84 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



in view of the degree of perfection vvhicli has been attained ia 

 their work. — New York Tribune. 



PROCESS OF SUGAR-MAKING IN MAURITIUS. 



There is no department of manufacturing industry in which 

 more progress has been made during the last ten years than in the 

 production of sugar. It is equally true that there is none in which 

 so much remains to be done. The extraction of white sugar 

 direct from the juice of the cane and beet, without refining, is 

 now an accomplished fact. At the great Exposition in Paris 

 beautiful specimens from three estates in Mauritius were exhib- 

 ited and took gold medals. 



M. Poulin, one of the planters who received the gold medal as 

 before stated, gives the following simple statement of the process 

 employed : — 



*' The canes are crushed in very powerful steam mills, the cyl- 

 inders of which turn extremely slow, so as to squeeze out all the 

 juice. The juice is received in troughs, and a certain quantity of 

 sulphate of soda (neutral and anhydrous, that is, without water) is 

 added to it. After this first operation, the object of which is to 

 prevent the juice from fermenting in the defecating troughs, it is 

 saturated with lime (the quantity varying according to the quality 

 of the juice), and it is then drawn off into an apparatus called an 



* appareil a triple effety'' which is a set of vacuum pans, 3 in 

 number. It is then boiled at a very low temperature in these 

 vacuum pans. When the syrup is concentrated to the granulating 

 point, it is left to cool. When cold it is put into a turbine or cen- 

 trifugal, which is made to perform 700 revolutions per minute. 

 The sugar is * clairced,' or clarified, by having thrown upon it a 



* clairce,' that is, a syrup, which is ladled out of a jar or tub, and 

 thrown upon the revolving mass of sugar by a workman. 



*' The clairce is simply a syrup of sugar, or molasses, into which 

 has been previously introduced a certain quantity of water, so as to 

 reduce the syrup to a density of 35 degrees (Baume's hydrometer, 

 called also a phe syrop). As the workman pours in the clairce 

 the sugar becomes white, and when the cleansing process is thus 

 accomplished a jet of dry steam is let into the turbine. This jet 

 is sent directly into the centre of the turbine. 



** A jar or tub for the claircing or clarifying syrup is attached to 

 each turbine and bears a fixed proportion to its capacity. The 

 workman pours this syrup upon the revolving sugar with a large 

 iron ladle, about three-fourths of a pint; so that the contents of the 

 turbine are clarified by a single jet of the syrup, and in from 3 to 

 4 minutes. The syrup usually employed in turbining the sugar is 

 obtained from that part of it which flows from the turbine. 



" In Mauritius the S3^rups from the turbine are usually reboiled 

 a second and third time, so as to extract from them every particle 

 of crystallizable sugar. The residuum of the third boiling is gen- 

 erally sent to the distillery and used for making rum. 



'• By means of this process canes cut in the morning may fur- 



