11 



establishment's past industrial success is no doubt due, the introduc- 

 tion of which elsewhere is the more to be recommended that it involves 

 no additional outlay of capital. 



PROCESSES PURSUED. 



The raw juices from the two mills, passing through paraffined 

 wooden gutters, where they mix at once, enter a sulphur saturation 

 machine placed as close to the crushers as convenient. This machine, 

 of the paddle-wheel type, is described in Bulletin No. 3, page 99, of this 

 Department, and, except for the excessive amount of power required 

 to actuate it, seems highly satisfactory. The sulphurous gas is pro- 

 duced by the burning of sulphur in a small iron furnace kept sur- 

 rounded and cool by running water. The fumes first pass through lead 

 pipes, also submerged in constantly changing water which effects their 

 thorough cooling, then over a considerable surface of running water in- 

 tended to wash them free of H 2 SO 4 . They enter the juice cool and 

 practically free of the latter. A considerable quantity of this probably 

 formed between the water bath and the saturation box, is trapped off 

 at the entrance to the last. 



The draught necessary to a combustion of the sulphur is furnished by 

 the movement of the paddle-wheel, and the furnace on which the com- 

 bustion takes place is so constructed as to prevent, so far as practica- 

 ble, the passage of any uncombined oxygen through the apparatus. 

 Care is exercised to prevent the admission of air at any other point 

 than through the furnace, as a safeguard against the subsequent pro- 

 duction of sulphuric acid. A device to free the juice of its contained 

 air also, before sulphurization, is proposed for next season, but seems 

 little necessary. 



The juice, entirely altered in appearance by this treatment, is then 

 pumped at once into the defecators, upon the third floor. Bronze pump 

 barrels and copper conduits are alone used for juice, skimmings, and 

 sirups. 



The coils of a defecator being covered, steam is immediately admitted 

 to these, and the addition of lime begun at once. By the time the defe- 

 cator is filled, the lining is complete, the juice heated, and skimming 

 begun. No boiling in the defecator is permitted. The skimming hav- 

 ing been completed, subsidence goes on for from one-half to one hour 

 before decantation of the clear, defecated juice. About 2 inches of 

 juice are removed from the surface of each defecator by the skimming 

 and brushing, and about 8 inches of settlings are left behind in the bot- 

 tom of each 35 inches, approximately, being, therefore, decanted. The 

 decanted juice goes immediately to the double-effect, no further settling 

 being permitted. Skimmings and settlings are run to an appropriate 

 receiver on the floor below, are limed and reheated whenever this is 

 thought necessary, and are pumped immediately through the filter- 

 presses. The defecators are thoroughly washed with a water-hose and 



