AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



P17BLISHCD BY GEORGE C. IJARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aoricultdril Warehouse.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL,. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 17, 1836. 



N0.6. 



^'^^T&^W&'^W^^^, 



(From Chaptal's .Agricultural Chemistry.) 

 OJV THE CUI.TIVATION OF THE BEET ROOT, 

 AND THE EXTRACTION OP SUGAR PROM IT. 



(Continued.) 

 ON WHITENING SUGAR. 



The clarified sugar is dry, of a yellow color, 

 varying considerably in the depth of its hue ; the 

 taste is mild and sweet. The process of bleach- 

 ing removes from it the small quantity of sirup 

 with which it is impregnated ; it can be effected in 

 three ways, namely, by the use of clay, of alcohol, 

 and of the sirups; the first of these is the one 

 generally employed in the refineries. 



When the sugar is to be clayed, a hogshead 

 unheuded at one end and furnished with a row of 

 stop-cocks placed one above the other from top to 

 bottom, is partly filled with white clay, upon 

 which water is poured till the cask is full ; the 

 clay is then carefully stirred, so that every portion 

 may be well washed. This operation is repeated 

 several times, the water uC the washings being 

 drawn off as soon as the clay settles, and a fresh 

 quantity turned in, which is stirred in the same 

 manner. The washing is continued till the- wa. 

 ter no longer appears charged with any foreign 

 substances, when the water is allowed to remain 

 undisturbed upon the clay till this becomes thor- 

 oughly divided, so that upon handling it no lumps 

 can be found. When the clay is found to be 

 in tb« state all the water is drawn off and the clay 

 saffered -- (j,.y gradually, till it acquires such a 

 '-.vice o\ c- Utency as not to llow when placed 

 upon a Binooth " , ,- , .i • i- , u i ■. • 

 ., , 'slightly inclined boanl : it is 

 now cousulered reai. ? • 

 r, ,. , . , '•or use. 



Before placing the p. ^^^.^,j ^., ^,,^ ^^_ 



gareonta.ued in the mou., t,,e surface ,x.f the 

 oaves are carefully scraped, ^ ^^ ^^ ^^^J^ „„^ 

 layer of the sugar, which is rep,...^^, , a poilion 

 of very white powdered sugar; th^ jg ,,i|ed up 

 and smoothed very nicely, and then covered over 

 with a layer of clay thrown on wiih a spoon. The 

 water contained in the clay passes gradually Into 

 the layer of white sugar, which it dissolves, form- 

 ing a sirup which penetrates into the loaves, de- 

 prives the sugar of its color, and passes out at the 

 point of the mould. 



The clay, being thus gradually deprived of wa- 

 ter, shrinks and dries, and is then removed and 

 thrown into the cask to be made use of in new op- 

 erations. 



The upper part of the loaves is rendered white 

 by this first operation ; but when the liquid which 

 flows from the opening in the point of the mould 

 is colored, a second claying is performed ; in this, 

 however, the clay alone is used, the intermediate 

 layer of the sugar being dispensed with. 



The number of elayings to be employed, de- 

 pends upon the quantity of coloring matter con- 

 tained in the sugar ; two are usually enough to 

 render sugar meichantable ; but in order that the 



sirup may flow off free from any tinge of yellow, 

 three must be employed. 



When the operation of claying is completed, the 

 loaves are placed upon their basis that the vvhite 

 sirup by which the points arc softened may dif- 

 fuse itself through the mass. 



At the end of eight or ten days the loaves are 

 taken out of the moulds and placed in a stove- 

 room in which they are dried. 



The method of whitening by clay is certain, but 

 it possesses the great fault of converting into siruii 

 nearly one fifth of the sugar operated upon; and 

 if the sugar is adhesive, or the grains of it very 

 fine, the quantity of sirup formed is still more 

 considerable. Whenever J have worked upon su- 

 gars of this description, I have melted them over, 

 and freed tliein from their adhesiveness by boil- 

 ing them ilown with a quantity of animal char- 

 coal. 



Brown sugar made from beets, when refined, 

 generally yields in molasses or nonconverted 

 sirup, between one-fifth and one-sixth of its own 

 weight, and it loses by claying at least one-founli. 



The sirups vVliich ars produced during these vd; 

 rioiis operations, are usually boiled without the 

 addition of .any foreign suliMaiice, and the product 

 of these boilings is thrown from the color into 

 the demt-batardcs, where they become crystallized ; 

 these fonii the largest loaves of sugar weighing be- 

 tween 22 and 27 lbs., known in commerce under 

 the name of lomhs. 



It has been attempted to substitute the method 

 of whitening by alcohol for that by claying; this 

 process is founded upon the power which alcohol 

 possesses, of dissolving the coloring principle wiUi- 

 out acting upon the sugar. I followed this motle 

 two months, making use of no other alcohol than 

 what I procured from llie distillation of my molass 

 es. I confined myself in this prsccss to leachiiis 

 the loaves of sugar contained in my moulds whh 

 alcohol of 35=' (= sp. gr. 0.852) of concentration ; 

 covering the moulds over so as to prevent loss by 

 evaporation, and renewing the alcohol till the li- 

 quor passed oft' perfectly clear from the point of 

 f»e mould ; this alcohol I redistilled to employ in 

 "Cv operations. 



isbandoned this method of bleaching sugar for 

 the following reasons ; 



1- Notwithstanding all t!ie precautions I took, 

 I lost hah a kilogramme ^ little more than a 



pound) of xicohol for eacW loaf of ten pounds' 

 weight. 



2. The loa.es of sugar, though well dried in 

 the stove, always, preserved a slight odor, which 

 became more sens^jJe after their having been con- 

 fined m the papers E,i,| transported. 



3. The price ofaUohol of this degree of con- 

 centration, rendered the refining by alcohol as ex- 

 pensive as that of clay. 



Some very skilful chemist propose to supjdy 

 the use cf clay by that of sirup; theory is in favor 

 of this method, but experiment contradicts it. 



In the first place, in order that the sirup may 

 be employed with success, it js necessary that it 



should be white, and of courst that it should be 

 made by saturating water with very white sugar. 

 The water which is disentaged from the clay, 

 produces a sirup in pas.niij' through the layci- of 

 sugar with which the Ion s are covered ; there 

 is, therefore, no advantage to be derived from the 

 use of sirup on account of its containing sugar, 

 and the jirocess is le:--- economical than claying, 

 iuasmuch as both ti:i:e and fuel are reipiircd lor 

 making the sirup, wi.ilst in claying it is produced 

 by the process it^c't. 



However, "as the theory is seducing, I tried this 

 method, and the following statement exhibits the 

 results. 



I prepared a quantity of sirup at 30"^ ( = 1.2G1) 

 of concentration, which I poured upon the smoo, li- 

 ed surface ( f the loaves till ihcy were covered 

 with it ; the fi'Movving day the sirup had penetrat- 

 ed into the mass, which was sensibly whitened by 

 it. I repeated the operation at intervals of four 

 hours till the sirup passed off' through the point of 

 the mould clear ; this did not take place till the 

 end of twenty days, at which time the bleaching of 

 the greater part of the loaves was completed. I 

 continued the operation upon the others from 

 twelve to twenty days, removing successively 

 those that were finished. 



When I came to take these loaves from the 

 moulds, they came out in fragments ; the sugar 

 was moist and without consistency ; it was im- 

 possible to dry it, and I was obliged to melt it 

 over and make double-refined si gar of it. I re- 

 peated the operation of bleaching with sirup sev- 

 eral times, and always obtained the same results. 



It is evident that the sirup applied in this man- 

 ner interposes itself between the molecules of the 

 sugar and there remains ; whilst in the process of 

 claying, the sirup being formed gradually, pastes 

 it by insensible filtratio:i, imbibing the coloring 

 matter, which it at length carries off. I moreover 

 found that it required twice a.-; much sugar to form 

 the sirup as was needed in the usual method of 

 claying. 



The numerous experiments w-hich I have been 

 in the way of making during a dozen years, have 

 induced me to adopt a process which appears to 

 me to be more advantageous than either of those 

 of which I have just spoken. Tout out of the 

 course cloth called cnlmuck, round pieces of the 

 same size as the bases of the loaves; these I soak 

 in water and afterwards wring ; I then apply them 

 carefully to the bases of the loaves which have 

 been previously scraped and smoothed with the 

 blade of a knife or a small trowel. In twentyfour 

 hours' time the surfaces of the loaves are bleached. 

 J then pour upon the cloth about half a pound of 

 the converted sirup of the last tiaying ; the sirup 

 gradually penetrates the cloth, and filtrates through 

 the hiaves, from which it removes all the coloring 

 matter. 



As soon as the sirup had passed through the 

 cloth into the sugar, I moisten the cloth by sprink- 

 ling it with drops of water, and the next day I 

 throw upon it the same quantity of converted sirup. 



