Vol. LVI. No. 2496. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 27 , 1897. 
8>1.00 PER YEAR. 
BEET SUGAR MADE IN NEW YORK. 
A VISIT TO THE FIRST FACTORY. 
A Description of the Complete Process. 
Tbat sugar can be successfully manufactured from 
beets in New York State is no longer a theory but an 
established fact. Any one who doubts the truth of 
this has only to visit the factory of the first New York 
beet-sugar company to find proof that the statement 
is correct. This factory is located at 
Rome, Oneida County, and is the first 
enterprise of the kind in the United 
States east of the Mississippi River. It 
is a most interesting place to visit, and 
one might spend several days there 
and not know much more about the 
details of the manufacture than before 
his visit. If, however, the visitor can 
enlist the sympathies of the superin¬ 
tendent and the secretary, he is likely 
to meet with fairly good success, and 
it was entirely due to their kindness 
that I was enabled to pick up some 
points with reference to the business. 
To attempt to give to the readers of 
The R. N.-Y. an account of the opera¬ 
tions in detail would be impossible, 
and should it be given, it would be so 
full of technicalities as to be uninter¬ 
esting. But a general account of the 
way sugar is made from beets is in¬ 
teresting to all. It is of special interest 
at the present time, as beet-sugar mak¬ 
ing promises to be one of New York’s 
leading industries. 
The factory is located about 1% mile 
from the main business center of the 
city, and is accessible by street car, or 
the better way to get there is to walk, 
if one is in a hurry. Upon entering the 
yard, an immense pile of beets first 
attracts attention. These are brought 
in by canal boat, by cars, and in the 
farmer’s wagon. They are of all sizes 
from the ones that weigh four and five 
pounds each, down to the tiny ones 
that would weigh scarcely four ounces. 
The shape and color are as various as 
the size. The ideal beet is one weigh¬ 
ing about two pounds, white in color, 
with a long, tapering root. 
Carried Along by Water and Steam. 
Beets are unloaded in the yard along 
the line of a wooden water trough. 
This trough extends several hundred 
feet through the yard, is 15 inches high, 
15 inches wide at the top, and the bot¬ 
tom is shaped somewhat like the half 
part of a 12-inch sewer pipe. The 
water which flows through this trough 
is warm, coming from the condensers 
and overflow water of the factory. The 
trough is laid with a fall of one foot to 
the hundred feet, and this creates cur¬ 
rent enough to carry the beets from 
the yard to the factory. The warm 
water soaks up the dirt so that, by the 
time the beets reach the factory, the 
larger part of it is removed. It should be noted that, 
from the time the beets are put into the trough in 
the yard, no hand touches them again, and they are 
carried forward by gravitation or steam power until 
the pure granulated sugar is caught in the bags at 
one end, and the exhausted pulp is carried out on an 
elevator, leaving only its sweetness behind. 
At the end of the water trough, the beets are caught 
by a screw elevator, hoisted from the dirty:, water, 
and conveyed to the beet-conveying chain by which 
they are taken to the first washer. This washer con¬ 
sists of a large tank filled with water, and with arms 
attached to a horizontally revolving axis. The beets 
are thoroughly churned, all the time being worked 
towards the end of the tank into which the fresh 
water is entering. From this first washer, they go to 
a second similar one, where the operation is repeated, 
and when the beets leave this, they are clean enough 
for table use. From the washers, they slide to the 
bucket elevator, are conveyed to the top of the build¬ 
ing, and dumped into the slide which carries them 
directly to the beet slicer. The slicer consists of 
eight knives fastened firmly to a horizontally-revolv¬ 
ing plate. The knives are so constructed that each 
one acts much as would a series of small gouge 
chisels, and the beets are cut into strips which look 
similar to vermicelli. The stripping* of the beets 
in this way serves a double purpose. When put in 
the cells where water is added, they present a large 
surface to the action of the water, and do not pack 
down ; in the latter case, the free passage of the 
water would be obstructed. 
The Sugar is Soaked Out. 
The water comes in contact with the strips of beets 
in what is known as the diffusion battery, and the 
sugar of the beet is extracted by what 
is known as “ osmosis”. This is simply 
the tendency of two fluids of different 
density, separated by a membrane, 
to pass through the dividing membrane 
and form a homogeneous fluid. In this 
case, it means that water passes into 
the structure of the beet, and the beet 
juice passes out into the water. This 
process continues until the beet juice 
has all been displaced by water. In 
every case, the fresh water is allowed 
to pass in upon the beet pulp, which is 
most nearly exhausted, so that any 
little sugar which may be left in the 
beet will be taken out by the fresh 
water. The beet pulp is then dropped 
upon an elevator, which carries it 
to a press which removes some of the 
water, after which the pulp passes on 
out of the building and is dumped on 
a pile, ready to be hauled away for 
stock focd. The juice is drawn off 
from the diffusion battery, a given 
amount weighed out and passed on to 
tanl-s where milk of lime comes in 
contact with it. This lime unites with 
certain impurities, and removes them 
from the juice. It may be well to say 
in passing that the company have a 
lime-kiln where they burn limestone, 
the gas (carbonic acid gas) which is 
driven off, all being collected and 
forced by pumps into the mixture of 
beet juice and the milk of lime, which 
causes most of the lime to be precipi¬ 
tated. After passing through various 
mixing tanks, it goes to the filter 
presses, and the juice is forced through 
several layers of cloth, coming out 
almost as clear as water. The opera¬ 
tion is repeated through another set 
of filters, and the juice still further 
purified. The bleaching is done by 
means of fumes of sulphur. The prin¬ 
ciple is the same as in the bleaching 
of straw hats and cotton cloth where 
sulphur is used. The liquid is caused 
to flow over a board which is full of 
holes, and as the juice trickles through 
the holes and flows over the board, it 
comes in contact with the fumes of 
burning sulphur, and is bleached. 
Up to this time, the juice has not 
been boiled down. It is now ready for 
what are called the “ triple-effect 
vacuum pans”. These are three large, 
upright tanks or boilers, in which the 
air is partially drawn out by pumps. 
The liquid boils here at a somewhat 
low temperature, passing from one pan to another, 
until it has passed through the three, and is reduced 
to a somewhat thin syrup. This syrup goes to the 
sulphuration tank, where it is again bleached by sul¬ 
phur fumes, passing then to filters where all traces 
of sulphur and other impurities are removed. It is 
now nearly ready to be boiled down into a thick syrup. 
This boiling is done in vacuum pans, where the 
boiling process goes on violently and rapidly, 
FIRST SUGAR FACTORY IN NEW YORK. WASTE PULP IN FRONT. Fig. 322. 
TOPPING BEETS AT THE ROME SUGAR FACTORY. Fig. 323. 
