lee CACAO 



the floor level. Fig. 49 gives a sectional view of the dryer, 

 and also shows the various processes by which the air is 

 admitted and expelled together with the moisture from 

 the product under treatment. It is only necessary to add 

 that practically any fuel can be used, and that the makers 

 claim that the fumes cannot possibly come into contact 

 with the produce. The movement of the dryer is con- 

 tinuous, but too gradual and gentle to damage the contents 

 of the cylinders, marked A. These cylinders are supplied 

 in duplicate, so that whilst one set is in use the others 

 can be refilled to take their place without loss of time 

 or firing. The furnace is constructed of brick or like 

 material, and can be fired by ordinary fuel, waste material, 

 or oil. 



Rotary drying in any case promises to be the most 

 successful method of treating cacao in its preparation for 

 market, but the system is not new by any means. In 1865 

 a suggestion was made to the Scientific Association of 

 Trinidad that cacao could be conveniently dried in cylinders 

 exposed on a platform during the day, and supplied with 

 artificial heat during the night, in a building with movable 

 roof. The suggester, Mr. Thos. Law, wrote : " In the day, 

 solar heat may be utilised for drying ; in the night heated 

 air drawn through a series of pipes, that run to and fro 

 through the house under the revolving cylinders." 



Another system was brought to notice by the late Mr. W. 

 S. Tucker, in 1884, in a paper read before the Trinidad 

 Planters' Association, in which the principle is also rotary, 

 or in Mr. Tucker's words : " The cacao is caused to revolve 

 around a heated tube," but this does not appear to have 

 been taken up. 



(5) Vacuum dryers. — A machine of this kind, made by 

 George Scott and Son, Ltd., is depicted in Fig. 50. The 

 makers claim it as being an effective dryer for cacao. The 

 apparatus consists of a heavy cast-iron chamber, heavily 

 ribbed to withstand the pressure of the atmosphere, when 

 at work. The ribs are not seen in the illustration, being 

 obscured by the non-conducting composition with which 



