SUGAR-CANE JUICE CLARIFICATION. 6 
ment of this process. A sirup attractive in its appearance and 
flavor will promote sales and consumption in ever increasing quanti- 
ties in all parts of the United States. 
In the large sirup factories of Louisiana this method of clarifica- 
tion would involve little change or addition to the present equip- 
ment. In small steam sirup mills in other parts of the country it 
would mean the installation of additional equipment, but this out- 
lay of capital would be repaid by the saving in sugar liquor now 
thrown out or fed to hogs as "skimmings," and also by the im- 
proved and more uniform quality of the finished product. 
EXPERIMENTAL PLANT. 
Before outlining in detail this method of sirup making a descrip- 
tion will be given of the experimental plant and equipment used 
in testing the practicability of clarifying cane juice with infusorial 
earth. The equipment employed consisted of two tanks fitted with 
steam coils, each holding slightly over 200 gallons, a duplex 4| by 
2 J by 4 steam pump, and an 18 -inch plate and frame filter press 
having about 80 square feet of filtering area. The two tanks were 
connected by a header to the intake of the pump with valve arrange- 
ment such that the contents of each tank could be pumped separately 
into the press. This arrangement permitted one tank to be filled 
with juice and prepared for filtration while the contents of the 
other were being pumped through the press. 
OPERATION. 
One tank having been filled with juice, steam was turned into 
the heating coils and the juice heated to a point just below boiling. 
The desired amount of infusorial earth was added and mixed thor- 
oughly with the hot juice, after which the mixture of infusorial 
earth and hot juice was pumped to the filter press. While this tank- 
ful of juice was being filtered the second tank was being filled, 
heated, and treated with infusorial earth so that it immediately 
followed the first one through the filter press. The process was 
repeated until filtration became very slow even at a pressure of 40 
to 60 pounds, showing that the frames of the filter press had be- 
come full. This general procedure was followed in all the experi- 
ments. 
EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED. 1 
A more detailed description of some of the experiments follows. 
1 The juice used in these experiments was obtained from a sugar mill. The officials of 
the sugar company also cooperated in the conduct of the work. In most of the experi- 
ments the mixed dilute juice was used. The dilution was about 12 per cent, the extrac- 
tion about 78 per cent, and the average Brix of the dilute juice 13°. In some of the 
experiments only the crusher juice was used, where the extraction was estimated to be 
about 40 per cent and the Brix of juice averaged 15°. 
