82 SUGAR 



vacuum pan, and the crystallization and subsequent 

 " curing " of the masse-cuite in the centrifugal machines 

 was carried out as already described. The syrups 

 were filtered again and produced, in conjunction with a 

 certain quantity of the lower coloured liquor, the yellow 

 sugars. Roughly described, this was the practice in 

 most British refineries, except those few which made 

 loaf sugar. Mr. James Duncan, the greatest British 

 refiner in the sixties and seventies, in conjunction 

 with his partners in Greenock, hit upon the happy idea 

 of boiling the yellow sugars at a very low temperature, 

 and thus producing a much finer article with a delicate 

 primrose tint, and holding within its granular structure 

 much more syrup than yellow sugars had previously 

 contained. The sugar fetched a much higher price, 

 and the process enabled the refiner to turn out very 

 little treacle, in some cases none at all. This again was 

 a new departure entirely unique and practised only 

 in British refineries. The United States refineries 

 have followed our example, but on the Continent no 

 such sugar is known sugar for the People is in no 

 demand there. Mr. Duncan introduced the new method 

 to London by building a large refinery on the banks of 

 the Thames, and was king of the industry for many 

 years. 



The great fault committed by British refiners was 

 entirely to ignore the value of a defecation process to 

 precede the bag-filtering of the raw brown liquor. They 

 threw the whole burden of the work on the filter bags 

 and the charcoal. Then came the new king of the 

 sugar refiners, the late Sir Henry Tate. He saw the 

 point and looked for some good process of defecation. 

 He found it in the discovery of Boivin and Loiseau, 

 of Paris, and did not hesitate for a moment. He 

 had been working on the Scotch system in Liverpool ; 



