1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



72 



mestic or foreign use. A refinery has lately 

 been establised at Belfast, in the vicinity of which 

 town upwards of two hundred acres of land iiave 

 been put in cuhivation with the beet- root for tlie 

 ■ manufacture of sugar." 



Russia, which adop{s every useful improve- 

 ment in manufacture, has, in the southern depart- 

 ments, large manufactories of beet-sugar, by which 

 she expects to furnish some of the Asiatic mar- 

 kets with this article. So have Eohemia, Hun- 

 gary, Austria, and Switzerland large beet-sugar 

 manufactories, in the most flourishing condition. 



The Germans, though the discoverers of thecr}'^- 

 (allizable sugar in the beet-root, until 1S3G made 

 very little progress in its manulacture. This is to 

 be ascribed as well to the continual war with 

 France, which checked every improvement, as to 

 the uncertainty of the business itself The Ger- 

 mans, well aware and well informed of every im- 

 provement made abroad, never found it sufficiently 

 lucrative to embark in it ; but it seems that this na- 

 tion which has given the world so many great and 

 important discoveries, was destined to bring ils own 

 discovery of the extraction of the sugar lioin the 

 beet to perfection. This was accomplished by 

 Mr. Schuetzenbach, of the Grand Duchy of Ba- 

 den. Schuetzenbach re-examined carefully Mark- 

 graft's experiments, and found that the first expe- 

 riment of this great chemist, made eighty-nine 

 years ago, is the best method, when modified, to 

 produce, with less labor and expense, eight pounds 

 of white refined sugar out of 100 pounds of the 

 raw beet-root. This improvement it is, which will, 

 in a short space of time, exclude all the colonial 

 sugar from the European market, as well as our 

 own. This improvement, also, will change the 

 condition of millions of men in the colonies. 



The opinion and judgment of a nation, jealous 

 of every discovery or improvement made in other 

 countries, and especially in this branch of industry, 

 in which it has sacrificed millions of francs for its 

 perfection, will serve as a proof of the importance 

 of the new improvement. These new discoveries 

 are detailed in an article which appeared in the 

 Journal des Debats Politique^ et Literaries, in 

 Paris, dated the 16th July, 1838; by Michel Che- 

 valier, viz: 



"It would seem that the spirit which was mani- 

 fested in the days of the revolution, has been 

 transferred from the political arena, and is exert- 

 ing itself in that of industry. At this time, the 

 manufacture of sugar from beets is on the point of 

 undergoing a metamorphosis which, as it appears, 

 will change all the condition of its existence, and 

 extend its influence, not only to the consumption, 

 but also to the production of that article. 



"Until now, a series of operations has been ap- 

 plied to the extracting of sugar li-om the beet, 

 which, though simple enough in appearance, are 

 in reality complicated and delicate; which de- 

 mand not only a great number of intelligent and 

 skilful workman, but also require considerable 

 material to be operated upon ; and which, again, 

 consume costly articles, such as milk, blood, ani- 

 mal charcoal, &c. 



"In the former process the sugar-beet was 

 scraped; the pulp pressed by means of an hy- 

 draulic press. Thejuice so obtained, underwent 

 defecation, or the separation of the albuminous 

 and mucilaginous elements, and then the clarifica- 

 tion and evaporation. Once concentrated, (he 

 Vol. VII— 10 



sirup underwent crystallization, which furnished 

 the raw sugar ; and this then had to be refined 

 before it could be admitted on our tables. 



"Since its origin, the process of extracting the 

 sugar has always been the main point, but it has 

 been modified and improved in the details; so 

 much so, that our manufacturers, who were ruin- 

 ing themselves when the sugar was at six francs 

 the pound, are becoming rich at the low price of 

 20 sous per lb. At this time, the scraping, press- 

 ing, delecation, clarifying, and evaporating were 

 attended with difficulties, which it required a 

 great length of time to subdue. The loss in man- 

 ufacturing was enormous, as only from three to 

 five parts of sugar were obtained from a hundred 

 pounds of beets, instead of ten pounds, which are 

 contained in the root. 



"With the assistence of chemical analysis, it 

 was ascertained that this evil proceeded from the 

 presence of a certain quantity of acid, of divers 

 coloring, mucilaginous, and gelatinous matters, 

 suspended in the juice. The presence of these 

 mischievous substaiicc^a injures the sugar, prevents 

 it fiom crystallizing, .sometimes destroys it, and 

 causes it to yield uiily poor molasses. To pre- 

 vent these injurious eflects, diflerent agents have 

 been used, which were found more or less effica- 

 cious. Apparatus was constructed, which accel- 

 erated the manufacture, and diminished the time 

 during which the sugar is in contact with these 

 injurious substances; but the inquiry was never 

 made whether it were possible to separate the su- 

 gar fiom those foreign bodies, or at least to neu- 

 tralize or paralyze their destructive power, before 

 thejuice is extracted. 



"The new process, first alluded to, was discov- 

 ered in the grand duchy of Baden, by Mr. Schuet- 

 zenbach, of Carlsruhe. The experiments intro- 

 duced a method of manufacturing the sugar, which 

 was adopted by several manufacturers on the rio-ht 

 bank of the lline, and which is already in vig- 

 orous operation. 



"Like all ideas which are destined to accom- 

 plish revolutions in manufactures, as well as in 

 politics, that which serves as the basis to the new 

 process is simple. The operation of drying the 

 beets immediately after they are taken fram the 

 field, is now the first step in the process. By 

 this operation, the mucilaginous matter, which ia 

 an integral part of the beet, losses the property of 

 dissolving in water; this drying stops also the 

 fermentation which takes place during the preser- 

 vation of the beets in cellars or in the heap, and 

 likewise prevents the formation of acids, which 

 weje created at the expense of the sugar, and 

 wlfich embarrassed the manufacture of beet-sugar. 

 "When the beets are once dried, the suga'r ia 

 easily obtained by mixing them with a small quan- 

 tity of water, which produces a solution of sugar 

 and a very small proportion of other bodies, and 

 which, by the process of evaporation, gives at 

 once a good product, which can be easily refined. 

 "In a word, the elementary operation of the de- 

 siccation acts with the power of exorcism; it drives 

 from thejuice all injurious substances which were 

 the former causes of evil in this manufacture. 



"This fact being once understood, and duly 

 verified by experiments on a large scale, it was 

 then important to bring it to perfi^ction by an easy 

 practical manipulation. This ie what the 'Socieie 

 (V JEncouragemenf is about to undertake, and 



