Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-28
MANUFACTURE OF RAMIE.
An Industry That Is Bound to Play an I'm
pOrtRnt Role in the Drama Of
Capital and Labor.
Bradstreets.

| Bradstreets.
Mr.. j. R. Dodge OF the department of
agriculture says with regard to the man
ufacture of the ramie fiber: "When the
question OF economical decorticaton is
settled and q regular supply Of ramie is
| assured, 1t will be impossible to hold
! back the tide of mnnufnCutre. 1t is a
| very Old story in Europe. but people in
this country are just beginning to fud
! out something about the fiber
! This subject of decortication has re-
ceived much attention from both manu-
! facturers and scientists, but inability to
accomplish the work successfully has
! heretofore prevented 1.-the tile of maIu-
! fac;ure'' referred to. Recently, how
ever, it has been practically demon
I strated that the 'ungunming of the
fiber can be effected. Several methods
have been employed. but Mr.. Dodge
seems to consider the TOppnn process
productive of the best results. OF this
method also prominent Boston Journal
says that within the las! month IL has
received samples of rnmie tibers grown
i'll China, '.some of which hud been I'M
gummed bv the Toppan process with
splendid results The process Is very
simple. OF course, the first essential is
to rid the fiber of the epidermis, and this
is done by boiling the stalks in an opeu
vessel in suitable liquid. After boiling
the rumie until the epidermis is loosened
it Is subjected to sharp stream of
water, which efftctually completes the
ungumming. When the fiber has been
boiled six hours it has the appearance of
dark brown cotton, aud at the expira-
NJ ~ al is n
white as any cotton ever grown. 1t Is
then ready for the garnet or picker,
No ramie is grown in this country. II
u manufacturer shout! desire and order
q ton of it from Florida, Louisiana or
Texas he could not obtain it. China
ruInie ms been used so far, but it Is be-
lieved that il eau he cultivated in this
country at com parativaly little expense,
and in any event not to exceed the cost
Of that imported, which is eight cents
per pound. The government has made
an appropriation Tor experiments In cui-
tiration of the fiber. Good authOritlrs
hold that the white or upland plant,
should be grown. The reason for .hfS 'fSS
that in the manufacture OF that fiber no
oil is necessary to mike IT success,
while with that grown in the lOwlands
both oil AMI chemicals mus: be used. II
is said that moths attack WOODEN goods
for the oil in them. This, if it he fact
is an argument iu favor OF fabrics made
from manufactured fiber in which no oil
is used. a Philadelphia firm has lately
made :two-ply curpsts' from ramie,
AMI is sufficiently satisfied with the re-
suits to order n large quantity of it.
They are no nj work on tapestry carpets
nude from the same material. The
manufactured rumie colors well,
being like wool in that particu-
lar. II has been proved by experiments
at Pnwtucket. r. l.. that a single dip
OF the ramie in the die is better than
three dips of cotton. white the colors are
much richer than those obtained in the
cotton. A feature of the fiber is its
small depreciation in manufacture COM
pured with flax. cotton aud jute, being
in the proportion of onr-hulf Of per
cent. for the ramie to 4@5. 10 and 20
per cent. of the other three, respect
lively.
machine for decor ticating rnmie,
hemp and various other furious plants is
in use in Bradford, England. aud it is
claimed bv its inventor that the dry
rnmie stalks will yield % per cent. of
fiber by this method. However, a Provi-
dence, Il. l.. manufacturer. while in
England short time ago, made a
thorough study of the subject of ramie
manufacture, aud in his judgment the