ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF SUGAR. 41 



of channels, through which a moderate flow of water carries che beets into the first 

 washing machine. By means of a spiral, the beets are tumbled about, washed and 

 carried on until they drop into an elevator, which carries them to the top of the 

 building, where they pass through an automatic weigher and are sliced in such a 

 manner as to open up the pores of the beet as far as possible. The sugar beet is 

 very similar to the honeycomb, and in its little cells is secreted the sweet matter, so 

 that in slicing, it is desirable to open up as many of these little cells as possible. 

 Hence the necessity of having the knives sharp, so that the cells may not be ruptured, 

 but clean cut. As these slices come from under the cutter, they are put in what is 

 known as a diffusion battery, shown in the center of the foreground of illustration on 

 Page 30. In this battery, the sugar is extracted by soaking the sliced beets in 

 water. Warm water is turned into the contents of a large iron jar holding several 

 tons of sliced beets. This water circulates through the mass of cossettes (the name 

 given to the slices of beets) and passes out through the bottom by means of a pipe 

 which enters the top of Jar No 2, the water being forced along by pressure. 



From one battery to another, this liquid passes along until it has gone through 14 

 cells or jars, when it is shown that sufficient water has passed through Jar No 1. 

 The water is now turned off and No 2 becomes No 1 and No 1 is emptied of its cos- 

 settes and refilled, becoming No 14, and so the circle is continued all day and all 

 night, procuring in this way all the sugar in the cossettes in liquid form, which now 

 has the color of vinegar. This liquid is now taken to a measuring tank near by from 

 which it goes to a mixer, where it is mixed with lime and then put into a huge tank 

 for carbonation, in which the lime and all foreign matter it contains is rendered 

 insoluble by means of carbonic acid gas forced through the uottom of the carbonation 

 tank. Then the mixture comes through the filter press room where, by means of an 

 elaborate series of frames, it is filtered, and becomes transparent. The process of 

 mixing, carboii ^ and filtering is then repeated for the second time. This fin- 

 ished, the syrup is treated with sulphur fumes and then passes into the quadruple 

 effect, which is four large boilers in which the water contained in the syrup is evapo- 

 rated, when we have what is called "thick juice." This syrup is boiled in the vac- 

 uum pan, and now becomes raw sugar, and is then run into the centrifugals and made 

 into white sugar. The sugar is now damp, like wet snow, and by means of a granu- 

 lator, it is dried, and through different sieves is separated into the finer or coar^er- 

 graiuert sugar, ready for tLc market. 



