Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/772

* SUGAR. 670 SUGAR. tanks. The process is continuous, accomplishes a hi<;h degree of purification, eliminates the labor of skimming, and is conducted in a closed apparatus. The clarified juice containing from 10 to 18 per cent, of sugar is evaporated in multiple- ell'ect vacuum evaporators, so called because tlic heating effect of the steam is utilized iu vacuo as many times as there are pans in the series, steam being applied to the first pan and the vapor from the boiling juice to the second pan, and so on. From the last pan the vapor passes to a condenser, kept in constant vacuum by a continuously acting pump from which it flows away. The juice is pumped continuous!}- through the pans, from the last of which it issues as a .syrup containing about 50 per cent, of dissolved matter, including from 40 to 45 per cent, of sugar and 5 to 10 per cent, of impurities. The syrup is then admitted to the 'strike' pan, a cylindrical east-iron vessel provided with a vacuum pump, condenser, and several coils of copper tubing, to which steam may be admitted as desired. After further condensation, and when about one-foui-th or one-third full of thick liquor, a frc-sli charge of cool syrup is admitted to cause the formation of minute sugar crystals ('grain'), the size of which can he controlled by the sugar- boiler, who regulates the boiling and the admis- sion of fresh syrup so as to avoid the formation of new crystals, 'false grain.' The pan is emptied when it becomes filled with a dense mass of sugar crystals and syrup, 'massecuite,' which is con- veyed to cylindrical metal vessels (centrifugal niacliines) with perforated walls and supported upon vertical shafts making from 1000 to 1500 revolutions a minute, the force throwing the syrup out through the walls. After the sugar is sprayed with water in which a little ultramarine or other harmless blue is added to correct the yellow tint, it is removed, and in the case of granulated sugar is dried in revolving drums (granulators) through which a current of warm air passes. The molasses may be reboiled even three times for a 'second,' 'third.' and, if exceptionally pure, even a 'fourth' sugar. In these cases the masse- cuites, which contain no crystals when they leave the vacuum pan. are placed in 'sugar wao:on3,' tanks or metal bo.xcs on wheels, for a few hours or days until crystals form. These second and third masseeuites are fi*quently granulated in cylindrical 'erystallizers' while constantly stirred by revolving paddles, a method ('crystallization in movement') veiy generally adopted in modern beet-sugar factories. Beet Sugae. The manufacture of sugar from beet roots is a comparatively modern in- dustry, having its inception in the investiga- tions of MargTalT. who in 1747 announced to the Berlin Academy of Sciences the analyses of sev- eral sugar-containing plants and predicted that the sugar beet (q.v. ), being the most saccharine of the plants examined, would become the basis of a great industry. Nearly half a century later the problem was soh'ed by a pupil of !MargrafT, -Achard. who made a considerable quantity of beet sugar and announced his methods to the Berlin Academy of Sciences and to the Institute of France in 17!17 and 1793. respectively. In Germany several beet-sugar factories were built within the next decade, and beginning with ISIO the industry, being stimulated by governmental aid in both countries, developed steadily. Aaton- isliing improvements have been wrought in all branches. The percentage of sugar in the roots has been increased by selection from less than 7 per cent, at the beginning to an average in 1900 exceeding 14 per cent, and a maximum of more than '20 per cent. : the quality of the roots, the j-ield in tons per acre, and the improved proc- esses of manufacture, which according to German statistics have reduced the weight of roots necessary to yield a pound of sugar from 18 pounds in 1837 to 7.02 pounds in 1899, have combined to make the industry profitable both in Europe, with its cheap labor, and in America, with its cheap lands. In the manufacture of beet sugar the roots, already trimmed of leaves, are conveyed by water in little canals which extend through the bottoms of the V-shaped storage sheds, to the Aashing machine, where every particle of soil is removed by revolving bi-ushes, the roots con- stantly progressing against a current of water toward the automatic weigliing machine. After the weight has been recorded the roots go to the slicer. Here they are cut by corrugated knives into little V-shaped slices (cosscttes) that drop into large iron tanks (cells), a series of 12 to 14 of which constitute a 'diffusion battery,' so called because the sugar is removed from the cossettcs by water into which the sugar difi'uses and which passes by a complicated system of pipes and valves through all the charged cells of the series, always from the longest filled cell, containing nearly exhausted cosscttes, to the most recently filled, thus removing the largest possible quantity of sugar with the smallest quantity of water. One of the two uncharged cells is always being filled with fresh cossettcs. the other being emptied, its cosscttes containing less than 0.5 per cent, of sugar. Thus the process is continuous. The exhausted cossettcs, which are used as stock food, are pressed to remove the excess of water and in some cases are dried to enhance their transporting and storing qualities. Number aM) Nominal Pailt Capacity of Establish- mekts in 1900, 1899, and 1889 [From the Twelfth Census] 1900 1899 1889 STATES AND TEBBITOHIES to 111 C.=l to •5-1 "a t^.£: ■X. "oh s-Sg ^- 49 '5-?': ill The Vnitea States 37* 22 .310 31t 19,110 15 7,560 California 8 3 1 10 1 3 1 3 1 1 i 1 9,900 1,850 700 1,430 400 1,260 200 1,000 400 350 l,4,')0t 3,W 8t 1 1 9 1 3 1 2 i 3 1 9,900 360 700 4,100 400 1,260 200 400 6 "i 1 2 1 2 1 2 4,400 Michifran Minnesota 400 400 660 New Mexico New York Ohio 200 400 350 1.100§ 350 350 Utah 750 Washington.... establishment. % Inchidea two auxiliary factories. § In- oliides one auxiliary factory at which no siipar is manu- factured, but juice is extracted from the bepts and pumped to acentral factory for treatment. In November. 1903, other factorfps not m<^ntioned in the above table were opened as follows : Michigan, 6; Utah, 2; Colorado, 1.
 * Tnrlndes two idle establishments, f Inchides one idle