The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

In Russia, in 1832, there existed only 20 manufacturers of beet root sugar, but this number subsequently increased to 100, and they annually produced the twelfth of the total quantity of sugar which Russia receives from foreign parts. The number of those manufactories in 1840, was 140, and the importation of sugar, which reached to 1,555,357 lbs. in 1837, amounted to only 1,269,209 lbs. in 1839. The production of indigenous sugar is now set down at 35,000 tons.

In France, for many years past, the production of beet-root sugar has been rapidly increasing, in spite of a gradual reduction of the protection which it enjoyed against colonial and foreign sugar, until it has reached a quantity of 60,000 tons, or fully one half of the entire consumption. Independent of the refined sugar exported under drawback, the consumption of France may be now estimated at 120,000 tons, of which 60,000 tons are of beet-root, 60,000 tons of French colonial, and 10,000 tons at the outside of foreign sugar. The beet-root and the French colonial sugars are now placed on the same footing as regards duty, and a law was recently passed, subjecting beet-root sugar, from the 1st of January, 1852, to even a higher duty than French colonial sugar. Nevertheless, it is admitted that the manufacture of beet-root sugar is highly profitable and rapidly increasing, so that it is likely in a very short time to exclude foreign sugar from French consumption altogether.

In Belgium, the production of beet-root sugar is also rapidly increasing; in 1851 the entire consumption of sugar was estimated at 14,000 tons, of which 7,000 tons were of beet-root, and 7,000 tons of foreign cane sugar. The number of beet-root factories to supply that quantity was twenty-two, but this number has, already increased in the present year to forty. Many of these will be but imperfectly at work during this season, but it is estimated that of the entire consumption of 14,000 tons, at least 10,000 tons will consist of beet-root, and only 4,000 tons of foreign cane sugar. And from present appearances the manufacture of beet-root is likely to increase so much as to constitute nearly the entire consumption. So lately as 1848 and 1849 the production of beet-root sugar was only 4,500 tons.

In Austria, the consumption of sugar in 1841 was 40,000 tons, of which 8,000 tons were of beet-root, and 32,000 tons of foreign cane sugar. But the production of beet-root has increased so fast that it is estimated to produce in the present year 15,000 tons; and as no increase has taken place in the entire consumption, the portion of foreign cane sugar required in the present year will be reduced from 32,000 tons to 25,000 tons.

The following information, with regard to the state of the manufacture of beet-root sugar on the Continent last year, has been furnished by Mr. C.J. Ramsay, of Trinidad.

"My first start was for Paris, where I remained a week, procuring the necessary letters of introduction, to enable me to see some of the sugar works in the provinces. Whilst there I called upon Messrs. Cail and Co., the principal machine makers in France, mentioned the subject of my visit, and requested their assistance. Nothing could have been more liberal than the way in which they treated me. I was at once asked to look over their establishment and requested to call the next day, when letters of introduction to their branch establishments at Valenciennes and Brussels would be ready for me. This I of course did, and received not only these letters but some others, to sugar manufacturers in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes. Thus provided, and with letters from Mr. D'Eickthal, a banker in Paris, to Mr. Dubranfaut, the chemist, to Mr. Grar, a refiner of Valenciennes, to Mr. Melsens of Brussels, and to another sugar maker near Valenciennes, whose name I forget, and who was the only man from whom I did not receive the greatest politeness, I started for Valenciennes. My first essay was upon the latter personage, who evidently with a considerable grudge showed me a simple room in his works where four centrifugal machines were at work—raised the cry of ruin, if the French improvements were introduced in the West Indies, and informed me he had nothing else worth seeing. I returned to Valenciennes, thinking if this is the way I was to be treated, I might as well have stayed at home. That this was a solitary instance of illiberality, you will presently see. I next called upon Mr. Grar, by whom I was received in a very different manner; he at once offered to show me over his works, and especially that part of them where a new process, discovered by Mr. Dubranfaut, was carried on, every part of which was fully explained, Mr. Dubranfaut's laboratory is connected with these works, and having inspected the working part of the establishment Mr. G. then took me there, and introduced me to that gentleman, with whom I passed the remainder of the afternoon, receiving a full explanation of his new process, which is this:—a solution of hydrate of barytes is made in boiling water—the saccharine solution to be treated is heated to the same degree, and the two mixed together in the proportions of 46 parts of hydrate of barytes to every 100 parts of sugar contained in the solution, which has previously been ascertained by polariscopic examination. A saccharate of barytes is immediately formed in the shape of a copious precipitate; this, after being thoroughly washed and thus freed from all soluble impurities, is transferred into large, deep vats, and a stream of carbonic acid gas forced into it, which decomposes the saccharate of barytes, forming carbonate of barytes, and liberating the sugar in the shape of a perfectly pure solution of sugar in water, of the density of 20 to 23 degrees Baumé; the carbonate of barytes being thoroughly washed is again converted into caustic barytes by burning, so that there is little loss in the operation. The whole process is certainly very beautiful, and its economic working has been tried for a year, on a sufficiently large scale to leave no doubt as to the economy of the process in refining molasses, which is the only purpose it has yet been applied to.

The Messrs. Grar were so thoroughly satisfied with it, that when I was there they had taken down their original apparatus, and were re-erecting it on such a scale as to work up all the molasses by it, equal to almost five tons of sugar daily. Owing to this circumstance, I had not an opportunity of seeing the process on a working scale, but was shown the whole proceedings in the laboratory.

The only difficulties I see in applying this process at once to the cane juice, are the large quantity of barytes required, the expense of re-burning it and the entire change in works that would be necessary before it could be introduced. The advantage would be, the obtaining the whole sugar contained in the juice, free from all impurities, consequently white, and in the shape of a syrup marking 20 to 23 degrees instead of 8 or 10 degrees, thus saving fully half the evaporation now required. The sugar made in this way, I was told, contains no trace of barytes.

To show you the degree of economy practised in such establishments in France, I may mention that the washings of the saccharate of barytes are sold to the makers of potash and soda, who make a profit by boiling them down to obtain what salts they contain.

The carbonic acid is obtained by the combustion of charcoal in a closed iron furnace into which air is forced by an air pump, requiring, I believe, about one horse power. From the top of the furnace a pipe leads into a washing vessel, from which the gas is led into the bottom of the vats by pipes.