[OLIVÁN, Alejandro].
Informe a la junta de gobierno del Real Consulado sobre el ensayo del nuevo tren de elaborar azucar, sentado en el ingenio de San Jose, por la comison encargada de presenciarlo, seguido de un oficio de D. Alejandro Olivan, referente al propio abgeto: impreso por acuerdo de la misma Junta de Gobierno.
Havana, Imprenta Fraternal, 1831. Small 4to. With a woodcut Havana coat-of-arms (crowned shield with 3 towers and a key) on the title-page, with attributes of agriculture and commerce. Disbound. [1], [1 blank], 36 pp.
€ 1,250
Very rare report to the governing board of Cuba about a trial sugar mill, brought from France to Cuba by Alejandro Oliván (1796-1878). In the early 1830s the Cuban Real Junta de Fomento commissioned Oliván, then one of Cubas leading experts on sugar production, to travel to Jamaica and Europe in search of the best system for manufacturing sugar. He returned with plans for a new kind of sugar train (the series of kettles used to boil down the extracted juice), recommended by the French engineer Derosne. This new train differs from the existing Jamaican trains because it used a vacuum apparatus to evaporate a sugar solution, concentrating it for crystallization, rather than passing the sugar through a series of pans with holes of decreasing size. Nevertheless, up to at least 1840, the Jamaican trains dominated the Cuban sugar production.
Wrappers lacking, otherwise in very good condition. A very rare pamphlet. Fraginals, The sugarmill: the socioeconomic complex of sugar in Cuba 1760-1860 (2008), 259, 274, 275, p. 113; Sabin 57188; WorldCat (1 copy); cf. Palau 119497 (8vo-edition).
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