The record-union., 1898-10-03
HOW MANILA HEMP IS RE-
DUCED TO CORDAGE.
The Modern Walk Compared Will
the Old-TwO Varieties
Of Hemp.

manila in the commercial world, be-
cause it is nearly all shipped from the
city of that name The trees from
which the fiber is taken grow in groves
on the uplands and are similar to the
banana trees, but bear no fruit. The
trees are cut down by the natives, close
to the ground, and the leaves peeled
off down to the bottom of the stalk.
The mass is scraped with knife and
is then hung up to dry. The leaves
of a tree will make about one pound
Of fiber, and the average native can
cut and scrape nearly twelve pounds of
fiber day, for which he receives about
is cents. With this he supports him
self and family.
When dry and ready for the market
the hemp is nearly white in color, has
a gloss like silk, and even in its raw
state is tough and hard to break. The
hanks, or punches, are about ten feet
long, and these are packed in layers
and made up in bales weighing about
20 pounds each. The bales are packed
in loosely woven mats and fastened
with rattan, and in that shape the
manila is sent away to be converted
into rope and Irvine of all sizes and
grades. In 1897 there We're shipped
from Manila 5000 bales of 210 pounds
each. Of these 417,O00 came to the
United States, 3S5,000 went to Great
Britain, and the rest was consumed in
Continental Europe.
THE PRODUCT OF SISAL HEMP.
Sisal hemp, which comes from Yu-
catan, also enters largely into the man
ufacture of American cordage. The
whole product is consumed in the Unit
ed States, and this amounted to 40
CO0 bales Of 80 pounds each in 1897.
The plant from which this hemp is OBJ
tanned is much like the century plant,
and the fiber comes from the leaves,
which average about four feet in
length and are sitter and coarser than
the manila leaves, and less strong. This
hemp is used, together with manila, in
making binding tWine, which is used
on harvesting machines. It's use re-
duces the cost, and the Irvine is suffi-
GENTLY strongi for the purpose for which
1t is intended
The average layman has no idea of
the amount of harvester Irvine used
in this country" said an officer of the
Standard Rope and Irvine Company.
1T takes about two pounds of Irvine
to bind an acre, of grain. The product
of this one item in the cordage bust
ness amounted last year to 10000
tons"
Besides manila and sisal, one may see
in the stockrooms of this concern in
Brooklyn, where 600 people are en-
ployed in making cordage of all sizes,
black, or American, hemp in bales
weighing 600 pounds, and bales of fine
italian hemp, which is used where
great strength combined with lightness
is required. All the bales are opened
in the assorting7room and the fibers are
Strengthened and assorted. Then the
hanks are 'scutched." This process
is accomplished by means of a machine
which resembles a great wooden disk,
six feet in diameter, on the face of
which there are rows of long, sharp
steel pins. The disk revolves rapidly
and straightens the fiber, which is held
against them like blade on a grind
stone. BY this process all dirt and
tow is removed
1T does not matter how good or how
poor the fiber is, it all takes the same
course" said the guide, who knew
every process, "and the men will take
as much pains with this coarse lot as
'scutched,' from which a thread will
be made which will run 1,6O0 feet TO
the pound
COMBING OUT THE FIBER.
The fiber is taken from the scutcher
to the hacking" machine. Here it is
combed again, but in different way
j is fed into large frame about TWEEN
ty feet long, over which two endless
oh inc ,Nir7
pass The first of these chains runs
slowly and feeds the fiber to the sec
ond, which runs much faster, the eff
feet being to comb and straighten out
the material and draw it into con-
tinuous ribbons which are called "sliv
ers." There are four of these machines
The first is called the breaker, from
which the silver comes four or five
| inches wide. 1t is drawn down in the
other machines, and when it leaves the
last one and runs rapidly through the
final tube into the tubs which stand
ready to receive it the silver has been
reduced in thickness to about one inch.
Ali this work is preparatory to spin
ming, which is done in several large
rooms where great rows of jennies are
operated by women. There the slivers
soft mass of fiber leaves the noisy ma
chimes in the form of tightly twisted
strands, reeled on large wooden spoos
or bobbins of ten pounds each. The
hundreds of spindles revolve at the rate
of fifteen hundred revolutions a. minute.
| These strands, or threads, are again
twisted and combined into rope on the
rope machines. Rope of one-eighth to
| three-quarters inch in thickness is
made on small machines where from
three to eighteen small bobbins are SO
| arranged that they are fed into one
| machine which forms rope of as
many strands as there are bobbins.
! These first ropes are then united and
enlarged by the same process on the
/ large roper making machines. The
largest of these reel off rope two and a
quarter inches in diameter, of which
every running foot weighs about one
pound, while at the other end of the
works there are strands of which it
would take many hundred feet to weigh
so much.
An interesting process in the rope
making business is the tarring of the
| yarn. The bobbins are placed on a
| large rack and the end of each passed
through a tank about forty feet long,
which is filled with liquid tar. The end
! is then fastened on an empty bobbin,
which revolves and reels up the tarred
yarn.
THE ROPEWALK.
] In the large shipping-room, where
/ bags of Irvine. coils of rope and mon
/ ster bags containing lengths of drill
4 HI hi n