46 SUGAR 



from the diffusion battery of a cane sugar factory is 

 very inferior to ordinary megass as fuel, and requires 

 pressing and drying before it can be used. This is a 

 rather fatal objection. Again, a beetroot factory need 

 never, or hardly ever, stop for want of roots ; but a 

 cane factory may often have to suspend work for want 

 of canes. With mills this is easily done, but with 

 diffusion it involves considerable loss. Suddenly to 

 stop a diffusion battery for want of raw material means 

 that all the juice in the battery, most of it very thin, 

 must be worked up as it is or a considerable loss of sugar 

 incurred. A diffusion battery requires great regularity 

 in the quality of the raw material. But a cane mil] 

 is obliged sometimes to work up a large extra quantity 

 of damaged cane in a hurry. With mills this can be 

 done, but it would be impossible with diffusion. 



Diffusion can, under favourable circumstances, ex- 

 tract ninety-five per cent, of the sugar in the cane. 

 Mills are now so much improved that, with all recent 

 appliances, they can get more than ninety per cent, 

 of the sugar in the cane. The reason for adopting 

 diffusion is, therefore, not so strong as it was some 

 years ago, and is more than counterbalanced by the 

 disadvantages. 



There are several cane sugar factories in various 

 countries that have tried the diffusion process. The 

 most remarkable instance is the late Mr. Minchin's 

 factory at Aska in Madras. The writer of these lines 

 made an extended tour of the European beetroot 

 districts with Mr. Minchin as far back as 1871, and on 

 that occasion they paid a visit of several days to Mr. 

 Robert, the inventor of the diffusion process, at his 

 home at Seelowitz in Austria. Mr. Minchin knew him 

 well, and had already been working the diffusion process 

 at Aska for some years. As the process was only 



