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Show CEMENT IS MADE OF SUGAR BEETS France with all her troubles of the past year and a half, has been able to develop one new industry not connected con-nected with war or munitions. The French are now turning out excellent coment from a by-product in the process pro-cess of making beet sugar. From 70,-000 70,-000 tons of beets treated, more than 3,000 tons of cement equal in quality to the best portland is obtainable, purely as a by-product. The scum which forms when the 'beets are boiled, and which hitherto has been thrown away, is dumped into large tanks, where it is allowed to dry partially, Finely divided clay is mixed with it and the mixture is thoroughly thor-oughly amalgamated by beaters for and hour and then burned In a rotary kiln, just about as Portland cement Is treated. The clinker is removed and pulverized into cement The 'beet scum, formerly a waste product, was found to contain large quantities of carbonate of lime and water. Four thousand tons of this carbonate is obtained from 70,000 tons of beets. To this is added 1,100 tons of clay, the resulting product being 3,162 tons of excellent cement. |