Something about sugar : $b Its history, growth, manufacture and distributionRolph, George M. (George Morrison)
History
Something about sugar : $b Its history, growth, manufacture and distribution
Rolph, George M. (George Morrison)
Sugar
As soon as the centrifugal machine is filled with massecuite from the
mixer above, the power is turned on and the machine begins to spin around
at an increasing speed until a velocity of one thousand revolutions per
minute is reached. The centrifugal action forces practically all the
liquor out through the screen and leaves in the machine all the grains
of sugar that were formed in the pan. A little dry steam is sometimes
turned in to assist in reducing the moisture in the sugar.
The centrifugal is then stopped, a valve in the bottom is opened, and the
nearly dry crystallized raw sugar is dropped into bins. From the bins
it is drawn off through spouts and packed in sacks containing about one
hundred and twenty-five pounds each.
It has been demonstrated that raw sugar containing a large amount
of moisture inverts or deteriorates more rapidly than that with a
low-moisture content. It is apparent that as moisture adds to the weight,
the transportation charges, which are based on tonnage, are greater in
the case of wet sugar than in the case of dry. In many of the modern
mills, therefore, a further treatment is given the sugar to reduce loss
by inversion and lessen freight charges.
From the bins last mentioned the sugar is dropped into revolving drums
six feet in diameter and twenty-six feet long, set at an incline so that
as the drum revolves the sugar is carried round to the highest point on
the circumference of the drum and dropped to the lower side, at the same
time traveling from the receiving to the discharging end. The shape,
motion and inclined position of the drum cause a perfect shower of sugar
in the drum for its entire length and breadth. While it is revolving a
current of hot, dry air is drawn through the drum by means of suction
fans, and as a result the moisture in the sugar is absorbed by the air
and carried out of the building. At this stage the product has a good
hard grain of a yellowish-brown color; contains from ninety-six to
ninety-seven per cent of pure sugar and about one-half of one per cent of
moisture.
[Illustration: FILLING, WEIGHING AND SEWING SACKS]
[Illustration: TRAIN-LOAD OF RAW SUGAR LEAVING MILL]
From the end of the revolving drum the sugar is drawn off into sacks
holding about one hundred and twenty-five pounds each. These sacks are
sewed by machinery and put into railroad cars to be hauled to the docks
at the shipping port, where the cars are switched under huge hoisting
cranes or alongside speedy conveyors which carry the sugar into large
seagoing steamers especially built for the trade. Some of these ships
have a cargo capacity of two hundred and twenty thousand sacks, and they
transport the sugar to the buyers on the mainland in San Francisco, New
York or Philadelphia, as the planter directs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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