Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-12-22
RHEEA FIBRE.
Its Eminent Suitability for Tex
tile Purposes.
Its Economical Utilization a
Great Industrial Problem.


use in textile manufactures, have ren-
dercd that plant tho subject of
solicitous attention for many years past.
The production of tn, fibre il quantity,
in an economical manner and ia a suit
ablo condition for textile purposes.
constitutes, in fact, one of the most i'm
portant industrial problems of the
present day. For moro than thirty
years end have been made TO
utilize this fire commercially; many
thousand, of pounds have been spent;
the aii of both mechanical and chemi-
cal science has been invoked, but almost
all in vain, for although this fibro is
used to some extent, that extent is ex-
tremely circumscribed. Twice during
the past eighteen years the In
dian Government has offered q priz, OF
$25, 900 for a machine which should
eff.ctually prolucc til, fibre in the re-
quired condition, the prize having been
twice competed for and twice with
drawn. The French Government has
recently taken up the matter, and has
offered prizes of the value OF $1,000 for
any process or machine that will pro-
duce the fibre i, commercial quantities
and of proper quality. The great diff
Guilty in the way OF success is tho salts
factory treatment of tn, gumny matter
in which the fibre i, imbedded. 1t has
been found easy to dccorticate the
rheea stems-thet ia, to remove the
fire, with its adhe,ing bark and &C.
mentitious matter, from the wool, but
difficult to produce the tibres clean and
free from all extrancous and adherent
matter, ready for the spinner, on a
commercial scale. Thi, holds good
with all the varieties of this fibre,
whether they be known under the name
of China grass, rheea or ramie-rhcea
being the Indian and ramie the Malay
name of the plant.
Ono thing is very certain, aad that is,
that with machine constructed for an
other purpose. as the one under notice
is, and admittedly imperfect as regards
its treatment of tho rheea plant, the
fibre of the latter can be, and Il, OBJ
tainel undamagel and fairly free from
tho woody stem. The machine in ques-
tioa is flax-scutching machine OF
novel design, and about fee; inches
high by 4 feet wide, and feet long
over all; its working capacity being
put at 1cwt of rettcd flax per hour. 1t
consists of an upper feed table on which
the flax straw is fed TO three pairs of
tluted rollers. which deliver the fax
downward' between five pairs of pin
ming tools, alternating with six pairs OF
guide rollers. The planning tools resem-
bio hand -hacklcs. aaI may be popu-
larly described as very coarse wire
brushes. They are attached to two
vertical frames, to which a horizontal
to-and-fro motion is i'm parted, and the
pins iaterlace as the two sides approach.
The fibrous material is drawn down.
wards by the rollers, which have an in
termittent motion, and at each mo-
mcntary pause the prickiag pins entcr
the material and are rapidly withdrawn
from it. BY degrees this ferrous de-
scending curtain is delivered off to a
sloping rcceiviag table at tn, bottom OF
the m .chi,e, OVER which table the
woody substaac, has previously passed
to receiver il crushed and
semi-pu,v> rized condition and per-
fcctly free from fibre. But inasmuch
as it does its work perfectly as re-
CARDS fix, the prin ciple would appear
to be correct. 1t is, moreover, to be
born in mind that, as We have already
stated, the machine was not designed
to treat rhcea, lut fix. Hence in some
of its details it is imperfect as regards
rheea. Nevertheless, we saw some
stems of rheea lut through with excl
lent results, as far as the mechanical
separation of the filro from the bark
and wood is concerned. The stems
were those of rheea grown at Kew; they
were about six feet high and of fair
size. They had been retted for four
days and were not quite dry. Mr..
Wallace holds that they should be
rctted for eight days and completely
dried. However this may be, the
stems We saw put through the machine
were quickly done. and the fibre pro-
duced was from wood. It is intend
ed to send TO India machine specially
made for dealing with rheea. The first
point settled-that is, the proper stage
at which tho machine shall DO used
Mr.. Wallace is confident of being able
to produce tho foro from hi, machine
ready for use by tho spianer, just as he
has already done with fl K. 1t is to be
hoped that he will succeed in effecting
his object, which will be the means OF
giving to tho textile industry fibre
which has been pronounced to be the
strongest ia nature, and for which the
trade has been long and anxiou,ly look
| inp.-[Londoa Times,