MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 123 



NOVEL CHIMNEY CONSTRUCTION. 



The Boston Gas Company have recently erected a chimney upon a 

 somewhat novel plan. The chimney has two levels, and is 170 feet high 

 from the lower one. It is well known that the draught depends mainly on 

 the warmth of the flue. At the base, of course, in ordinary chimneys, 

 the air is warm, and the smoke ascends lightly, but on reaching a con- 

 siderable height the air becomes cold and the draught ceases. To improve 

 the draught, this principle is employed. The chimney is circular, and is 

 incased by a square structure, which rises from the base to the top of the 

 chimney ; this case or exterior wall is hollow, filled with air, and hermeti- 

 cally sealed, and, according to a well-known philosophical principle, 

 becomes filled with hot air ; this air space of course keeps the flue warm. 

 The chimney will probably cost about $-5,000. 



MANUFACTORY OF BEET ROOT SUGAR IN FRANCE. 



The quantity of sugar made from beet root, to the end of the fourth 

 month of the season, February, 18-54, was 73,987,419 kilogrammes, being 

 very nearly equal to the entire season of September, 1852, to September, 

 1853. Xo branch of commerce in France has been so successful as the 

 fabrication of sugar from beet root. The original discovery of the 

 process was due to M. Thiery, a common clerk in the office of the prefect 

 of Lille, and who shortly after became director of the first beet root sugar 

 factory erected in France at Passy, and who, as a reward for his valuable 

 invention, received from the Minister of the Interior, in the year 1810, the 

 sum of three hundred francs. Brussels Herald. 



Schuetzernbach, a French manufacturer, well known by his improve- 

 ments in the beet sugar manufacture, has lately made a very important 

 improvement in this branch of industry, which is spoken of with enthu- 

 siasm by the French papers, as insuring great economy in the manufacture 

 of sugar. The improvement consists in a new mode of lixivating or washing 

 the pulp instead of pressing it by means of hydraulic presses an apparatus 

 large enough to work 100,000 to 120,000 pounds of beet-pulp in twenty- 

 four hours can be constructed and put up for $1,200 ; the same quantity 

 of pulp would require six hydraulic presses, costing $5,000. The cost of 

 keeping these presses in repair averages about 20 per cent., whereas in 

 the new apparatus the repairs will amount to about five per cent. To work 

 six hydraulic presses requires six-horse power ; the new plan requires but 

 two. This improvement affords not only great economy in the first 

 establishment of a sugar manufactory, in keeping it in order, in horse 

 power and manual labor, but |it enables the manufacturer to extract 20 

 per cent, more sugar from the same quantity of pulp than by the old 

 process. 



