188 NEW PROCESS FOR CLAYING SUGARS'.- 



their gathering in the feafon when they afford very little fugar, 

 in companion with what they would have yielded if they had 

 been cut in time. 



While this retardation diminifhes the immediate product, it 

 has an influence on the vigour of the fucceeding (hoots, as I 

 have obferved, and renders their advancement lefs fpeedy. 

 And by this means it expofes the farmer of national planta- 

 tions to fail in payment of the terms of their location. 

 Experiments for I {hall not dwell upon the various experiments I made be- 

 e * fore my fuccefs was complete, but (hall confine myfelf to thofe 

 means which have befl fucceeded with me, and to which I 

 have confined myfelf in the fubfequent pradice in my fugar- 

 work. 



fu r arto°be Sthe This P rocefs confifts In difpofing the fugar in receptacles of 



clayed in large 12,937 cubic feet, each containing 26 ordinary forms, and to 



veflels. clay it in thefe fame receptacles, of which I fliall proceed to 



give a defcription : 



Firft ufedby fhe priority of the method which I propofe belongs to Cits. 



Citizens Bou- „ ,. irni i • • i • - r£ 



cherie at Paris, tfoucnene, who hrlt adopted it in their refinery of Bercy near 



Paris, They were, as far. as I know, the firft who conftructed 



veflels to clay the raw fugars they received from our colonies 



previous to their refining them. But though this invention is 



and improved by undoubtedly theirs, I alfo have a claim as to the degree of 

 the Author. . J . b 



improvement which their vefiel did not pofTefs, but which I 



have given them by rendering them more convenient, advan- 

 tageous, and economical *. 

 Defcnption of The veflels of Citizens Boucherie were, as nearly as I can 

 Citizens Bou- recollect, about 15 or 18 inches deep, and five feet wide, 

 cherie. They were fquare, and the bottom of each was perforated 



with a great number of fmall holes for the difcharge of the 

 fyrup, which fell into a fecond vefTel lefs deep, but of the 

 fame dimenfions as the others as to their width. This fecond 

 vefTel was lined with thin metallic plates, of an alloy invented 

 by Mr. Hifkerdeau, a Spanifh chemift. The upper veflels 



* I attended their operations in the year 1784, before I came to 

 this colony. I had alfo the advantage at that time of giving feveral 

 leftures in their eftablifhraent to feme cultivators of St. Domingo 

 and other fugar iflands, to facilitate their knowledge of the doc- 

 .trine and procefTes of that interefting manufa&ure which they fre- 

 quently vifited. 



were 



