TlMEHRI. 
who raised this argument against double crushing. As 
to the effecT: of maceration on the fuel, it, of course, 
entirely depends on the dryness of the megass when it 
leaves the second mill. 
However, it does not do to talk of fuel while we are 
still at the mill, that subject should not be considered till 
we arrive at the boilers. We will suppose that the imagi- 
nary estate we are visiting is trying to make the best 
possible sugar, yellow crystals for the London market. 
In that case the next thing we shall have to examine will 
be the sulphur box. Twenty years ago there were no 
sulphur boxes. The bleaching agent used was not free 
sulphurous acid, but bisulphite of lime, which did pretty 
well but cost a lot of money. 
The first sulphur boxes were awful machines ; they re- 
minded one of the corkscrew in the picture of Hogarth's 
— such an enormous apparatus, and such very slight 
-results. They were also constantly getting out of order, 
and estates had to keep a puncheon or two of bisulphite 
handy in case of need. This antique instrument — and 
there was a time when we gazed on it with pride — was 
like a gigantic churn, driven generally from a pulley on 
the cane engine, but the more 'swagger' estates, I 
think, gave it an engine all to itself. There used to be 
a mania for giving things engines all to themselves. 
Each centrifugal used to have its own separate engine, 
and so did the pug mill, and many other things. And as 
all the exhaust steam was thrown away, the consumption 
of coal was very great, sometimes as much as 24 cwt. of 
coal to the ton of Sugar produced, but what did that 
matter with sugar at 30/ the cwt. ? 
To return to the Sulphur Box. The apparatus in 
