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.
About 960 pounds of pot extract being divided into four parts, each is put into a bag of coarse sackcloth, hung over an equal number of wide-mouthed earthen vessels, and is besprinkled with a little water. These drain from the bags about 240 lbs. of a substance analogous to West Indian molasses. The remainder in the bags is a kind of coarse muscovado sugar; but is far from being so well drained and freed from molasses as that of the Antilles. The 720 lbs. of this substance are then put into a boiler with 270 pounds of water, and the mixture is boiled briskly for 144 minutes, when 180 additional pounds of water are added, and the boiling is continued for 48 minutes more. An alkaline solution is prepared from the ashes of the plantain tree, strewed over straw placed in the bottom of an earthen pot perforated with holes. Ninety pounds of water are passed through; and 6 pounds of the clear lixivium are added to the boiling syrup, whereby a thick scum is raised, which is removed. After 24 minutes, four and a half pounds of alkaline solution, and about two-fifths of a pound of raw milk, are added; after which the boiling and skimming are continued 24 minutes. This must be repeated from five to seven times, until no more scum appears. 240 pounds of water being now added, the liquor is to be poured into a number of strainers. These are bags of coarse cotton cloth, in the form of inverted quadrangular pyramids, each of which is suspended from a frame of wood, about 2 feet square. The operation of straining occupies about 96 minutes. The strained liquor is divided into three parts: one of these is put into a boiler, with from half a pound to a pound and a half of alkaline solution, one-twelfth of a pound of milk, and 12 pounds of water. After having boiled for between 48 and 72 minutes, three quarters of a pound of milk are added, and the liquor is poured, in equal portions, into four refining pots. These are wide at the mouth, and pointed at the bottom; but are not conical, for the sides are curved. The bottom is perforated, and the stem of a plantain leaf forms a plug for closing the aperture. The two remaining portions of the strained liquor are managed in exactly the same manner; so that each refining pot has its share of each portion. When they have cooled a little, the refining pot is removed to the curing-house, and placed on the ground for 24 hours; next day they are placed on a frame, which supports them at some distance from the ground. A wide-mouthed vessel is placed under each, to receive the viscid liquor that drains from them. In order to draw off this more completely, moist leaves of the Valisneria spiralis are placed over the mouth of the pot, to the thickness of two inches; after 10 or 12 days, these are removed; when a crust of sugar, about half an inch in thickness is found on the surface of the boiled liquor. The crust being broken and removed, fresh leaves are repeatedly added, until the whole sugar has formed; which requires from 75 to 90 days. When cake extract is used, it does not require to be strained before it be put into the boiler.
On the above-described operose and preposterous process, it is needless to make any remarks. While it is adhered to with the tenacity of Hindu habit, the West Indies has no reason to fear the competition of the East, in the manufacture of sugar, provided the former avail themselves of the aids which chemical and mechanical science are ready to supply.
In every part of the Behar and Putna districts, several of the confectioners prepare the coarse article called shukkur, which is entirely similar in appearance to the inferior Jamaica sugars. They prepare it by putting some of the thin extract of sugar cane into coarse sackcloth bags, and by laying weights on them, they squeeze out the molasses; a process perfectly analogous to that contemplated in several English patents.