The Appeal., 1890-12-20

4
holding but $50 gallons. Heavy little
plate glass windows show the sugar boil
er, workings, so that he can say with the
poet--- ,=" .-. -.
Now see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine.
The idea of boiling in vacuum is to
save steam and lesson the chances of
scorching the syrup, all the changes of
the boiling being under direct control
and capable of arrest at any stage. The
illustration shows vacuum pan with
but two coils, two feeders, exhausts etc. I,
i've keep the process more delicately
restricted. The frst move of the sugar
boiler IS to get vacuum from :6 to 80
inches. Then he pumps in enough sy-
rup to cover the first coil of pipes lining
the inside of the pan. Next he turns on
steam and begins cooking at 120 degrees
the vacuum lowering the boiling point
almost one.half the open air Standard.
lie looks through the little window and
sees it foaming under the new sensation.
Then he draws out sample by the
"proof stick" brass rod extending in.
to the machine, its handle projecting
over the water bucket. Every few min
| utes he draws it out, gets few drops on
a piece of glass and tries it with his fin
gers. 1t may be an hour, it may be long.
er before it shows or feels the sign of
grain. When he gets this most Import
ant desideratum "massacuite" (sugar
and molasses). he begins to build on it.
by pumping in another invoice of syrup
to cover the second coil of pipes, aud so
the process goes on from five to eight
hours until all the coils are covered. and
be has attained satisfa, tory grain for
the cookings.
Now 1t is complete and everything is
ready for the interesting stage known as
the "strlke." The vacuum is released,
the steam is shut of, the big valve at the
bottom is opened and the stiff, black
granny product comes rolling down in a
V shaped iron stirring pan on the level
of the floor like stream of lava On
| the ground foor just below are the cent
rifugals. There are four of these metal
lie whir ing barrels, and every whirl
makes growing grain toward sugar
Perhaps $50 to 200 pounds of the soggy
product of the stirring-pan is run into
them; then they start on whirl and
it rises up on the fine brass net work
sides and sticks closer than a brother;
meanwhile the centrifugal force is
throwing the molasses and moisture out
through the netting against the out
ward iron casting like. rain. Two min
utes of this rapid mechanical waltz and
you see the white first sugar" dumped
out of the machine, and dry-grained
moving toward the barrels on a belt
line. The molasses product that is re-
jected by the centrifugals is pumped
back into tanks and is subsequent boil
ed in the vacuum pan ut higher tenn
perature than the first process until it
reaches consistency Of glue. Then It
Is run Oft into square iron sugar wagons
holding from 700 to 1000 pounds, they
are marked in chalk and rolled off into
a large room kept at Turkish bath tenn.
perature, where they remain from seven
to ten days. After their time is up thew
are dumped into the stirring pm and
whirled in the centrifugals, twice the
length of time occupied for the first su-
gars, and the result is light brown crys-
tails, known as seconds" (for refinery
purposes) The molasses thrown off by
this second process eventually goes int,
the vacuum pan, is b ,iled like the old
mans turkey until the breast bone is
tender; then it is lun into wagons and
rolled into the hot room where it re-
mains for month until it goes through
the centrifugals, and comes forth the
dark brown. sandy sugar ''thirds," and
its weak and insipid nlolasses is drained
away for commercial purposes.
The filter pre sses are made up old
frames OF cast-iron filled with perforated d
copper plates presenting 400 square feet
of surface, covered with heavy duck. All
the skimmlngs, wAshings and refuse OF
the CHARTERS are forced through this
press; the molasses draining utf returns
50 the Yaryion, while, the albuminous
msterial collecting in cakes on the plates
is cleaned off and utilized for fertilizer.
this being the finale Of this very com.
plete industrial process. The average
yield of sugar is $50 pounds from a ten
of cane; at this rate 3UO-ton mill
could make 45, 900 Of suy.r ''hcsts," ""sec
onds," and "thirds," running it's full ca.
pacity. At the same time last year the
yield was l57 pounds to the ton.--- C. E.
N. ..... b .....