19 



EXPERIMENTS IN ACID AND NEUTRAL CLARIFICATION, 



which were carried out upon the different weekly runs. During the 

 fifth week the ordinary clarification was used, during the sixth week 

 an attempt at neutral clarification was made, but it was not very care- 

 fully watched. In the seventh week's run the clarification was made 

 decidedly acid, and considerable sulphur was used. The eighth week's 

 run was made with neutral clarification, pains being taken to have the 

 juice fully neutral or even slightly alkaline, and probably it was all 

 worked in this condition, unless possibly a little may have escaped ob- 

 servation at night. 



The accuracy of the comparison of the results obtained by the differ- 

 ent clarifications is somewhat vitiated by difficulty in separating the 

 molasses when the thirds were run off in the spring. Mr. Binnings 

 found that twenty-two cars, twelve of which belonged to the sixth week 

 and ten to the seventh, would not purge, and he was obliged to melt 

 them all up and run them into molasses ; in consequence the proportion 

 of this molasses belonging to each week's run could only be ascertained 

 by estimation, so that a considerable error may have been introduced 

 in this way, and the results are far from being so reliable as I could have 

 wished ; such as they are, however, they show a great advantage in 

 favor of the neutral clarification so far as the reduction in inversion and 

 yield of sugar is concerned. This will be plainly apparent from an in- 

 spection of the tables. The least amount of inversion was during the 

 eighth week, when a careful neutral clarification was insured, the dif- 

 ference between this and the preceding week, when the clarification 

 was acid, being 4.1 Ibs. per ton, or 2.23 per cent, of the sugar in the 

 original juice. As the mechanical loss was also least in the eighth week, 

 this run makes by far the best showing as to total losses, these being 

 only 5.48 Ibs. per ton, or 2.84 per cent, of the sugar in the juice. This 

 shows what can be accomplished in the way of avoiding losses. 



In the last table it will be seen that no inversion whatever is shown 

 in the sixth week after the first massecuite. This anomalous result is 

 doubtless due to the mixing up of the molasses between this week and 

 the next, as explained above. 



EXPERIMENTS BY SHORT RUNS. 



The gain in yield of sugar obtained by neutral clarification was 

 further investigated by several short runs, the sugar from which was 

 kept separate. Of course these could not be followed through to the 

 molasses, and the comparison is simply based upon the quantity of 

 sugar obtained as compared with the available sugar in the juice, as 

 shown by analysis. The available sugar is calculated by subtracting 

 one and a half times the glucose from the sucrose present. 



