EXPERIMENTS AT CONWAY SPRINGS, KANSAS. 



REPORT OF E. W. DEMING. 



I Lave the honor to present my report as superintendent of the ex- 



periments conducted at this place the past season by your Department 



in the manufacture of sugar from sorghum. 

 The experiments were conducted in connection with the work of the 



Con way Springs Sugar Company. 

 This company was incorporated April 10, 1888, under the laws of the 



State of Kansas, with an authorized capital of $100,000. Its officers 

 arc G. W. Fahs, president ; E. E. Baird, vice-president ; G. B. Armstrong, 



treasurer; E. W. Dem ing, secretary and manager. The buildings of 

 this company are constructed of wood. Main building 56 by 78; foot 

 plates with cupolas for strike pan, difl'usors, double-effects, and shred- 

 ding room ; boiler and engine house 65 by 70 feet ; cutting and cleaning 

 house, 14 by 14; tool-house, 10 by 18; oil-house, 8 by 16; office and la- 

 boratory, 16 by 30; cane-shed, 10 by 150, two floors; scale- house, 8 by 10; 

 cooper shop, 15 by 15. 



The factory was equipped with two tubular boilers of 150 horse-power 

 each; two30-horse-power high-speed engines; three hanging Hepworth 

 centrifugals with mixer; one 7-foot vacuum (dry) pan from E. Deeley 

 & Co., New York. Hot-room, with fifty sugar- wagons; Lillie double- . 

 effect from George M. New hall & Bro., Philadelphia ; diffusion battery 

 from Shickle, Harrison & Howard Iron Company, Saint Louis; three 

 cutters, with necessary clarifiers, skimming-pans, and storage tanks. 

 One dynamo of 100-lamp capacity (incandescent) provided lights for the 

 building. 



Two sets rolls and a fire drier for crushing and drying exhausted 

 chips, and one small open evaporator. 



The diffusion battery consists of sixteen cells each 8 feet long and 

 35 inches in diameter, wrought-iron shell with similar castings, doors 

 and counter-weights at each end, provided with solid, rubber gaskets 

 that gave satisfaction under a 30-pound per inch pressure. One heater 

 for each cell, made of 6 inch wrought pipe containing 11 1-inch brass 

 tubes 5 feet long; the connecting and circulating pipes were of 2J-inch 

 wrought iron. The battery was placed in two lines of seven cells each 

 with one across each end, and supported on wooden posts, beams, and 



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