80 SUGAR 



beet from which the sugar-juice has been extracted — 

 makes a most attractive picture. The great, snowy- 

 white heaps of refuse look as if they were made up of 

 boiled turnips. Judging from its appearance, you 

 would say the pulp is quite dry, but, as a matter of fact, 

 it contains about 90 per cent, of water. It is very 

 good for cattle food, and is sent back to the farms to 

 serve this purpose. Another very interesting per- 

 formance to be seen outside the factory is the arrival 

 of the beetroots for immediate use within. They are 

 borne along a gutter by a stream of rather dirty-looking 

 water, beetroots being too heavy to float on absolutely 

 clean water. Their special entrance into the building 

 is a breach in the basement wall ; this can be blocked 

 by a grille when no more roots are wanted within for 

 the present. 



We now go into the factory, to see what happens 

 to the beet that have been admitted. We find that 

 immediately on entering they are caught up in the 

 compartments of an enormous wheel. They are going 

 to be thoroughly washed. The wheel revolves, and 

 the compartments, in turn, shoot out their contents 

 into a trough. 



The cleaned beet are mechanically transferred to 

 an elevator, which consists of a number of iron boxes, 

 slung ladder- wise between chains. The elevator hoists 

 them up to a floor above, where they are weighed, 

 after which a carrier takes them to the cutting-machine. 

 This machine, which is fitted with a gruesome-looking, 

 revolving plate of knives, severs them into shreds. 



By means of a revolving shoot, the shreds of beet 

 are supplied, as required, to the diffusion machine 

 below on the ground-floor. I have already explained 

 to you the diffusion process of extracting sugar- juice, 



