The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-09-16

ramie yarn from the nbre In Rhode Is
land. The capital stock is fixed at f260. :
600. A three-story brick building will
| be erected at once at Hughesville, in the
town OF ScItuate. Five hundred opera
| tiyes will be worked. The manufacture
| will be & new one in this State.
Though much has been, at times, heard
about the vegetable fibre called Ramie,
and the efforts that have been made to
work II into textiles, the news that yacht
| Defender has a set of sails made
of Ramie really brings 1t more into the
sphere OF the accepted and the practical
than any OF the experiments or any of
the experimenters have done.
The one fact about Ramie that has al
ways attracted to 1t study and expert
mentation is that it is probably the
strongest vegetable fibre, and it has been
the hope and dream of textile manufac-
turers 10 some day be able to mix 1t with
silk, wool and linen to produce cloths
much stronger and more durable than
either fibre is alone capable Of.
Ramie belongs to the great botanical
family OF nettles, Urticace@, representa-
tives of which are found literally rom
pole to pole, and which are almost uni
versally despised as weeds exceedingly
difficult to kill, but which are almost as
universally m ade some use OF. OF this
great family Ramie is Boehmeria (Uetica)
grass by those who do not care to at
tempt its Chinese name Tchouma. On
the Malay peninsula 1t is known as
Rance. The name that seems TO have
been generally adopted by the Europeans
and Americans who have studied 1t and
experimental with achinery to work
II, is the South American name, Ramie.
The Ramie plant exists in many coun-
tries, chiefly in the tropical East,
though produced In South America, the
West Indies and in Mexico. Its tensile
strength is three times that OF fax, and
ten times that of hemp. This explains,
together with its imperviousness to
moisture, its great value for a sail fabric,
as well as for cordage, fishing nets, lines,
etc. The Malays make sewing thread
and twine OF Ramie fibre. in China it is
worked into sort OF grass cloth that is
extensively used, and is used in copnec-
of a variety of fabrics. In japan an oil
is expressed from the seeds of Ramie
plant, and II enters into various medical
preparations.
Ramie is impervious to moisture in high
degree, and while It strengthens fabrics
it is a component part Of, it also
beauties them. II makes an admirable
absorbent for surgical use, and is consid-
cred to have healing properties that make
its use preferable to cotton.
We are not definitely informed about
tho Defender sails, but it Is probable
that they are made of Ramie fibre heated
by machinery. and according to a pro-
cess, devised by hrm in London, that
has made most careful study OF the
plant, and claims to be able to successful
ly decorticste Tor remove the outer COW
ering, or husk) the plant and leave the
fibre with its strength unimpaired.
Heretofore the difficulty has been that
this process very greatly weakened the
fibre, and reduced it's practical value to
the level OF other fbres.
The Ramie fibre adheres rigidly to a
tough and woody skin, being attached
by a powerful gum that has baffied
manipulation. In the East the fibre is
stripped away from this woody epider-
mis- by hand, which evidently cannot be
practiced elsewhere, IL the fibre is to
come into commercial use. 1t is claimed
that the London concern is able 10 fur
nish Ramie slivers, ready for combing,
at a cost OF about five cents per pound,
reckoning the raw fibre to cost s75
per ton. II there were demand for. the
Ramie fibre 1t would, it is expected, be
produced at something below $50 per ton
about what good hay now costs, per-
haps.
The process employed to ungum the
fibre begins with boiling in an open vat
several hours, and Is completed in a
bleaching tank, with a secret chemical
process. Then the fibre is put through
another patented process to wiring, sep
parate and soften IL. After combing, the
fibres are from three TO nine inches In
lengh, and TO convert them into yarn for
any sort OF weaving are treated about as
,hor n hroe ara