8 



The process of Joulie, moreover, could only be employed with mill 

 juices, and not with advantage with diffusion juices, which are much 

 more dilute than mill juices and would require a much larger quantity 

 of alcohol. 



Several years before Joulie proposed to use alcohol for making sugar 

 from sorghum an English patent No. 655, issued March 27, 1858, was 

 granted to William Armond Gilbee for the use of alcohol in the manu- 

 facture of sugar. This process had been described to Mr. Gilbee by a 

 foreigner, whose name is not mentioned. The process is described in 

 the patent in the following words: 



I will now describe the application of the process to the treatment of the saccha- 

 rine matter contained in beet root, which will enable the invention to be applied to 

 other kinds of saccharine fluids with facility. 



As it would not be economical to employ alcohol as the purifying agent in treating 

 juice of weak density, if the juice be produced by the pressure or maceration of green 

 beet root, it should be previously concentrated from eighteen degrees to thirty de- 

 grees, Baume^s areometer, either after defecation in the ordinary manner or direct, 

 care being taken to neutralise the acidity of the syrup, as soon as it appears, by lime 

 or other base. Dried beet root, treated by washing with boiling water and its acidity 

 neutralized by the addition of a small quantity of slaked lime, produces syrups of 

 the desired degree of concentration. 



Crude and impure syrups, however obtained, if too alkaline, are first neutralized 

 by carbonic or sulphuric acid, and then conveyed into a closed sheet-iron vessel pro- 

 vided with an agitator. Alcohol is then made to enter on it through a pipe fur- 

 nished with a stop-cock, which pipe puts the above vessel in communication with 

 a receiver placed at a higher level. The quantity of alcohol to be introduced is 

 proportionate to its degree of strength and the degree of concentration of the syrup 

 operated upon. The proportions must be such that the mixture will mark sixty 

 degrees to seventy degrees by Guy Lussac's alcoholimeter ; three volumes of alcohol 

 at ninety -three degrees and one volume of syrup at twenty degrees Baume" are the 

 suitable proportions for this mixture. After agitating the mixture during a few 

 minutes it is allowed to settle; the deposit thus formed is grumous, and may easily 

 be separated by decautation, when an excess of acid or alkali has not produced too 

 great a transformation of the pectin. A small quantity of sugar, according to the 

 degree of concentration of the syrup, remains mixed with the impurities which form 

 the deposit. The deposit may be either washed several times with alcohol (which 

 will serve for a subsequent precipitation) or, after being freed from alcohol by pass- 

 ing through it a jet of steam, it may be used like molasses in distilleries. The liquid 

 thus obtained is clear and nearly colorless, and is conveyed by difference of level, by 

 an exhaust pump, by steam pressure, or by other mechanical means into a vessel simi- 

 lar to the first, provided with a funnel furnished with a stop-cock for introducing 

 the purifying agents ; an acid or an acid salt, such as sulphuric, oxalic, or tartaric 

 acid, and sulphate of alumina, forming with potash and soda insoluble compounds 

 in alcohol, will separate these alkalies. 



The alkaline salts precipitated are nearly white and collect with more or less 

 rapidity, and their value varies according as the acid employed is a mineral or 

 organic acid, and of more or less high price, the choice of which is determined by 

 circumstances. I prefer using sulphuric acid diluted in alcohol. The quantity to 

 be employed is indicated by the cessation of precipitate. I operate in a cold state, 

 and agitate carefully; as soon as the acid has been added I neutralize the excess of 

 acid and the acids which it has displaced by a base of lime barytes, strontian, oxide 

 of lead, or other suitable base or one of their basic salts. I introduce into the liquid, 

 separated from the alkaline salts, one of these bases in excess, previously diluted in 



