ws in a cast-iron frame. If in
an iron frame, the above-mentioned noise is obviated, but the friction
and loss of power is the same, which is ascertainable by subsequent
investigation. The cylinders or rollers, which are moving either
horizontally or vertically, are from eighteen to twenty-four inches in
diameter, with bearings or shafts of one fourth of their diameter. If
the bearings or shafts of the cylinders were of less substance, they
could not resist the great strain to which they are subjected when in
operation. The whole of the prime mover (steam-engine, water-wheel, or
animals), minus the friction of intermediate machinery, is transmitted
to the plains of these rollers and resisted by their bearings; hence
the action is equal to a weight moving on low wheels of eighteen or
twenty-four inches in diameter, on axles of from four to six inches
thickness, which weight is equal to the force applied; consequently,
if the strain is greater than the resistance of the rollers or the
bearings, they must be wrenched off, or if greater than the force
applied, the mill will be stopped. The power necessary to move weights
upon wheels, on a smooth and level surface, is in proportion to the
respective diameters of wheels and axles. The same pull which moves
one ton at a given velocity upon a wheel of two feet, with an axle of
six inches, will move four tons, if on a wheel of four feet diameter,
with an axle of six inches. Consequently, cylinders of small diameter,
with strong and substantial bearings, are only admissible as working
machines, if no other mechanical means are applicable, as, for
instance, in rolling out metals, compressing the surface of various
bodies for a glossy appearance, or, generally speaking, to produce a
certain and equal form of the substance which is pressed and passed
between them. They compress the atoms of bodies, and for this reason
alone are ill suited to separate the fibres of the sugar canes, and to
express effectively the saccharine matter between them. A practical
proof of this demonstration is furnished by every sugar cane which has
gone through the mill. Fresh megass is at present better suited for
fattening animals than for fuel under the sugar pans.

The loss of material thus sustained, which is, on an average, equal in
every mill, whether driven by steam, water, or animal power, is
entirely chargeable to the construction of the mill, and amounts to
about ten per cent. of the saccharine m