Sugar-Bects and Beetroot Distillation. 
75 
In the first place, the roots are passed through a washing- 
machine, and thoroughly cleansed from all adhering earth and 
dirt. The clean roots are then rasped, or cut by proper machinery 
into thin slices. The pulped or sliced beets have next to be treated 
according to one of the three following plans : — 
1. The pulp is mixed with a small quantity of sulphuric acid, 
and then placed in suitable presses ; the expressed pulp is carted 
away, and constitutes a valuable food for fattening cattle. The 
juice is run into the fermenting vats, of convenient capacity. A 
number of fermenting vats, generally made of wood, and filled 
with juice in a more or less advanced state of fermentation, are 
kept in a separate room, in which a proper and uniform tem- 
perature highly conducive to a steady fermentation of the sugary 
liquid is maintained. When all the sugar has been transformed 
into alcohol, and the fermentation been completed, which is seen 
by the liquid ceasing to give off bubbles of carbonic acid gas 
and becoming quiet, the dilute alcoholic liquid or wash is pumped 
into the stills, and, by the simple process of distillation, the 
alcohol, more or less diluted with water, and contaminated with 
certain by-products of fermentation, is separated from the larger 
proportion of the water, which remains in the stills, and sub- 
sequently is allowed to run to waste as useless. By these simple 
operations impure spirit of a certain strength may be obtained 
by labourers of ordinary intelligence. 
2. The sliced beetroots are subjected to the process of mace- 
ration, and displacement of the sugary juice by hot wash (Cham- 
ponoi's method). It is essential to success that the slices are 
neither too thick nor too thin ; in the former case, the liquid em- 
ployed in macerating the sliced beets, which is slightly acidulated 
with sulphuric acid, does not readily penetrate the cells containing 
the sugary juice, and a larger quantity of liquid has to be used 
for the extraction of the juice than is necessary if the slices 
are of the proper dimensions. In consequence of this excess of 
acidulated water, which has to be used in order to avoid loss 
of sugar, the juice obtained under these circumstances becomes 
too dilute to ferment subsequently with regularity. On the other 
hand, if the slices are too thin, their texture is broken up too 
much, and they are apt to form pulpy masses, which can only be 
imperfectly extracted by the warm macerating liquid. In Cham- 
ponoi's process of maceration the use of presses is avoided, and 
the sugar contained in the beets passes by displacement into 
solution. The sugary liquid readily enters into fermentation 
without the addition of yeast. The alcohol contained in the 
fermented juice or wash is finally obtained by distillation in 
ordinary stills. ' 
3. According to Leplay's plan the beets are sliced, and the 
