40 Sorghum Hand Book. 



CLEANING PANS. 



Pains should be taken to keep the Evaporator clean. If a scale is permitted to 

 form it will burn and impart a burnt taste to the syrup. Vinegar boiled in the evapo-' 

 rator will help to clean it. Muriatic acid one part to seventy parts of water is good for 

 cleansing copper, but good vinegar will be found useful. It should be boiled half an 

 hour, and any place where it fails to remove the scale it must be taken from the pan 

 with a chisel or some sharp instrument. This lime deposit should never be left till it 

 burns on, as after that it cannot easily be removed, besides it is a great injury to the 

 syrup. When the bottom of the evaporator coats over with soot to any great extent, it 

 should be removed at least once a week, or else much of the heat will be lost. 



CONVENIENT ARTICLES. 



Saccharoiueter. — This is a delicate instrument, consisting of a weighted bulb 

 and a stem five or six inches long, so graduated as to indicate in figures the quantity 

 of sugar in any solutiqn, according to the scale suggested by M. Beaume. It is used 

 by dropping it into a deep test cup containing the liquid to be tested. It will sink to a 

 certain point and there remain at rest. The number of degrees of the scale which 

 appear above the surface of the fluid marks the density in degrees. In soft water the 

 Saccharometer will sink to zero;, in cane juice it will mark from 5 degrees to 10 

 degrees, according to the richness of the juice, the higher figures indicating richer 

 jiiice ; in syrup it will mark from. 6 degrees to 40 degrees. Boiling hot juice will show 

 2 degrees to 3 degrees less than cold.juice. and boiling hot syrup about 4 degrees less 

 density than when cold. The temperature for which the scale is graduated is 60 

 degrees. ' 



Test Cups. — These are tin tubes (one end closed), 10 inches in length, and 2 

 inches in diameter. They are for the purpose of iising in connection with the saccha- 

 rometer. 



Test Tubes. — -These ai-e small vessels about five inches long and three-fourths 

 of an inch in diameter, made of white French glass. They will hold half a dozen 

 spoonsful of juice or syrup, and when filled may be held in the flame of a lamp, or on 

 a bed of coals until the contents boil. The best method of using them is to make a 

 round loop at the end of a piece of wire, by which the tube can be held in the fire, 

 using the wire as a handle. 



Swing Pipe. — This consists in a pipe in the inside of a defecator reaching from 

 the top nearly to the bottom, connected at its lower end by an elbow with a short 

 pipe arranged at right angles, and extending out through the side of the defecator. 

 With this arrangement the long part of the pipe can be made to swing or rotate down, 

 so that as its mouth sinks below the surface of the fluid, the latter may flow off through 

 the pipe always from near the surface. By this means the clear liquor may be all 

 drawn off down to the sediment, without disturbing the latter. 



Litmus Paper. — Litmus paper is used to reveal the presence of acid or alkali 

 in juice. A strip of blue litmus paper, upon being dipped into cane juice, or any fluid 

 containing free acid, will be changed from blue to red, the red color being more or less 

 in proportion to the quantity of acid present. As small portions of lime are succes- 

 sively added the color produced will be less intensely red, until finally, when the fluid 

 is perfectly neutralized, no tint of red will appear. If an excess of lime be added to 

 the fluid, rendering it alkaline,, the red paper will be changed to blue, more or less 

 intense, according to the excess of lime present. 



Milk of Xjitne. — Milk of lime may be prepared by slaking in boiling water, 

 using an abundance of water, enough to form a thin wash. After the lime has been 

 slaked, and stirred up well with the water, allow it to settle, and then pour off the 

 clear water. Repeat this operation with freshly added water, once or twice, then add 

 water and stir in thoroughly, and after it settles pour off the milk of lime for use, re- 

 jecting, of course, the sediment at the bottom. The vessel containing the lime should 

 be kept covered so as to exclude the air as much as possible. 



