MOLASSES. 



Following on the previous sections a juice containing 14 per cent, sugar, 2 per 

 cent, non-sugar and no glucose will give a molasses of 56'2 purity ; the initial 

 purity of the juice is 87 '5 ; applying the formula for available sugar 



(Chapter XXV.) in its simplest form, namely, extraction ="^7} 7 ; the sugar 



t/ \ / 



to be obtained is 81*6 per cent. Now to this juice let one part of glucose be 

 added; the juice will now be of purity 82-35 and molasses of purity 47*50 

 maybe expected; the extraction will now be 80-6 per cent., a lower result 

 than obtained before the addition of the glucose. 



If, however, instead of glucose solids not sugar be added, a purity of 56-2 

 may be expected and with initial purity of 82'35 an extraction of 72'5 will 

 result. 



This calculation goes to show that of all the impurities present in a cane 

 juice the glucose is the least harmful, but that its addition lowers the possible 

 recovery. 



Geerligs' theory has even been distorted us implying that inversion of 

 part of "the sugar would increase the yield; it is hard to see how such a 

 meaning could be read into it. 



The Glucose : Non- Sugar Ratio. According to the position 

 taken up by the writer, the purity of the waste molasses is controlled by the 

 glucose : non-sugar ratio, and as the proportion of glucose increases so also 

 does the total sum of the sucrose and glucose. With beet sugar molasses where 

 glucose is not present, the sucrose amounts to about 45 per cent, and such a 

 condition is sometimes found approximately in the Hawaiian Islands : where 

 as often happens, in Java for example, the glucose or non-sugar are in approx- 

 imately equal proportions, the sum of the sucrose and glucose amounts to about 

 55, a figure which may rise to 60 and over in the juices resulting from extra 

 tropical canes found in Louisiana and from sea level equatorial canes as found 

 in Demerara. No absolute concordance can be expected, as the effect of the 

 nature of the non-sugar is very great ; concurrently, as shown in Geerligs' 

 theory, with the presence of much organic potassium salts a high purity is to be 

 expected ; this observation is in line with Peck's analyses where he found much 

 lead precipitate correlated with a high purity since Hazewinkel 17 has shown 

 that the lead precipitate consists largely of organic salts. 



The following table of analyses of Hawaiian molasses by Peck and Deerr 

 wherein all the analyses are calculated to a water content of 20 per cent, does 

 not show the regularity to be expected from the above line of reasoning. 

 Certainly with high glucose the sum total of the sugars tends to increase but 

 the purities do not correspond, and indeed the last three analyses quoted, where 

 a high purity might be expected due to the low glucose, have purities below 

 the average. The nature of the solids not sugars probably exercises a big 



395 



