40 



which would otherwise adhero to the sugar, and discolor it. If the 

 sugar is to be refined, this washing with water is omitted. When the 

 sugar has been sufficiently dried, the machine is stopped, the sugar taken 

 out, and put into barrels for market. 



Simple as the operation of the centrifugals is, the direction of the 

 sugar-boiler as to the special treatment of each strike is necessary, 

 since he, better than any one else, knows what difficulties are to be ex- 

 pected on account of the condition in which the melada left the strike- 

 pan . 



CAPACITY OF THE SUGAR FACTORY. 



It has already been shown that the operation of the diffusion battery 

 should be continuous. The experience so far had in diffusing sorghum 

 indicates eight minutes as the proper time for filling a cell; or one cell 

 should be filled and another emptied every eight minutes. This, with 

 a battery of twelve cells, nine of which are under pressure, gives seventy- 

 two minutes as the time during which the chips are subject to the action 

 of the water. If the chips are cut sufficiently fine, the time may be re- 

 duced to seven or even to six minutes to the cell without probable loss 

 from poor extraction. The time may be extended to ten minutes per 

 cell without danger of damage when working sound canes. 



Taking eight minutes as the mean, we shall have one hundred and 

 eighty as the number of cells diffused in a day. To secure the best re- 

 sults, all other parts of the factory must be adjusted to work as rapidly 

 as the diffusion battery, so that the capacity of the battery will deter- 

 mine the capacity of the factory. 



A plant having a battery like that at Fort Scott, in which the cells 

 are each capable of containing a ton of cane chips, should then have a 

 capacity of 180 tons of cleaned cane, or 200 tons of cane with leaves, or 

 240 tons of cane as it grows in the field, per day of twenty-four hours. 

 Those who have given most attention to the subject think that a bat- 

 tery composed of IJ-ton cells may be operated quite as successfully as 

 a battery of 1-toii cells. Such a battery would have a capacity of 360 

 tons of field cane per day. 



SIMPLIFICATION OF THE DIFFUSION BATTERY. 



The diffusion battery as used at the Parkinson factory is an intricate 

 and expensive apparatus, and yet it is simple as compared with those 

 first used in Germany and France. The Germans have, however, within 

 a few years constructed batteries even simpler than that at Fort Scott. 

 An apparatus has even been constructed composed of a single vessel 

 through which the water passes in one direction while the chips are 

 moved slowly in the other by a screw conveyor. The batteries which 

 will be used in this country, however, will doubtless be constructed on 

 the general plan of that used at Fort Scott, with such modifications as 

 will cheapen the construction and reduce the labor of operating. 



