Water that has been used to wash frozen beets contains a small
percentage of sugar. As the washing period, in such cases, is longer
than with normal beets, the sugar in beet cells has time to pass
through the outer walls by osmosis. The sugar loss is said to be 0.66
per cent. (?) of the weight of beets washed.
Well conducted experiments show that in small but well ventilated
silos, beets lose considerable weight, but very little sugar. On the
other hand, in large silos with poor ventilation, the sugar loss
frequently represents four to six per cent. When fermentation
commences, the mass of roots is almost ruined.
Sodic nitrate, if used upon soil late in the season, may overcome a
difficulty that has been recently noticed. Beet fields located near
swamps that are dry a portion of the year have suffered from a malady
that turns leaves from green to yellow, even before harvesting period;
such beets have lost a considerable amount of sugar.
A new method for the analysis of saccharose and raffinose, when in the
presence of inverted sugar, is said to give accurate results. The
process consists in adding sulphate of copper and lime to hot
molasses, so that the oxide of copper is changed to a protoxide, and
the invert sugar becomes water and carbonic acid. The whole is
neutralized with phosphoric acid. There follow a great number of
precipitates; the exact volume of liquid in which these are found is
determined after two polariscopic observations.
It has been constantly noticed that samples of carbonatated juice vary
in composition with the part of tank from which they are taken. If
some arrangement could be made assuring a thorough mixing during the
passage of carbonic acid, results would be more satisfactory than they
now are. If gas could be distributed in every part of the tank, the
lime combination could be made perfect.
Notwithstanding the new law regulating quantity of sugar to be used in
wines, ciders, etc., there has been, during 1890, an increase of
nearly 13,000 tons, as compared with 1889. Consumption of sugar for
these special industries was 33,000 tons; alcohol thus added to wine
was about 71,000,000 gallons.
Beets cultivated without extra fertilizers, and that are regular in
shape and in good condition, without bruises, are the ones which give
the best results in silos. It is recommended to construct silos of two
types; one which is to be opened before first frost, the other where
beets remain for several months and are protected against excessive
cold. Great care should be taken that a thorough ventilation be given
in the first mentioned type. In the other, more substantial silos,
ventilation must be watched, and all communication with the exterior
closed as soon as the temperature falls to or near freezing.
During the last campaign many manufacturers experienced great
difficulty in keeping the blades of slicers sufficiently sharp to work
frozen beets. Sharpening of blades is an operation attended to by
special hands at the factory; and under ordinary circumstances there
need be no difficulty. However, it is now proposed to have central
stations that will make a specialty of blade sharpening. Under these
circumstances manufacturers located in certain districts need give the
matter no further thought, let the coming winter be as severe as it
may.
Some success has been obtained by the use of sulphurous acid in vacuum
pans. Great care is required; the operation cannot be done by an
ordinary workman. It is claimed that graining thereby is more rapid
and better than is now possible. Chemists agree that the operation is
more effectual by bringing sulphurous acid in contact with sirups
rather than juices; it is in the sirups that the coloring pigments are
found. Sulphurous acid is run into the pan until the sirups cover the
second coil. In all cases the work must be done at a low temperature.
Height of juice in carbonatating tanks is only three feet in France,
while in Austria it is frequently twelve feet. The question of a
change in existing methods is being discussed; it necessitates an
increase in the blowing capacity of machine; since carbonic acid gas
has a greater resistance to overcome in Austrian than in French
methods. Longer the period juices are in contact with carbonic acid,
greater will be the effect produced.
Ferric sulphate has been very little used for refuse water
purification, owing to cost of its manufacture. If roasted pyrites, a
waste product of certain chemical factories, are sprinkled with
sulphuric acid of 66° B., and thoroughly mixed for several hours, at a
temperature of 100° to 156° F., the pyrites will soon be covered with
a white substance which is ferric sulphate. Precipitates from ferric
sulphate, unlike calcic compounds, do not subsequently enter into
putrefaction.
Efforts are being made to convince manufacturers of the mistake in
using decanting vats, in connection with first and second
carbonatation. In Germany filter presses are used, decanting vats are
obsolete. The main objection to them is cooling of saccharine liquors,
which means an ultimate increase in fuel. Cooling is frequently
followed by partial fermentation.
Further changes in the proposed combined baryta-soda method for juice
purification consist in using powdered soda carbonate 90-92°, upon
beet cossettes as they leave the slicer, before entering the diffusor.
The quantity of chemical to be used is 1/1000 of weight of beet slices
being treated. If a diffusor has a capacity of 2,500 lb., there would
be added 2.5 lb. soda carbonate. From the diffusor is subsequently
taken 316 gallons juice at 4-5° density, this is rapidly heated to
185°F., then 2.4 of a pure baryta solution is added; temperature is
kept at 185° F. for a short time; resulting precipitates fall to
bottom of tank; then 13 gallons milk of lime 25° B. are added.
Other operations that follow are as usual. It is contended that the
cost of baryta is 10 cents per ton beets worked. The most important
advantage is gain in time; a factory working 20,000 during a 100-day
campaign, by the foregoing process can accomplish the same work in 80
days, thus decreasing wear and tear of plant and diminishing
percentage of sugar lost in badly constructed silos.
The exact influence of a low temperature upon beet cells has never
been satisfactorily settled. Considerable light has recently been
thrown upon the subject by a well known chemist. It is asserted that
living cells containing a saccharine liquid do not permit infiltration
from interior to exterior; this phenomenon occurs only when cell and
tissue are dead. It is necessary that the degree of cold should be
sufficiently intense, or that a thaw take place, under certain
conditions, to kill tissue of walls of said cells. An interesting fact
is that when cells are broken through the action of freezing, it is
not those containing sugar that are the first affected. The outer
cells containing very little sugar are the first to expand when
frozen, which expansion opens the central cells.
Experiments to determine the action of lime upon soils apparently
prove that it does not matter in what form calcic salts are employed;
their effect, in all cases, is to increase the yield of roots to the
acre. On the other hand, very secondary results were obtained with
phosphoric and sulphuric acids.
A micro-mushroom, a parasite that kills a white worm, enemy of the
beet, has been artificially cultivated. As soon as the worm is
attacked, the ravage continues until the entire body of the insect is
one mass of micro-organisms. Spores during this period are constantly
formed. If it were possible to spread this disease in districts
infected by the white worm, great service could be rendered to beet
cultivation.
In sugar refining it is frequently desirable to determine the
viscosity of sirups, molasses, etc. Methods founded upon the rapidity
of flow through an orifice of a known size are not mathematical in
their results. A very simple plan, more accurate than any hitherto
thought of, is attracting some attention. Sensitive scales and a
thermometer suspended in a glass tube are all the apparatus necessary.
The exact weight of thermometer, with tube, is determined; they are
immersed in water and weighed for the second time; the difference in
weight before and afterward gives the weight of adhering water. If the
operation is repeated in molasses, we in the same way obtain the
weight of adhering liquid, which, if divided by the weight of adhering
water, gives the viscosity as compared with water.
Sugar refineries located at Marseilles claim that it is cheaper for
them to purchase sugar in Java than beet sugar of northern Europe. On
the other hand, the argument of Paris refiners is just the reverse.
The total refined sugar consumed is 375,000 tons, the colonial and
indigenous production of raw sugar is nearly 1,000,000 tons more than
sufficient to meet the demands of the entire refining industry of the
country. There appears to have been considerable manipulation, foreign
sugar being imported with the view of producing a panic, followed by a
decline of market prices, after which Marseilles refiners would buy.
All sound arguments are in favor of protecting the home sugar
industry.
It has been suggested that manufacturers weigh the fuel used more
carefully than hitherto; the extra trouble would soon lead to economy
for all interested in sugar production at ruinous cost. Some chemists
advocate that coal be purchased only after having been analyzed.
Efforts to have a unification in methods of analysis of all products
of factory is a move in the right direction; the Association of Sugar
Chemists have adopted a series of methods that are in the future to be
considered as standard.
Copper solutions are destined to render great service in the
destruction of micro-organisms that attack the beet field. The liquid
used should be composed of 3 per cent. copper sulphate and 3 per cent.
lime, dissolved in water; fifty gallons are sufficient for one acre;
cost per acre, every item included, is 56 cents. The normal vitality
of the plant being restored, there follows an increased sugar
percentage. Ordinary liquid ammonia may be advantageously used to kill
white worms and insects that attack beets; two quarts of the diluted
chemical are used per square yard, and the cost is $12 per acre (?)