Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/244

236 of which would hardly be suspected, is left in the filters in the form of a black sediment. A comparison of a sample of the sugar at this stage with a sample taken from the first boiling shows how far the refining process has advanced: the one being clear, and of an amber colour, the other cloudy and darkened by foreign matter. The next stage is the passing of the viscous fluid through a cylinder filled with prepared animal charcoal, from which it issues a clear, transparent stream, white and ready to go through the process of granulation. The liquid is run into storage tanks, and fed into large copper vacuum pans, the water being driven off by means of steam circulating through copper coils. The boiling completed, the mixture passes into centrifugal machines, in which the sugar is separated from the syrup. These machines contain a perforated cylinder, rotating at a high speed, the syrup being forced through the holes into an outer receptacle. The resulting sugar is white and moist, and has to be treated in large revolving granulators, or driers, before it is finally ready for sifting and packing. A lower class of brown sugar is extracted from the syrup, which is returned, with some colouring matter, to the vacuum boilers, and passes once more through the centrifugal machines; each repetition of the process giving a different grade of sugar. After all the crystallised sugar has been extracted, the syrup, or molasses, is either marketed as such, or sent to the distillery for use in the manufacture of spirits. In another department of the refinery, loaf, cube, and powdered, or icing, sugars are made, mechanical means being employed in moulding the cube sugar. To ensure a satisfactory water supply, large sand filter beds have been laid down on the premises, and a complete condensing apparatus has been installed. And last, but by no means of least importance, a laboratory is provided in which European chemists make analyses and tests of the sugar at various stages of its refinement.

The direction of the works is under Mr. A. Rodger, who is assisted by a staff of no fewer than twenty-five Europeans. Employment is given to a large number of Chinese workmen. 



in all its stages may be seen at the great factory at Causeway Ray, owned by the Hongkong Cotton-spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Company, Ltd., the general managers of which are Messrs. Jardine, Matheson &amp; Co., Ltd. The buildings are nine in number and cover a very large area. The total space enclosed is 400,000 square feet, and the Company has sufficient ground to double the present plant should occasion arise. The size of the mills may be judged by the fact that there are over 55,500 spindles. The raw cotton comes principally from India, while China is the chief market for the manufactured article. The bales of cotton are broken open and their contents fed into the bale-breakers, which remove seed and other impurities from the cotton in readiness for the hopper feeding machines, in which a straightening-out process takes place. In the scutching department the cotton is freed from dirt, leaves, and other impurities by means of powerful fans, and as it issues from the scutching machines it is wound into what are known as laps. Four of these laps are placed on a second machine and made into one, with the object of ensuring uniformity of thickness. On the carding engine the cotton is combed out by large cylinders, covered with slightly projecting wire, and working to the thousandth part of an inch, while in the drawing frames the carded cotton is drawn out and the fibres are placed in a perfect parallel order. In the slubbing, intermediate, and roving frames the cotton is twisted, each process making the thread finer and at the same time stronger. The spinning and reeling frames complete the process, and the yarn is then wound into hanks and put up into bundles, which are stamped with the firm's chop—the dragon and the flag labels being the best known—and baled ready for export. There are 170 carding engines, 21 sets of drawing frames, 21 sets of slubbing frames, and 30 intermediate frames, to mention but some of the departments. The whole of the machinery is by Platts, of Oldham, and of the latest and most improved pattern known in the industries. It is perfect in its action, and adjusted with such nicety that even children may be entrusted with some of the operations.