692 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1884. 



FIBRE MACHINES AT THE CALCUTTA 



EXHIBITION. 

 There has been such a great sounding of trumpets 

 about Dr. Forbes Watson going out to the Calcutta 

 Exhibition with Death & Elwood's much-vaunted 

 fibre machine, that, day by day, we have been wait- 

 ing anxiously for news of the awards. Hitherto we 

 have waited in vain, and we should judge, from the 

 following extract from a Calcutta paper, that the 

 Exbibition has closed without an appearance having 

 been put in by Dr. Forbes Watson or his perfected 

 machines : — 



FINAL TRIAL OF FIBRE MACHINES. 



The .Jury appointed to try and report upon the various 

 filire cleaning machines in the Exhibition have deferred 

 their final trial for awards in tlie expectation that Dr. Forbes 

 Watson would ere this htive arrived with his improved 

 patented machine of which so much has been written, and 

 from which such excellent results were anticipated. The 

 holder of this new machine not liaving arrived by the present 

 mail, it was felt that the trial for awards could not bo any 

 longer delayed, and accordingly yesterday morning was fi.xed 

 upon as the time when Mr. Cogswell, Mr. Liotard, and Mr. 

 ^lackilligan should proceed to put the four machines in tho 

 premises at Alipore to a final practical test. 



Rhea was the favorite fibrous plant operated upon, on the 

 grouud, we presume, of the large reward offered by the Gov- 

 ernment for a machine that .should effectually clean the 

 fibri-. There were however aloe leaves, and jjlaiutain stems 

 also which were equally operated upon by one or two of 

 the m.achines. The large rotatory machines of Sir Walter 

 de Souza of Bordeaux was first set at work on a quantity 

 of Khea stalks, and these it disposed of effectually so far 

 as regards depriving them of their thin outer bark, but 

 there was no doubt a large amount of waste with this 

 machine; the work was moreover slowly performed, and 

 there was after all a good deal of the green coloring matter 

 of the epidermis remaining in the fibres which g.ive them 

 a darkish hue. Slices of a plantain stem were then in- 

 troduced, and these it very rapidly and effectually disposed 

 of, leaving the fibre well-separated and clean, but the waste 

 was far too great, and this trial was regarded as un- 

 satisfactory. 



The little Assam hand-machine was able to show 

 very indifferent work, and the larger one worked off 

 the engine, though slightly better, could not be said 

 to have given satisfaction in any respect. The work was 

 very slow, aud the fibre put through was very imper- 

 fectly cleaned, and evidently required a good deal cf hand 

 treatment with water afterwards. 



The machine from New Zealand was tried upon Rhea 

 stalks and aloe leaves, but though it was undoubtedly 

 a very effective machine, so far as rapidity of work is 

 concerned, the outturn was far from satisfactory. As in 

 a previous case the fibre came through but partially 

 freed from epidermis, .and was in a state which needed 

 a good deal of treatment before being pronounced really 

 cle.in. The aloe leaves were rapidly taken in and disposed 

 of by tliis machine, but in this process they were cut very 

 much, and the fibre came out in a very ragged condition 



On the table in the long building in which these 

 operations were being carried on were a number of parcels 

 of fibre which had been prepared by these machines on 

 prerious trials, and these were submitted to the Jury as 

 examples of what could be done ; but in not a single 

 instance was the sample satisfactory. Without wishing to 

 forestall the decision of the Jury, we cannot help arri\'iug 

 at the conclusion that not one of the machines on trial 

 was capable of turning out a fairly merchantable sample 

 of fibre which we presume should be the test to apply 

 to them. The incompleteness of the work done and tho 

 waste of material rendered their value very questionable 

 indeed. The conclusion which we are forced to arrive at 

 is that iudgiug by the samples of indifferently prepared 

 Rhea fibre shown yesterday there has been no improve 



ment whatever in the mode of preparing this fibre, and we 

 much regret the non arrival of the new machine which 

 was expected to do so much. 



It would thus appear that not only were Death & 

 Elwood's machines absent from the competition, but 

 that Smith did not put in an appearance with liis, 

 while the machines which were shown are described 

 as utterly unsatisfactory in their performances. Even 

 those which succeeded in separating the fibre from 

 the cortical, gummy and mucilaginous matter, did so 

 at the expense of an enormous amount of waste. It 

 looks, therefore, as if we were as far as ever from 

 possessing a re,ally good and effective fibre machine, 

 sunple and inexpensive. The delay in Dr. Forbes 

 W.atson's case seems unaccountable on any other hypo. 

 thesis than the discovery that Death & Elwood's 

 machines were not, in actual operation, the great 

 success they were represented to be. What is wanted 

 is a process of combined ciushing, washing with water 

 and application of simple but effective chemicals 

 which will clean fibres rapidly from foreign matter, 

 without the necessity of resgrting to the "retting" 

 process, which in hot climates is fatal to colour and 

 strength. If it is the opprobrium of mechanical and 

 cliemical science that it has discovered no cheap and 

 effectual method of consuming the smoke of coal, it 

 is equally the opprobrium of engineering science that, 

 even with the temptation held out of £5.000 reward, 

 it has no: been able to invent a simple, effective and 

 inexpensive method of dealing with such fibrous plants 

 as rhea, aloes, pineapples, &c. We confess to exceed- 

 ing great disappointment at the absence from the 

 Calcutta Exhibition of evidence of success in solving 

 the problem. It may be, however, that Dr. Forbes 

 Watson's delay may be explicable on some other 

 ground than that which has occurred to us, and that 

 those interested in fibres may shortly hear of some- 

 thing more to their advantage than we are as yet 

 able to announce. In any case that engineering skill 

 which has clone so much for the preparation of sugar, 

 coffee, tea and other products, including cotton, is 

 not surely going to .allow itself to be bafiied in dealing 

 with nettles, aloes, pineapples and other long-stapled 

 fibrous plants, and theh- varying proportions of hark, 

 mucilage, gum and water. We trust, therefore, speedily 

 to be able to speak more hopefully than we are able 

 to do now. 



MELBOURNE BOTANIC GARDENS. * 

 We beg to thank the Director of the Melbonrne 

 Bot.anio Gardens for a very handsome aud valuable 

 volume containing a list of the plants growing in 

 she extensive gardens and grounds under his able 

 supervision. 



The contents of this work ate the following : 



Introduction ; description of the Botanic Gardens from 

 Hayter's Year Bouk 1S31-2 ; plans of the Bota jic 

 Gardens aud adjoining grounds with explanatory 

 notes : A. Eastern lawn, B. Western lawn, C. Buffalo 

 Grass lawn, D. C'tntral lawn ; Genertil Catalogue pp. 



* Catalogue ot plants imder cultivation iu the Melbourne 

 Botanic Gardens, alphabetically arranged by "XA^. R. Guil- 

 foyle, i'.r...s., cm., r.u.s., London, Director. With plans and 

 illustrations. Melbourne, 1883. 



