174 



SUGAR. 



and Randa, at 21,395 quintals, or about 2140 tons. This must be 

 the sugar for sale, and exclusive of that returned to the Fellaheen and 

 consumed on the spot. The value of the sugar imported at the same 

 period amounted to 666,000 francs. I was assured by a Government 

 employe at Cairo (an European), that, under a better system of 

 government, and with only its present population, Egypt is fully 

 capable of producing 50,000 tons of sugar." 



This estimate of production, it will be seen by the figures of the 

 exports, given in subsequent pages, has been already reached. 



An important paper on " Sugar Manufacture in Egypt " was read 

 before the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1872 by Mr. William 

 Anderson, of the firm of Easton and Anderson, engineers, which 

 contained a good deal of practical and useful information respecting 

 a new process for the manufacture of white sugar without charcoal 

 filtration by the use of sulphui'ous acid gas, and other reagents in 

 defecation, and an extensively rapid method of concentration of cane 

 juice to syrup. The Abael-Wakf sugar factory, constructed specially 

 for the sulphurous acid process, is situated on the banks of the 

 Ibrahimia canal, about six miles south of Mayaga — a station on the 

 Nile Eailway, and also the site of large sugar works — and about two 

 miles west of the Nile. The distance from Cairo is about one hundred 

 and twenty miles. Mr. Anderson's firm also erected and set to work, 

 at the same time, a second sugar factory at Bene Mazar, a place 

 about six miles farther south. This was about half as large again as 

 that at Aba, and arranged on the French system of defecation, using 

 animal charcoal, so that Mr. Anderson, who personally superintended 

 the completion and starting of both factories, had special oppor- 

 tunities for comparing the two methods of manufacture. Cane juice 

 contains saccharine matter in a free state of solution. The work 

 to be done consists, first, in cleansing the raw juice from impurities, 

 and neutralizing its acids; and next, in concentrating it to the 

 crystallizing point. The main difficulty to be overcome is to prevent 

 the crystallizable sugar existing in the juice from becoming un- 

 crystallizable, and therefore the process which achieves the highest 

 result in this respect most economically is the best. Clarification is 

 generally effected by neutralizing the organic acids of the juice by 

 means of lime, and by removing the scum by skimming, subsidence, 

 or filtration. Sometimes clay or whiting is added to assist mecha- 

 nically in Carrying down the impurities, and the operation takes 

 place either in steam clarifiers, supplemented or not by subsiding 

 tanks, or in the concentrating coppers. The most advanced and 

 satisfactory system, the one adopted at Bene Mazar, and generally 

 in Egypt, is to heat the juice nearly to the boiling point, adding lime 

 until its neutral point is attained. A thick scum collects on the 

 surface, and cracks when the temperature reaches about 210° — that 

 is to say, when incipient ebullition takes place in spots here and 

 there. Steam is immediately shut off, and the juice is allowed to 

 stand about forty minutes. During this time the cake of scum, which 

 is about two inches thick, becomes very compact, so that when at last 

 the clear juice is suffered to run out through a copper strainer at 



