96 



cross-bar extending from one side of the basket to the other. As a con- 

 sequence of this arrangement the emptying of the exhausted chips was 

 a very difficult matter. But, on the other hand, a basket constructed 

 strong enough to permit a single bottom would be altogether too heavy 

 to use where so much of the work is done by hand. 



The average sucrose of the fresh chips for the season was 9.88 ; for 

 the exhausted chips, 1.72. The extraction of sucrose, therefore, was 

 9.88-1.72=8.164-9.88=82.50 per cent. This extraction was accom- 

 panied by a dilution of 52.45 per cent. 1.C.89 (Brix of fresh chips) 8.03 

 (Brix of diffusion juice); 8.804-16.89=52.45 percent. With a dilution 

 of this sort in a closed battery practically all 1he sugar would be ex- 

 hausted instead of 1.72 per cent, left in by the Hughes process. 



It was noticed that a regular ratio existed between the exhaustion 

 and the dilution. As the dilution was increased the extraction became 

 better, and vice versa. 



Besides the amount of sugar left in the chips there was an unknown 

 waste of immense quantities of juice from the drippings of the baskets 

 in transferring them from the eleventh cell to the cells of the main 

 battery. This loss it was impossible to gauge, but to any one who saw 

 it, it was evident that no inconsiderable amount was lost. 



Nothing which we could think of to make the battery a success was 

 left undone. For part of the time I shifted all of the laboratory work 

 to my associate, Mr. Fuelling, and took charge of tbe battery. This I 

 was prepared to do from a previous year's work with the inventor of 

 the system, with whose plan of running the battery I was consequently 

 familiar. Although the quality of the work was improved after the 

 change I instituted, it was so far from being good diffusion, that nothing 

 was left to do but to condemn the apparatus. 



THE DIFFUSION JUICE. 



The juice as it came from the cells was full of finely-divided fiber 

 which had come through the perforations of the baskets, and was also 

 of such a dirty black color that it was impossible to clarify it. 



Sulphites of lime were used for awhile, as were also superphosphates, 

 but both were so full of sulphuric acid and accomplished so little, that 

 they were discontinued. 



The juice probably acquired some of this color from its acids attack- 

 ing the iron vessels in which it was kept so much of the time, but 

 the main cause was the passage of large quantities of seeds through to 

 the diffusion battery along with the fresh chips. As was mentioned be- 

 fore, the cutter was too narrow for the capacity of the house, and a very 

 heavy feed was kept on the carrier, preventing the seed-heads drop- 

 ping down through the trap-door designed for that purpose. 



To illustrate that these seeds were the cause of the discoloration, Mr. 

 Fuelling diffused two beakers full of chips, the one of them containing 

 a few seed and the other none. 



