Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-04
SJGAR-MAKIHd.
CANE-CUTTING IN THE SOUTH BEGINS
IN SEPTEMBER.
Details of the Process of Converting the
Cane Into the Solid Sweet
Improved Machinery.

tivation of cane. The time of the ineep-
ton of the industry there is not definitely
given, but there is tradition that the
Jesuit Fathers introduced the cane from
San Domingo in 175l and planted it on
ground now occupied by the banks and
chief commercial houses of New Orleans,
lust north of Canal street. The juicy
plant was afterward cultivated in small
way for syrup, but attempts to make sugar
were not successful down to 1895. The
credit for finally developing it to money
making business is given Etienne de Bore,
who made numerous experiments, and in
1895 produced such quantity that he re-
allied about $4,000.
In the process of producing the sugar as
now carried on, the cane, after being cut,
is now hauled to the mill and dumped on
an endless band that carries it between
the big crushing rollers. Some of the
biggest mills have Shredder" in which
Case the cane is first put through that. The
shredder's revolving teeth tear the cane
into pulp, this falling with the juice on
rubber apron leading to the rolls. The
juice with that squeezed out runs through
strainer and then into heater. Next it
goes to the clariier, that is large iron vat
with steam pipes at the bottom. Quick
lime is added to bring to the top the i'm
purities that are skinned off. The juice
after this is boiled till the bubbles become
white, when it is allowed to stand and
settle. The next process is straining the
juice through great drums holding hun
dreds or thousands of pounds of bone-black.
After fltering, the juice, still thin as
when first pressed from the cane, goes to
the double effects" This is a new appa-
ratus, resembling two upright boilers of a
portable engine. Each cupola-like ma
chine contains 500 tubes in which the
| Juice is boiled in vacuum by exhaust
steam. The usual plan is to boil in an
open cylindrical pan, having coils of steam
pipe at the bottom. Now the juice goes
to fresh filters and next to a vacuum pan,
which is not pan, but big iron cupola-
shaped cylinder with an apparatus for ex-
hausting the air and multitudinous coils
Of steam pipe. This is the process requir-
ing the most skill. The chief sugar
maker attends to it himself watching his
vacuum-gauge and thermometer carefully,
and testing every few minutes his boiling
mass by drawing out a tube which does not
break the vacuum. He seeks to keep the
temperature down to 1902. IF it is too
high some of the sucrose will "invert" or
Caramel" into glucose, and the proportion
of sugar will be lessened. First he fills
the pan only in part. Then, when he sees
fine granulations of sugar against the light
in his rest-tube, he admits more juice, and
thus builds up the grains little by little to
larger size.
When sufficiently boiled the thick syrup
is called the "masse cutie" The strike"
is now done, air is admitted to the pan and
the contents are run off into the mixer
huge oblong iron pan in which steel arms
reyolve. Next the "masse cutie" falls into
Il "centrifugals," which are small drums
he.ding about 120 pounds of sugar. Within
the drum is wire screen basket revolving
at the rate of 900 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. This water is
thrown out through the sugar, washing
out the remaining coloring matter. The
motion of the centrifugal is now stopped
and the sugar let out of trap in the bot
tom into screw conveyer, from which a
bucket band carries it to big bin. A
man stands in the bin and shovels the su-
gar, as if it were wheat, into tube under
which the barrels are placed one by one to
receive it.
This first product of the sugar mill is
called 'frsts," and is the whitest and best
sugar. The molasses is boiled again in the
vacuum pan, goes again through the GEN.
trifugals and light-brown sugar called
seconds results. Yet again the remain
ing molasses goes through the pans, but the
"masse cutie" is now sticky and stringy,
and will not yield its sugar to the centrifu-
gals. 1t is put into iron tanks on wheels,
called wagons" each of which holds about
$500 pounds, and wheeled into the hot
room. The temperature here is from 900
to 1902. Here the wagons stand in closely
packed rows for thirty days. The mass is
now very stiff and waxy. 1t is next thrown
into the boiler, stirred up well and put into
the centrifugals with cold water, which
washes out the molasses. The final re-
mainder Of sugar is called thirds" and is
of a darI-brown color. The separated
molasses is of very poor quality and sells
d
ii to make alcohol, and the glucose manu-
facturers buy it to give cane flavor to their
glucose syrup.
A great deal of sugar is still made in
Louisiana by the old open-kettle process,
wasteful as it is, for the simple reason that
the planters cannot afford to buy new APP
paratus This old process is substantially
the same as was in use at the beginning of
the century. Five or six big cast iron
kettles ofgraduatedsi sizes are arranged in line
over a brick furnace. AT one end is the
fire of cypress wood at the other the tall
chimney. The cane juice runs into the
largest kettle, called "the grand" which is
farthest from the fire, and in the course of
the boiling is landed successfully into the
others, called, in order, "the prop" or
"proy," 'the fambeau," ''the sirop," and
''the battery Often there are six kettles,
a first and second grand" The "grand"
is so called because of its size, the ''iam- !
beau because the flames of the furnace
strike it with most force; "sirop" is French |
for syrup, and battery" is corruption of
the French word batir, to build, the syrup |
being granulated or built up into sugar in |
this kettle. From the battery the thick |
sugary mass goes to wooden tanks to cool. |
Much of the molasses is here drained off. |
The rest drifts from the hogsheads placed |
above troughs after the sugar is packed.
In all sugar-houses, except the few |
using bone-black, sulphur fumes are en-
ployed to aid the lime process of clarifying. |
The most common apparatus is large |
wooden box fitted with numerous shelves,
a retort and water tank. The fumes of
the sulphur first pass over the water in the
tank, which absorbes the sulphuric acid |
and is supposed TO leave only sulphurous |
gas to go up into the box and mingle
with the cane juice which drips from
shelf to shelf. To produce a draft there |
is steam-exhaust apparatus above. The
juice next goes to the CHARTERS to be |