REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 



47 



CAPACITY OF CUTTERS. 



It may be objected to the method under discussion that it would not 

 be practicable to construct machines to work on a large scale, say from 

 two to four hundred tons of cane per day. Judging from our experience 

 with the small mill and the experiments carried on in Louisiana, to 

 which reference has already been made, such an objection seems unten- 

 able. For equal weights of cane a cutter will, if properly constructed, 

 be lighter and require less power to run it than a mill. All cane workers 

 should be willing to give a fair hearing to the claims of a machine which 

 will relieve them from the worry and expense of the choking, breaking, 

 and creaking of the mills. 



DIFFUSION BATTERY. 



This machine consists of eleven cells arranged in such a way that a 

 liquid from any one of them can be transferred to another, either from 

 the top or bottom of the cell, at will. The cells are 30 inches long, V2 

 inches in diameter, and hold about 10 gallons. On one side is the 

 system of tubes and valves by which the process of filling and emptying 

 is carried on. On top of the cells are the openings through which they 

 are filled with the freshly-cut chips. Each cell ends below in an open- 

 ing set obliquely to its axis, through which the exhausted chips are dis- 

 charged. 



On the side opposite the feed-valves is found the steam supply by 

 which the cells or the liquid contained in them can be heated either 

 from above or below. This heating should take place in separate com- 

 partments, which in large apparatus are called calorisators. The water 

 is forced through the cells by the ordinary pressure of the Washington 

 water- works, which here is scarcely equal to the pressure of two atmos- 

 pheres. The water as it flows to the cells passes through a heater, where 

 it can be brought to any desired temperature. 



MANIPULATION. 



The first cell having been filled with chips and the openings all 

 closed except the air-valve at the top. water from the heater at a tem- 

 perature of 00° 0. (or other desired degree) is admitted through the 

 bottom of the cell until it begins to flow out through the air- valve at 

 the top. This vent is now closed, and the valves changed so that the 

 watef enters from the top of the first cell. The second cell is now filled 

 with the liquid from the first, which has meanwhile become charged 

 with all the sugar it is capable of taking from the first chips. The 

 valves are so arranged that the liquid from the first cell is forced out 

 by the fresh water entering from above, and into the second cell from 

 below until this is filled. The third cell is now brought into action in 

 the same way, the fresh water entering through the top of the first cell, 

 the valves having been changed for the second cell so that the liquid 

 from the first flows in at the top of the second, forcing its contents out 

 and up through the third cell. This process continues until nine cells 

 have been filled. 



By this time the chips in the first cell, having been treated with nine 

 successive portions of fresh water, have lost all but the merest trace of 

 their sugar. This cell is therefore shut off from all the others, the 

 fresh water is turned on to the second cell, and while the tenth cell is 

 filling the first one is emptied of its exhausted chips. 



The fresh water is next turned on the third cell, while the eleventh 

 one is filling. Meanwhile the first cell is prepared for the second 



