American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-03-09
A Substitute for Silk.

A substitute, or what is believed will
ultimately prove to be an efficient sub
stitute for silk and other fables, has for
several years been favorably known to
the great manufacturers of Yorkshire.
This is the g dressed" fiber, to use the
technical term, of the Rheea plant.
Hitherto, however, grave difficulties
have stood in the way of its introduction
into the market on any thing like an ex-
tensive scale, and, until some inventor
cares to take his chance of making
large fortune, by designing a machine
that will enable the fiber to be prepared
for manufacture at a price that will
bring it into active competition with
other textile fabrics, we can not hope to
reap much benefit from this plant.
The Rheea plant, also known by its
Indian name Ramie, and popularity as
Chinese grass, is a member of the Urti-
cacee family. 1t is found throughout
the greater part of tropical or Eastern
Asia, and grows to a height of about
four feet. There are two types of the
plant, namely, U. nivea and U. tenacis-
sima, but the latter is far and away the
better adapted for industrial purposes.
The useful portion is the fiber of the in
ner bark, which has to be bleached and
separated into threads. For hundreds of
years the Chinese have been accustom-
ed to do this work by hand, skinning the
stalk and scraping off the outer bark
with aknife. But as one man can turn
out only two pounds day at the ut
most, the process is, of course, wretch
eddy slow. The raw material thus pro-
duced consists of clear ribbons of light
yellow color. When these have been
ungummed, bleached, dressed and comb
ed smoothly, they form the strong and
brilliant staple for the manufacture of
such goods as Japanese silk, a fabric of
which ladies speak in terms of the very
highest praise.
Besides possessing great strength, the
Ramie fiber is quite as elastic as cotton,
and more so than hemp or flax. In fact,
it is inferior in the respect named to
silk alone. But we have yet to make
allowance, before exhausting the list of
its merits, for its beautiful luster and in
tense whiteness, for the easy cultivation
of the plant, and its rapid reproduction.
A plantation where the plant grows in
regular, thick rows will yield three
crops per annum, with as many as 500
pounds of fiber to the acre. A moving
machine, with thick, short blades, gath
ers the plants, which are collected in
sheaves and then left in stacks. After
few days the leaves wither and fall off,
owing to the handling to which they are
subjected while they are being carried
to the dressing-machine The plant
should be cut from eightto fifteen days,
according as the weather is dry or
damp, before it is strip ed of its bark
In 1871, a reward of $4,000 was of
fered by the Government for the best
machine or process for the preparation
of the fiber. All the competitors save
one retired before the day of trial, and
the sole candidate was only partially
but as he received the sum
of Fl, 800 we may fairly assume that his
invention was meritorious. However,
no practical use was made of it, and
Government have again come forward
to their credit be it said-with the of
fer of two handsome rewards, one for
the best, the other for the next best ma
chine. The competition will take place
in August and September, 1879, at Sa-
haranpur, in the Northwest Provinces
of India, and all entries must be made
by the December previous. CGsscH's
Mn0Gz the.