Sugar

(shoo'gar.) [From Sp. azucar.] (Chem. and Manuf.) This term is applied to several carbohydrates of vegetable origin which have many properties in common. They are soluble in water, in general crystallizable, have a sweet taste, are neutral to test-paper, and their solutions rotate the plane of polarization ofa ray of light. The substance to which this name is generally applied is cane-sugar or sucrose (C12H11011), extracted from cane-juice, beet-juice, . It rotates the plane of polarization to the right. Among other sugars are dextrose or grape-sugar (C12H1206); lævulose, which is one of the constituents of fruit-sugar or inverted sugar. Under the influence of dilute acids, or long boiling with water, cane-sugar is converted into what is called inverted sugar, a mixture of dextrose and lævulose. Itis called inverted, because the left-handed rotation of the lævulose is greater than the right-handed rotation of the dextrose. Under the influence of ferments sugar is converted into alcohol and carbonic acid. [s. 864] Sugar forms several crystalline compound Sugar forms several crystalline compounds with lime. -The manufacture of sugar from the sugar-cane may be thus shortly sketched. The canes are taken, as soon as they are cut, to the mill, where they are subjected to great pre ure between iron rollers. The juice thus expre ed is boiled in open pans with lime, and the scum is carefully removed. It is then filtered and pa ed through animal charcoal in powder, previous to being concentrated. This proce takes place either in open troughs heated by steam, or in vacnum-pans where it is boiled in ve els from which the air has been exhausted. The concentration having proceeded to the proper extent, the sugar may be obtained separate from the liquid portion, or mola es, by the use of centrifugal machines, ve els with sides of wire-net through which the liquid is forced into an outer ve el when the machine is set in rapid revolution. On the concentrated hot juice having the consistency and granular appearance of thick oatmeal-porridge, it is placed in conical pots of earthenware. When it has cooled and solidified, the reappears a ma of sugar crystals with syrup among them. A plug is removed from the bottom of the ve el, and the syrup, in great part, drains away, leaving the sugar in the state known as Muscovado or raw moist sugar. There is still some syrup left behind, and some of this is removed by the proce of cla ying, which consists in pouring a mixture of clay and water over the top of the pot to the depth of an inch or two. The water of the clay sinks gradually downward through the porous ma of crystals, combining with the syrup, and carrying it off through the bottom of the pot. The sugar, after this treatment, is termed " clay ed." Itis the refiner's busine to purify the sugars thus produced, and produce by delicate chemical and ingenious mechanical proce es the white loaf sugar of which there is such a large consumption in this country. A large quantity of sugar is contained in the sap of the American maple (Acer saccharinum), and is obtained fr omit in many parts of North America; maple sugar being, in some places, the only kind which is used, particularly by those recently settled in the country. It is whole gree able. some, and The not disa-proce of manufacturing it is very simple. The trees are bored obliquely from below upwards, at 18 or 20 inches above the ground, care being taken that the auger penetrates no more than half an inch into the alburnum, or white bark; as a greater discharge takes place at that depth than any other. The liquor is boiled, and the evaporation urged by an active fire, with careful skimming during the boiling; and the pot is continually replenished with more sap, till a large body has a umed a syrupy consistence. It is afterwards strained and boiled again over a very brisk fire, till it has acquired the requisite consistence for being poured into the troughs prepared to receive it. By fermentation, sugar is converted into alcohol, and hence forms the basis of those substances which are used for making intoxicating liquors, as mola es, grapes, apples, malt, . Of all vegetable principles it is considered as the most wholesome and nutritious. In 1870, the crops of sugar in the U. States amounted to: sugar cane 87,043 hhds., 55 5I and sugar-maple 28,443,645 Ibs.; besides which, there were imported 5,591,351 lbs. of brown or refined sugar, and 1,078,025 galls, mola es. It has been calculated that the annual average consumption of sugar by each person in several countries is as follows: Great Britain 35-96 lbs., United States 24-63, Holland 14-86, France 14-30, Switzerland 9.60, Germany 9.42, Italy 5-20, Spain 4-23, and Ru ia 2-40. In the U. States the import duty on sugar was repealed by act of Congre , May 1, 1872. [s. 865]