Betty's Hope - Extraction Process

Extraction Process

In the 18th century (1737 as per a plaque at the main entrance), at Betty’s Hope, twin windmills were used to crush sugar cane. Initially, the windmills had three vertical rollers to crush the cane fed by two men and it could crush and extract only 60% of cane juice even after two rounds of crushing. This process underwent improvements with three horizontally placed rollers which increased the efficiency of extraction by another 20%. Each wind driven mill extracted cane juice from cane produced from 2 acres (0.81 ha) of land and carted to the mill. The extracted juice was collected in an underground collection chamber from where it was conveyed through a pipe to the boiling house. The bagasse was dried and used as fuel in the boiler and distilling process. The weekly production was generally about 5,500 gallons of cane juice from 200 tonnes of cane.