This defecator is a copper pan, eleven feet long and about three feet wide. At each end of this pan is placed a copper tube three inches in diameter and closed at both ends. Lying between and connecting these two, are twelve tubes, also of copper, 1½ inches in diameter, penetrating the larger tubes at equal distances from their upper and under surfaces, the smaller being parallel with each other, and 1½ inches apart. When placed in position, the larger tubes, which act as manifolds, supplying the smaller with steam, rest upon the bottom of the pan, and thus the smaller pipes have a space of three-fourths of an inch underneath their outer surfaces. The cider comes from the storage tank in a continuous stream about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Steam is introduced to the large or manifold tubes, and from them distributed through the smaller ones at a pressure of from twenty-five to thirty pounds per inch. Trap valves are provided for the escape of water formed by condensation within the pipes. The primary object of the defecator is to remove all impurities and perfectly clarify the liquid passing through it. All portions of pomace and other minute particles of foreign matter, when heated, expand and float in the form of scum upon the surface of the cider. An ingeniously contrived floating rake drags off this scum and delivers it over the side of the pan. To facilitate this removal, one side of the pan, commencing at a point just below the surface of the cider, is curved gently outward and upward, terminating in a slightly inclined plane, over the edge of which the scum is pushed by the rake into a trough and carried away. A secondary purpose served by the defecator is that of reducing the cider by evaporation to a partial sirup of the specific gravity of about 20° Baume. When of this consistency the liquid is drawn from the bottom and less agitated portion of the defecator by a siphon, and thence carried to the evaporator, which is located upon the same framework and just below the defecator.