Claus Spreckels has entered
the lists with Wizard Edison and is
crowding the electric magician pretty hard
/ in his bid for novel discoveries besides as
| tonishing the world by his fight with the
all-powerful sugar trust This time Mr.
! Spreckels has evolved something which, if
/ all that Is claimed for it be true, will revolu
| tionize the building trade, or at least that
! portion of it where marble and the more
costly fine stones are used.
King Spreckels has made the wonderful
discovery that he can make sugar hard
| enough TO take the place of marble 1t
| VIII wash, unlike many Of the statements
Of his friends the sugar trust, and has been
tested to remarkable degree. So says Mr..
Spreckels.
| Mr. Spreckels, besides commanding world
wide admiration for his gigantic operations
is also secretivs, and this wonderful dis
cOvery only leaked out through that happy
feeling engendered by a hearty dinner,
| cOngeulal fellowship and bracing sea air,
| for it was told in mid-ocean, where the
salty breez9s could not take it up and watt
1t 70 the four corners Of the earth. Never
theless the secret is no longer a secret.
| Like most wonderful discoveries it came
| out by accident during the course of ex-
perlments necessitated by the demands of
trade.
THE PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS.
For many years Mr. Spreckels was
troubled by the bad condition his sugar
was in when it reached Central America
| and Mexico and the constantly recurring
demand for hard sugar, aud he kept Dusily
at work trying TO perfect process by
which his loaf sugar could be carried with
| out reaching his consigneeS in the damaged
condition, and at last he reached the solu-
| fTnf Nf ha IS
have been going there which you couldn't
| break with an axe; harder than marble,
purer than the finest Italian product and
| winter than any stone ever quarried But
King Spreckels kept his secret as though it
were buried in the archives of state or
trusts.
On the voyage over on the Fulda the con-
versatlon turned on the question of the
proposed new annex TO the white house.
Dr. George o. CLAWS, an attorney, of
| Washington, d. c., and the sugar king,
| who are intimate friends, were the center of
| a group of interested listeners to political
dissertation on office-holders and office
seekers as the points at issue. 1t was
| pointed out that congress never appro-
priated enough to complete any structure,
and that it cost like sixty to import marble
to complete any building of the size and
character of the white house. To which
all present agreed, but one gentleman,
! turning to MIR. Spreckes, said jokingly:
"Now, If we could only make it out of
sugar. Mr.. Spreckels"
1T certainly can be DONE" said the gol-
| den state Croesus, soberly, nodding his head
| to emphasize his remark
| mo you don't mean it?" said the aston
ished group, breathlessly
81 certainly do" vas Mr.. Spreckels' re-
| ply, still more mysteriously.
Tell us about it., urged the gentlemen in
a single breath.
| HE TELLS OF HIS DISCOVERY.
The su ar king then told tuem of his dis
| coyery, eXpatiated upon the wonders of
the new substitute, told them that he could
| make blocks of hardened sugar, as ada
mantine as marble, as pure as alabaster
and as white as the linen in their shirt
fronts, and, more wonderful than all, so
| cheap that III course Of time its value
| would be as low as that of briek-"Phila-
delphia brick, at that"
He drew, jokingly, a vivid picture of
| city or such sweetness as never even Baby
lonla's kings ever dreamed OF, and painted the
| difference between Philadelphia, the city
of red, and Spreckelsonia, the city of milk
white purity. His listeners were SPELL
bound. Rarely had such food for ocean
gossip been furnished to ennuied travellers.
In wonder toue they discussed the matter
even when they had landed, after exhaust
ing oil the possibilities contained in the
wonderful discovery, babe an affeotionate
| ad1eu TO the sugar magician as he started
for this city, and went home to dream of
palaces of saccharine formation-of beet
root and sugar cane, of fairy tales and
sugar midases, who turn cities of brick,
stone and mortar into chemical stone.
Enjoying his surprise party, Mr. Spreck-
els came TO Philadelphia and HE'D him to
the rocky and other Businesses which guard
1 fhn n q
| the Demon. There a reporter found him
last evening, genial, ruddy and, better than
all, communicative. When told the repor-
ter's errand he said:
Yes, it's true. I can make out of sugar
stone harder than the finest marble; it will
wash with soap and water, and is as white
as driven snow Yes, and cheap much,
| much cheaper than marble"
Here Mr.. Spreckels recited the story of
the mention of his discovery to his fellow
passengers.
CHEAP HOUSES OF SUGAR
III said also, why go to the expense of
importing Italian marble and foreign labor
when you can make just as good marble,
cheaper and better than the imported arti-
Gle, grown on American soil, or, rather, of
the products, of American soil, developed
by American workingmen and capital, and
IN every way SUPERIOR That's what | said.
You can wash it better than marble. Nis
cleaner looking, much easier made and
handled"
But will it stand the elements-rain.
frost, wind and suushinem
Now, that don't know. built a toy
house to crafty my fancy. 1t is made of
blocks of the stuff and is as solid as granite.
[ have kept block of the material in wa
ter for weeks at q time, and it was washed
daily with soap and water, and never
melted or dwindled away. 1t is wonderful
material. You cannot cut it with knife.
only chisel and mallet having any effect
upon it. II it will not do for outside work
it will answer every purpose of interior
work.
"How large can you make the blocks?r
"Oh, almost any size; all l have made
thus far have been good-sized blocks, but
| can make them as big - you want
them"
What is the process9"
well, that is of course, a secret. as |
haven't patented my machinery rfor the
process yet. 1t is done, of course, by pres.
sure, very powerful pressure, which re-
moves the crystals and makes it a solid
white. No, don't think it will be used to
construct the annex to the white house
but If it were, what a sweet place 1t would
be for ofiice-seekers and office-holders, said