THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Feb. 1, 1865. 



Z8B A VISIT TO THE 



course of time, the molasses filters through the clay iuto the saucers 

 beneath, and the sugar which remains (called " Dulloah ") is ready for 

 market. Should this sugar he submitted to a second boiling, which 

 gets rid of more molasses, the product is styled "Gurpatta." We mention 

 these names, as untravelled people are apt to think that Dulloah and 

 Gurpatta imply the names of place where sugar is grown, instead of the 

 particular stages of refinement at which the sugar has arrived. 



The raw material is now ready for the Anglo-Indian manufacturer. 

 Let us visit the Cossipore Company's works. The factory is a lofty 

 building, five stories high, surrounded, as is common in the fertile and 

 luxuriant climate of Bengal, with umbrageous flowering shrubs, while 

 the noble Hooghly, broader than the Thames at Gravesend, flows at the 

 foot of the garden. 



Here let us answer a supposed question. "Why should a sugar 

 factory be so lofty 1 The reply is, to avoid unnecessary pumping and 

 lifting, by beginning work at the top, and letting the sugar, as it passes 

 through the different processes, find its way to the bottom. 



1. We will commence our saccharine tour on the roof, where we 

 find a large tank or cistern of water thoroughly impregnated with lime, 

 for the purpose of supplying — 



2. The " blow-ups " on the fourth floor. These are large circu- 

 lar open pans, into which, after they have been nearly filled with 

 lime-wattr, numerous bags of raw sugar are emptied. Steam, at a high 

 temperature, is then forced into the liquor through pipes, passing through 

 the sides of the vessel, causing the fluid to boil. The object of the lime 

 is to neutralize aciditj', which hinders crystallization. At this stage 

 the liquid is not thick and viscid, as when a nurse makes a dish of 

 " toffey " for the little ones, but is largely diluted with water, quite 

 thin, and of thecolour of rum. 



3. The next object is to get rid of mechanical impurities. For this 

 purpose a number of bags, as large as wheat-sacks, but made of very 

 thin cotton, are severally stuffed into a series of stoutly-made cases re- 

 sembling extra long Bologna sausages. These are arranged perpendicu- 

 larly in chambers highly heated by steam, and the saccharine fluid is 

 forced by this mean6 through innumerable folds of cotton cloth. 



4. We have arrived at the second floor. Our liquor is purified, but 

 still dark in tint. We must get rid of the rum colour. With this 

 object the liquor is passed through a series of immense vats filled with 

 animal charcoal more or less pulverised. This charcoal is made from 

 bones burnt in close retorts. After a time it becomes saturated with 

 colouring matter, and has to be burnt over again, which, for a time, 

 renews its bleaching quality. When totally exhausted it is shipped to 

 England for manure. 



5. We now reach the first floor, where the sugar is " boiled." This 

 is the technical word, the process already described in the top-story 

 being termed " blowing-up." The boiling is carried on in a large dome- 



