54 



which was geared to the fan ran too rapidly, and had to be run by an 

 independent pulley at a slower motion. The depth of the shaker was 

 far too narrow, so much so that the chips of cane thrown violently for- 

 ward by the force of the cut were often propelled beyond the shaker 

 and fell into the trash. In this way a large amount of the cane in this 

 experiment was lost. The shaker was lengthened and many other im- 

 provements made until good work was accomplished. On account of 

 these defects only 1,152 pounds of sorghum, with tops and blades, were 

 used and only two cells of the battery were filled. The following are 

 the laboratory analyses : 



No sugar or sirup made. 



Pending the making of the necessary improvements to the fan and 

 shaker the cubical contents of the cells were carefully calculated in the 

 following manner : The cells were filled with water and then the water 

 carefully emptied into a sugar wagon and weighed, allowing 62J pounds 

 of water to a cubic foot. Each cell contained 13.52 cubic feet. A cell 

 packed with sorghum chips and one put in without packing were also 

 emptied and weighed. Their weights were, respectively, 353 pounds and 

 276 pounds, making 26 pounds and 20 pounds per cubic foot. 



Without entering into the full details of daily work, the following, 

 taken from our large amount of records, will suffice to illustrate fully 

 the work performed. 



Considering the very low character of the sorghum worked, the results 

 obtained are quite promising. 



Monday, September 10, 1888. Another trial of the machinery was made to-day to de- 

 cide whether the improvements so hastily made were effective. Honduras sorghum 

 was used; weight, with tops and blades, 2,158 pounds. Everything worked fairly 

 well. It was found that both the cutter and comminutor were projecting the chips 

 in every direction, thus causing great waste. A stop was made and these boxed in. 

 Four cells were, however, filled, and the juices from these concentrated in the double 

 effect and left in the latter all night. The next morning, to our surprise, we found 

 that one of the tubes of the double effect had leaked during the night and had diluted 

 the sirup almost to the original juice. Accordingly it was withdrawn and thrown 

 away, and the leaking tube plugged up. The laboratory results are given : 



