The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-08-07

face of the drum, is projection OF
wood or iron to beat the fibre against |
the end Of the plank as it is passed |
between the drum and plank this |
machine could probably be made for
$40. The principle embodied in this
simple machine is the main one used
in all the rest though more elabo-
rately carried out, with the excep-
ton of G.. Dennets machine which
was constructed to work up the
stems after they had been dried.
lie Francs machine made in New
| Orleans, cost some $3.50 or $500.
Bouchard's machine imported by c.
A. Castle some years ago cost laid
down here some s400. Greig's ma
chine, the first to try for the prize in
India, was more costly and com
plicated machine. Mr.. Norman,
of France, soaks the stems Mr.. Rol-
lands is beating machine; Mr.. p.
A. Favier subjects the stems to
soaking process, Mr.. NJ. Nagona
and Mr.. Cameron employ the beat
ing device, Mr.. Smith, of Mauritius,
employs a simple beating device with
the addition of jet of cold water
playing on the fibre as it is being
beaten, Greig's machine also sprin-
kles cold water on the fibre at one
stage of the process, but not one of
these machines clean the fibre as it
needs to be cleaned to be put on 10
the market. The Chinese who clean
the fibre by hand, first strip the fibre
from the stem and then scrape it
with q dull knife, then steep it in hot
water, then pound il ; they repeat the
stepping and pounding process over
and over again until all Of the gluten
is dissolved and pressed out of the
fibre.
| have q list of nearly q hundred
American patents for the treatment
of Ramie and other fibres, and as |
said before they all work on the
same principle. The 1G or 18 ma
chimes that went to India some years
ago were of the same class.
watched the experiment carried on
in San Francisco for two or three
years with machine invented
there, but as it did not extract the
gluten, it was laid by; none of these
machines find any trouble in beating
out the wood from the fibre, but
they fail in getting rid of the gluten
(Which must be desolved by hot
, water or steam.) In one point they
are successful and that is in wasting
or beating away a certain amount of
fibre. With my machine on the con-
, trary there is no beating, scraping
or hacking, and there is no rehand-
, ling of the material, no sorting OF
stripping of the stems of leaves, etc.
the stems are placed on table OIL
, carrier and fed into the machine and
come out at the other end dry and
ready to bail.
{ There is one point that must not be
| lost sight of in the economical work
ing up of Ramie, and that is 1t must
, be handled as little and us rapidly
as possible, rs large quantities Of
stems have to be handled to produce
ton of clean fibre, from 20 to 2t
tons of stems to ton of fibre, anC
= no small cheap machine can ever bt
e made to do the work and place the
, fibre on the market, in saleabl(
) condition at paying rates. AS fol
the experiments of the growing o.
t the Ramie here that is proved by th,
experiments of the past IL years
D What isnow needed is for the Govern
: ment to show that it takes a live in
terest and will foster and encourag,
: the endeavor to introduce so valuable
+ IAN addition to our exports as al
= admit that Ramie would be. AL
the fibre from field of even growtl
5 Ramie is of the same quality. Fibr'
r too young is worthless and fibre from
G scraggily grown plants is worthless
S except for paper material.
= The growing and manufacture o
s fibre Cleaning the fibre / think Mr.
Jeager refers to) can be carried OIL
more economically on large seal,
than on small one for the reason
t / have before mentioned, thougl
, the Weld and price of Ramie will