88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



basis on which the German excise dnty was established ; yet last 

 year the statistical organ of the German Empire reports an aver- 

 age extraction of thirteen per cent. The employment of an 

 ingenious contrivance known as the " diffusion battery " — though 

 simple in its conception, nevertheless illustrates well-known laws 

 of chemical science in the transfusion of liquids, and successfully 

 opens the membranous walls of the sugar-cells of the plant, giv- 

 ing a higher grade of juice, with less gummy, nitrogenous, and 

 fibrous impurities, at less cost than by the old methods of me- 

 chanical pressure — has in no small degree contributed to this 

 result. It had taken three quarters of a century to develop the 

 chemistry and the mechanical adjustment of the sugar-beet pro- 

 cesses, and even now we notice that the progress in this direction 

 is great. 



Meantime France, Belgium, Austria - Hungary, Poland, Rus- 

 sia, and other countries in continental Europe, after a series of 

 unsuccessful attempts, resumed the manufacture of beet-sugar, 

 and by a system of subsidies, bounties, and drawbacks, notwith- 

 standing the many climatic and meteorological difficulties, pro- 

 duced a large quantity of sugar, but little as compared with Ger- 

 many, as is shown by the following table, estimating the produc- 

 tion of beet-sugar in the year 1885 : 



German Empire 1,155,000 tons. 



France 308,000 " 



Belgium 88,000 " 



Austria-Hungary 558,000 " 



Russia and Poland 387,000 " 



Holland and other countries 50,000 " 



2,546,000 " 



The entire production of cane-sugar in Cuba, Java, Brazil, 

 Peru, British India, Egypt, Manila, Louisiana, and other cane- 

 sugar producing countries, during the same period, did not exceed 

 2,260,100 tons, or less than one half of the world's sugar production. 



The simple and inexpensive methods adopted in the German 

 factories have made the beet-sugar manufacture one of the most 

 profitable of industries, and the work goes on day and night, at 

 a prime cost for conversion of two dollars per ton of beets, or one 

 cent per pound of sugar, not estimating the cost of the beet-root, 

 but including labor and all materials used, like coal, coke, lime, 

 charcoal, wear and tear, and interest on the invested capital. The 

 monthly disbursements of such an establishment exceed sixty 

 thousand dollars, and give employment to thousands of wage- 

 earners in direct and collateral industries. One sugar corporation 

 in France reported a net profit derived from the manufacture of 

 beetrsugar a few years ago of two millions of dollars, and the sea- 

 son did not extend beyond one hundred and twenty days. Under 



