In a beet-sugar factory each set of apparatus for performing a given
process is termed a “station.” In the chemical laboratory the juices
and products from each station are tested hourly to check up the
correctness of the work and to determine the losses of sugar in each
process in the factory.]
[Illustration: CIRCULAR DIFFUSION BATTERY.
After being floated in from the sheds the beets are elevated from the
flume to a washer, where they are given an additional washing before
being sliced. From the washer they are elevated and dropped into an
automatic scale of a capacity of 700 to 1500 pounds. From the scale
they pass to the slicers, where with triangular knives they are cut
into long, slender slices, which look something like “shoestring”
potatoes. These slices drop through the upright chute seen at the right
side of the picture, and are packed tightly into cylindrical vessels
holding from two to six tons each; the battery consisting of eight to
twelve vessels arranged either in a straight line or in circular form.
Warm water is run into these slices, and coaxes out the sugar as it
passes from one vessel to the succeeding ones. After passing through
the entire series of vessels the water has become rich in sugar, of
which it contains from 12 to 15 per cent, depending upon the richness
of the beets. It then is drawn off and is called diffusion juice or
raw juice. This is carefully measured into tanks and recorded. As this
juice is drawn off the vessel over which the water started is emptied
of the slices from the bottom, the exhaust slices containing in the
neighborhood of ¹⁄₄ to ¹⁄₃ per cent of sugar. These slices are carried
out from the factory in the form of pulp and fed to stock, as explained
later.]
[Illustration: HOW THE SUGAR IS TAKEN FROM THE BEET