The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-02
BEAN
MACERATOR IS
READY FOR USE

About a year ago the Advertiser
referred to the possibilities for d new
industry in preparing algaroba beans
for market il they could pc macerated
properly, calling attention to the hun
dreds OF tons OF beans that fall from
trees and are never eaten by cattle, al
though the latter have a fondness for
them. G. ". Renear, a local inventor,
read the article and Immediately set
about to devise a machine which could
macerate the beans.
Mr.. Renear studied the situation and
gradually developed a very crude ma
chine which ground the beans all right
but he had trouble with the rollers,
which became so sticky as to become al
most useless. However, his idea grad
ually took form in larger machine
which gave promise of doing all that
Mr. Renear hoped for.
Yesterday morning in the shops of
Cation e. Neil, Mr.. Renear christened
the first of the completed machines to
be placed on the market, a machine per-
feet in eveey way, thoroughly equipped
TO macerate beans, one in which the
rollers were as clean and clear at the
end of run as at the beginning,
machine, attractively planted and per-
fected just as if it had come out of
the shops Of big manufacturing CON
Germ on the mainland. 1t is the fin
ished product Of less than year s hard
work and throughout every portion it
gives evidence of the creative ability
of the inventor.
This first machine will be sert out
fO he WaiQI9a ranch of panl
Isenberg, a region where tons of al
garoba beans are gathered, and where
they will now be macerated and mixed
with other foodstuffs and fed to the
cattle, the combination forming one Of
the richest foods that could be supplied.
The frames of several other machines,
cast by Cation & Neil, are in the same
shop, and when the Isenberg machine
is out of the way the frame of a new
one will be set up and finished and
others will be built as rapidly as pos
sible.
This machine is long and slender,
taking up very little room. First Of
all, the frame rests upon two stand
ards of concrete. There is a feeder box
into which the beans are dropped. A
metal wheel with wide fanges revolves
over an endless belt which passes I'M
derneath. This wheel spreads the beans
out and they then drop off the belt
directly between the jaws of two big
steel grinders which operate similarly
to cane rollers. These rollers are ribbed
and the ribs notched. The macerated
product drops below upon another end
| less belt and is conveyed upward and
| drops over upon a wooden chute which
| directs the product into gunny- sacks.
| One Of the very latest improvements
| to the machine is system of eccen-
| trio rods which operate two tubes, one
over each roller, working alternately
back and forth to cover each roller
continuously. Compressed air is forced
| through the pipe and a small jet of
water through each is sprayed over the
two rollers thereby presenting the
resinous bean from caking, and keep
ing the rollers perfectly clean. The
machine is operated by an electric
motor. The rollers were made by a
mainland manufacturer.
| There is often considerable dirt " a
bag of algaroba beans. Small stones
may find their way between the rollers
| and naturally will not do the rollers
| any good, any more than car coup
ling does to the rollers of a sugar mill.
Renear is already designing a cleaner,
depending upon centrifugal force for
its operation. He believes this will not
only solve one of the bean macerating
problems, but also a problem that has
bothered sugar mill owners, when heavy
and hard objects run into their big
rollers.
Mr.. Renear figures that big alga-
roba tree will yield a ton of beans per
year, or about sixty bags With fifty
| trees to an acre that will be about fifty
tons Of beans. BY the present methods
of picking up beans bag full brings
fifteen cents. Macerated, the product
is worth far more to the owner of cat,
tie.