CANE SUGAR. 



Choice of a Boiler for a Sugar Factory. Many years ago 

 the late Hugo Jelinek wrote : " In a sugar factory, a type of boiler is to be 

 chosen which has a large water capacity, so as to have always a provision of 

 heat for unequal consumption of 'steam in the factory." 



On broad lines the writer's experience 

 has led him to endorse this view, and hence 

 to prefer the smoke tube multitubular, in 

 preference to the water tube, although 

 many experienced engineers hold an 

 opposite view. As far as economy in fuel 

 goes, the question of the boiler is not a 

 dominant one, and economy is chiefly a 

 matter of furnace design and careful 

 control of the combustion of the megass. 



The water tube boilers have the 

 advantage of being built in large units, 

 of being adapted for high pressure, and 

 of being capable of raising steam quickly, 

 owing to their small water capacity; 

 because of this small water capacity, 

 however, any sudden load such as starting 

 a pan with cold syrup may cause a sudden 

 drop in pressure. Although it is for many 

 reasons inconvenient to work at two 

 pressures, a battery of water tube boilers 

 .at high pressure, supplying steam to the 

 engines, and of smoke tube boilers at low 

 pressure, supplying steam to the evapora- 

 tors is a scheme that has much to be said 

 in its favour. 



Megass Furnaces. In Figs. 

 .218 and 219 are shown views of the 

 Dutch oven type of megass furnace ; this 

 type is largely used in Mauritius, in 

 Louisiana, in Java, in Mexico, and in the 

 Hawaiian Islands. In the diagrams the 

 boiler is seen at e\ the direction of the 

 products of combustion is first along the bottom and sides of the boiler, back 

 through the tubes, and out to the smoke box, and thence to the main flue. In 

 Figs. 220 and 221 is shown what is known as the Abel* type of megass furnace, 

 and is one largely used in Demerara. From the overhead shoot megass falls on 

 the fire bars at b ; the gases formed on combustion impinge on the arch at e. 



FIG. 219. 



406 



