REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 339 



The amount of precipitate i-etained by a 30-cliaml)er press will aver- 

 affo 770 pounds. This precipitate contains 50 per cent, of its weiglit 

 or juice, nearly all of which can bo recovered by displacement. 



The amount of press cake per ton of cane is approximately 46 

 pounds. Half of this contains an average of about 13 per cent, 

 sucrose. Were this juice thrown away with the press cake it would 

 result in a loss of 4GX.50X.13^3 pounds sugar per ton of cane 

 worked. 



Even at a low valuation per pound for sucrose, this loss, amounting 

 to 30,000 pounds of sugar for a crop of 10,000 tons of cane, would bo 

 a large item. These figures are based on an extraction of 78 per cent. 

 of juice from the cane. 



TEST OF THE KLEBMANN PROCESS AT MAGNOLIA. 



Early in December^ at the request of Mr, I). JD. Colcock, secretary 

 of the Sugar Exchange, New Orleans, the Comniissioner of Agri- 

 culture directed me to make a test of this process. 



A sufficient quantity of lignite could not be procured, so, m accord- 

 ance with the sTlggestions of Mr. Ernst Schulze, representing the 

 owners of the process, finely ground charcoal was substituted. Ex- 

 periment on a small scale showed that a slight modification of the 

 process must be made where charcoal, bituminous coal, or certain 

 other substitutes f(jr lignite are employed. 



The clarifiers at Magnolia are of the ordinary form and have a ca- 

 pacity of 533 gallons. The filter-presses were manufactured by the 

 Hallesche Maschinenfabrik, of Halle, Germany. An ordinary pis- 

 ton-pump was used to force the juice through the presses. The juice 

 was limed, as usual; i. e., to neutrality. In order to determine the 

 amount of charcoal required, experiments Avere made with varying 

 quantities : (1) 10 per cent, of the weight of the sugar in the juice j 

 (2) 7i per cent. ; (3) 5 per cent. 



Any difliculy in filtration would indicate too little charcoal. As a 

 result of this experiment it was found that the juice filtered equally 

 well with 5 per cent. a» with 10. Five per cent, is probably as little 

 as could be successfully employed. 



The juice was rapidly heated to the boiling-point, after liming, be- 

 fore the addition of the charcoal. The charcoal having been added 

 to the mixture, was boiled and stirred thoroughly for ten or fifteen 

 minutes and then forced through the presses. 



One 31-chamber press filtered 2,670 gallons of juice in three hours, 

 at the end of ^^.-hich time it was opened and the press cake removed. 

 The chambers of these presses are not as large as those of the Kroog 

 presses. 



The filtered juice was perfectly clear and bright. It was immedi- 

 ately converted into sirup in the double effect. This sirup was as 

 bright as the filtered juice. A j^ortion of the sirux) after standing 

 several days in a glass vessel did not show the slightest sediment. 



Analyses were made of the juice at frequent intervals during this 

 work. A portion was taken from each sample for the determination 

 of the albuminoids. 



The proportion of albuminoids is expressed in the table, both as a 

 percentage of the weight of the juice and in terms of the sucrose. 



The samj)le No. 1 of the juice was taken from the first clarifier, 

 and the first sample of clarified juice from the first portion of the 

 filtered juice; consequently these samples represent the same juice 



