History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 54

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838

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Active operations for the annual campaign start in September, when the beets begin to mature and the farmers are busy pulling and topping them. Until about 1907 this work was done entirely by hand, but the diffi- culty of obtaining labor resulted in the perfecting of a machine, that not only pulls the beets without any breakage, but also removes the tops with far more precision than can be done by hand; and it also deposits the beets and leaves in separate and distinct piles. The company begins receiving beets at the factory the latter part of the month, and when fully five thousand tons are on hand, and the small army of mechanics has the machinery in the pink of condition, the factory starts for the season's run.

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A large supply of beets constantly in reserve, and all machinery in fine working order at the start, are very important factors in the successful management of a sugar plant, for the reason that when operations have once begun there is no stop for an instant, at least for much of the essential machinery. The work goes on at night and day, and on Sundays and holi- days, until the last beet has been worked up into fine white sugar.

The huge storage sheds, four hundred and fifty feet long and two hundred feet wide, are the first points of interest, and are veritable beehives of workers. Through wide doorways farmers' wagons are entering to unload, after weigh- ing up at the entrance ; while in the farther section of the sheds railway cars are being shunted into place for a like operation. It would be difficult to count the wagons. Sixty-four may be unloaded at the same time, while the number constantly driving away empty, and others waiting their turn, seem to be as many more. In the railway sections gangs of men are unloading the cars heaped high with the rich product of the soil, as many as twenty of the largest gondolas being placed on the two tracks.

The storage bins are constructed of concrete, and are twenty feet wide and eight feet deep, with a V-shaped bottom the whole sloping gradually to the farther end. On leaving at the factory end of the sheds, the first thing to attract attention is a series of concrete flumes, two feet wide and four feet deep, rounding away from the middle of each bin, and converging at a main flume of somewhat larger size, leading into the main building. Upon looking down into this flume a stream of muddy water is to be seen rushing along and carrying in its current a continuous mass of beets. The water, which is quite hot, is forced through the flumes from the front end of the sheds by powerful pumps; and, in conveying the beets to the factory, the further operation of removing the outer layer of dirt and weeds is easily accomplished.

The main factory building is a structural steel frame, four hundred and twenty feet long, eighty-five feet wide, and five stories in height, upon which rest the ponderous machinery and numerous tanks used in the various pro- cesses. The whole frame of heavy columns and immense girders, like the steel frame of a modern office building, and its valuable mechanical outfit, are enclosed within walls of brick and concrete, and pierced by many windows to furnish ample light and ventilation. The construction throughout gives an impression of solidity and permanence.

How the Beets are Scoured

Before entering the main building there is a short passage through a little one-story addition, in which the main flume widens into a shallow pit which contains the lower end of the "scroll," the conveyor which lifts the beets up into the factory. This scroll is in principle an exact Archi- medean screw. with the slight alteration of having the lower half of its cylinder perforated with rows of half-inch holes to drain off the dirty water, as the beets are rolled along its revolving blade. A system of levers operates a gate which regulates the flow of beets to the scroll, so that the right amount is supplied at all times to the slicing machine.

lassing along the narrow entry, which is filled with a cloud of steam, and through a doorway, the visitor is at last in the factory of mysterious doings. For a moment he stands spellbound. The massive machinery, the rumbling of hundreds of wheels, the grinding of heavy gears, the hissing of steam as it rushes through the big pipes overhead, are enough to shock the senses of sight and hearing. The next sensation is of stifling heat due to many lines of steam pipes of various sizes, and other pipes filled with boiling-hot water ;

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THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY

for the principal factor in sugar-making is heat, as utilized through the medium of water in its vaporous state, while as a liquid at different tempera- tures water is used in many of the processes.

Throwing off outer wraps the visitor is ready to follow the beets, which are coming into the factory at a lively rate. They are forced up and through an opening in the wall and dropped into a washing tank, where they are tossed about in warm water by paddles revolving on a horizontal shaft. In this process the beets are thoroughly scoured and at the end come out on a draining board, white and clean. From there they are lifted to the ceiling by another seroll, and by a bucket-conveyor are carried to the fifth floor.

Slicing the Beets

The next point of interest is at the topmost platform, under the roof, where the hopper of the huge slicing-machine receives the beets from the bucket-conveyor. From this elevation there is a good view through the center well of the fourth and third floors, of the ponderous machinery and the intense activities of the factory. The floors are constructed wholly of con- crete, the stairs and railings are of iron ; and throughout there is the utmost cleanliness and almost perfect ventilation. But despite the attention given to this matter, a pungent odor of lime and sulphur, with a certain acute acidity, is experienced, which at first is not altogether pleasant ; but, upon proceeding through the factory, the sights and sounds and smells, as well as personal comfort, are forgotten in the keen interests aroused by each new process.

The huge hopper at the top of the bucket-conveyor, in turn deposits the beets by gravity into a weighing machine which, with every half-ton, dis- charges the mass through its drop bottom into the hopper of the slicing machine. Every dump is automatically registered so as to determine the exact percentage of sugar obtained from the beet tonnage. As the bottom of this hopper is bell-shaped, the beets are forced outward and fed to the swiftly revolving knives of the slicer. This is a huge upright cylinder within which is a horizontal wheel of the exact inside diameter, and placed slightly below the lower edge of the hopper. The wheel carries on its outer edge or rim an endless line of sharp corrugated knives about ten inches long, which cut up the beets in a flash as they are pressed down on them by the weight of the mass above. The slicings fall through to a receiver, where they are rasped, to tear up the cells, after which they pass out on an endless belt conveyor on the second floor, to be distributed as required to the diffusion battery.

Extracting the Sweet Matter

In this process the series of boilers is called a diffusion battery, because the sugar content is removed from the slieings by water, into which the sugar diffuses. There are fourteen cells or huge cylindrical tanks, placed upright and close together on the ground floor. Their top openings with the connecting valves extend through to the floor above, so that the steel traps, which are three feet in diameter and open on hinges, may be closed easily, and the valves operated by hand. When three and a half-tons of the beet slicings have been taken into a cell from the belt conveyor, the supply is shut off or turned by a system of gates to another cell, and the cover or trap is swung back in place and clamped down securely, becoming air tight.

The process of boiling is, of course, unseen, but it is easily understood. The juice passes by a complicated system of pipes and valves through the charged cells of the series, always from the longest-filled cell, which contains nearly exhausted slicings, to the ones most recently filled, thus extracting the largest possible quantity of sugar with the smallest amount of water, which

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HISTORY OF SAGINAWCOUNTY

THE CARBONATORS, IN WHICH THE IMPURITIES IN THE JUICE ARE ABSORBED

varies in temperature from one hundred and four degrees to one hundred and eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit. All the water, of course, must be evaporated in subsequent processes, and the nearer to saturation this solution becomes in getting all the saccharine matter that is possible from the slicings, the greater is the economy of operation.

In about an hour the slicings have become exhausted of their sweet content, when the door at the bottom of the cell is thrown open by levers, and the mass of beet pulp gushes out and runs off in a concrete flume to the pulp drier. There the pulp is thoroughly dried and otherwise prepared for shipment. The empty cell is then cleaned by jets of hot water, which remove any clinging shreds of pulp: and the cell is ready for another charge of fresh slicings. With fourteen of these cells, each of which is recharged every hour, the process may be said to be continuous.

Purifying the Diffusion Juice

When the diffusion juice leaves the battery it is pumped to a receiving tank, and from there to a measuring tank, which records the amount of juice being obtained from the slicings. In its present raw state it is heavily charged with various impurities, and in order to remove these there is a complicated system of purifying agents. First, the juice is pumped to two superheaters, which are tanks containing vapor coils, and in these the juice is heated to prepare it for carbonation.

In this process the two factors are lime and a gas containing about thirty per cent. of carbonic acid. This gas is made by burning lime and coke in the proportion of one part of coke to four or five parts of lime. The kiln is outside the main factory; about thirty tons of lime are made and used every twenty-four hours. The lime is thoroughly slacked with water, and the solution is pumped into the factory, where it is heated in a circular tank to a degree necessary for its useful purpose. The diffusion juice. already hot, is passed to the carbonators, in which it and milk of lime are thoroughly mixed in the proportion of five quarts of lime to every thousand gallons of

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the juice, and the temperature is quickly raised to ninety degrees Centigrade. Quicklime is then added-about fifteen pounds to every hundred gallons, and the gas is pumped in by powerful pumps.

The impurities in the juice having been fully absorbed by the lime and gas, it is necessary to remove all traces of these agents ; and, since the quality of sugar produced depends on the process of clarification, considerable skill and care are here required. A powerful pump now forces the solution through pressure filters. Each of these is a series of steel frames about four feet square and one and a half inches thick, over which are stretched sheets of canvas, and the frames are pressed tightly together by a screw press to render the joints water-tight. The juice is forced through pipes into one side of the press, and through the canvas of the frames, depositing the lime on the fabric and pouring out on the other side into troughs an almost clear liquid. Though this liquid has lost much of its original matter in solution, it is still far from the purity necessary to crystallize. It flows from the troughs into a receiving tank for cooling.

Boiling Down to a Rich Syrup

At this stage it is plain that the clarified juice is a mixture of pure sugar and pure water, the sugar varying in proportion according to the richness of the beets, the fidelity of the machinery, and the watchfulness of the operators. To extract the water from the juice, thus converting it into a rich syrup, is the next process, and is an interesting one. The juice is pumped into multiple-effect vaccum evaporators, so called because the heat- ing effect of the steam is utilized in vacuo as many times as there are pans in the series. Steam is supplied to the first pan, and the vapor from the boiling juice passes to the second pan, and so on through the series. From the last pan the vapor passes to a condenser kept in a constant state of vacuum by a continuously-acting pump, from which it flows away, a dark- colored syrup. When it obtains a density of thirty-one and one-half to thirty-two and one -fourth by hydrometer test. it is pumped to storage tanks. There the syrup remains until drawn off as needed in the sugar mill, which is a distinct division of the manufacturing process.

PRESSURE FILTERS, WHICH REMOVE ALL THE PURIFYING AGENTS

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JHISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

Converting the Syrup Into Sugar

From the storage tank the syrup is pumped to the fourth floor and admitted to the syrup boilers, or "strike-pans," of which there are four. These are large cylindrical cast-iron vessels, provided with a vacuum pump, a condenser, and coils of copper tubing to which steam may be turned as needed. After condensation has taken place, and when the pans are about one-fourth to one-third full of rich thick liquor, a charge of cool syrup is admitted. to cause the formation of minute sugar crystals, the size being controlled by the sugar-boiler, who regulates the boiling and the admission of fresh syrup so as to avoid the formation of new crystals of "false grain." In about four hours after the beginning of the boiling, and when the pan has become filled with a dense mass of sugar crystals, a "strike" is made. This is simply emptying of the "strike-pan" of its contents into one of twoV-shaped tanks just beneath the pans, and in which the mass is constantly stirred by mechanical paddles to keep it from hardening.

To separate the sugar crystals from the syrup that will not crystallize in the boiling, is the next process. For this machines called "centrifugals" are used. Fourteen of these machines are placed directly beneath the V-shaped tanks, so that the mass flows to them through discharge pipes regulated by cut-offs. These machines are cylindrical, metal vessels about three feet in diameter, and two and a half feet high, fitted with solid bottoms, but with walls constructed of fine wire cloth supported by a perforated brass backing. The drums are hung on vertical shafts revolving at about fourteen hundred per minute. The drum being washed out to remove all stickiness and then polished bright, a mass of sugar crystals and the containing syrup is admitted until it is about half full. The electric motor which operates the drum is then started.

Operation of the Centrifugals

The process is very simple and the most interesting vet seen, because the vessel is open to the free circulation of air and the transition going on in it can be plainly seen. The mass is at first a dark brown color, but as the drum revolves faster the mass rises on the walls and is held there by centrifugal force. The syrup being a liquid, though thick, is forced through the fine mesh of the wire cloth, and passes off through the perforated back to tanks beneath. Watching the inside of the drum, we see the color change gradually from dark brown to a lighter shade, then to a yellow, and finally to a cream white, as the syrup leaves it. In about thirty minutes the syrup is entirely eliminated, and the sugar clings to the walls of the drum, four or five inches thick. The motor is then shut off and the operator scrapes off the sugar with wooden paddles, through a removable trap in the bottom to the receiving tank on the second floor. There the sugar is sprayed with water in which a little harmless bluing has been added to correct the yellow tint, and then is ready for the final process to render it fit for culinary use.

Granulation the Finishing Touch

The final touch to the sugar is the granulating process, which is done in huge drums, eight feet in diameter. Through these the sugar falls, is caught up and mixed about, while a blast of hot air from steam coils is blown through. By looking through little windows in the chamber we see the sugar being tossed about inside. Finally, after twenty minutes of this treatment it has become fine white sugar, and passes to the storage bin, from which it is drawn to the barrelling room beneath. Eight to ten hours before it was

VACUUM EVAPORATORS WHICH REDUCE THE PURIFIED JUICE TO A RICH SYRUP

SYRUP BOILERS, OR "STRIKE PANS," IN WHICH THE RICH SYRUP IS CRYSTALIZED TO SUGAR

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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

the beet's sweet content ; now it is refined sugar on its way to the peoples' tables, to sweeten their breakfast food, syrup their griddle cakes, and supply the loaf for steaming-hot coffee, to say nothing of confections.

The syrup that will not crystalize in the first boiling, and which was separated from the sugar in the centrifugals, is worked through a system of purifying machines and crystallizers entirely different from the other machines, and eventually is worked up into sugar or ordinary molasses of commerce.

Packing Sugar For Market

In the packing room on the ground floor is the last scene of intense activity. Here the barrelling is done, and it is a bustling place. The fore- man is filling the barrels, regulating the flow of sugar from the bins above : some workmen are lining barrels with heavy paper ; others are nailing in the heads of filled barrels, while still others are rolling the barrels into the storage building just beyond. The output is about six hundred barrels every twenty- four hours, or a single barrel every two and a quarter minutes. Yet what seems through narrowed vision a great amount of sugar. is but a drop in the sugar market and a small drop at that. The State of Michigan would con- stime in about thirty days the product of the entire rin of about one hundred dlays, and for the years' supply for the State the output of twelve factories of like capacity, would be required. The total annual production of beet-sugar in Michigan, if all of it were used within the State, would fill the demand for scarcely more than the year.

The Benefit to the Farmer

The farmer is the man who is most benefited by the beet-sugar industry, if he gives thoughtful care and proper cultivation to his beet crop. While the cost of caring for the beets averages about thirty dollars an acre, the returns are large, and it is not unusual for an acre of good land to yield from sixteen to twenty tons, with an average of sixteen per cent. of sugar content. Another advantage to the farmer is the fact that the price does not vary greatly ; the basis is fixed by contract before the seed is planted, and it can- not be changed. In 1915 the farmers received six dollars per ton for sugar- beets, regardless of the percentage of sugar content, at which price many netted from fifty to sixty dollars an acre, although the average for the "sugar- bowl" was not so high.

To further aid and encourage their farmer friends. the sugar companies have established weighing stations, at railroad points within a radius of thirty miles from the factories. Where distances are too great for economical haul by wagons to these stations, or roads leading to them are impossible for heavy loads, spur sidings have been put in at many scattered points, where cars are loaded. In such cases the weighing is done at the factory, a careful system of records of every carload being kept, to insure against errors.

It is an enconraging fact that wherever sugar plants have been established in good beet-growing teritory, farm lands have had an appreciable increase in value. When reduced to a labor equivalent the land is proportional to the number of hands it can employ ; and the utilization of the sugar-beet as a regular rotation crop means much for the soil. It also means an expansion of the dairy industry, with more meat, milk and butter, since many cattle may be fed upon the residium pulp from beet-sugar factories. This results in occupation for more men the entire year, with an advance in real estate and property in general. A thousand acres cultivated in beets, with a neighboring sugar factory properly managed. becomes more valuable and brings a larger income than any other farming purpose to which it can be put.

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"OSMOGENES" IN WHICH THE SYRUP THAT WILL NOT CRYSTALIZE IN THE FIRST BOILING IS FURTHER PURIFIED

Single-Germ Balls

The farmer is dependent on the sugar companies for his supply of beet seed, and practically all the seed planted in this country is imported by the the companies from Germany. In that country the cultivation of beet seed is a separate and distinct industry, and has been brought to an exact science. The production of a race of single-germ beet balls, however, is purely American, something which has not been attempted by the scientists of Europe. In this country it is being attempted through selection. Each beet ball contains from one to six germs, and it is possible that each of these germs may produce a plantlet. In order to secure a stand of beets about six times as much seed as necessary must be planted ; and it becomes necessary to thin out the surplus plants, leaving them standing in the row at the proper space.

If the ball producing the particular plant left standing has only one germ, in thinning we have but one plantlet to contend with. In case the ball produces several plants, these intertwine in the soil, and considerable labor is necessary in extracting the surplus plants. Not only is extra labor required but the rootlets of the plants retained will be more or less broken. This temporarily disturbs the growth and vigor of the plant in its tender stage ; and it is the working theory that a plantlet produced by a single germ beet ball will be more vigorous. It will have a natural vigor that comes from better nourishment of the mother seed, as it does not have to divide its food supply with other plantlets.

This work of attempting to produce a single-germ beet ball has been systematically undertaken by the Bureau of Plant Industry. United States Department of Agriculture. By inspection nothing but single-germ seeds are selected to produce "mother beets." These beets are planted, and from the resulting crop of seed nothing but single-germ balls are selected. This work will be continuous from year to year until such time as the habit of producing single-germ seed is thoroughly fixed in this new race of beets. These experiments have been under way for several years, and enough has already been done to indicate ultimate success.

A PORTION OF THE PLANT OF THE SAGINAW PLATE GLASS COMPANY

CHAPTER XX DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES

Timber Supplies Fail - Starting New Industries - Boosters Become Active - Growth of Factories - Summary of Factories and Labor - A Period of Depression - Reconstruction - How Some Gained Unexpected Riches - How Hill "Put One Over" on the Wrights -A Revival of Industries - Disruption Threatened - Celebrating a Semi-Centenary Anniversary - Retrospection - Conclusion of the Golden Anniver- sary - The Oil Development - The Well Spouted High - Speculators Foiled - Sum- mary of Saginaw's Industries in 1914 - Representative Manufactories in 1917.

T HE decline in lumber and salt production, which began to be felt in the Saginaws late in the eighteen-eighties, was the beginning of a long period of depression in the Valley cities, and awakened the enter- prising and public-spirited men to the urgent need of new industries of a diversified nature, to replace the old. This change in the commercial affairs of the Saginaw Valley was so gradual as scarcely to be perceived at the time, the rafting of logs across Lake Huron by means of bag-booms having extended the life of the lumber business for several years. But this source of supply finally failed, because of the high export duty on logs exacted by the Canadian Government, and the Saginaws soon lost their prestige as a great lumber mart.

The exhaustion of the pine forests was followed by a new era of manu- facturing activity, which gained momentum with the closing of some large lumbering operations and the consequent accumulation of large amounts of idle capital. The evolution from the cutting of pine trees, and the making of lumber and salt, to varied industries of a more permanent character is still going on, and will probably continue as long as any timber remains. In the slow process the natural resources of the valley have been developed, and a number of diversified industries established by manufacturers from outside. aided and encouraged by the capital which once found employment in the lumber and salt business.

Starting New Industries

The valuable tracts of hardwood timber tributary to this valley, com- prising more than eight million acres of hemlock, birch, oak, ash, elm, and cedar and basswood was yet untouched by the woodman's axe, and factories for the utilization of this timber soon found a place among our permanent industries. Included in the new enterprises were furniture factories, carriage and wagon works, washboard, curtain roller, box and barrel factories, a match factory, and other manufactories with varied products of which the principal component was wood.

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History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 54

Author: Mills, James Cooke Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters Number of Pages: 838

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838