The Story of Sugar
he top of the factory, and it was here in
they can afford sugar for household use; in many countries this is not the case. Only the well-to-do take sugar in tea or coffee and have it for common use. Our Americans also eat quantities of candy. At the present time children eat three times as many sweets as did their parents, a
candy was good for us,"
rse you must prescribe it for yourself in the proper proportions," laughed Mr. Hennessey. "We all constantly take more or less sugar into our systems through the or
y, that is a tremendou
ure such vast amounts of jam for the market. England is a great fruit growing country, you must remember. The damp, moderate climate results in wonderful strawberries, gooseberries, plums, and othe
listened
s the loaf sugar which has been allotted them and which they have not had occasion to use. It is a common occurrence, and considered quite proper, although it looks strange to us. Doubtless, too, if you have traveled abroad you have discove
are an immoderate p
on the principle that if a thing is good we must have a great deal of
d looking down into the gre
from pure; you would be astonished at the amount of dirt mixed with it. Many of these impurities boil up to the surface and over and over again we skim them off. But even after that we have to wash the sug
the liquid cle
red Mr. Hennessey. "We use milk of lime as a foundation, but we put other things with it. Our exact formula is
d Van suddenly. "I don't want to kno
ears the bo
regarded him
ed. "Don't tell me anything that is secr
hat his distress was real, and although neither of the
ease the tenseness the older man stepped forward and, taking from a rack near b
ite," he said. "We squeeze the liquid through a series of filter bags
k bone coal?"
our refinery alone we have about a hundred bone coal filters and each one holds thirty tons of black bone coal. That will give you some idea how much of it is needed. We get nothing back on it, either, for in the process of using it becomes finer, and after that it is good for nothing unless, perhaps, to be made into cheap shoe-dressing. Unlike many of the other industries sugar refining has no by-products; by that I mean nothing
traveled by means of pipes from one vat to another
ddles to keep it from fermenting; we also are obliged to take the greatest care that our vats and all other receptacles are clean, and that the plan
white sugar," ventured Bob, a little awed.
akes. Making cane-sugar is, however, easy enough if one is careful and knows the exact way to do it. There is plenty of opportunity to spoil it-I'll admit that; but it is seldom that a batch of ou
d t
re to form a small crystal and a higher one to form a large crystal. An expert who takes the temperature of the boiling sugar regulates what we call fine-grain or coarse-grain sugar by regulating the size of the crystals. By drawing off some of the liquid and exa
entrifugal machines, which actually spin off the crystals. These machines are lined with gauze, and as they whirl at tremendous velocity they force out through this gauze the liquid par
it would stick tog
by a degree of heat just right to keep the particles separate and not allow them to cake. After this any dust or dirt adhering to the sugar is blown o
he way to another f
HOULD THINK IT WOUL
t, the package afterward passed to women who sealed it tightly and gave it the final touch before it was shipped. Other women were packing loaf or domino sugar, while d
lared the superintendent. "I'm afraid I've given you quite a stiff lesson. You s
down at
we certainly have learned a lot," Bob said, putting out his hand
rocess in three hours. It would make my twenty years of study and h