SUGAR

a term applied generically to a number of sweet-tasting, polyhydric, aldehyde, or ketenic alcohols, such dextrose ‘grape sugar—see GLucosE) and levulose (fructose, or fruit and their anhydrides, such as sugar, which form a considerable ‘of the cla of compounds known carbohydrates. The name is particularly used to specify one member of that cane sugar. Cane sugar, sucrose, or saccharose, is a compound of the formula C12H and though it is called ‘cane’ sugar, occurs also in other plants, as the and sorghum, and is also largely from the sugar beet: the product all these sources is identical. In preparation from sugar cane, contains 11 to 16 per cent. of sugar, cane is crushed between rollers to the juice, which, after treatment sulphur dioxide and neutralization lime to prevent fermentation, is skimmed, and evaporated. The oration is carried out either in open vacuum pans, or in mechanical tors, in which steam pipes are alternately dipped into the juice and exposed to air; and according to the proce , product may contain uncrystallizable syrup, which is removed by draining in centrifugal machines; or may be enough to pack for export and refining | without requiring such treatment. SvurAlthough Marggraf, a Ger. chemist, discovered sugar in beetroot in 1747, | first factory was only started in 1801 in | of Silesia. France, under Napoleon, took up the industry, eventually falling and far behind Germany. By selection knight and manuring Germany improved the of amount of sugar extracted from the of beet from 6 to 17°6 per cent. a Sugar is extracted from the beet by sent an entirely different proce . When capture sliced beetroot is suspended in warm brilwater, the sugar diffuses through the Hughes’ walls of the cells of the plant into the water. This operation is carried out revolt systematically in a series of ‘diffusers,’ arranged in a circle, so that the nearly Persia. exhausted cuttings are treated with fresh water, the sugar solution as it gets richer Zorocoming in contact with fresher and the fresher cuttings. The exhausted cuttings system are finally used as cattle food. The the juice is treated with lime, heated, and the then acted on by carbon dioxide. The a object is not only to neutralize acids and present, but also to clarify the juice; growing the precipitate of chalk which is formed will carries down the impurities. After the filtration the juice is evaporated down so in a vacuum, in the heat-saving multiple inferior evaporator, until, on cooling, crystals of sugar form. The crystals in the product are separated from the uncrystallizable syrup in centrifugals. as Refining-——The product from both sources is purified by much the same sugar), proce . The raw sugar is first di olved cane in hot water, and the solution filtered section through cotton bags, suspended from as nozzles in iron chambers, to remove insoluble impurities. The brown liquor cla , is then run into iron cylinders packed with ‘char’ (z.e.) bone charcoal, and allowed to remain till decolorized, when 22011, it is slowly drawn off from below. The it purified sugar liquor is then boiled down maple in steam-heated vacuum pans at a temp. obtained of 82° C., more syrup being added to from fill up the pan as soon as crystallization the sets in. After a sufficient amount of which crystals have formed, the mixture of the crystals and syrup, or ‘ma ecuite,’ is remove run off into centrifugals, by which the with syrup is separated from the crystals, with which are washed in the machine with a heated, spray of water, spread out to dry, and evappacked. The syrups are reboiled, yield or ing a lower grade of sugar, the final eva por a residue being converted into golden syrup, or in the case of beet worked up the to yield the crystallizable sugar they the still contain. Mola es or treacle is also derived from the residue. Loaf or cube or sugar is made by filling the ma ecuite solid into moulds, washing out the syrup with pure sugar liquor, draining, and finally sytting into suitably sized-small pieces. (Cane sugar di olves in one-third part of cold water and in far le hot. It does not reduce Fehling’s solution or ferment until ‘inverted’—(i.e.) hydrolyzed into equal numbers of molecules of dextrose and levulose. Its aqueous solution rotates the plane of polarized light to the right—a property that is largely made use of in ‘saccharimetry,’ or the estimation of the amount of sugar. Cane sugar melts at 160° C., solidifying on cooling to a glo y ma known as barley sugar; while at a higher temp. it changes into a dark brown product called caramel. Cuba ae the premier position among sugarroducing countries, followed by India and Java.