The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
"My first start was for Paris, where I remained a week, procuring
the necessary letters of introduction, to enable me to see some of
the sugar works in the provinces. Whilst there I called upon Messrs.
Cail and Co., the principal machine makers in France, mentioned the
subject of my visit, and requested their assistance. Nothing could
have been more liberal than the way in which they treated me. I was
at once asked to look over their establishment and requested to call
the next day, when letters of introduction to their branch
establishments at Valenciennes and Brussels would be ready for me.
This I of course did, and received not only these letters but some
others, to sugar manufacturers in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes.
Thus provided, and with letters from Mr. D'Eickthal, a banker in
Paris, to Mr. Dubranfaut, the chemist, to Mr. Grar, a refiner of
Valenciennes, to Mr. Melsens of Brussels, and to another sugar maker
near Valenciennes, whose name I forget, and who was the only man
from whom I did not receive the greatest politeness, I started for
Valenciennes. My first essay was upon the latter personage, who
evidently with a considerable grudge showed me a simple room in his
works where four centrifugal machines were at work--raised the cry
of ruin, if the French improvements were introduced in the West
Indies, and informed me he had nothing else worth seeing. I returned
to Valenciennes, thinking if this is the way I was to be treated, I
might as well have stayed at home. That this was a solitary instance
of illiberality, you will presently see. I next called upon Mr.
Grar, by whom I was received in a very different manner; he at once
offered to show me over his works, and especially that part of them
where a new process, discovered by Mr. Dubranfaut, was carried on,
every part of which was fully explained, Mr. Dubranfaut's laboratory
is connected with these works, and having inspected the working part
of the establishment Mr. G. then took me there, and introduced me to
that gentleman, with whom I passed the remainder of the afternoon,
receiving a full explanation of his new process, which is this:--a
solution of hydrate of barytes is made in boiling water--the
saccharine solution to be treated is heated to the same degree, and
the two mixed together in the proportions of 46 parts of hydrate of
barytes to every 100 parts of sugar contained in the solution, which
has previously been ascertained by polariscopic examination. A
saccharate of barytes is immediately formed in the shape of a
copious precipitate; this, after being thoroughly washed and thus
freed from all soluble impurities, is transferred into large, deep
vats, and a stream of carbonic acid gas forced into it, which
decomposes the saccharate of barytes, forming carbonate of barytes,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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