The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1889-02-09
RHEEA FIBRE.
Its Eminent Suitability for Tex
tile Purposes.
Its Economical Utilization a
Great Industrial Problem.

NV AZ sSAseao hAouuhdCturoSs u8V6 T6o-
dered that plant tho subject of
solicitous attention for many years past
Tho production of tho fibre in quantity,
in An economical manner and in q suit
able condition for textile purposea
constitutes, In fact, one of the most i'm
portant industrial problems of tho
present day. For more than thirty
years endeavors have been made to
utilize this fibre commercially; many
thousands of pounds have been spent;
the aid of both mechanical and chemi-
cal science has been invoked, but almost
all in vain, for although this fibre i,
used to some extent, that extent i, ex-
tremely circumscribed. Twice during
the past eighteen years tho In
dian Government has offered priz, OF
$25, 900 for a machine which should
effectusily produce the fibre in the re-
quired condition, the prize having been
twice competed for and twice with
drawn. The French Government has
recently taken up tho matter, aud has
offered prizes of tho value of $1,000 for
any process or machine that will pro-
duce the fibre in commercial quantities
aud Of proper quality. The great diff
Guilty in the way Of success is the salts
factory treatment of tn, gummy matter
in which the fibre Is I'm bedded. 1t has
been found easy to decorticato the
rheea stems-th.t is, to remove the
fibre, with its adheeing bark and &C.
mentitious matter, from the wood, but
difficult to produce tho fbres clean and
free from all extraneous and adherent
matter, ready for the spinner on
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-rheea
being the Indian and ramie the Malay
name Of the plant.
Ono thing Is very certain, and tina: is,
that with a machine constructed for an
obLSi HNi pOSC, as kAC OuC EOilCs
is, and admittedly imperfect as regards
its treatment of the rheca plant, the
fibre Of tho latter can be, and IL, OBJ
tainel undamagei and fairly free from
the woody stem. The machine in ques-
ton is q fax-scutchiag machine Of
novel design, and about 6 feet 6 inches
high by feet wide, and feet long
over all; its working capacity being
put at 1cwt of rettcd fax per hour. 1t
consists of an upper feed table on which
the flax straw is fed to three pairs of
flutcd rollers, which deliver the fax
downwards between five pairs of pin
ming tools, altern ating with six pairs of
guide rollers. Tho pinning tools resem-
bic hand -hackles. and may be popu-
larry described as very coarse wire
brushes. They are attached to two
vertical frames, to which horizontal
to-and-fro motion is impaired, and the
pins iaterlace as the two sides approach.
The fibrous material is drawn down.
wards by tho rollers, which havo an in
termittent motion, and at each mo-
mentary pause the pricking pins enter
the material and are rapidly withdrawn
from it. BY degrees thi, ferrous de-
scending curtain is delivered off to q
sloping receiving table at tho bottom OF
the machine, over which table the
woody substance has previously passed
to a receiver in crushed and
semi-pulverizcd condition and per-
fectly free from fibre. But inasmuch
as it docs it, work perfectly a, re-
CARDS fax, the principle 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 rhees, Tut fax. Hence in some
of its details it is imperfect as regards
rheea Nevertheless, VIC saw some
stems of Ihcea nut through with Il
lent results, as far as the mechanical
separation of the far, from the bark
and wood is concerned. Tie stems
were those of rhecn grown at Kew; they
were about six feet high and oil fair
size. They had been rettcd 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