154 Manufacture of Sugar from Beet-Root. 



warm weather, or of any portion of the roots being injured, this 

 precaution is doubly necessary. Such is the ordinary way of 

 extracting the juice from the root. In some places the bags are 

 again immersed in water (containing tannic acid), and again sub- 

 mitted to a high pressure, by which from 5 to 10 per cent, more 

 of the juice may be obtained. There are other methods of 

 treating pressed cake, in order to obtain the remaining portion 

 of its saccharine contents ; but it is admitted practically that, 

 under the most favourable conditions, from 5 to 10 per cent, of 

 the juice, = to 1 per cent, of sugar, are lost, or rather are left 

 in the cake. These methods are based upon the ordinary 

 arrangements of beet-root cultivation, which requires that, at a 

 certain time of the year, the roots should be removed from the 

 soil, and then either used in a fresh state, or stored away in such 

 a manner that they shall remain uninjured and unaltered until 

 they are required in the manufactory. This necessitates either 

 a very large amount of stowage room with all its risks and ex- 

 penses, or else that the work should only proceed during a certain 

 period of the year, both of which points are matters of serious 

 importance to the proprietors. 



To meet these objections, Schiitzenbach, a German chemist, 

 proposed that the fresh root should be at once sliced up into thin 

 pieces, and then desiccated at a certain temperature, by which 

 not only would all, or nearly all, the water be driven off, and thus 

 considerably reduce the weight and bulk of the mass, but also 

 the albuminous compounds would be coagulated, and in that 

 condition rendered less soluble, and at the same time less liable 

 to any subsequent fermentation. This method has been carried 

 out extensively in Germany, at Ettlingen, for some years past, 

 and has more recently been adopted by one of the first French 

 makers at Valenciennes.* In these establishments the root is 

 cut up into cubes or parallelopipeds, and from 80 to 84 per cent, 

 of water is evaporated, leaving only from 16 to 20 per cent, of 

 dry matter. It is found practically advantageous to sprinkle the 

 cut roots with charcoal or with lime in fine powder, in order to 

 check the tendency to fermentation, which is set up immediately 

 the cells are separated. Of the two lime is the best, as it also 

 neutralizes any organic acids which may be formed. It is also 

 necessary that they should be removed as speedily as possible 



* In a communication from M. Paul Hamoir (Serret, Hamoir, Duquesne & Co.), 

 we are informed that the practice followed in their establishment secures a more 

 certain yield of sugar, as the roots are used when their saccharine properties are 

 in their highest development. If they are taken from the field, and stored even 

 under the most favourable conditions, the quantity of crystallizable sugar is found 

 practically to diminish according to the time they have been kept. For instance, 

 if the fresh root yielded in October 7 per cent, of sugar, in January it would only 

 give 5 per cent., and in February probably less than 4 per cent. 



