6 SUGAR 



sweet food in those days, with a pleasant flavour and 

 aroma of good West Indian sugar. 



Passing to. Scotland, the next largest seat of the 

 industry, there were at Greenock, in 1860, about thirteen 

 refineries, to which must be added four in Glasgow and 

 one in Leith. Many of the Greenock houses were very 

 flourishing and constantly improving their manufacture. 

 The wonderful increase in the raw sugar consumed in 

 the Clyde refineries in the middle of the last century has 

 been stated as follows : 



Year 



1854 .. 

 1860 .. 

 1865 .. 



In the following year, 1866, the total was 162,368 tons. 



These figures sufficiently indicate the go-ahead nature 

 of the industry in Scotland at that period. They made 

 no loaf sugar, but supplied the northern (and even the 

 southern) markets with what they wanted, white 

 crystals and white and yellow " crushed " sugars. 



Two vital improvements in the art of sugar refining 

 improvements which created a complete revolution in the 

 industry and in the style of sugar produced took place 

 during the period indicated in the above figures, and 

 fully accounted for the boom in sugar refining on the 

 Clyde. The first was the adoption of the centrifugal 

 machine, by which the sugar in the boiled crystalline 

 mass is separated from the syrup in a few minutes. The 

 second was the boiling of yellow sugars at a low tem- 

 perature, causing the sugar to be turned out in a 

 uniformly moist state, and with a pale and delicate 

 primrose tinge instead of a dull dark yellow colour. 

 The firm who discovered and perfected this latter 



