32 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



Central "Preston 

 CANE MILL ARRANGEMENTS IN CUBA 



Wonderful progress is making in the island 

 of Cuba in the central factorj^ outfits that are 

 now going up there. Much excellent machin- 

 ery is going into position and it is fair to infer 

 that with increasing competition in Cuba 

 there will be greater stress laid upon high 

 grade sugar - house work, upon thorough 

 chemical and mechanical control, and that 

 those who can produce the highest degree of 

 efficiency in any sugar factory will be re- 

 garded as the most capable. We are led to 

 these reflections first bj' noting that in some, 

 or in one at least of the Cuban sugar factories 

 the herringbone teeth on the cane mills are 

 being utilized. Thirty j-ears ago these teeth 

 were utilized in Louisiana to some extent. 

 We believe the Reading Iron Works of Read- 

 ing. Pa., built quite a number of their cane 

 mills that waj'. Thej', however, were a short- 

 lived improvement, and it was soon found 

 that the best practice was to have good, solid 

 teeth of a considerable pitch, ssly 4 inches or 

 more, and the roller wheel faces from 12 to 

 IS inches across. It was thought that the 

 strength of the mill laj- chiefly in the strength 

 of the single teeth and that the efficiency of 

 the mill depended upon the strength of the 

 single teeth. The old long teeth in high grade 

 machinery of a half a century ago, and the 

 epicycloidal teeth were soon discarded in 

 cane mill practice and short, but still suffici- 



" at Preston. 



ently long, thick, wide-faced teeth wer© 

 sought as the best. These have given excel- 

 lent satisfaction. We have been led to won* 

 der about the resurrection of the herringbone 

 teeth for mill gearing in Cuba. 



Another point is of some interest and we 

 have been led to iitfer that some of the new 

 mill work going up in Cuba had roller 

 wheels on each end of the shaft. This at one 

 time was quite the style for the best practice 

 in Louisiana, but was abandoned because it. 

 was found that although the teeth on the 

 roller wheel at the coupling end of the driving 

 shaft would begin to wear at once, the 

 teeth at the other end of the same roller 

 would show no appreciable signs of wear, or 

 at least nothing like the wear on the coupling 

 end of the shaft. This of course led to the 

 belief that the strain that was transmitted 

 through the roller with its torsional twist was 

 of but little service and the roller wheels on 

 the further end of the mill rolls were generally 

 abandoned. 



Of course there may be special reasons or 

 there may be found errors in the old conclu- 

 sions, and the more recent experiences may 

 show that the most modern methods are the 

 best, but a glance at the situation might lead 

 us to think that the errors of a generation 

 ago, or the miscalculations of that generation 

 are now being repeated again. — Louisiana 

 Planter. 



