Sugar Beet

BEET-ROOT SUGAR — PAYNE and SON, 328, Regent-street, corner of Mortimer-street, beg most respectfully to say that they have on SHOW and for SALE, Samples, of lib each, of this sugar, for Is, made from beet roots grown at Wandsworth. From, the small quantity made as an experiment Payne and Son have taken this mode that the curious and those interested in our home manufactures may have an opportunity of obtaining a sample.

[BNA: Link.]

Investment was sought:

Morning Post - Friday 06 May 1836

THE UNITED KINGDOM BEET-ROOT SUGAR ASSOCIATION.

Capital, .50,000/., in 10,000 Shares of 25/. each. Deposit, 2/. per Share. DIRKCTOa S. Major-General Barton Alderman J. Humphery, M.P. W. Cruckshank, Esq. A. W. Hillary, Esq. Sir Francis Desanges J. Homfray, Esq. .1 . Davis, F— q. Major J. Marrie R. Disraeli, Esq. Auditors— Thomas Day, Esq.; David Lyons, Esq. Srcretarv — Joseph Wells, Esq. Bankers— Messrs. Wright and Co., Henrietta-street, Covent-garden. Solicitors— Messrs. Pyne and Richards. The object of this Association is to manufacture Sugar from Beet Ki>ot, by a Patented Apparatus and Process imported from France, where tiny have been in full and successful operation in the largest Beet- Root Sugar establishment in that country. The depressed slate of the agricultural interest of the United King- .l.iin, the high price to which Sugar has risen, and is likely te advance, and the incontrovertible fact of the extraordinary success which has attended the production of Sugar from Beet Root, both in France and Germany, have led to the formation of Uiis Association for carry- ing the same object into effect in Great Britain and Ireland. The advantages resulting to the agriculturist in particular, as well *s iv the community in general, from this enterpri-e are very considerable as it will necessarilv appropriate to a new and lucrative branch of agriculture a large quantify of the best land, the returnsior which will far exceed Uiose now obtained It will be of the utmost importance to the farmer, in yielding a much greater remuneration than is obtained by any crops now pro- duced from his lands, it will also enable him to raise and fatten cattle at much less expense than at praaenl, as the residue of the Beet Koot, alter the saccharine matter has been extracted, affords to animals a most nutritious food, it being by the process deprived of its natural acid: and it also supplies the richest known manure Wlml. Tbeae facts have been proved in France, in Uie Beet-Root Suj.ar departments, by the experience of many years. ?? in To the public it will prove a security against the further advance in the price ol Sugar, which is to be apprehended from the existing or. .-uinsunees of U.e Colonies. It rr.ay here lie observed, from proceed- ings in the British House of Parliament, that Sugars have varied trom ?? to Ms perewt. during the last year, being a vanat. on oJO per cent . a very low average of which variation would be 10s ad.au c per cwt., the public are therefore now actually paring upwards ot two millions a year for sugar more than they w ere formerly. During the lasl year the consumpuon of Sugar far exceeded me^ im- portation, and greatly reduced the stock on hand . rora the present Mate of the Colonies no increased importation can be calculated upon; and, therefore, there is reason to believe that the increasing consump- tion will shortly exhaust the remaining stock. This deficiency may ue supplied by Sugar manufactured from Beet Roc, -vitbout injury to the Colonial interest i'he resulu obtained by the Beet-Root Sugar manufacturers in France and t.ermany are too well known to admit a doubt of the suc- <-»ss of this undertaking. It has been ascertained that Uie lands of this country, and more particularly those of Ireland, are better calculated for the production and growth of Beet Root than those either of France or Germany; and the art of cultivation in this country is pursued with much greater skill. As a further guarantee of success, the Associa- tion coin menee* iv operations under the most favourable circum- stances, together with the most perfect apparatus and process which have ever yet been tried, and which embrace all the improvements adopted in France, where they have produced results that have never before been approached It uiav be reasonably anticipated that the returns of profit will far exceed any that have accrued from any public enterprise which has been for many years prosecuted by a joint-stock co-operation. t/ particulars of tbe calculations upon which this assertion is founded may be inspected by the Shareholders, upon application to have already made the necessary arrangements for vi.lv of Beet Root, which was requisite from the advanced the siipi J agon ",_ they hare taken equal precaution in pro- V?V " i_hle premises for the manufacture, embracing every ad- ?? «iH«« r "-" The apparatus is in a very forward state, '"V ,ag n t ESedtatS course of a few months. and will he erected »" made by , etter (pogt _-i d) _ the Appiicationslor s™^^ A _elphi; and also to Uie Solicitors, eel, Hanover-square, on or before the 24th instant, ,2 ffter which Shares will be allotted. m \oi_U^ e_-e*d 31. per Share, and to be made at intervals of not less than three months.

[BNA: Link.]

[Trove: Link.]

SUGAR BEET

Refinery of Sugar from the Beet-root is being erected at Thames Bank, Chelsea, which it is expected will be in operation In about six weeks. In the vicinity of the metropolis, during the past summer, a great many acres of land have been put into cultivation with the root, at Wandsworth and other places. The machinery will be principally on the plan of the vacuum pans; and a pure refined sugar will be produced from the juice by the first process of evaporation, after it has simply undergone the process of discolorisation. Another part of the premises is appropriated to the manufactory of coarse brown paper from the refuse, in which it is extensively used in France. In case the government do not interfere, and, by rendering the product exciseable, retard or prohibit its manufacture, several individuals have it in contemplation to establish refineries in different parts of the kingdom for purifying sugar, which may be produced, in agricultural districts, for domestic or individual use. A refinery has lately been established at Belfast, in the vicinity of which town upwards of 200 acres of land have been put in cultivation with the beet-root for the manufacture of sugar. (Salisbury Herald, Oct. 8.)

[BNA: Link.]

3. Sugar From the book Diet for a Large Planet mentions the failure of a Wandsworth project in the 18

2Q==.jpeg De Gruyter https://www.degruyter.com › document › doi › pdf  . . .  beet factory— to produce slave- free sugar— at Ulting, near. Chelmsford, in 1832. The plant failed for financial reasons, as did an 1836 project at Wandsworth.

Chapter ThreeSugarSugar is not only a "manufactured" food, it has been subjected to elabo-rate chemical and mechanical manipulation.—James Wheatley, "Dental Caries and Sweets" (1920)The hypothesis offered here is that sugar and other drug foods, by pro-visioning, sating— and, indeed, drugging— farm and factory workers, sharply reduced the overall cost of creating and reproducing the metro-politan proletariat.—Sydney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1985)"Fancy attempting nowadays to live a single day without sugar," teased the freethinking agnostic Grant Allen in 1884. "No tea, no coffee, no jam, no pudding, no cake, no sweets, no hot toddy before one goes to bed; the bare idea of it is too terrible." For those "benighted generations" living before the introduction of sugar's pleasures, cookery was in an "alarming" condition. It was, Allen continued, "almost too appalling to think about" a world devoid of confectionery, sweet biscuits, jellies, and tarts. The impov-erished children of ancient civilizations inhabited a universe "absolutely unlighted by a single ray of joy from chocolate creams or Everton toffee."1Sugar divided one gustatory age from another. In Physiologie du goût (1825), Brillat- Savarin argued that sugar allowed the manufacture of "hitherto unknown flavours," heralding an age of nutritional progress and invention.2Such panegyric contrasted sharply with the dystopian visions of a hyper-saccharinized society in John Yudkin's Pure, White and Deadly: The Prob-lem of Sugar (1972). "The British are easily the world's largest consumers of sugar confectionery," Yudkin complained, before chastising "children's

[BNA: Link.]

THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM,

Considered in their Various Uses to Man and tn 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,

HONORARY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL SOCIETIES OF JAMAICA, BRITISH GUIANA, ANTIGUA, BARBADOS, KONIGSBERG, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, NATAL, THE NEW YORK STATE SOCIETY, THE NOVA SCOTIA CENTRAL BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, THE SOCIETIES FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE IN PHILADELPHIA AND NEW ORLEANS; ONE OF THE EDITORS OF "JOHNSON'S FARMER'S ENCYCLOPÆDIA;" MANY YEARS EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR OF THE "COLONIAL MAGAZINE," &c. &c.

MDCCCLIV.

[Pg v] EET ROOT SUGAR.

The rapid progress of the production of beet root sugar on the continent, especially in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Russia, and its recent introduction and cultivation as an article of commerce in Ireland, renders the detail of its culture and manufacture on the continent interesting. I have, therefore, been induced to bestow some pains on an investigation of the rise and progress of its production and consumption in those countries.

During the past three years, the smallest estimate which can be formed of the quantity of cane sugar that has been replaced by beet root sugar in the chief European countries, is about 80,000 tons annually, with the certainty that, year after year, the consumption will become exclusively confined to the former, to the greater exclusion of the latter; unless some great change shall take place in the relative perfection and manufacture of the two different descriptions of produce.

Although, observes the Economist, the beet root sugar produced in France, Belgium, Germany, and other parts of the continent is not brought into competition in our own markets with the produce of the British colonies, yet it must be plain that the exclusion of so much foreign cane sugar from the continent, which was formerly consumed there, must throw a much larger quantity of Cuba and Brazilian sugar upon this market; and by this means the increased production of beet root sugar, even in those countries where it is highly protected, does indirectly increase the competition among the producers of cane sugar in our market.

So early as 1747, a chemist of Berlin, named Margraf, discovered that beet root contained a certain quantity of sugar, but it was not until 1796 that the discovery was properly brought under the attention of the scientific in Europe by Achard, who was also a chemist and resident of Berlin, and who published a circumstantial account of the progress by which he extracted from 3 to 4 per cent. of sugar from beet root.

Several attempts have been made, from time to time, to manufacture beet root sugar in England, but never, hitherto, on a large and systematic scale. Some years ago a company was established for the purpose, but they did not proceed in their operations.

A refinery of sugar from the beet root was erected at Thames Bank, Chelsea, in the early part of 1837. During the summer of 1839 a great many acres of land were put into cultivation with the root, at Wandsworth and other places in the vicinity of the metropolis. The machinery used in the manufacture was principally on the plan of the vacuum pans, and a fine refined sugar was produced from the juice by the first process of evaporation, after it had undergone discolorization. Another part of the premises was appropriated to the manufacture of coarse brown paper from the refuse, for which it is extensively used in France.

A refinery was also established about this period at Belfast, in the vicinity of which town upwards of 200 acres of land were put into cultivation with beet root for the manufacture of sugar.

[Pg 191]

etc etc

[BNA: Link.]

NLA/TROVE

[Trove: Link.]

SUGAR BEET.

The revival of the question as to the cultivation of the beet in this country as a sugar producer, is one of the many examples of the periodical interest plants in general and economic plants in particular exercise on' the public mind. It is too often the oase that the interest of what might become a useful plant, forms only the subject of the proverbial nine days' wonder; and it is frequently lost for want of proper energy to push its claims, ana atter tne lapse ot a tew years, with the aid of improved knowledge in its culture, or the perfection of machinery in its preparation, it comes before the public as a new and important source of food or of revenue. Such is the case with the beet. Twenty years ago we were led I to believe it would become, ere this, a staple article I of culture and manufacture in Ireland, but after I the lapse of nearly a quarter of a cen I tury, that unhappy portion of the British I dominions has not acquired prosperity and I wealth from this branch of agriculture, | though we believe it has recently been cultivated _ in some parts with more or less success. At this [ time, now that the plant is again before the -notice [ of the agricultural as well as the general public, some ! account of it may not be without interest.

' It was in 1747 that Margriaf, an eminent German chemist, discovered the presence of sugar in the beet; this discovery resulted from a series of experiments which he had conducted in order to ascertain the composition of various roots. Thin slices of the beet root being dried by a gentle heat, small crystals of sugar were easily detected. By drying the root, reducing it to a powder, and treating it with boiling alcohol, the sugar was dissolved, and the starch and other ccmpounds left. After this beet-root sugar was made in small quantities, but it was looked upon more as an article of curiosity than of commerce or utility, and 40 years passed away before any step was actually taken to manufacture it on a sufficiently large scale to test its merits.

The first factory was erected in 1788 at Cumoon, in Silesia, and superintended by M Achard, a Prussian chemist of some note, by desire of the Prussian Government.

In this factory some slight alterations were adopted from the original plan for the extraction of the sugar, the principal one being that the root was boiled previous to pressing; the manufacture, however, failed, and the next impulse given to it was by Napoleon I., whose endeavour to ruin the trade between the colonies and England effected a rise in the price of cane sugar equal to about 5s. per pound.

From this time beet-root sugar began to take a place amongst the regular articles of Continental manufacture, and in 1825 there were on the north rj of France alone as many as twenty-six sugar factories where the beet only was used. At the present time, all through Prance, Belgium, I (Germany, &c., beet-root sugar factories abound, so that the trade is a most extensive as well as a most remunerative one. Its cultivation, however, was never successfully conducted in England.

So late as 1837 a refinery was established in Chelsea for its manufacture, and the plants were grown in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth; the scheme, however, from some cause, did not prosper, and now that the whole cf the European continent is, and has been for years, xeaiUing a large revenue from a useful branch of agriculture and manufacture, and producing sugar amounting in the aggregate to between three and four Bundled millions of pounds annually, a few amongst us are again stirring in the matter.

Johnston, in his ?' Chemistry of Common Life,' gives the following information as to the composition of the root and its continental culture: — The average composition of the root of the sugar beet of France, Belgium, and the Rhenish provinces, is nearly as follows: — Sugar .. .. .. 10 j Gluten . . . . 3 Fibre, &c. .. ..6 Water .. .. .. 81 j ? 100 But this nronortion of suear varies verv much. Thus it is greater — A. In small beets than in large.

Ji. In some varieties, as in the white Schleswick, pear shaped beet, and in a spindle-shaped, red-skinned, white fleshed variety, both much cultivated in Germany.

c. In dry climates, and especially where the climate is dry, after the roots have begun to swell.

D. In light potato or barley than heavy soils.

E. In the part tinder than above ground.

F. When manure has not been directly applied to the crop.

These facts show how much practical agriculture has to do with the success of this important manufacture.

The difference of climate, soil, and mode of culture, have so much effect, that while the beets of Lille, a southern centre of the manufacture, do not average more thau 16 to 32 per cent, of sngar, those of Magdeburg, a more northern centre, contain from 12 to 14 per cent. Under certain very favourable conditions as much as 18 per cent of sugar has Been found in the beet of North Germany, the proportion of augur io eo muck Icac jn that part that groiro above ground that it is not unfrequentiy cut off and fed to cattle.

This reminds us of the want of sweetness in the upper part of the sugar-cane, and tbe reason is probably the same in Both cases, that the sugar is in these parts transformed into woody matter.

Tbe average proportion of sugar extracted in Belgium and France is 6 lb. from every hundred of fre3s root. In come well-conducted manufactories it is said to reach 7 or 7j lbs. from the hundred. In Germany the average yield is at present 7 or more; and improvements now on trial are expected to raise it to 8 lb. from the hundred.

The mode of extraction is very simple. In France and Belgium the root is ground to a pulp between saw-toothed rollers, a small stream of water trickling over the teeth to Beep them clean. This pulp is put into bags, and sub mitted to strong pressure, by which the juice is squeezed out, while the solid matter remains in the form of a dry cake. This iuice is treated with lime, heated, filtered, boiled down by steam to the crystallising point, and then, as in ihe case of cane-sugar, cooled and drained from the molasses. From the beet the molasses thus obtained is colourless, but it has a disagreeable taste, and cannot, therefore, like cane-molasses, be directly employed for any sweetening purpose. The raw sugar has also an unplea sant taste, and is in consequence refined, for the most part, Before it is brought to market.

In Germany it is now usual to slice the beet, and io wash out the sugar with hot water, treating the solution afterwards as above described. The happy discovery of Meiseno, of Brussels, that sulphurous acid has the property of arresting fermentation in sweet juices, has ocen of much service in mnbing this German method of extraction available. It is interesting to remark Bow new improvements in this manufactre constantly made S known new chemical difficulties, and present new chemical 5 and agricultural problems to be solved. The first great I difficulty was to prevent the fermentation of the juice, the I production of acid, and the simultaneous waste of augar and B conversion of a part of it into uncrystallisable molasses.

B The former has been overcome by various chemical means, B and the latter by the use of steam. But as the yield of B sugar approached to 7 per cent., it was found that certain B syrups remained behind, which, though they certainly con ? Xained cane-sugar, refused stubbornly to crystallise; and ? Ihe reason of this was traced to the presence of saline B matter, chiefly common salt, in the sap. This salt forms a I compound with the sugar, and prevents it from crystal B lising. And so powerful is this influence that 1 per I cent, of salt in the sap will render 3 per cent, of the ? sugar uncrystallisable. To overcome this difficulty I new chemical inquiries were necessary. As results o 1 ihese inquiries it was ascertained— 1st that the proportion B of sugar was larger, and of salt less, in beets not weighing B more than 5 lb. The first practical step, therefore, was ? ibat the sugar manufacturers announced to the cultivators i who raised the beet, that in future they would give a less i price for roots weighing more than 5 lb.

B _ Next, that a crop raised by means of the direct applies g ' lion of manure contained more salt, and gave more un I crystallisable syrup than when raised without direct g manuring. A larger price, therefore was offered for roots I grown upon land which had been manured during the I previous winter; a higher still for such as were raised I after a manured crop of corn; and a still higher when, I after the manuring, two crops of corn were taken before I the beet was sown.

I Thus the difficulty was lessened by chemical agricultural I means, and though the crop was less in weight to the I fanner, the higher price he obtained in some degree made I tup the difference.

[ In France and Belgium the crops gathered averaged I 14 or 15 tons on acre, while about Magdeburg they do not ( -exceed 10 or 12 tons, but the latter are richer in sugar and I poorer in salts, in proportion. A method is now under I- trial in France for separating the sugar from the salts by a I . purely chemical operation; when this is effected the crops I may be forced by manure, as our turnip crops are, and a I larger jleld obtained without fear of injuring the Bug or ex I tractor by a superabundance of salts. It is stated, also, I that Mr. Hertz, a partner in a large sugar manufactory i near Heidelberg, has made improvements by means of I which, among other advantages, he can extract from his B Beet 9 per cent of pure sugar.

I 1st. He dries the roots whole in ovens, and thus can I keep them all the year round, and work them when most ? convenient.

I 2nd. He washes out the sugar in vacuo. This excludes I the aii', prevents fermentation, more fully extracts the I sugar, enables him to work in warm as well as (gild I weather and thus in the course of the year to work I, tip three times the material with the same plant. There B ? may be some exaggeration in the a'leged result of these I I methods, but the idea of extracting the sugar in vacuo is I certainly good, if it can be economically effected and gen I; erally applied.

I Asa commercial speculation of course, muck de B \ Tends upon the proper cultivation of the plants. The X best variety for growing is -the whie Silesian beet.

S The ground should' not be over manured, and the ? distar ce between the pl&nts not too great. Moreover, I the roots should not be 'allowed1 to grow too large.

? We hope that Mr. Du'lican; 'of Mincing-lane, who has I recently taken up tbe ' beet question, will bring his I experiments to a successful' issue. The fact of -utilising Bi the pulp as a cattle food after the sugar has been ex tracted, though it is to be sold at a merely nominal price, is evidence that there is to be no absolute waste. — Agricultural Gazette.

I'm not sure when exactly the beet industry failed, or why . . . 

I've read that there was a shift around 1830 from West Indian to East Indian sugar, since the latter was produced by free people, and was preferred. Also the abolition of slavery in 1838? - did this lead to a collapse in production in the West Indies?

Did differential tariffs /duties favour East Indian sugar? If so, these factors will have temporarily boosted East Indian sugar. Did they also benefit beet-sugar production (again temporarily?) But not for long, since duties were made identical from 1846. This will have reduced the price of sugar - did it reduce any beet sugar's advantage?

But then international trade free of duties mant "The British market was subsequently flooded with cheaper slave-made sugar from Cuba and Brazil and East Indies sugar exporters quickly went bankrupt within a year." [Also, possibly the beet-sugar producers?]

This whole esssy looks interesting:

West_Indies_technologies_in_the_East_Indies_Imperial_preference_and_sugar_business_in_Bihar_1800_1850s.pdf

Yet, the [Est Indian] manufacturers did not have the opportunity to reap the benefits of their investment as 1846 brought a new change in trade policies; this time the end of the imperial preference and the equalisation of duties on all sugar.

The British market was subsequently flooded with cheaper slave-made sugar from Cuba and Brazil and East Indies sugar exporters quickly went bankrupt within a year. From the point of view of economic efficiency, the end of imperial preference was an appropriate step for the government to make. The goal was to ensure access to sugar consumption for lower-income groups in Britain and this was achieved thanks to the decline in sugar prices following the 1846 tariff equalisation. Yet, the policy also betrays a lack of consistency in British imperial policy and the ultimate preference for the welfare of the British consumer over manufacturing interests in the Empire . . . . https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/110453/1/

72 Chapter Three

Sugar

Sugar is not only a "manufactured" food, it has been subjected to elaborate chemical and mechanical manipulation.—James Wheatley, "Dental Caries and Sweets" (1920) The hypothesis offered here is that sugar and other drug foods, by provisioning, sating— and, indeed, drugging — farm and factory workers, sharply reduced the overall cost of creating and reproducing the metropolitan proletariat.—Sydney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1985) "Fancy attempting nowadays to live a single day without sugar," teased the freethinking agnostic Grant Allen in 1884. "No tea, no coffee, no jam, no pudding, no cake, no sweets, no hot toddy before one goes to bed; the bare idea of it is too terrible."

For those "benighted generations" living before the introduction of sugar's pleasures, cookery was in an "alarming" condition. It was, Allen continued, "almost too appalling to think about" a world devoid of confectionery, sweet biscuits, jellies, and tarts. The impoverished children of ancient civilizations inhabited a universe "absolutely unlighted by a single ray of joy from chocolate creams or Everton toffee."1Sugar divided one gustatory age from another.

In Physiologie du goût (1825), Brillat- Savarin argued that sugar allowed the manufacture of "hitherto unknown flavours," heralding an age of nutritional progress and invention.2 Such panegyric contrasted sharply with the dystopian visions of a hyper-saccharinized society in John Yudkin's Pure, White and Deadly: The Problem of Sugar (1972). "The British are easily the world's largest consumers of sugar confectionery," Yudkin complained, before chastising "children's

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