53 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jax. lo. 



have taken pains to get a sample of beet sugar 

 manufactured at the factory at Grand Island, 

 and send the same to you to-day by this mail. 

 If you do not pronounce it equal to or at least 

 as pure as any in your market, I am mistaken 

 in your good judgment. I know by actual ex- 

 periment that it will do for feeding bees: it is 

 fully as good as cane sugar. 



At Norfolk, in this county, a beet-sugar fac- 

 tory has been erected, which, when completed, 

 win be the largest in the world, and perhaps 

 the day is not far distant when you and your 

 readers'will cciU for Nebraska sugar-beet sugar. 



Nature has not been very lavish with her 

 gifts, but she has given us soil in which are 

 grown the finest beets in the world: and ac- 

 cording to government analysis they contain the 

 greatest amount of saccharine matter. 



I send you a paper containing an account of 

 the great enterprise at Norfolk. A. C. Tyrkei.. 



Madison. Neb., Dec. 30. 



[The sample of sugar received is certainly 

 equal to any thing I have ever seen or tasted. 

 The granules are perhaps a little larger than 

 ordinary, but they are as clear and white as 

 pieces of the clearest ice. and remarkably pure 

 to the taste, and free from any thing suggest- 

 ing the brown or cheap sugar. As so much in- 

 terest has been expressed in this matter, we 

 have thought best to make an extract as fol- 

 lows, from the paper which friend T. was so 

 kind as to send us — T7ie Norfolh News:] 



HOW BEET SUGAR IS MADE BT THE DIFFUSION 

 PROCESS. 



The News can perhaps give a better idea of the 

 " diffusion " process of sug-ar-niaking; employed by 

 the Oxiiards, and of what the new factory at Nor- 

 folk will do, by hiviting' its i-eaders to follow the 

 beets from the farmers' wagons and c;us, througli 

 the various processes, until the beautiful granulat- 

 ed sugar drops in thiee grades of tineness into bags 

 or barrels ready for the table or othei-wlse. 



Tlie beets are stored in huge bins, with a V-shaped 

 bottom terminating abruptly over a canal that runs 

 along its entire length, the bottom lieiug ccjmposed 

 of short planks which can be lemoved when it is de- 

 sired to let the beets drop down into the canal. 

 As wanted, the short planks are lifted up, and 

 tlie beets drop down into the canal. A rapid stream 

 of water floats them along, soaking and washing 

 them as they go, until they reach the building. 

 Here they are dijiped out by a great bucket- 

 wheel which spills the water back into the canal, 

 and cairies the beets up and drops them upon a 

 chute, which takes them througli tlie wall of the 

 main building and into one end of a long cistern, 

 say three feet deep and wide. In tliis a shaft with 

 wooden arms, set in a si)iral. stirs tlie beets in the 

 water and keeps moving them toward the other end. 

 Here a broad-bladed screw, set slanting, lifts the 

 beets out of the water; carries them up and drops 

 them inside an immense cylinder, whicli gives tliem 

 many whirls in water and drops tliem out at its ele- 

 vated end. Next they pass over a long i)latform 

 made up of cylinders covered with stiff bristles re- 

 volving in opposite directions. These brush out the 

 last vestige of soil in the depressions of the beets as 

 the beets glide over them, and they drop off clean 

 into a chute whicli carries them through a wall and 

 lands tliem in a periiendicular elevator with buckets 

 which carry the beets to the top of the main room, 

 where a chute conducts them into a receptacle, 

 standing on scales, which tips them out as often as 

 32()0 i)oands drop in. Thence they slide into tlie mill, 

 which cuts them, a ton in three niiiiutes. into little 

 corrugated strips as large as a hen's quill, and two 

 to four inclies long. These strips are called "cos- 

 setts," a technical French name which answers as 

 well as any. If ground tine or into thin shavings 

 they would pack in the diffusion cells and not let the 

 water riui through freely. Next tliey slide into the 

 diffusit)n cells, which may be tlu-ee or four feet in 

 diameter, and eight or ten feet high, and hold one 

 to one and a half tons of pulped beets. A nuinl)er of 

 these cells arranged and connected with eacii other 

 is called a diffusion battery, just as several tups 

 used in galvanic electricity are called a battery. 



The successive cells are usually numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 

 etc. Each cell has a cap, or cover, which can be 

 turned to one side, or be closed air-tight when put 

 in place, with rubber under the outer rim, and 

 brought down with a powerful lever screw. The 

 fiat bottom is similarly closed, but has a false bot- 

 tom a little above it— a strong copper plate full of 

 fine lioles. A metal hot-water inpe enters the top 

 just below the cover. Another similar pipe below 

 runs out from the open space between the bottom and 

 the perforated false bottom. This ascends and en- 

 ters the top of cell No. 2, and in doing so passes 

 through a steam pipe or chest. From No. 2 a simi- 

 lar pipe runs to No. 3. and so on through any num- 

 ber of cells iu the battery. The tops of the cells be- 

 ing opened, they are filled with the cossetts, or strips 

 of beets, and the covers are fastened down. Hot 

 water is then let in through the pipe, the recjuired 

 pressure being obtained by placing the hot-water 

 tank at any desired height. As will be seen, the hot 

 water passes down through the contents of celll; 

 then out at the liottom and up over into the top of 

 cell No. 3. and down through its contents, and so on 

 throufih the other cells. The water, being cooled in 

 passing through the material, is heated in the steam- 

 chests. In practice, thermometers on these indicate 

 by a dial on the outside when the liijuid is of the de- 

 sired temperature, and the attendant turns the 

 steam on or off from any steam-chest as needed. 

 The same water passes through all the cells, often 

 obtaining all the sugar it can dissolve before reach- 

 ing the last one. By the time ten or twelve succes- 

 sive waters have passed through cell No. 1. all the 

 sugar is extracted, its bottom is opened, the ex- 

 hausted cossetts are dropped into a large receptacle 

 below, and new material is put in. The fresh-water 

 inlet pipe is changed to No. 2, and No. 1 becomes No. 

 12. or the last of tiie series, the saturated juice leav- 

 ing this. Cell No. 3 having already had 11 doses of 

 water passed through it, the first supply of fresh 

 water passing through it removes its last vestige of 

 sugar. It is then refilled with fresh pulp, and be- 

 comes No. 12 of the series. No. 1 becoming No. 11. So 

 the process goes on round and nnnid. The sugar- 

 saturated liquid from the dittusion battery and its 

 receiving-tank is carried into great tall tanks, in 

 which the sweet liquid is mixed with milk of lime, 

 which unites with and destroys native acids in the 

 beets, and other impurities. After a while tlie car- 

 bonic-acid gas which was caught from the kilns 

 which burn the lime on the spot (outside), to make 

 the milk of lime with, is let in through the liq^nd, 

 and unites with and solidifies any excess of lime 

 not already solidified. This liciuid is then carried off 

 into the filter room, where it i)as.ses through a re- 

 markable series of filtei-s, which remove the lime 

 and other impurities. The clear liquid-looking-Iike 

 thin molasses tlieii flows down into shorter tanks, 

 where a little more lime is added to remove any 

 acids escaiiing the first liming. It is then again 

 ])umped to a set of clean filters in the filtering-room, 

 and comes b;ick into the main room to be pumped as 

 re(iuired into the great condensing boilers, four in 

 number. The great air-pumn lemoves the air and 

 steam produced inside the first boiler, so that the 

 litiuid boils down verj- rapidly at a low temperature, 

 135° to 140° Fall. After partial condensatit)ii the liq- 

 uid passes to the second for further concentration; 

 then into the third and finally into the fourth. The 

 heat and pressure of each succeeding boiler are regu- 

 lated to the increasing density of the sj'rup. From 

 the last condenser, the concentrated syrup passes 

 into large reservoir tanks, and is next pumped into 

 the "vacuum pans," which are really great aii'- 

 tight, upright cylinders, from which air-pumps ex- 

 haust the rising .steam. In these vacuum pans the 

 syrup becomes a thick mass of .sugar crystals and 

 molasses. From these, buckets carry the mass and 

 drop it into the "centrifugals." These are iron 

 cylinders, say 3 feet high and 4 feet in diameter, the 

 outer rim covered with fine bra.ss wire clotli. Part 

 are working while the others are being emptied and 

 re-supplied. They revolve about lOtiO times a min- 

 ute, the outer rim traveling lO.OOO to 12.l)(X) feet, or 

 over 2 miles a minute! The sugar flies against the 

 outside, and in two or three minutes all the molasses 

 is thrown through the wire gauze, and drops into a 

 receptacle below, to be further treated and concen- 

 trated, and to produce another lot of crystallized 

 sugai-. The sugar, now white, is sprayed with a 

 forcible jet of mixed air and cold water, all of which 

 flies tlirough the gauze, leaving the sugar a mass of 

 clean white grains, a trifle damp. The bottom is 

 o])eiied. the sugar drops into a receptacle below. 



