Development  of  the  Sugar  Industry. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
January,  1915 
of  these  ox-driven  mills  the  number  of  sweeps  was  increased  to 
four  or  eight,  so  that  several  teams  of  oxen  could  be  used ;  the  power 
of  the  mill  could  thus  be  multiplied  considerably. 
The  raw  sugar  made  by  these  early  methods  of  manufacture 
varied  greatly  in  quality.  The  methods  of  clarification,  before  the 
days  of  chemical  control,  were  naturally  crude.  One  of  the  earliest 
and  most  available  materials  for  eliminating  the  impurities  of  the 
juice  was  wood  ashes.  Milk  was  used  as  a  clarifying  agent  as  early 
as  600  a.d.  in  Persia,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  milk  is  some- 
times used  for  this  purpose  to-day  in  making  maple  sugar.  As  experi- 
ence widened  it  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  lime  was  the 
best  and  cheapest  clarifying  agent,  and  caustic  or  hydrated  lime, 
which  was  used  in  Egypt  as  early  as  700  a.d.,  is  still  the  substance 
most  universally  employed.  The  evaporation  of  the  cane  juice 
was  performed  in  open  kettles  over  the  direct  fire,  which  method 
is  always  attended  by  caramelization  and  darkening  of  the  sugar. 
The  elimination  of  the  mother  liquor,  or  molasses,  from  the 
crystals  of  sugar  was  not  attempted  in  many  early  processes  of 
manufacture,  just  as  is  the  case  to-day  in  primitive  countries.  For 
example,  the  Philippine  concrete  sugar,  made  by  evaporating  the 
juice  to  a  very  thick  magma,  which,  after  hardening,  is  broken  up, 
contains  all  the  soluble  impurities  of  the  juice.  The  juice  is  some- 
times evaporated  only  to  a  semi-solid  consistency,  as  in  the  case 
of  certain  Jamaica  sugars.   Sometimes  this  semi-solid  mass  of  crys- 
4  From  Reesse's  "  De  Suikerhandel  van  Amsterdam." 
Fig.  3. — Early  sugar  factory,  Brazil.4 
