39 



oration of their juice in that section to 4 cents per ton. The loss in 

 starting could be avoided very much by proportioning the evaporator 

 to the size of the house. 



The Battery. The designing, building, and breaking in of such an 

 apparatus as a new diffusion battery on an entirely new principle could 

 not but prove a gigantic task. 



The object of the battery at firsu was to make a cheap diffusion bat- 

 tery, applicable to small houses; second to make thick juice. 



For three seasons laboratory experiments were carried on at Rio 

 Grande and dense juices made by diffusion, equal to mill juice from uii- 

 stripped cane, and the principles by which this juice was obtained were 

 incorporated in this battery. 



The season last year was devoted completed to the breaking in and 

 finding out the rules governing this machine. 



The ram constructed to lift the baskets, last season, worked slowly. 

 When making some changes this fall the cause was located and cor- 

 rected. Owing to this mechanical difficulty and being forced to take 

 off' a crop promptly, it was not until later in the season that plans could 

 be put in practice which would remedy defects in heating and extrac- 

 tion. This was tried with temporary arrangements, but the results 

 were considered so high that it was objected to on the ground that the 

 time during which the experiments were conducted was too short to 

 thoroughly demonstrate the facts. 



The chemist of the New Jersey Experiment Station, after carefully 

 going over his work, says, reporting on this experiment : 



The best work accomplished by the Rio Graude battery was 90 percent, extraction, 

 dilution 11.5; purity, declined l c . 



The cell necessary for heating the chips properly and thickening the 

 juice is placed outside of the battery and is called the eleventh cell. 

 This year this apparatus was added to the regular work, and from the 

 first day never failed to give satisfaction. It is found that when the 

 cane is carefully packed into the baskets the gain is not so great as 

 when the baskets are loosely packed ; at such times the full value of 

 the eleventh cell appears, gaining 2 to 3 Brix. 



The entire apparatus worked without delay, and the mechanical ar- 

 rangements were very complete. For a battery of 40 tons, the baskets 

 and cane together will not weigh 400 pounds, and the lift will be con- 

 siderably less than 4 feet; consequently 400x10=4,000 pounds to bo 

 lifted, and 4,000x4=16,000 pounds to be raised 1 foot high at each 

 movement of crane. The crane makes twenty movements in an hour 

 or once every three minutes; consequently 16,0004-3=5,333 pounds 

 raised 1 foot high each minute, or less than one-sixth of a horse-power 

 is required. 



There is to be added to this the cost of raising the water for supplying 

 the battery and the movement of the juice; but with these all added 

 the cost for power is found to be merely nominal. 



