1 Ocr., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 295: 
Sugar at Bundaberg. 
ConrinviN¢ our notice in last month’s Journal of sugar operations at Bingera, 
we now present a description of the sugar house and mill on the Messrs. 
Gibson’s plantation. 
The Mill Buildings are two stories high, and are 40 feet high to the wall- 
plates and cover nearly an acre of land, but the mill and yard, with the various: 
buildings, men’s dwellings, offices, stores, sheds, stables, &c., cover fully 10 
acres of ground, the whole being intersected with tram lines. Taking the 
internal fittings in their natural order, we commence with the “ carrier,” which 
is a travelling elevator into which the cane is dropped from the railway wagons 
and small plantation trucks; the latter are run over the carrier and tilted 
direct on to it, the former are emptied into a hopper and gravitate to the 
carrier in a regulated feed. This elevator is 5 feet wide and 185 feet long, 
conveying the cane upwards to the shredder. The shredder may be said to be 
a number of large-ribbed discs fixed on two shafts, each shaft running the 
reverse way to the other, through which the cane passes and is- thus torn to 
_shreds ; the cane then falls into the first set of rollers. By this means the mill 
will crush from 10 to 15 per cent. more cane and will also increase the 
extraction of juice, as a more even feed is supplied, also avoiding an uneven 
strain on the roller shafts and bearings. 
The Rollers.—There are three sets. The first two sets are 30 inches by 60 
inches; the third set, just supplied by Walkers Limited, is 384 inches by 66 
inches, with 17-inch shafts. This set of rollers is about the largest in the colony, 
and able to crush 25 tons of cane per hour. Each set of rollers has a separate 
engine with large fly-wheels and heavy gearing. ‘To give an idea of the weight 
of aset of rollers, engine, gear, and beds, that supplied by Walkers Limited 
weighed 127 tons. From the rollers the megasse is carried by an elevator to 
the automatic feeder, which was made and supplied by the Bundaberg Foundry, 
and is a new contrivance for giving the boiler furnaces an equal feed. A feeder 
is attached to each furnace, in the form of grooved rollers which revolve at a 
fixed speed and will only receive a given quantity of megasse. Where one man 
formerly was required at each furnace, by this apparatus one man attends to 
the whole system. 
The boilers are eight in number, and of the multitubular type, and give 
steam for twenty engines and pumps. The whole of the juice is also evaporated 
by steam. The process of evaporation commences with the triple efféts, of 
which there are two sets of 4,000 and 6,500 feet heating surface ; the larger 
set this season being equal to the juice supply, or 100,000 gallons in the double 
shift, or, say, twenty hours’ work of the mills. The juice passes from the 
triple efféts to subsiding tanks, from which the vacuum pans (three in number) 
receive their supply. Only two of these have been required this season, and 
have given each a strike of 8 and 10 tons white sugar, of a hard granulated 
character, which is dried in centrifugals—of these there are twelve of the 
‘Weston’ type. An elevator is running continuously under the centrifugals, into 
which the dried sugar is dropped. The elevator then carries it to the patent dryer, 
a large revolving cylinder, 5 feet by 24 feet, through which the sugar passes 
over a low steam cylinder ; by this means all the moisture is removed from the 
crystals, and the sugar is ready for bagging. We might mention that last 
week’s sugar returns were 286 tons for the one week. All the skimmings from 
the clarifiers and the sediment and dirty juice from the bottoms of subsiders 
are passed through six filter presses, and the residue is then filter cake, which is 
suitable for manure purposes. __ 
