SUGAR 



939 



The relative disposition of the rollers is shown in the diagram, fig. 1925 : in which 

 A is the top roller ; B, the feeding roller ; c, the delivering roller ; D, the returner ; 

 E, the feeding board ; F, the delivering board. 



The rollers are made 2 inches to 2J inches thick, and ribbed in the centre. The 

 feeding and delivering rollers have small flanges at their ends, (as shown mfig. 1924), 

 between which the top roller is placed ; these flanges prevent the pressed canes or 

 megass from working into the mill-bed. The feeding and top rollers are generally 

 fluted, and sometimes diagonally, enabling them the better to seize the canes from the 

 feeding-board. It is, however, on the whole, considered better to flute the feeding roller 

 only, leaving the top and delivery rollers plane ; when the top roller is fluted, it should 

 be very slightly, for, after the work of a few weeks, its surface becomes sufficiently 

 rough to bite the canes effectively. The practical disadvantage of fluting the deliver- 

 ing rollers, is in the grooves carrying round a portion of liquor, which is speedily 

 absorbed by the spongy megass, as well as in breaking the megass itself, and thus 

 causing great waste. 



In working this mill, the feeding roller is kept about half an inch distant from the 

 upper roller, but the delivering roller is placed about th of an inch from it. 



The canes are thrown upon the feeding board, and spread so that they may cross each 

 Other as little as possible. They are taken in by the feeding rollers, which split and 

 slightly press them : the liquor flows down, and the returner guiding the canes be- 

 tween the top and delivering rollers, they receive the final pressure, and are turned 

 out on the mill-floor, while the liquor runs back and falls into the mill-bed. The 

 megass, then in the state of pith, adhering to the skin of the cane, is tied up in bundles, 

 and after being. exposed a short time to the sun, is finally stored in the megass-house 

 for fuel. By an improvement in this stage of the process, the megass is carried to 

 the megass-house by a carrier chain, worked by the engine. 



The sugar-mill at Chica Ballapura is worked by a single pair of buffaloes or oxen, 

 going round with the lever A, fig. 1926, which is fixed on the top of the right-hand 

 roller. The two rollers hare endless screw-heads B, which are formed of four spiral 

 grooves and four spiral ridges, cut in opposite directions, which turn into one another 

 when the mill is working. These rollers and their heads are of one piece, made of the 

 toughest and hardest wood that can be got, and such as will not impart a bad taste to 

 the juice. They are supported in a thick strong wooden frame, and their distance from 

 each other is regulated by means 

 of wedges, which pass through 

 mortises in the frame-planks, and 

 a groove made in a bit of some sort 

 of hard wood, and press upon the 

 axis of one of the rollers. The axis 

 of the other presses against the 

 left-hand side of the hole in the 

 frame-boards. The cane-jiiice runs 

 down the rollers, and through a 

 hole in the lower frame-board, into 

 a wooden conductor, which carries 

 it into an earthen pot. Twc long- 

 pointed stakes or piles are driven 

 into the earth, to keep the mill 

 steady, which is all the fixing it 

 requires. The under part of the 

 lowermost plank of the frame rests upon the surface of the ground, which is chosen 

 level and very firm, that the piles may hold the faster. A hole is dug in the earth, 

 immediately below the spout of the conductor, to receive the pot. 



The mill used in Burdwan and near Calcutta is simply two small wooden cylinders, 

 grooved, placed horizontally, close to each other, and turned by two men, one at each 

 end. This simple engine is said to express the juice completely, but slowly. It is 

 very cheap, the prime cost not being two rupees ; and being easily moved from field 

 to field, it saves much labour in the carriage of the cane. Notwithstanding this 

 advantage, so rude a machine must leave a large proportion of the richest juice in the 

 cane-trash. 



The sugar-mill of Chinapatam, fig. 1927, consists of a mortar, lover, pestle, and 

 regulator. The mortar is a tree about 10 feet in length and 14 inches in diameter: 

 c is a plan of its upper end ; b is an outside view ; and c is a vertical section. It is 

 sunk perpendicularly into the earth, leaving one end 2 feet above the surface. The 

 hollow is conical, truncated downwards, and then becomes cylindrical, with a hemi- 

 spherical projection in its bottom, to allow the juice to run freely to the small opening 

 that conveys it to a spout, from which it falls into an earthen pot. Eound the upper 



1926 



