HOW BEET SUGAR IS MADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1291, 26 November 1896, Page 4

HOW BEET SUGAR IS MADE.

The process of making sugar from beets is very interesting. First, the beets are brought in by the farmers and deposited in large sheds with Vshaped bottoms, which are connected with the factory by means of channels, through which a moderate flow of water carries the beets into the first washing machine. By means of a spiral the beets are tumbled about, washed, and carried on until they drop into an elevator, which carries them to the top of the building, where they pass through an automatic weigher and are sliced in such a manner as to open up the pores of the beet as far as possible. The sugar beet is very similar to the honeycomb, and in its little cells is secreted the sweet matter, so that in slicing it is desirable to open up as many of these little cells as possible. Hence the necessity of having the Knives sharp, so that the cells may not bo ruptured, bub clean cut. As these slices come from under the cutter, they are put in what is known as a diffusion battery. In this battery the sugar is extracted by soaking the sliced beets in water. Warm water is turned into the contents of a large iron jar holding several tons of sliced beets. This water circulates through the mass of cossettes (the name given lo tie slices of bi'et>) and passes out through the bottom by means of a pipe whicU enters the top of jni* No. 2, the water being forced along by pressure. From one battery to another, this liquid passes along until it has gone through 14 cells or jars, when it is shown that sufficient water has pa3sed through jar No. 1. The water is now turned off and No. 2 becomes No. 1, and No. 1 is emptied of its cossettes and refilled, becoming No. 14, and so the circle is continued all day and all night, procuring in this way ail the sugar in the cossettes in liquid form, which now has the colour of vinegar. This liquid is now taken to a measuring tank near by, from which it goes to a mixer, where it is mixed with lime and then put into a huge tank for carbonation, in which the lime and all foreign matter it contains are rendered insoluble by means of carbonic acid gas forced through the bottom of the carbonation tank. Then fche mixture comes through the filter press-room, where, by means of an

1 elaborate series of frames, it is filtered and becomes transparent. The process of mixing, carbouating and filtering is then repeated for the second time. This finished, the syrup is treated with sulphur fumes, and then passes into the quadruple-effect, which is four large boilers, in which the water contained in the syrup is evaporated, when we have what is called "thick juice." This syrup is boiled in the vacuum pan, and now becomes raw sugar, and is then run into the centrifugals and made into white sugar. The sugar is now damp, like wet snow, and by means of a granulator it is dried, and through different sieves is separated into the finer or coarser grained sugar ready for the market. This brief description gives a clear idea of the general process, but many important details are necessarily omitted The refining of the raw sugar into the fine white granulated sugar of commerce requires an expensive refinery.—J. G. H., American Agriculturist.