The Bourbon news., 1912-02-23
Hemp Breaking Machine Is
Success.

SoSCC0Ss
After working continually for the
past eight years the fond hopes of
Frank O'Neal, Jr., of this city. the
young inventor of machine to break
hemp. have at last been realized, for
after giving his invention a thorough |
test it hash cen found to meet all the
necessary requirements and is the
acme of perfection, result of years
of study and labor, and now the young
mechanical engineer has within his
grasp fortune.
The idea of the invention was first
conceived by O'Neal when he was a
student at the State University, Lex
ington, and from which institution he
is graduate in mechanical engineer
ing. 1t was here he made the casting
for the first model, crude in it's
mechanism, but the nucleus around
which was constructed machine of
wonderful capacity.
During the eight years the inventor
! has been engaged in the perfection of
| the machine he has constructed eight
models, all but the last proving defec-
| tive in some particular. Mr.. O'Neal
[ spent the greater part of his time in
Philadelphia, where his latest model
was manufactured and shipped to this
city, where it was given a thorough
| test.
! Little consideration is given to the
immense cost that has been attached
to the efforts of the inventor in per-
fecting his machine. 1t is estimated
that in the eight years he has eXpend-
ed an amount in excess Of $780, 600 and
further expenditure will be necessary
before the machine can be put upon
the market. 1t will only be short
time until large Eastern manufac
turing concern will begin the manu-
facture of the hemp breaking machines
and place them on the market.
The ninth model of the machine.
which Mr.. O'Nea completed about
three months ago was shipped to this
city for the tests to determine the re-
the farm of Mr.. F.. F. Clay. one of the
the last season. The result was highly
! satisfactory.
One of the principal features of the
machine is that it is equipped with
gasoline engines, of the type used on
automobiles which were calculated to
overcome great obstacle in obtaining
power sufficient to operate the ma
chine, the capacity of which is five
thousand pounds per day and it really
turns out hemp cleaner than that
which ssbroken by hand.
Hemp breakers at work in the same
field, breaking the product by hand at
their best could not clean the hemp in
a manner as satisfactory as the ma
chine. In very tender hemp, which
goes largely to tow great deal of the
lint is lost in the old process of bind
ing by hand, but the machine both
cleans and saves all the tow, separat-
ing it from the hemp fibre, which is
free from herds. Another great ad-
vantage IN the machine is that it will
break and clean with equal thorough
ness the tenderest and toughest hemp,
and according to the claim of the in
ventOr it is not necessary for the hemp
to rot before it can be :brOke, as the
machine will clean and break it with
out rotting.
1t is thought by those who have
watch ID the tests of the machine that
Mr.. O'Neal, has, after many disap-
pointments, solved the problem of
breaking hemp by machinery, a prob
lem that has baffied The ingenuity Of
all inventors he ratofOre.
Hemp growing, %hlch was one OF
the principal industries OF Bourbon
county, and which was grown ex-
tensively in other counties in Central
Kentucky, has in the past several
years been practically abandoned ow-
ing to the extreme difficulty in secur-
ing laborers to break the product and
prepared it for 1.-The market. Hand
breakers demand $2.5 per one hum
dred pounds of the cleaned product,
and in many instances received wages
in excess of this for their labOrS.
This has had the effect OF reducing the
profits of the producers, who claimed
the prodcutiun of hemp was far less
profitable than tobacco and to the lat
ter they turned their attention.
The fact that in few months there
will be machine upon the market
which can turn out the fibre at much
less cost than the hand breakers has
revived the interest in hemp growing
upon the Blue Grass lands, and the re-
suit is that during the coming season
Central Kentucky counties will pro-
duce hundreds of acres of hemp. 1t is
claimed by the farmers that the pro-
duct is far less wearing on the land
than tobacco, and with visible means
of getting the fibre ready for the mar
ket at much less cost than in former
years will turn the attention of the
land owners to the culture of hemp on
large scale.