ioo6 The Production of Beet Sugar. [march, 



Disposal of Roots at the Factory. — The wagons are drawn 

 up alongside the "flumes" or open channels and unloaded 

 mechanically by means of hydraulic levers under the railway 

 trucks, or by handforks. The latter is much the more common 

 method. 



The "yard" of a modern factory is divided up into long 

 parallel channels or pits, which are about 100 ft. (more or less) 

 in length, 20 ft. to 30 ft. wide and 4 ft. to 15 ft. in depth. The 

 pit is built of brick or concrete with a "flushed " surface, and 

 its sides slope, so that at the bottom it is only a few feet across. 

 An open channel (see jB) runs down the middle, having a width 

 and depth of about 2 ft. Iron plates are laid across the top 

 of the gutter B, except where the beets are allowed to fall into 

 it. Water rushes along this gutter and thus floats them 

 towards the factory. 



Channel along which Beets are floated towards the Factory. 



In this way hundreds of tons of "roots" can be unloaded 

 into this pit continuously. It is also possible to regulate the 

 quantity falling into the gutter. 



Washing. — As a rule the beets have to be lifted to a higher 

 level before entering the washing machine. This lifting is 

 done by means of a scoop wheel or chain elevators, revolving 

 screw "worms" or by the more modern "mammoth " pumps. 

 The "mammoth " pump consists of a U-shaped iron cylinder, 

 having one arm longer than the other. The beets flow into 

 the shorter arm with water, both being gradually raised into 

 a spout and thence into the washing machine by means of the 

 compressed air in the long arm of the U tube, which is provided 

 from a compressor. 



