CANE SUGAR. 



The toggle gear, Fig. 127, introduced and patented by the Mirrlees Watson 

 Company, consists essentially of a combination of springs and knuckle or toggle 

 levers, the tops of which press against the nuts of the cover bolts and the 

 bottoms against the caps of the roller journals; under normal conditions the 

 rollers rest on their bearings, but under heavy pressures they lift the caps 

 which are controlled by the toggle gear until the upward pressure is balanced 

 It is claimed for this contrivance that it is less expensive than a hydraulic 

 regulator and that it performs the same duties ; as in the hydraulic, the pressure 

 can be regulated, in this case by adjusting the nuts that compress the springs. 



Cane Carrier. The apparatus used to transport cane from the cars 

 to the mill is usually an endless belt slat conveyer, on the inside of which is 

 arranged a link belt ; gearing with this link belt are sprocket wheels driven by 

 a chain drive from the mill ; the driving sprocket can be thrown in or out of 

 gear by a clutch ; latterly cane carriers have been made independently driven 

 by small engines. 



Megass Carriers. The intermediate carriers of the megass are 

 usually slat carriers which leave much to be desired; belt conveyers have 

 recently been used with much success in the Hawaiian Islands ; in place of 

 slat conveyers scraper carriers are sometimes seen, especially when the megass 

 has to be elevated at a steep angle to the furnace room. 



Strainers. The removal of fine particles of fibre from the juice is 

 best effected by arranging a long narrow tank parallel to the line of the mill 

 into which the juice discharges through a perforated copper strainer ; on this 

 strainer runs an endless rubber-faced scraper which sweeps off the 'cush cush' 

 and, after elevating it, discharges it into a screw conveyer running across the 

 first mill ; as this * cush cush ' contains much grit which injures the surface 

 of the rollers the idea of passing it through a very small mill has been put 

 into practice. Revolving strainers operated by the head of juice itself are 

 also in use. 



Calculation of necessary Opening between Rollers.* 



In order that the fibre, and the juice that accompanies it, may be passed out 

 from between the rollers, it is necessary that there be a certain opening ; the 

 product of the opening into the area described by the revolution of the roller 

 by a horizontal line on the circumference of the roller, that is to say, by the 

 crushing surface, is a volume, which cannot be less than the combined volume 

 of the emergent juice and fibre. As an example of the point made above let 

 there be a mill with rollers 30 in. X 60 in. ; then in each revolution of the 

 roller the crushing surface is TT x 30 X 60 sq. in. If the opening between 

 the top and megass roller is ^V i n -> then the volume described between the two 

 rollers in one revolution, and which cannot be less than the combined volume 



* The sections immediately following apply primarily to rigid mills and are only applicable 

 to hydraulic mills in a limited sense. 



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