ELECTROLYSIS AND REFINING OF SUGAR.


Mr. G. Fahrig, of Eccles, Lancashire, has invented a new process of
refining sugar through electrolysis. The brown sugar is decolorized by
means of ozone produced by electric currents of high tension from a
dynamo. The electrodes consist of metal grills covered with platinum
or some other inoxidizable metal, and are placed in a vat with the
intervention of perforated earthenware plates. After being ground and
dried in hot air, the crude sugar is placed between the plate and the
grills, and the discharges passing between the electrodes produce
ozone, which separates the sugar from the coloring matter. To purify
the sugar still further, Mr. Fahrig dries it and places it in another
vat, with carbon or platinum conducting plates separated by a porous
partition. The sugar is placed on one side of this partition, and
water circulates on the other side.

The current from a dynamo of feeble tension is sent through the vat
between the plates. The water carries along the impurities separated
by the current, and the sugar is further whitened and refined.

[Illustration]

The accompanying figure shows a series of four vats arranged one above
another, in order to permit the water to circulate. Here _i_ and _h_
represent the plates connected with the poles of the dynamo through
the conductors, _f_ and _g_; _m_ represents the porous partition; L,
the spaces filled with sugar; and _l_, the compartments in which the
water circulates.--_La Lumiere Electrique._