DOCUMENTATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL REMAINS OF CENTRAL AGUIRRE FOR A NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION Dr. Luis Pumarada-O’Neill, Industrial Archeologist Dr. Fernando Plá-Barby, Professional Engineer
THE INTRODUCTION OF SUGAR TECHNOLOGIES INTO PUERTO RICO Sugar cane was introduced into Puerto Rico in 1516 from neighboring Hispaniola, where it had been brought by Christopher Columbus himself. No sugar was produced in Puerto Rico, however, until 1522-23 when a plantation with a water-powered mill was set up in the West Coast by means of a loan from the Spanish Crown. The sugar technology used in 16th Century Puerto Rico comprised an edge roller stone mill, copper kettles for the extraction and evaporation of the juice respectively, and earthenware vats for the crystallization of the sugar. The massecuite thus produced was cut up and distributed into open-ended conical vases. For weeks these were kept covered with a clay matrix that was kept saturated with water. The water that oozed out of the clay filtered down the molasses-covered sugar and dripped out the bottom of the inverted cone, carrying dissolved molasses. The remaining sugar cone was cut up into three pieces of different quality and colored sugar, which was then dried and packed into wooden boxes for export. Other mills founded during that century in the island used teams of horses to turn the edge roller mills. These mills were very inefficient, and the flattened pieces of cut-up cane stems that were left behind the circling stone still had enough juice in them to merit a second extraction effort. This was done using a wooden press, similar to the ones used around the Mediterranean to extract olive oil. The need for two mills, the requirement of cutting up the cane stems into pieces, and the need to lay on and pick-up these pieces from the circle traveled