Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-03
Experimenting With New Cloth Fiber

NNE will soon be able to purchase
j dress goods. table linens and near
ly all kinds of goods now made
from silk or linen yarns-principally
clothes for summer wear-at much
lower figure than at present if the eX-
periments now being conducted by the
Department of Agriculture, with the
ramie fiber, terminate successfully, and it
is claimed everything points TO success
Lyster II. Dewey. botanist in charge of
fiber plants at the departments says:
'"rhe outlook for the ramie industry is
more promising now than at any time
heretofore. A market established within
the past five years for knit ramie under
wear and hosiery is increasing: a mill for
the manufacture of ramie incandescent
gas mantle frames has been put in opera
ton within the past year: increasing
quantities of ramie are being used in the
manufacture of union silk and ramie
goods \ market for the fiber seems
assured"
The questions remain. can the fiber he
produced in this country al Il cost per
hitting it to compete with the hand-
cleaned rame ribbons from China:
The only difficulty that presents itself
now is the invention of suitable ma
chine for separating the fiber from the
woody inner portion of the stalk and from
the thin outer bark. The lack of salts
factory mec nanical method of doing this
work has heretofore made it Impossible
to produce the fiber with profit outside of
countries having cheap skilled hand
labor. But machine has been invented
which. upon a preliminary trial at Los
Angeles, Cal, gave very promising re-
suits.
AS far back as 1899 several decorticat-
ing machines were tried at the Paris
exposition of that year but none of
them could compete with the hand labor
of China and Formosa. Many ramie de-
corticating machines have been patented
in this country, and few have been
built but thus far, with the exception
mentioned. none has been used CONNER
cially.
In China and Formosa the workmen cut
each stalk by hand separately, then after
stripping the leaves they peel the fiber
from the freshly cut stalk These strips
of fiber are drawn by hand between
blunt knife and bamboo thimble, ana
the Workmen then scrape off the outer
bark and scrape away portion of the
gum
Fiber prepared in this manner, after
drying in the sun, is rather stiff because
the gum IS not altogether removed, and it
is of a yellow color. In this condition 1t
is spun and woven by the Chinese.
making the so-called grass cloth of that
country. The term grass cloth is also
applied to woven material of several other
kinds of fabric produced by hand in
China. This stiff. yellow fiber is known
TO the trade as China grass and also as
rame ribbon.
China grass or ramie ribbon is ex-
ported from China to Europe, where it is
degummed and bleached by mechanical
processes. There are several variations
of the degumming process. all based on
the principles worked out and published
by NJ Frenzy about 1850. In some of the
processes the degumming and bleaching
are combined After degumming the fiber
is combed, which produces long straight
fiber called ramie tops, worth about 30
cents a pound, and the noils-which may
be compared with tow from hacked flax
worth between u and % cents a pound.
These are imported into the United States
in a limited quantity and used 10 mix
with silk and also are spun into pure
ramie yarn for the manufacture of gas
mantle stockings.
Ramie is expected to he used most eX-
tensively in knit underwear and for
mixing with silk. It is suitable for dress
goods, pushes, upholstering materials,