28 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



A MODERN SUGAR FACTORY 



CENTRAL DELICIAS IN ORIENTE PROVINCE THE LAST WORD IN 



SUGAR MILL CONSTRUCTION 



The factory consists of one large building, the mill and boiler houses being in line, 

 with the sugar house at right angles thereto; this part of the factory is seven stories 

 high. The area covered is roughly 85,000 square feet. The buildings are all of steel 

 construction and pneumatically riveted from top to bottom ; the columns are also of 

 steel, having cast-iron bases on concrete foundations. The plant is designed for a daily 

 (24 hours) capacity of 3,250 short tons of cane, work being carried on night and day, 

 Sundays included. 



The cane arrives at the factory after passing over two sixty-ton weighing machines 

 in railway cars of about twelve tons capacity, divided into two compartments holding 

 six tons each. It is hoisted out of the cars by chain slings on a traveling yoke and 

 dumped into the cane hoppers of the mill carriers by automatically tripping the slings, 

 the latter being provided with trip links for the purpose. The hoists are driven by elec- 

 tric motors controlled from an elevated platform, so placed as to give a clear view of 

 the railway lines and the cane hoppers. The cane carriers are independently driven 

 by steam engines controlled from the platform in front of the mill crushers. 



There are two sets of twelve-roller mills with crushers complete, having rollers 36 

 inches diameter by 84 inches long, each set driven by two Corliss engines through double 

 gearing. One engine drives the crusher, first, second and third mills, and the other 

 drives the fourth mill. Each mill and crusher has its separate hydraulic accumulators 

 which obtain their pressure water from a steam-driven pessure pump, but they are also 

 provided with hand pumps in case of need. The mill rollers are fitted with hollow 

 forged nickel steel shafts. The working of each set of mills is controlled by one man 

 from the elevated platform running round the mills, through an arrangement acting on 

 the governors of the engines, in such a way that any desired speed of crushing can be 

 obtained and at the same time the mills can be stopped without the assistance of the 

 engine drivers in a minimum of time. Each mill house has a twenty-tone traveling 

 crane, carried on beams supported from the building columns, and covering the whole 



Sugar Central "Delicias," Oriente Province, Owned by the Cuban-American Sugar 

 Company. Estimated Output for this Season's Crop is 300,000 Bags. 



