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244° REPORT OF TIE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
its second session, $40,000 (vol. 23, p. 354), for the same purpose. In 1883 the Chemist 
of the Department conceived the idea of adapting the ‘* diffusion process,” success- 
fully used in Europe in the manufacture of beet sugar, to the extraction of sugar 
from sorghum and maize cane. ‘The results of the experiments carried on in this 
direction during the year 1883 are contained in special Bulletins Nos. 2 and 3, issued 
by the Chemical Division of the Department in 1884. ; 
Further investigations were made during the year 1884, and a chemist from the - 
Chemical Division was sent to Europe to study the ‘‘ diffusion process” as practiced ~ 
J j p 
there and the machinery used in its application. The results of the work for this 
year are fully set out in Bulletin No.5. Bulletin No. 6 contains a record of the work 
for the year 1885. 
In the fall of 1885 Professor Wiley, Chemist of the Department, was directed to - 
proceed to Europe to study the ‘‘ diffusion process.” Bulletin No. 8 gives the result 
of his visit there and conclusions reached as to the proper adaptation of process and | 
machinery to manufacture sugar in this country from sorghum cane by the “‘ diffu- 
sion process.” 
As a result of the investigations and experiments brought down to 1886, this De- 
partment felt convinced that it had reached a satisfactory solution of sugar manu- 
facture as applied to sorghum, and that it had secured a successful method and 
devised suitable machinery to establish this work as one of the commeicial industries _ 
of the country. To test the process and the machinery devised on a commercial 
scale, and for the purpose of perfecting by experiments any defect that might arise 
either in the chemical progress of the process or mechanical arrangement of the 
machinery, the Department received from Congress an appropriation for these pur- 
oses, : 
g On June 30, 1886, there was appropriated as follows: ‘‘ For purchase, erection, 
transportation, and operation of machinery, and necessary traveling within the 
United States, and other expenses in continuing and concluding experiments in the 
manufacture of sugar, by the ‘diffusion and saturation processes,’ from sorghum 
and sugar cane, so much thereof as may be necessary, to be immediately available, 
$94,000 ” (Stat. L., vol. 23, p. 101). ; 
Under this act of Congress the Commissioner of Agriculture, on the 19th of July, 
1886, employed and appointed one Magnus Swenson to ‘‘superintend, under the 
direction of the Chemist, the experiments in the manufacture of sugar from sorghum 
at Fort Scott, Kans.,” at a salary of $2,400 per annum, during the continuance of 
the experiments. A copy of this appointment is hereto appended (Exhibit A). 
The experiments carried on under the foregoing act of Congress last mentioned 
are set out in detail in Bulletin No. 14, a copy of which is appended (Exhibit B). 
In the course of these experiments a difficulty was met with, described on page 
28 of Exhibit B, namely, an acidity in the diffusion battery, which caused an inver- 
sion of a portion of sucrose into glucose, thereby diminishing the amount of sugar 
that should be obtained. On the same page are detailed the experiments made to 
overcome this defect. Experiment No. 4, *‘ the addition of freshly presipitated car- 
bonate of lime to the ‘ extraction bottle,’ was suggested by Mr. Swenson, the sup- 
erintendent of the experiments under the foregoing employment. Comments on 
the result of this experiment will be found on pages 32 and 33 of Bulletin 16. 
Experiments at Fort Scott, Kans., were discontinued on November 15, 1886, and 
the service of Mr. Swenson as agent of this Department ceased on that day. 
On December 29, 1886, Mr. Swenson filed an application for letters patent for an 
improvement in the manufacture of sugar, and on October 11, 1887, letters patent 
No. 371528 were issued to him. 
This patent is for the use of carbonate of lime and carbonates of other alkaline 
earths in the diffusion bath to prevent the invertive action of organic acids during 
the process of extraction. It is simply a patent for experiment No. 4, as made at 
Fort Scott, Kans., by this Department, and set out on page 28 of Bulletin 16. F 
I am informed that Mr. Swenson is now threatening to prosecute all persons who 
shall use the method described and covered by his patent, and this Department, 
still being engazed in experimentation for the manufacture of sugar, will be liable 
to Mr. Swenson in damages for using a process discovered by itself if the*patent 
aforesaid is rightfully the property of Mr. Swenson. 
IL. 
CONDITION OF THE ART. 
£ 
The aforesaid patent is for the use of carbonate of the alkaline earths to neutral- _ 
ize organic acids present in saccharine solutions, and thus prevent inversion of 
sucrose into glucose. This is not new, and has been known to thoseengaged in the 
