SUGAR 



5615 



SUGAR 



ponderous rollers from eighteen to seventy-two 

 inches in length, which squeeze the juice from 

 the stock. Sometimes two or three sets of 

 rollers are used, the pressure being increased 

 from set to -set. By this process from ninety 

 to ninety-five per cent of the sugar in the cane 

 is extracted. As the sugar passes from mill to 

 mill, water at varying temperatures is sprayed 

 upon it from a perforated pipe. The water as- 

 sists in the grinding or macerating process and 

 increases the amount of sugar extracted. The 

 crushed cane, called bagasse (bagas'}, is uti- 

 lized as fuel to provide steam for carrying on 

 the operations. The juice then undergoes puri- 

 fication, which is accomplished by applying 

 chemicals and by heating and filtering. Sul- 

 phur dioxide, which is used to bleach and dis- 

 infect the juice, further enables it to take up 

 more lime the most important chemical em- 

 ployed in manufacturing sugar. As soon as 

 cane juice is squeezed from the cells of the 

 stock, chemical inversion begins, that is, sepa- 

 ration into fruit sugar and grape sugar. This 

 injurious process is arrested by the addition of 

 lime. 



To produce the first sugars the purified juice 

 is reduced to a syrup in evaporators and then 

 boiled in open pans containing steam coils or 

 in vacuum pans until the water is driven off 

 and sugar crystals are formed. The resulting 

 mass of crystals and syrup, called massecuite, is 

 then carried to a mixing machine provided with 

 revolving paddles, in which it is thoroughly 

 stirred. From the mixer it is fed to revolving 

 cylinders called centrifugals, in which the liquid 

 portion is forced out through the meshes of a 

 copper gauze basket. This liquid, after being 

 boiled and reboiled, becomes the molasses of 

 commerce. The sugar crystals must be further 

 refined and clarified before ready for the mar- 

 ket. Granulated sugar is formed in a revolving 

 cylinder heated by steam, and loaf sugar is made 

 by packing the fresh sugar in molds. The re- 

 sulting blocks are then cut to the desired size 

 and shape. Cheaper grades of sugar, known as 

 coffee and brown sugar, are made from syrup 

 yielded by first sugar. 



Beet Sugar. Sugar was first extracted from 

 the beet by a German scientist in 1747, but the 

 industry was not developed until the nine- 

 teenth century. The beets, on reaching the 

 factory, are first washed and conveyed to slicing 

 machines, where they are cut by triangular 

 knives into slices not unlike "shoe-string" po- 

 tatoes. These slices drop through an upright 

 chute into a diffusion battery, consisting of a 



series of tall cylinders holding from two to six 

 tons each. These cylinders are known as cells. 

 Warm water, is run through the cylinders, pass- 

 ing from one to another throughout the bat- 

 tery, and drawing the sugar from the cells of 



British India 

 2704 



Porto Rico 

 381 



Maple Sugar 



Quebec 



Ontario 



2/2 



879 



Vermont 



4- 

 New York 



Z 



Figures RepresentThousands of Short Tons 



SUGAR PRODUCTION 



The source of the greater proportion of three 

 kinds of sugar. 



the beets as it goes. This "diffusion juice," as 

 it is called, contains from twelve to fifteen per 

 cent of sugar. The pulp left over from this 

 process is fed to stock. The raw juice is next 

 purified by being rriixed with lime and treated 

 with carbonic acid gas. The purified juice is 

 then carried to the evaporators, where heat is 

 applied through steam coils. Having passed 

 through the evaporators, usually four in num- 

 ber, the thickened juice is conveyed to vacuum 

 pans and heated until crystals form. It is then 

 treated in the mixer and the centrifugal ma- 

 chine like cane sugar. In America most beet- 

 sugar manufacturers prepare their own raw 

 sugar for the market by putting it through a 



