Chapter M: D’Arcet states the analysis of Marseilles soap at (5)

“From there being nearly a vacuum, as to aqueous vapour, in the said air, while there is nearly a plenum in the external atmosphere round about the Custom-house, the vicissitudes of feeling in those who have occasion to go out and in frequently, must be highly detrimental to health. The permanent action of an artificial desiccated air on the animal economy may be stated as follows:--

“The living body is continually emitting a transpirable matter, the quantity of which, in a grown up man, will depend partly on the activity of the cutaneous exhalents, and partly on the relative dryness or moisture of the circumambient medium. Its average amount, in common circumstances, has been estimated at 20 ounces in twenty-four hours.

“When plunged in a very dry air, the insensible perspiration will be increased; and, as it is a true evaporation or gasefaction, it will generate cold proportionably to its amount. Those parts of the body which are most insulated in the air, and furthest from the heart, such as the extremities, will feel this refrigerating influence most powerfully. Hence the coldness of the hands and feet, so generally felt by the inmates of the apartment, though its temperature be at or above 60°. The brain, being screened by the skull from this evaporating influence, will remain relatively hot, and will get surcharged, besides, with the fluids which are repelled from the extremities by the condensation, or contraction, of the blood-vessels, caused by cold. Hence the affections of the head, such as tension, and its dangerous consequences. If sensible perspiration happen, from debility, to break forth from a system previously relaxed, and plunged into dry air, so attractive of vapour, it will be of the kind called a cold clammy sweat on the sides and back, as experienced by many inmates of the Long Room.

“Such, in my humble apprehension, is a rationale of the phenomena observed at the Custom-house. Similar effects have resulted from hot-air stoves of a similar kind in many other situations.

“After the most mature physical and medical investigation, I am of opinion that the circumstances above specified cannot act permanently upon human beings, without impairing their constitutions, and reducing the value of their lives. The Directors of the Customs Fund are therefore justified in their apprehensions, ‘that the mode of heating the Long Room is injurious to the health of persons employed therein, and that it must unduly shorten the duration of life.’

“It may be admitted, as a general principle, that the comfort of sedentary individuals, occupying large apartments during the winter months, cannot be adequately secured by the mere influx of hot air from separate stove-rooms: it requires the genial influence of radiating surfaces in the apartments themselves, such as of open fires, of pipes, or other vessels filled with hot water or steam. The clothing of our bodies, exposed to such radiation in a pure, fresh, somewhat cool and bracing air, absorbs a much more agreeable warmth than it could acquire by being merely immersed in an atmosphere heated even to 62° Fahr., like that of the Long Room. In the former predicament, the lungs are supplied with a relatively dense air, say at 52° Fahr.; while the external surface of the body or the clothing is maintained at, perhaps, 70° or 75°. This distinctive circumstance has not, I believe, been hitherto duly considered by the stove doctors, each intent on puffing his own pecuniary interest; but it is obviously one of great importance, and which the English people would do well to keep in view; because it is owing to our domestic apartments being heated by open fires, and our factories by steam pipes, that the health of our population, and the expectation of life among all orders in this country, are so much better than in France and Germany, where hot-air stoves, neither agreeable nor inoffensive, and in endless variety of form, are generally employed.

“In conclusion, I take leave to state to you my firm conviction that the only method of warming your Long Room and subsidiary apartments, combining salubrity, safety, and economy, with convenience in erection and durable comfort in use, is by a series of steam pipes laid along the floor, at the line of the desk partitions, in suitable lengths, with small arched junction-pipes rising over the several doorways, to keep the passages clear, and at the same time to allow a free expansion and contraction in the pipes, thereby providing for the permanent soundness of the joints.”

It would not be difficult to construct a stove or stove-grate which should combine economy and comfort of warming an apartment, with briskness of combustion and durability of the fire, without any noxious deflux of carbonic acid. See CHIMNEY.

STRASS; see PASTES.

STRAW-HAT MANUFACTURE. The mode of preparing the Tuscany or Italian straw, is by pulling the bearded wheat while the ear is in a soft milky state, the corn having been sown very close, and of consequence produced in a thin, short, and dwindled condition. The straw, with its ears and roots, is spread out thinly upon the ground in fine hot weather, for three or four days or more, in order to dry the sap; it is then tied up in bundles and stacked, for the purpose of enabling the heat of the mow to drive off any remaining moisture. It is important to keep the ends of the straw air-tight, in order to retain the pith, and prevent its gummy particles from passing off by evaporation.

After the straw has been about a month in the mow, it is removed to a meadow and spread out, that the dew may act upon it, together with the sun and air, and promote the bleaching, it being necessary frequently to turn the straw while this process is going on. The first process of bleaching being complete, the lower joint and root is pulled from the straw, leaving the upper part fit for use, which is then sorted according to qualities; and after being submitted to the action of steam, for the purpose of extracting its colour, and then to a fumigation of sulphur, to complete the bleaching, the straws are in a condition to be platted or woven into hats and bonnets, and are in that state imported into England in bundles, the dried ears of the wheat being still on the straw.

Straw may be easily bleached by a solution of chloride of lime, and also by sulphuring. For the latter purpose, a cask open at both ends, with its seams papered, is to be set upright a few inches from the ground, having a hoop nailed to its inside, about six inches beneath the top, to support another hoop with a net stretched across it, upon which the straw is to be laid in successive handfuls loosely crossing each other. The cask having been covered with a tight overlapping lid, stuffed with lists of cloth, a brazier of burning charcoal is to be inserted within the bottom, and an iron dish containing pieces of brimstone is to be put upon the brazier. The brimstone soon takes fire, and fills the cask with sulphurous acid gas, whereby the straw gets bleached in the course of three or four hours. Care should be taken to prevent such a violent combustion of the sulphur as might cause black burned spots, for these cannot be afterwards removed. The straw, after being aired and softened by spreading it upon the grass for a night, is ready to be split, preparatory to dyeing. Blue is given by a boiling-hot solution of indigo in sulphuric acid, called _Saxon blue_, diluted to the desired shade; yellow, by decoction of turmeric; red, by boiling hanks of coarse scarlet wool in a bath of weak alum water, containing the straw; or directly, by cochineal, salt of tin, and tartar. Brazil wood and archil are also employed for dyeing straw. For the other colours, see their respective titles in this Dictionary.

STRETCHING MACHINE. Cotton goods and other textile fabrics, either white or printed, are prepared for the market by being stretched in a proper machine, which lays all their warp and woof yarns in truly parallel positions. A very ingenious and effective mechanism of this kind was made the subject of a patent by Mr. Samuel Morand, of Manchester, in April, 1834, which serves to extend the width of calico pieces, or of other cloths woven of cotton, wool, silk, or flax, after they have become shrunk in the processes of bleaching, dyeing, &c. I regret that the limits of this volume will not admit of its description. The specification of the patent is published in Newton’s Journal, for December, 1835.

STRONTIA, one of the alkaline earths, of which _strontium_ is the metallic basis, occurs in a crystalline state, as a carbonate, in the lead mines of Strontian in Argyleshire, whence its name. The sulphate is found crystallized near Bristol, and in several other parts of the world; but strontitic minerals are rather rare. The pure earth is prepared exactly like baryta, from either the carbonate or the sulphate. It is a grayish-white powder, infusible in the furnace, of a specific gravity approaching that of baryta, having an acrid, burning taste, but not so corrosive as baryta, though sharper than lime. It becomes hot when moistened, and slakes into a pulverulent hydrate, dissolves in 150 parts of water at 60°, and in much less at the boiling point, forming an alkaline solution called _strontia_ water, which deposits crystals in four-sided tables as it cools. These contain 68 per cent. of water, are soluble in 52 parts of water at 60°, and in about 2 parts of boiling water; when heated they part with 53 parts of water, but retain the other 15 parts, even at a red heat. The dry earth consists of 84·55 of base, and 15·45 of oxygen. It is readily distinguished from baryta, by its inferior solubility, and by its soluble salts giving a red tinge to flame, while those of baryta give a yellow tinge. Fluosilicic acid and iodate of soda precipitate the salts of the latter earth, but not those of the former. The compounds of strontia are not poisonous, like those of baryta. The only preparation of strontia used in the arts is the NITRATE, which see.

STRYCHNIA, is an alkaline base, extracted from the _Strychnos nux vomica_, _Strychnos ignatia_, and the _Upas tiente_; which has been employed in medicine by some of the poison doctors, but is of no use in any of the arts. When introduced into the stomach, strychnia acts with fearful energy, causing lock-jaw immediately, and the death of the animal in a very short time. Half a grain, blown into the throat of a rabbit, proves fatal in five minutes.

STUCCO. See GYPSUM.

SUBERIC ACID, is prepared by digesting grated cork with nitric acid. It forms crystals, which sublime in white vapours when heated.

SUBLIMATE, is any solid matter resulting from condensed vapours, and,

SUBLIMATION, is the process by which the volatile particles are raised by heat, and condensed into a crystalline mass. See CALOMEL and SAL-AMMONIAC, for examples.

SUBSALT, is a salt in which the base is not saturated with acid; as subacetate of lead.

SUCCINIC ACID, _Acid of amber_, (_Acide succinique_, Fr.; _Bernsteinsaüre_, Germ.) is obtained by distilling coarsely pounded amber in a retort by itself, with a heat gradually raised; or mixed with one-twelfth of its weight of sulphuric acid, diluted with half its weight of water. The acid which sublimes is to be dissolved in hot water, to be saturated with potassa or soda, boiled with bone black, to remove the foul empyreumatic oily matter, filtered, and precipitated by nitrate of lead, to convert it into an insoluble succinate; which being washed, is to be decomposed by the equivalent quantity of sulphuric acid. Pure succinic acid forms transparent prisms. The succinate of ammonia is an excellent reagent for detecting and separating iron.

SUGAR (_Sucre_, Fr.; _Zucker_, Germ.); is the sweet constituent of vegetable and animal products. It may be distinguished into two principal species. The first, which occurs in the sugar-cane, the beet-root, and the maple, crystallizes in oblique four-sided prisms, terminated by two-sided summits; it has a sweetening power which may be represented by 100; and in circumpolarization it bends the luminous rays to the right. The second occurs ready formed in ripe grapes and other fruits; it is also produced by treating starch with diastase or sulphuric acid. This species forms cauliflower concretions, but not true crystals; it has a sweetening power which may be represented by 60, and in circumpolarization it bends the rays to the left. Besides these two principal kinds of sugar, some others are distinguished by chemists; as the sugar of milk, of manna, of certain mushrooms, of liquorice-root, and that obtained from sawdust and glue by the action of sulphuric acid; but they have no importance in a manufacturing point of view.

Sugar, extracted either from the cane, the beet, or the maple, is identical in its properties and composition, when refined to the same pitch of purity; only that of the beet seems to surpass the other two in cohesive force, since larger and firmer crystals of it are obtained from a clarified solution of equal density. It contains 5·3 per cent. of combined water, which can be separated only by uniting it with oxide of lead, into what has been called a saccharate; made by mixing syrup with finely ground litharge, and evaporating the mixture to dryness upon a steam-bath. When sugar is exposed to a heat of 400° F., it melts into a brown pasty mass, but still retains its water of composition. Sugar thus fused is no longer capable of crystallization, and is called caramel by the French. It is used for colouring liqueurs. Indeed sugar is so susceptible of change by heat, that if a colourless solution of it be exposed for some time to the temperature of boiling water, it becomes brown and partially uncrystallizable. Acids exercise such an injurious influence upon sugar, that after remaining in contact with it for a little while, though they be rendered thoroughly neutral, a great part of the sugar will refuse to crystallize. Thus, if 3 parts of oxalic or tartaric acid be added to sugar in solution, no crystals of sugar can be obtained by evaporation, even though the acids be neutralized by chalk or carbonate of lime. By boiling cane sugar with dilute sulphuric acid, it is changed into starch sugar. Manufacturers of sugar should be, therefore, particularly watchful against every acidulous taint or impregnation. Nitric acid converts sugar into oxalic and malic acids. Alkaline matter is likewise most detrimental to the grain of sugar; as is always evinced by the large quantity of molasses formed, when an excess of temper lime has been used in clarifying the juice of the cane or the beet. When one piece of lump sugar is rubbed against another in the dark, a phosphorescent light is emitted.

Sugar is soluble in all proportions in water; but it takes four parts of spirits of wine, of spec. grav. 0·830, and 80 of absolute alcohol, to dissolve it, both being at a boiling temperature. As the alcohol cools, it deposits the sugar in small crystals. Caramelized and uncrystallizable sugar dissolves readily in alcohol. Pure sugar is unchangeable in the air, even when dissolved in a good deal of water, if the solution be kept covered and in the dark; but with a very small addition of gluten, the solution soon begins to ferment, whereby the sugar is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid, and ultimately into acetic acid.

Sugar forms chemical compounds with the salifiable bases. It dissolves readily in caustic potash lye, whereby it loses its sweet taste, and affords on evaporation a mass which is insoluble in alcohol. When the lye is neutralized by sulphuric acid, the sugar recovers its sweet taste, and may be separated from the sulphate of potash by alcohol, but it will no longer crystallize.

That syrup possesses the property of dissolving the alkaline earths, lime, magnesia, strontites, barytes, was demonstrated long ago by Mr. Ramsay of Glasgow, by experiments published in Nicholson’s Journal, vol. xviii. page 9, for September 1807. He found that syrup is capable of dissolving half as much lime as it contains of sugar; and as much strontites as sugar. Magnesia dissolved in much smaller quantity, and barytes seemed to decompose the sugar entirely. These results have been since confirmed by Professor Daniell. Mr. Ramsay characterized sugar treated with lime as weak, from its sweetening power being impaired; from its solution he obtained, after some time, a deposit of calcareous carbonate. M. Pelouze has lately shown that the carbonic acid in this case is derived from the atmosphere, and is not formed at the expense of the elements of the sugar, as Mr. Daniell had asserted.

Sugar forms with oxide of lead two combinations; the one soluble, the other insoluble. Oxide of lead digested in syrup dissolves to a certain amount, forms a yellowish liquor, which possesses an alkaline reaction, and leaves after evaporation an uncrystallizable, viscid, deliquescent mass. If syrup be boiled with oxide of lead in excess, if the solution be filtered boiling hot, and if the phial be corked in which it is received, white bulky flocks will fall to its bottom in the course of 24 hours. This compound is best dried _in vacuo_. It is in both cases light, tasteless, and insoluble in cold and boiling water; it takes fire like German tinder (AMADOU), when touched at one point with an ignited body, and burns away, leaving small globules of lead. It dissolves in acids, and also in neutral acetate of lead, which forms with the oxide a subsalt, and sets the sugar free. Carbonic acid gas passed through water, in which the above saccharate is diffused, decomposes it with precipitation of carbonate of lead. It consists of 58·26 parts of oxide of lead, and 41·74 sugar, in 100 parts. From the powerful action exercised upon sugar by acids and oxide of lead, we may see the fallacy and danger of using these chemical reagents in sugar-refining. Sugar possesses the remarkable property of dissolving the oxide, as well as the subacetate of copper (verdigris), and of counteracting their poisonous operation. Orfila found that a dose of verdigris, which would kill a dog in an hour or two, might be swallowed with impunity, provided it was mixed with a considerable quantity of sugar. When a solution of sugar is boiled with the acetate of copper, it causes an abundant precipitate of protoxide of copper; when boiled with the nitrates of mercury and silver, or the chloride of gold, it reduces the respective bases to the metallic state.

The following TABLE shows the quantities of Sugar contained in Syrups of the annexed specific gravities.[63] It was the result of experiments carefully made.

[63] The author, in minutes of evidence of Molasses Committee of the
House of Commons, 1831, p. 142.

+------------------------+-------------+
|Experimental spec. grav.|Sugar in 100.|
| of solution at 60° F. | by weight. |
+------------------------+-------------+
| 1·3260 | 66·666 |
| 1·2310 | 50·000 |
| 1·1777 | 40·000 |
| 1·440 | 33·333 |
| 1·1340 | 31·250 |
| 1·1250 | 29·412 |
| 1·1110 | 26·316 |
| 1·1045 | 25·000 |
| 1·0905 | 21·740 |
| 1·0820 | 20·000 |
| 1·0685 | 16·666 |
| 1·0500 | 12·500 |
| 1·0395 | 10·000 |
+------------------------+-------------+

If the decimal part of the number denoting the specific gravity of syrup, be multiplied by 26, the product will denote very nearly the quantity of sugar per gallon in pounds weight, at the given specific gravity.[64]

[64] This rule was annexed to an extensive table, representing the
quantities of sugar per gallon corresponding to the specific gravities
of the syrup, constructed by the author for the Excise, in
subserviency to the Beet-root Bill.

Sugar has been analyzed by several chemists; the following TABLE exhibits some of their results:--

+--------+------------+----------+------+-----+-------+
| | Gay Lussac | | | | |
| |and Thenard.|Berzelius.|Prout.|Ure. | |
+--------+------------+----------+------+-----+-------+
|Oxygen | 56·63 | 49·856 |53·35 |50·33|in 100.|
|Carbon | 42·47 | 43·265 |39·99 |43·38| -- |
|Hydrogen| 6·90 | 6·875 | 6·66 | 6·29| -- |
+--------+------------+----------+------+-----+-------+

_Of the sugar cane, and the extraction of sugar from it._--Humboldt, after the most elaborate historical and botanical researches in the New World, has arrived at the conclusion, that before America was discovered by the Spaniards, the inhabitants of that continent and the adjacent islands were entirely unacquainted with the sugar canes, with any of our corn plants, and with rice. The progressive diffusion of the cane has been thus traced out by the partisans of its oriental origin. From the interior of Asia it was transplanted first into Cyprus, and thence into Sicily, or possibly by the Saracens directly into the latter island, in which a large quantity of sugar was manufactured in the year 1148. Lafitau relates the donation made by William the Second, king of Sicily, to the convent of St. Benoit, of a mill for crushing sugar canes, along with all its privileges, workmen, and dependencies: which remarkable gift bears the date of 1166. According to this author, the sugar cane must have been imported into Europe at the period of the Crusades. The monk Albertus Aquensis, in the description which he has given of the processes employed at Acre and at Tripoli to extract sugar, says, that in the Holy Land, the Christian soldiers being short of provisions, had recourse to sugar canes, which they chewed for subsistence. Towards the year 1420, Dom Henry, regent of Portugal, caused the sugar cane to be imported into Madeira from Sicily. This plant succeeded perfectly in Madeira and the Canaries; and until the discovery of America these islands supplied Europe with the greater portion of the sugar which it consumed.

The cane is said by some to have passed from the Canaries into the Brazils; but by others, from the coast of Angola in Africa, where the Portuguese had a sugar colony. It was transported in 1506, from the Brazils and the Canaries, into Hispaniola or Hayti, where several crushing-mills were constructed in a short time. It would appear, moreover, from the statement of Peter Martyr, in the third book of his first Decade, written during the second expedition of Christopher Columbus, which happened between 1493 and 1495, that even at this date the cultivation of the sugar cane was widely spread in St. Domingo. It may therefore be supposed to have been introduced here by Columbus himself, at his first voyage, along with other productions of Spain and the Canaries, and that its cultivation had come into considerable activity at the period of his second expedition. Towards the middle of the 17th century, the sugar cane was imported into Barbadoes from Brazil, then into the other English West Indian possessions, into the Spanish Islands on the coast of America, into Mexico, Peru, Chile, and, last of all, into the French, Dutch, and Danish colonies.

The sugar cane, _Arundo saccharifera_, is a plant of the graminiferous family, which varies in height from 8 to 10, or even to 20 feet. Its diameter is about an inch and a half; its stem is dense, brittle, and of a green hue, which verges to yellow at the approach of maturity. It is divided by prominent annular joints of a whitish-yellow colour, the plane of which is perpendicular to the axis of the stem. These joints are placed about 3 inches apart; and send forth leaves, which fall off with the ripening of the plant. The leaves are 3 or 4 feet long, flat, straight, pointed, from 1 to 2 inches in breadth, of a sea-green tint, striated in their length, alternate, embracing the stem by their base. They are marked along their edges with almost imperceptible teeth. In the 11th or 12th month of their growth, the canes push forth at their top a sprout 7 or 8 feet in height, nearly half an inch in diameter, smooth, and without joints, to which the name _arrow_ is given. This is terminated by an ample panicle, about 2 feet long, divided into several knotty ramifications, composed of very numerous flowers, of a white colour, apetalous, and furnished with 3 stamens, the anthers of which are a little oblong. The roots of the sugar cane are jointed and nearly cylindrical; in diameter they are about one twelfth of an inch; in their utmost length 1 foot, presenting over their surface a few short radicles.

The stem of the cane in its ripe state is heavy, very smooth, brittle, of a yellowish-violet, or whitish colour, according to the variety. It is filled with a fibrous, spongy, dirty-white pith, which contains very abundant sweet juice. This juice is elaborated separately in each internodary portion, the functions of which are in this respect independent of the portions above and below. The cane may be propagated by seeds or buds with equal facility; but it is usually done by cuttings or joints of proper lengths, from 15 to 20 inches, in proportion to the nearness of the joints, which are generally taken from the tops of the canes, just below the leaves.

There are several varieties of the sugar-cane plant. The first, and longest known, is the creole, or common sugar cane, which was originally introduced at Madeira. It grows freely in every region within the tropics, on a moist soil, even at an elevation of 3000 feet above the level of the sea. In Mexico, among the mountains of Caudina-Masca, it is cultivated to a height of more than 5000 feet. The quantity and quality of sugar which it yields, is proportional to the heat of the place where it grows, provided it be not too moist and marshy.

The second variety of this plant is the Otaheitan cane. It was introduced into the West Indies about the end of the 18th century. This variety, stronger, taller, with longer spaces between the joints, quicker in its growth, and much more productive in sugar, succeeds perfectly well in lands which seem too much impoverished to grow the ordinary cane. It sends forth shoots at temperatures which chill the growth and development of the creole plant. Its maturation does not take more than a year, and is accomplished sometimes in nine months. From the strength of its stem, and the woodiness of its fibres, it better resists the storms. It displays a better inflorescence, weighs a third more, affords a sixth more juice, and a fourth more sugar, than the common variety. Its main advantage, however, is to yield four crops in the same time that the creole cane yields only three. Its juice contains less feculency and mucilage, whence its sugar is more easily crystallized, and of a fairer colour.

Besides these two varieties, another kind is described by Humboldt and Bonpland, under the name of the _violet_ sugar-cane, for its haum and leaves are of this colour. It was transported from Batavia in 1782. It flowers a month sooner than the rest, that is, in August, but it yields less solid sugar, and more liquid, both of which have a violet tint.

In saying that the cane may be propagated by seeds as well as buds, we must remark, that in all the colonies of the New World, the plant flowers, indeed, but it then sends forth a shoot (_arrow_), that is, its stem elongates, and the seed-vessel proves abortive. For this reason, the bud-joints must there be used for its propagation. It grows to seed, however, in India. This circumstance occurs with some other plants, which, when propagated by their roots, cease to yield fertile seeds; such as the banana, the bread-fruit, the lily, and the tulip.

In the proper season for planting, the ground is marked out by a line into rows three or four feet asunder, in which rows the canes are planted about two feet apart. The series of rows is divided into pieces of land 60 or 70 feet broad, leaving spaces of about 20 feet, for the convenience of passage, and for the admission of sun and air between the stems. Canes are usually planted in trenches, about 6 or 8 inches deep, made with the hand-hoe, the raised soil being heaped to one side, for covering-in the young cane; into the holes a negro drops the number of cuttings intended to be inserted, the digging being performed by other negroes. The earth is then drawn about the hillocks with the hoe. This labour has been, however, in many places better and more cheaply performed by the plough; a deep furrow being made, into which the cuttings are regularly planted, and the mould then properly turned in. If the ground is to be afterwards kept clear by the horse-hoe, the rows of canes should be 5 feet asunder, and the hillocks 2-1/2 feet distant, with only one cane left in one hillock. After some shoots appear, the sooner the horse-hoe is used, the more will the plants thrive, by keeping the weeds under, and stirring up the soil. Plant-canes of the first growth have been known to yield, on the brick-mould of Jamaica, in very fine seasons, 2-1/2 tons of sugar per acre. The proper season for planting the cane-slips, containing the buds, namely, the top part of the cane, stripped of its leaves, and the two or three upper joints, is in the interval between August and the beginning of November. Favoured by the autumnal weather, the young plants become luxuriant enough to shade the ground before the dry season sets in; thereby keeping the roots cool and moderately moist. By this arrangement the creole canes are ripe for the mill in the beginning of the second year, so as to enable the manager to finish his crop early in June. There is no greater error in the colonist than planting canes at an improper season of the year, whereby his whole system of operations becomes disturbed and, in a certain degree, abortive.

The withering and fall of a leaf afford a good criterion of the maturity of the cane-joint to which it belonged; so that the eight last leafless joints of two canes, which are cut the same day, have exactly the same age and the same ripeness, though one of the canes be 15 and the other only 10 months old. Those, however, cut towards the end of the dry season, before the rains begin to fall, produce better sugar than those cut in the rainy season, as they are then somewhat diluted with watery juice, and require more evaporation to form sugar. It may be reckoned a fair average product, when one pound of sugar is obtained from one gallon (English) of juice.

_Rattoons_ (a word corrupted from _rejettons_) are the sprouts or suckers that spring from the roots or stoles of the canes that have been previously cut for sugar. They are commonly ripe in 12 months; but canes of the first growth are called plant-canes, being the direct produce of the original cuttings or germs placed in the ground, and require a longer period to bring them to maturity. The first yearly return from the roots that are cut over, are called first rattoons; the second year’s growth, second rattoons; and so on, according to their age. Instead of stocking up his rattoons, holing, and planting the land anew, the planter suffers the stoles to continue in the ground, and contents himself, as the cane-fields become thin and impoverished, with supplying the vacant places with fresh plants. By these means, and with the aid of manure, the produce of sugar per acre, if not apparently equal to that from plant-canes, gives perhaps in the long run as great returns to the owner, considering the relative proportion of the labour and expense attending the different systems. The common yielding on proper land, such as the red soil of Trelawney, in Jamaica, is 7 hogsheads, of 16 cwt. each, to 10 acres of rattoons cut annually; and such a plantation lasts from 6 to 10 years.

When the planted canes are ripe, they are cut close above the ground, by an oblique section, into lengths of 3 or 4 feet, and transported in bundles to the mill-house. If the roots be then cut off, a few inches below the surface of the soil, and covered up with fine mould, they will push forth more prolific offsets or rattoons, than when left projecting in the common way.

OF SUGAR MILLS.

The first machines employed to squeeze the canes, were mills similar to those which serve to crush apples in some cider districts, or somewhat like tan-mills. In the centre of a circular area, of about 7 or 8 feet in diameter, a vertical heavy wheel was made to revolve on its edge, by attaching a horse to a cross beam projecting horizontally from it, and making it move in a circular path. The cane pieces were strewed on the somewhat concave bed in the path of the wheel, and the juice expressed flowed away through a channel or gutter in the lowest part. This machine was tedious and unproductive. It was replaced by the vertical cylinder-mill of Gonzales de Velosa; which has continued till modern times, with little variation of external form, but is now generally superseded by the sugar-mill with horizontal cylinders.

SUGAR-CANE MILL.

_Specification of, and Observations on, the Construction and Use of the best Horizontal Sugar-mill._

_Fig._ 1075. Front elevation of the entire mill. _Fig._ 1076. Horizontal plan. _Fig._ 1077. End elevation. _Fig._ 1078. Diagram, showing the dispositions of the feeding and delivering rollers, feeding board, returner, and delivering board.

_Fig._ 1075. A, A, solid foundation of masonry; B, B, bed plate; C, C, headstocks or standards; D, main shaft (seen only in _fig._ 1076.); E, intermediate shaft; F, F, plummer-blocks of main shaft D, (seen only in _fig._ 1076.); H, driving pinion on the fly-wheel shaft of engine; I, first motion mortise wheel driven by the pinion; K, second motion pinion, on the same shaft; L, second motion mortise-wheel, on the main shaft; M, brays of wood, holding the plummer-blocks for shaft D; N, wrought-iron straps connecting the brays to the standards C, C; O, O, regulating screws for the brays; P, top roller and gudgeons; Q and R, the lower or feeding and delivering rollers; S, clutch for the connexion of the side of lower rollers Q and R, to the main shaft (seen only in _fig._ 1076.); T, T, the drain gutters of the mill-bed (seen only in _fig._ 1076.).

The same letters of reference are placed respectively on the same parts of the mill in each of _figs._ 1075, 1076, and 1077.

The relative disposition of the rollers is shown in the diagram, _fig._ 1078., in which A is the top roller; B, the feeding roller; C, the delivering roller; D, the returner; E, the feed board; F, the delivering board.

The rollers are made two inches and a quarter to two inches and a half thick, and ribbed in the centre. The feeding and delivering rollers have small flanges at their ends (as shown in _fig._ 1075.), between which the top roller is placed; these flanges prevent the pressed canes or begass from working into the mill-bed. The feeding and top rollers are generally fluted, and sometimes diagonally, enabling them the better to seize the canes from the feed-board. It is, however, on the whole, considered better to flute the feeding roller only, leaving the top and delivering rollers plane; when the top roller is fluted, it should be very slightly, for, after the work of a few weeks, its surface becomes sufficiently rough to bite the canes effectively. The practical disadvantage of fluting the delivering rollers, is in the grooves carrying round a portion of liquor, which is speedily absorbed by the spongy begass, as well as in breaking the begass itself, and thus causing great waste.

The feed board is now generally made of cast iron, and is placed at a considerable inclination, to allow the canes to slip the more easily down to the rollers. The returner is also of cast iron, serrated on the edge, to admit the free flowing of the liquor to the mill-bed. The concave returner, formerly used, was pierced with holes to drain off the liquor, but it had the serious disadvantage of the holes choking up with the splinters of the cane, and has therefore been discarded. The delivering board is of cast iron, fitted close to the roller, to detach any begass that may adhere to it, and otherwise mix with the liquor.

In Demerara, Surinam, Cayenne, and the alluvial district of Trinidad, it is usual to attach to the mill a liquor-pump, with two barrels and three adjustments of stroke. This is worked from the gudgeon of the top roller. In action, the liquor from the gutter of the mill-bed runs into the cistern of the pump, and is raised by the pump to the gutter which leads to the clarifier or coppers. Such pumps have brass barrels and copper discharging pipes, are worked with a very slow motion, and require to be carefully adjusted to the quantity of liquor to be raised, which, without such precaution, is either not drawn off sufficiently quick, or is agitated with air in the barrels, and delivered to the gutter in a state of fermentation.

In working this mill, the feeding roller is kept about half an inch distant from the upper roller, but the delivering roller is placed so close to it, as to allow the begass to pass through unbroken.

The practice with this mill is to cut the sugar canes into short lengths of about three feet, and bring them to the mill tied up in small bundles; there the feeder unties them, throws them on the feed board, and spreads them so that they may cross each other as little as possible. They are taken in by the feed rollers, which split and slightly press them; the liquor flows down, and, the returner guiding the canes between the top and delivering rollers, they receive the final pressure, and are turned out on the mill-floor, while the liquor runs back and falls into the mill-bed. The begass, then in the state of _pith_, adhering to the skin of the cane, is tied up in bundles, and after being exposed a short time to the sun, is finally stored in the begass-house for fuel. By an important improvement in this stage of the process, recently introduced, the begass is carried to the begass-house by a carrier chain, worked by the engine.

The relative merits of horizontal and vertical sugar-mills on this construction, may be thus stated:--The horizontal mill is cheaper in construction, and is more easily fixed; the process of feeding is performed at about one-half of the labour, and in a much superior manner; the returner guides the canes to receive the last pressure more perfectly; and the begass is not so much broken as in the vertical mill; but left tolerably entire, so as to be tied, dried, and stored, with less trouble and waste.

The vertical mill has a considerable advantage, in being more easily washed; and it can be readily and cheaply mounted in wooden framing; but the great labour of feeding the vertical mill, renders it nearly inapplicable to any higher power than that of about ten horses. In situations where the moving power is a windmill, or a cattle gin, the vertical mill may be preferred.

The scale of produce of such mills varies according to the climate and soil. In Demerara, a well constructed engine and mill will produce about 100 gallons of liquor per hour for each horse power.

The dimensions of the most approved horizontal mills are these:--

+----------------------+------------------+--------------------+
|Horse-power of Engine.|Length of Rollers.|Diameter of Rollers.|
+----------------------+------------------+--------------------+
| | _ft._ _in._ | _inches._ |
| 8 | 4 0 | 25 |
| 10 | 4 6 | 27 |
| 12 | 4 8 | 28 |
+----------------------+------------------+--------------------+

The surface speed of the rollers is 3·4 or 3·6 feet per minute; and to provide for the varying resistance arising from irregular feeding, or the accidental crossing of the canes, by which the engine is often _brought up_ so suddenly as to break the fly-wheel shaft, it is necessary to make both the shaft and the fly-wheel of unusual strength and weight.

Sugar is manufactured in the East Indies by two distinct classes of persons; the _ryots_, who raise the sugar cane, extract its juice, and inspissate it to a syrupy consistence; and the _goldars_, who complete the conversion into sugar.

The _ryots_ are the farmers, or actual cultivators of the soil; but, properly speaking, they are merely peasants, toiling under oppressive landlords, and miserably poor. After they cut the canes, they extract the juice by one or other of the rude mills or mortars presently to be described, and boil it down to an entire mass, which is generically called _goor_, without making any attempt to clarify it, or separate the granular sugar from the uncrystallizable molasses. This goor is of various qualities; one of which, in most common use for making sugar, is known amongst the English settlers under the name of _jaggery_. There is a caste in Ceylon, called _jaggeraros_, who make sugar from the produce of the _Caryota urens_, or Kitul tree; and the sugar is styled _jaggery_. Sugar is not usually made in Ceylon from the sugar cane; but either from the juice of the Kitul, from the _Cocos nucifera_, or the _Borassus flabelliformis_ (the Palmyra tree).

Several sorts of cane are cultivated in India.

The _Cadjoolee_ (_fig._ 1079.) is a purple-coloured cane; yields a sweeter and richer juice than the yellow or light coloured, but in less quantities, and is harder to press. It grows in dry lands. When eaten raw, it is somewhat dry and pithy in the mouth, but is esteemed very good for making sugar. It is not known to the West India planter. The leaves rise from a point 6 feet above the ground. An oblique and transverse section of the cane is represented by the parts near the bottom of the figure.

The _Pooree_ is a light-coloured cane, yellow, inclining to white, deeper yellow when ripe and on rich ground. West India planters consider it the same sort as one of theirs. It is softer and more juicy than the preceding, but the juice is less rich, and produces a weaker sugar. It requires seven parts of pooree juice to make as much goor as is produced from six of the cadjoolee. Much of this cane is brought to the Calcutta market, and eaten raw.

The _Cullorah_ thrives in swampy lands, is light-coloured, and grows to a great height. Its juice is more watery, and yields a weaker sugar also than the cadjoolee. However, since much of Bengal consists of low grounds, and since the upland canes are apt to suffer from drought, it deserves encouragement in certain localities.

It is only large farms that cut an acre of cane in a year; one mill, therefore, and one set of the implements used in inspissating the juice, although very rude and simple, serve for several farms, and generally belong to some wealthy man, who lets them out for hire to his poorer neighbours, the whole of whom unite to clear each other’s fields by turns; so that though many people and cattle are employed at one of these miserable sets of works, very few indeed are hired, and the greater part of the labour is performed by the common stock of the farms.

The inspissated juice, or extract of cane, called by the natives _goor_, is of two kinds; one of which may be termed cake extract, and the other pot extract; both being often denominated _jaggery_, as above stated, by the English residents.

One-third of an acre of good land in the southern districts, is reckoned by the farmers to produce 18,891 pounds of cane, and 1,159 pounds of pot extract. Its produce in cake extract is about 952 pounds.

I shall now describe the primitive rude mill and boiler used in preparing the extract of sugar cane, and which are usually let to the ryots by the day. The mill in Dinajpur, _fig._ 1080. is on the principle of a pestle and mortar. The pestle, however, does not beat the canes, but is rubbed against them, as is done in many chemical triturations; and the moving force is two oxen. The mortar is generally a tamarind tree, one end of which is sunk deep in the ground, to give it firmness. The part projecting _a_, _a_, _a_, _a_, may be about two feet high, and a foot and a half in diameter; and in the upper end a hollow is cut, like the small segment of a sphere. In the centre of this, a channel descends a little way perpendicularly, and then obliquely to one side of the mortar, so that the juice, as squeezed from the cane, runs off, by means of a spout _b_, into a strainer _c_, through which it falls into an earthen pot, that stands in a hole _d_, under the spout. The pestle _e_, is a tree about 18 feet in length, and 1 foot in diameter, rounded at its bottom, which rubs against the mortar, and which is secured in its place by a button or knob, that goes into the channel of the mortar. The moving force is applied to a horizontal beam _f_, about 16 feet in length, which turns round about the mortar, and is fastened to it by a bent bamboo _b_. It is suspended from the upper end of the pestle by a bamboo _g_, which has been cut with part of the root, in which is formed a pivot that hangs on the upper point of the pestle. The cattle are yoked to the horizontal beam, at about ten feet from the mortar, move round it in a circle, and are driven by a man, who sits on the beam, to increase the weight of the triturating power. Scarcely any machine more miserable can be conceived; and it would be totally ineffectual, were not the cane cut into thin slices. This is a troublesome part of the operation. The grinder sits on the ground, having before him a bamboo stake, which is driven into the earth, with a deep notch formed in its upper end. He passes the canes gradually through this notch, and at the same time cuts off the slices with a kind of rude chopper.

The _boiling apparatus_ is somewhat better contrived, and is placed under a shed, though the mill is without shelter. The fireplace is a considerable cavity dug in the ground, and covered with an iron boiler _p_, _fig._ 1081. At one side of this, is an opening _q_, for throwing in fuel; and opposite to this, is another opening, which communicates with the horizontal flue. This is formed by two parallel mud walls _r_, _r_, _s_, _s_, about 20 feet long, 2 feet high, and 18 inches distant from each other. A row of eleven earthen boilers _t_, is placed on these walls, and the interstices _u_, are filled with clay, which completes the furnace-flue, an opening _v_, being left at the end, for giving vent to the smoke.

The juice, as it comes from the mill, is first put into the earthen boiler that is most distant from the fire, and is gradually removed from one boiler to another, until it reaches the iron one, where the process is completed. The fireplace is manifestly on the same model as the boiler range in the West Indies, and may possibly have suggested it, since the Hindostan furnace is, no doubt, of immemorial usage. The execution of its parts is very rude and imperfect. The inspissated juice that can be prepared in 24 hours by such a mill, with 16 men and 20 oxen, amounts to no more than 476 lbs.; and it is only in the southern parts of the district, where the people work night and day, that the sugar-works are so productive. In the northern districts, the people work only during the day, and inspissate about one-half the quantity of juice. The average daily make of a West India sugar-house, is from 2 to 3 hogsheads, of 16 cwts each.

The Indian manufacturers of sugar purchase the above inspissated juice or goor from the farmers, and generally prefer that of a granular honey consistence, which is offered for sale in pots. As this, however, cannot conveniently be brought from a distance, some of the cake kind is also employed. The boilers are of two sizes; one adapted for making at each operation about ten cwt.; the other, about eight and a half. The latter is the segment of a sphere, nine feet diameter at the mouth; the former is larger. The boiler is sunk into a cylindrical cavity in the ground, which serves as a fireplace, so that its edge is just above the floor of the boiling-house. The fuel is thrown in by an aperture close to one side of the boiler, and the smoke escapes by a horizontal chimney that passes out on the opposite side of the hut, and has a small round aperture, about ten feet distant from the wall, in order to lessen the danger from fire. Some manufacturers have only one boiler; others as many as four; but each boiler has a separate hut, in one end of which is some spare fuel; and in the other, some bamboo stages, which support cloth strainers, that are used in the operation. This hut is about twenty-four cubits long, and ten broad; has mud walls, six cubits high; and is raised about one cubit above the ground.

For each boiler, two other houses are required: one in which the cane extract is separated by straining from the molasses, is about twenty cubits long by ten wide; another, about thirty cubits long, by eight wide, is that in which, after the extract has been strained, boiled and clarified, the treacle is separated from the sugar by an operation analogous to claying.

Each sugar manufacturer has a warehouse besides, of a size proportional to the number of his boilers.