42 
HISTORY OF THE [book r, 
clarifier is provided either with a syphon or cock 
for drawing off the liquor. It has a flat bottom, 
and is hung to a separate fire, each chimney having 
an iron slider, which being shut the fire goes out 
for want of air. These circumstances are indispen¬ 
sable, and the advantages of them will presently be 
shewn*. 
The stream then from the receiver having filled 
the clarifier with fresh liquor, and the fire being 
lighted, the temper , which is commonly Bristol 
white-lime in powder, is stirred into it. One great 
Intention of this is to neutralize the superabundant 
acid, and which to get properly rid of, is the great 
difficulty in sugar-making. This is generally effect¬ 
ed by the Alkali or lime; part of which, at the 
same time, becomes the basis of the sugar. The 
quantity necessary for this purpose, must of course 
vary with the quality both of the lime and of the 
cane-liquor.—Some planters allow a pint of Bristol 
lime to every hundred gallons of liquor; but this 
proportion I believe is generally found too large. 
* The clarifies s are commonly placed in the middle or at one end of 
the boiling house. If at one end the boiler called the teache is placed 
at the other, and several boilers (generally three) are ranged between 
them. The teache is ordinarily from 70 to 100 gallons, and the boil¬ 
ers between the clarifiers and teache diminish in size from the first to 
the last. Where the clarifiers are in the middle, there is usually a set 
of three boilers of each side, which constitute in effect a double boiling- 
house. On very large estates this arrangement is found useful and 
necessary. The objection to so great a number is the expense of fuel, 
to obviate which in some degree, the three boilers on each side of the 
clarifiers are commonly hung to one fire. 
