January 12, 1894.] 
ridge in Harrison County have their centres filled with 
silicious pebbly conglomerate, two conditions of exist- 
ence which no known condition of carbonate of iron in 
the form of clay iron-stone could possibly create, even 
should we admit the existence of a sufficient quantity 
of that ore to form the vast deposits of iron as we now 
find them. The existence of the enormous quantities 
of carbonate of iron or clay iron-stone I am by no 
means inclined to admit. Whether the lignitic ever 
held such quantities Ido not know, but certainly the 
beds as we now find them contain very little of this 
class of ore. The little they do contain is almost alto- 
gether a sulphide. 
SORGHUM SUGAR. 
BY T. BERRY SMITH, FAYETTE, MO. 
Ir has been many years since the people in the cen- 
tral and northern parts of the United States began to 
cultivate sorghum for the purpose of obtaining molasses 
therefrom. The processes were such as could be em- 
ployed by almost any farmer. 
But it has been only a few years since experiments 
began for the purpose of extracting sugar from the sor- 
ghum cane. 
The first appropriation made by Congress for large 
experiments in sorghum sugar making was during the 
last days of the session of 1884. Since that time, so far 
as we know, annual appropriations have been made and 
untiring efforts put forth to improve both the cane and 
the processes of sugar making; and the advances made 
in each line have been.steady and encouraging. 
It is our purpose to treat mainly of the applications 
of scientific principles, as made in the government ex- 
periments in Kansas and elsewhere. 
Let us suppose the cane has been grown under the 
ordinary circumstances and is ready to be harvested. 
The usual course is then to strip and top the cane, cut 
it and haul it to the mill (who that has heard its creak- 
ing, can ever forget it ?), there crush it and collect the 
juice, and then evaporate it to molasses by boiling in 
open pans, certain simple processes being employed to 
clarify the syrup more or less. 
By such methods are obtained the molasses which we 
have all eaten and of which we can not mistake the 
peculiar flavor. 
A brief analysis of the subject will show us that the 
main steps are: i 
1. Separation of the juice from the cane. 
2. Separation of the sweets from the juice. 
If we would manufacture sugar there must be a third 
step, Viz. : 
3. Separation of sugar from the molasses. 
Let us treat these separately: 
I.—Extraction of Juice. 
Old Method: Expressing it by passing the cane between 
rollers. 
New Method: Extraction by soaking in heated water, 
the process being termed diffusion. 
The topped cane is delivered to the factory by the 
farmer. There it is cut into short lengths by a cutting 
machine, after which a fan blows away the boots, blades 
and trash, and then the short pieces are delivered to a 
shredding machine, which tears the cane into as small 
bits as possible. 
This pulp is delivered to the diffusion battery, which 
is arranged in various ways, but the principle of which 
may be stated thus: 
If hot water be poured over one jar of pulp it will 
SCIENCE. 
-evaporating without their removal. 
25 
soak out a certain amount of the sugar content. If this 
sweetened water be withdrawn and poured over a sec- 
ond jar of pulp, it will become still more sweet; and by 
passing it in like manner over a number of jars of pulp, 
it will finally become as rich in extracts as the original 
juice of the cane was, i. e., it may be called cane juice. 
Now in order to extract all the sweets, the first jar of 
pulp must be subjected to portion after portion of hot 
water, until there will be left in the pulp very little be- 
sides woody fibre. And so with the second jar and so 
with all the jars of pulp. 
One can readily see that the jars or cells could be so 
connected that the hot water entering at No. 1 would 
be forced in succession through a sufficient number to 
attain the desired strength, and thus the process be ren- 
dered continuous. Such an arrangement is termed a 
diffusion battery. 
If the subject has been made plain so far, we arenow 
ready to take up the second great step. 
II.—Extraction of Sweets. 
Old Method: Simple evaporation in open kettles or 
pans, with constant ‘skimming to remove the 
“scum” formed by heat. 
New Method: (1) Neutralization of acids by lime; (2) 
Removal of surplus lime by carbonic acid gas (car- 
bonatation); (3) Heating and skimming; (4) Set- 
tling; (5) Evaporation of clear juice under reduced 
pressure and temperature. 2 
The diffusion juice is placed in large tanks and milk 
of lime added until an alkaline reaction is shown. The 
purpose of this is to counteract the effect of any acids 
that may be present. At this point in our paper it will 
be necessary to digress a little and introduce a small 
amount of chemistry. 
There are in the vegetable world many products 
which are composed of charcoal and water, the only 
difference in chemical constitution being in the propor- 
tions of charcoal and water employed. 
Let us look at the accompanying table: 
Wood — 6 parts carbon and 5 parts water (C, H,,O, ) 
Starch = 6 3 (3 (73 5 GG 6c (Ce Tele. O, ) 
GrapeSug’r=6 ‘“ earn Ornncs Sta (C Es Oey) 
Cane Sugar —12 ‘‘ seme eu lips 40s 4) once ((Ce. Ee (@)Ea) 
Now if we take wood, starch or cane sugar and boil 
them in water with acids, they will be converted into 
grape sugar. itisin this way thattonsand tons of starch 
are annually changed into syrup and sugar for house- 
hold and other purposes. Almost all of the clear thick 
syrups used on our tables at the present day are glucose 
or grape Sugar syrups. Such syrup is inferior to cane 
sugar syrup in the matter of sweetness, three pounds of - 
cane sugar being equal to five ponds of grape sugar in 
this respect. You can plainly see, then, that the effect 
of the acids present in the diffusion juice would be to 
diminish the sweetness of the syrup produced by simply 
Their removal is 
rendered easy by the use of lime, which neutralizes 
them by uniting with them to form insoluble compounds 
which settle to the bottom. Now as lime will combine 
with sugar also to form sucrates, it is necessary to 
remove any surplus lime that may be present, and this 
is done by blowing through the juices a stream of car- 
bonic acid gas, which may be inexpensively obtained 
from the smoke stacks of the furnaces. This part of 
the process is known as carbonatation. 
After neutralization and carbonatation, the juice is 
raised to the boiling point, the scum formed*by heat is 
removed in the usual way, and then the clarified liquid 
is left in large tanks to settle. From these it is drawn 
off and is ready for concentration by evaporation. 
This is not accomplished in open pans because in an 
