Prochain point :
"Un village français", "Panthère rose"
Prochain point : lat="49.1557" lon="1.78751"
Old Corbin Sugar Mill
An efficient plant in a good location
An intricate production process...
The Corbin sugar mill, founded during the 1870 War, used to be located on this spot. The complex included a manor house, six adjoining buildings that formed a saw-tooth roof, chimneys and storage barns.
The manufacturing process consisted of several steps. First, the beets were weighed and a worker used a hydrometer to determine the exact sugar level, thereby indicating the price paid to the farmer. Next, the beets were washed and shredded. The resulting paste was passed through a dozen turbines and, after carbonic acid was applied, the juice was separated from the pulp. It was cooked in boilers and crystallised by being subjected to speed in a turbine. The ensuing raw sugar was put into 25 kg bags to be shipped to the refineries. A rail link to the nearby train station was used to transport it across the region. The sugar mill created between 100 and 180 jobs. The business gradually came to a halt due to the mill at Us, which was under the same ownership.
... based on sugar beet
The agronomist Olivier de Serres described sugar beet in the early seventeenth century, and tried to extract the sugar from the plant. The first industrial extraction was carried out by a Frenchman, Benjamin Delessert, assisted by his chemist Jean-Baptiste Quéruel, in 1811. Napoleon had encouraged their research in an attempt to overcome the blockade set up by the British navy that was preventing the supply of cane sugar from the West Indies. The process for manufacturing sugar was constantly improved during the nineteenth century, and the first mills appeared at the end of the century. The root of the beet is used for producing not just sugar but also alcohol.
The pulp is used for animal feed. This intensive crop characterises the landscape of Vexin Français. Planted after the winter frosts, it is harvested from October to January
