REPORT OP THE CHEMIST. 303 



With a view of correcting these defects I purchased a beet-root 

 cutter formerly used by the Portland Beet Sugar Company, and had 

 it rebuilt by the Colwell Iron Company of New York, for an experi- 

 mental cane-cutter. 



This apparatus had a horizontal disk, and was so modified as to 

 take a multiple feed, the cane being delivered to it through six hop- 

 pers inclined 40 degrees to the vertical. With perfectly clean canes 

 this cutter gave promise of success, but with, the sorghum cane as it 

 came from the field it proved a total failure. 



This leads me to believe that the cutters used at Java and other 

 places so successfully with sugar-cane would not serve the purpose of 

 slicing sorghum for the battery. Any question of cleaning the canes 

 before delivering them to the cutter must be negatived on the score 

 of economy. 



For the further study of the problem I tried the system of cane 

 slicing invented by Mr. H. A. Hughes, of Kio Grande, N. J. 



The principle of this system consists in first cutting the canes into 

 lengths of 3 or 4 inches by means of an ensilage-cutter, and after 

 passing them through a cleaning aj^paratus deliver them to a shaving- 

 machine, constructed on the principle of a board-planer. 



This latter part of the apparatus was kindly loaned to the Depart- 

 ment by Mr. Hughes. 



The canes were first cut by a Belle City ensilage-cutter into pieces 

 about 2.25 in ches in length. These pieces were run though a f anning- 

 mill and nearly all the blades and sheaths were thus removed. The 

 clean pieces of cane were next delivered to a slicer built on the princi- 

 ple of an ordinary board-planer. The cylinder was 6 inches in diame- 

 ter and 30 inches in length, and carried two knives projecting one- 

 eighth to one-sixteenth inch beyond the surface. This was driven at 

 a high rate of speed, over 3,000 revolutions per minute. The canes 

 were shredded rather than sliced by this procees, so that the extrac- 

 tion of the sugar was rather a maceration than a diffusion. 



Even with this small machine it was found possible to prepare 

 nearly as much cane for the battery as with the three ponderous cut- 

 ters described. It was found, however, that the ensilage-cutter was 

 not strong enough to do the work, and hence this most promising 

 system of cane-cutting, practiced successfully at Rio Grande, was dis- 

 continued. The experiment, however, led me to believe that the prin- 

 ciple was the right one ; especially is this so because it permits of the 

 easy cleaning of the canes by first cutting them into small pieces. 

 This seems to be the only practical way of accomplishing what is of 

 prime necessity to diffusion, viz, the removal of all deleterious sub- 

 stances from the chips. 



Having demonstrated the practicability of cleaning the cane in the 

 manner already described, my attention was next directed to the con- 

 sideration of the best method of cutting the short pieces of cane into 

 chips suitable for diffusion. For this purpose I had constructed by 

 the Fort Scott Foundry a centrifugal slicer. The theory of this appa- 

 ratus was that the knives, being carried in a revolving frustum of a 

 cone, and the short pieces of cane being fed from the inside of this 

 cone, the chips, as soon as cut, would fly off by centrifugal force. A 

 trial of this apparatus showed that the fiber of the can'e would clog 

 the knives and thus stop the work. The close of the season prevented 

 any modification of the apparatus. I think the principle of the appa- 

 ratus is promising enough to warrant further trial. 



