日本自1895年殖民臺灣後,於20世紀初將臺灣發展成糖業王國,然而隨著糖業的沒落,至今僅留存少數日治時期的糖業遺產,近年來活化文化資產日趨興盛,這些糖業遺產又開始為人重視。筆者在清查現存的12座糖廠過程中,發現日治時期的製糖設備保留不少,但昔日對於製糖現代設備的研究寥寥可數,其產業文化資產的價值仍待評估。特別是製糖程序中以壓榨為重要過程,加上製糖設備中,壓榨設備保留多,因此本文以壓榨設備為研究對象,以自1950年代發展出來的產業考古學配合日治時期文獻,重構日治時期的製糖機器。本文的文獻史料則以臺灣糖業公司提供之資產清冊進行歸納及分析,並利用日治時期於1936年製糖研究會出版的《臺灣各社製糖工場機械要覽》內的製糖機械資料考查現有製糖機械的脈絡,並配合實地調查及口述訪談還原當時製糖的方式。
After Japan colonized Taiwan in 1895, it started to develop Taiwan into a "Kingdom of Sugar" in the early 20th century. However, with the decline of the sugar industry, very little industrial heritage relating to the sugar industry during the Japanese occupation period have survived. In recent years, preserving these cultural assets has become increasingly valued. The people began to pay attention to industrial heritage. In the process of inspecting the existing 12 sugar factories, the author found that there were many examples sugar-making machinery from the Japanese occupation period. However, in the past there have been few studies on modern sugar-making equipment, and the value of industrial cultural assets still needs to be evaluated. In particular, in the sugar-making process, pressing is an important process, and among the surviving sugar-making equipment presses are some of the best-preserved. This paper takes implements the industrial archaeology approach developed in the 1950s as a research model when studying surviving machinery. The study also uses historical archives provided by the Taiwan Sugar Company. Thus, a combination of field investigations documentary sources and oral interviews were employed to recreate the history of sugar production.