Scientific American Supplement, No. 633, February 18, 1888 by Various
page 78 of 135 (57%)
page 78 of 135 (57%)
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each other and with pumps in such a way as to reduce the pressure in the
first to about three fifths and in the second to about one fifth the normal atmospheric pressure. The juice boils rapidly in the first at somewhat below the temperature of boiling water, and in the second at a still lower temperature. The exhaust steam from the engines is used for heating the first pan, and the vapor from the boiling juice in the first pan is hot enough to do all the boiling in the second, and is taken into the copper pipes of the second for this purpose. In this way the evaporation is effected without so great expenditure of fuel as is necessary in open pans, or in single effect vacuum pans, and the deleterious influences of long continued high temperature on the crystallizing powers of the sugar are avoided. From the double effects the sirup is stored in tanks ready to be taken into the strike pan, where the sugar is crystallized. THE FIRST CHANCE TO PAUSE. At this point the juice has just reached a condition in which it will keep. From the moment the cane is cut in the fields until now, every delay is liable to entail loss of sugar by inversion. After the water is put into the cells of the battery with the chips, the temperature is carefully kept above that at which fermentation takes place most readily, and the danger of inversion is thereby reduced. But with all the precautions known to science up to this point the utmost celerity is necessary to secure the best results. There is here, however, a natural division in the process of sugar making, which will be further considered under the heading of "Auxiliary Factories." Any part of the |
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