86 SUGAR 



drous machine whirls round, you know that the syrup 

 is being driven out, that sugar is being left high and 

 dry. You watch the mould being lifted out of the 

 centrifugal — you see the lid being unscrewed — and you 

 half expect a shower of crystals to issue from the 

 vessel. Instead of which you are confronted by solid, 

 white slabs of sugar, arrayed between the vertical plates. 

 The slabs are taken out and stoved, a process whereby 

 they are hardened under the influence of hot, filtered air. 



The centrifugal room has a striking appearance, 

 particularly in contrast with your recent memory- 

 picture of the sombre char-room ; the numerous slabs 

 of white sugar bedeck this spacious apartment with 

 most picturesque " snow " scenes. 



The slabs are transferred to the cutting-room, 

 where, again, everything is spotlessly clean, and where, 

 again, there is every possible contrivance to guard 

 against the highly purified sugar being touched by 

 hand. The slabs are brought hither on a moving band, 

 but their progress is suddenly arrested by a triangular 

 framework set with knives. The knives cut from 

 above and below, dividing the slabs into strips ; a 

 second later other knives, working at right angles to 

 the first ones, divide the strips into the familiar form 

 of cubes. The contents of the frame now fall into a 

 sieve, and take part in a dance, during which dust and 

 uneven lumps are separated from the perfectly cut 

 cubes. The cubes are riddled through into a carrier, 

 and mechanically conveyed to the other side of the 

 room to be packed for transit to all parts of the world. 



The packing is practically all done by machinery, 

 and most of the machines work automatically ; those 

 which require any manipulation are tended by trim- 



