The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1915-01-06

II caught the trousers legs of Mr.
Woodberry. and before help could
reach him 1t had torn his right leg
of at the hip socket. Mr.. WOodberry
recovered from the fearful accident
and is now an employee of the cor
poration for life, with an easy job.
The elevator takes the sawdust to
the sixth floor. where ii is dumped
into gigantic kettles called macera-
tors. These embody the principles of
the meat mill. the cauldron and the
steam boiler. Each has the capacity
of many tons. When the sawdust has
been boiled. chewed and stirred until
ii looks to be about the consistency OF
hokey-pokey ice cream before the
freezing. the mass Is drawn off into
other receptacles, made of heavy steel
plates. called digesters. And just there
Gus part of the process. When the di-
gesters have been charged with the
pulp they are given n "dose" Of sui
phuric acid and hermetically sealed.
and pressure of'25O pounds to the
square inch is turned on them. The
graduation Of the dose" of acid is q
fine point. Too much or too little
would be disastrous. Sulphuric acid is
treacLerous substance, especially
when 1t Is under pressure. Ii is not
only terrific explosive. but it eats
and burns whatever and wherever it
strikes. 1t comes in great iron or
steel capsules. and the handling OF
these Is entrusted to the most reliable
men about the plant. The tempera-
ture OF the acid must rot get too high.
For the purpose of maintaining an
equal temperature the works have re-
Gently installed a refrigerating plant
OF twenty tons capacity. Now all of
the chemicals-and there are a great
many chemicals of various sorts used
about an alchol plant-are kept in
cold storage.
An old employee Of the alcohol
works was asked about the danger of
handling the acids. "Ill tell you, Mr."
he said: II have worked in the powder
mills where they made cordite and the
great ootagonal powder for the twelve
inch navy guns. and dynamite for
blasting. and gun cotton. and all that
sort of thing. and I'd rather work
there than here. There is less danger.
This mill Is safe, enough--safe as q
church-as long as everything goes
right. So Is n powder mill. But let
anything go wrong-oof! we are all
up In the air. The powder mill, if it
doesn't blow you to pieces. may give
You chance to get well. But when
you get a douche Of sulphuric acid in
addition to being blown up, you
haven't got much show. And that
acid. 1 want to tell you, won't stand
any monkey business. 1t would as
soon blow up as not. and maybe Il
whole lot sooner"
The speaker was a SCARED employee
Of the powder mills in Delaware and
his face and arms and hands showed
that he was experienced in the matter
of explosions.
When the macerated mass OF wood
pulp has been properly digested and
the sulphuric acid has got i'm it's fine
work the digester is decanted into q
gigantic tank, whence II is pumped
into an apparatus called a separator.
The mass Is no longer like hokey-
pokey; IL has become Il liquid, Of a
dark reddish brown color and with a
pungent odor. The separator is apt
to remind you Of the cream separator
on the farm-it Is so different. But,
like the cream separator. this one de-
rives its eff cheney from centrifugal
motion. When the separator has per-
formed its function the liquid has
been divided into cellulose. or cellu-
lite, and a residue. and it is this cell
lulite that makes the sugar that
makes the syrup that makes the al
cohol..
From the separator the LIQUID cellu-
lite Is pumped into vats as big as n
4o-horse farm silo and looking like
one. There ferments are added and
the stuff works like homemade
wine or cider, and il is there that the
mass hrst develops the odor of alcohol.
Somewhere along the line there has
been added sufficient quantity of
"black-strap" moasscs for the pur-
pose OF Facilitating the fermentation,
80 tina. when one hangs ones nose