July i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



59 



deal has been said in favour of hand-sifting as against 

 sifting by machinery, but I am of opinion that tea is 

 just as well sifted by a well-constructed machine as by hand, 

 and the saving in time and labour is immense. By the 

 careful selection of the sieves as to the size of their mesh- 

 es much will be gained in the proportions of finer to 

 coarser teas. A good sifting machine should sift quickly 

 out the finer qualifier ol teas, not allowing them to pass 

 over with the coarser sorts, and yet at the same time it 

 should do this with as little motion as possible so as not 

 to take the fine black bloom off the tea and render it 

 grey, which would bring down its price at once. 



The Jaeksons were amongst the first to enter the field 

 with a tea-sifting machine. It was usually made double. 

 A strong cast-iron framing bolted to a substantial found- 

 ation (and note that no tea machine needs a strong found- 

 ation more than a sifting machine) .sustained a strong 

 wrought iron shaft driven by a belt running on pulleys in 

 the usual manner, and carrying on each end a disc having 

 a crank pin. A connecting rod from each crank pin 

 communicates a reciprocating motion to two horizontal 

 frames of wrought iron, which rest on iron legs, so ar- 

 ranged as to rock when the frame is moved backwards 

 and forwards. Each frame is divided into six compart- 

 ments by cross pieces, and these compartments have a 

 wooden bottom with a hole in it and a tin shoot to con- 

 vey away the sifted tea. In each of these compart- 

 ments is placed a sieve which, as soon as the machine 

 is set in motion, bumps violently against the cross pieces 

 and thus shakes the tea through. There was a modified 

 form of this machine which had a regular crank instead 

 of discs, and a long wooden connecting rod which drove 

 both the frame*. It was cheaper than the other, and 

 notwithstanding this, was in my opinion better. I certainly 

 used to prefer it. 



The objections to this form of sifter were that the tea 

 had to be lifted into the various sieves again after each 

 operation, that for the power expended it did very little 

 work, and last but not least, that it kicked up such a 

 horrible noise in the tea-house with twelve sieves bumping 

 back and forward ninety times a minute that speech any- 

 where in its viciuity was out of the question. It neces- 

 sarily required a lot of attendance to change the teas 

 from sieve to sieve. A much simpler and more effective 

 machine was introduced by Mr. Dalgarno, now of Mar- 

 shall and Sons, which is to be seen at work still in several 

 of the Darjeeliug gardens. It consisted of a long double 

 sieve, about eleven feet long by two feet broad, and driven 

 in the same way as Jackson's, by cranks or discs. The 

 sieves were place! slightly on an inclined plane so that 

 the tea worked gradually down from the higher end to the 

 lower, the finer tea falling through the meshes on to the 

 lower sieve, and the coarser being discharged at the 

 bottom end, sufficient space was left between the two 

 trays to allow the hand and arm of the attendant to 

 pass in, to break the tea through if necessary. Another 

 pair of sieves was sometimes placed alongside of this pair 

 and sometimes in a Hue with it tandem fashion. This 

 machine" did its work well, with little noise, and only two 

 women to attend it. The only objection to it is the lift- 

 ing the tea into the second frame to go over the finer 

 sieves. It does not rock on legs like Jackson's machine, 

 but is suspended by wooden springs, fiat pieces of thin 

 sal or other elastic wood. I highly approve of this 

 machine. It is cheap, as all the wood-work and the 

 sieves can be made on the factory. All one requires to 

 purchase is the crank shaft with its necessary driving 

 pulleys. 



SIFTING MACHINERY. 



Mr. Charles Ausell of Kurseong has invented a 

 larger and more powerful machine which obtained, and 

 deservedly, tin- gold medal at the late Calcutta Exhib- 

 ition. In it all the sifting is done in one operation, there 

 being no less than five sieves in the machine. This con- 

 sists of a large substantial wooden frame-work strongly 

 fastened together. In it are suspended five trays or sieves 

 about eleven feet long by twenty-two inches in breadth, 

 fastened together by strong fiat iron bars. These trays 

 are suspended to the top of the machine by iron springs. 

 They are placed slightly inclined, and the inclination of 

 each tray is in the opposite direction to the next one, 



so that the tea travels backward and forward in its 

 progress through the machine. One of the sifting tray:; 

 is connected ^ to a crank which gives it the necessary 

 shaking motion, and as all the sieves are connected, 

 they shake together. A fan at one end sends a current 

 of air against the tea when falling from the first sieve 

 to the second and blows the dust out of it. The cur- 

 rent of air from this fan can be regulated by means of 

 cone pulleys on which the driving belt of the fan travels; 

 The tea is fed on to the top sieve from a "hopper which 

 shakes with the machine, and thus gives a regular and 

 constant supply. The sieves of the machine can be changed 

 quickly and easily. It delivers five kinds of tea, namely, 

 broken pekoe, pekoe, pekoe souchong, souchong and con- 

 gou. The quantity it turns out is very large, and it is 

 admirably suited for a large factory. Great care should 

 be taken with the foundation of this machine. Holding 

 down bolts are supplied with it, and these should be put 

 through two heavy timber sleepers sunk to a sufficient 

 depth in the ground to allow the bottom of the machine 

 to be about two inches above the level of the tea-house 

 floor, so that the floor may be gradually sloped away on 

 all sides from the machine. This is a great help in sweep- 

 ing up and keeping clean round the machine, and I put 

 down all tea machinery like this. The inside of the lower 

 part of framing should be filled up level with the top .it 

 the lower beam with rubble and cement. This saves all 

 difficulty in sweeping away the tea from below the last 

 sieve. Indeed, in the last few Ansell's and other sifters 

 which I have put down I have sunk the bottom part of 

 the framing into the concrete which forms the tea-house 

 floor, just keeping the top of the beam forming the lower 

 framing two inches above the surrounding ground level 

 and sloping away the cement floor to the surrounding 

 level by a gradual slope of three to four feet all 

 round the machine ; filling np of course the inside with 

 concrete. This is an excellent, firm and cleanly way of 

 putting down this machine. 



An excellent machine was shown at the late Calcutta 

 Exhibition by the Jaeksons on Messrs. Marshall & Sons' 

 stand, and which is styled by them the Eureka Sifter. 

 This consists of three sifting trays placed one above the 

 other and parallel to each otter. They are fastened 

 securely at each end to brackets and suspended by steel 

 springs which stand upright in pairs at each end of the 

 machine on • pair of longitudinal sleeper which form 

 the foundation. The motion is given by the usual crank 

 and connecting rod, the latter being longer than usual 

 and attached to the machine below the centre of the 

 bottom tray. By means of this crank and connecting 

 rod, the latter being longer than usual and attached to 

 the machine below the centre of the bottom tray. By 

 means of this erankand connecting rod the whole machine 

 is set in rapid motion, swinging back and forward on the 

 four springs which act like legs to it. The tea which falls 

 through the meshes of the top sieve (No. 6) is, by a 

 peculiar apparatus, caused to travel backward to the head 

 of the machine again, where it falls on a No. 8 lieve. 

 "Whatever falls through the No. 8 is in like manner 

 caused to travel up the machine again, and at the head 

 of it to fall on a No. 6. These sieves caw of course be 

 altered to other numbers if desired. The method by 

 which the tea is made to travel backwards and uphill is 

 very ingenious. The tea falls upon a sheet of galvanized 

 iron which is corrugated, the corrugations having a peculiar 

 section. Each corrugation ■ is rectilinear, and consists of 

 a loog sloping side and a short perpendicular one, the 

 long sloping side forming the hypothenuse of a right- 

 angled triangle, and the short side the perpendicular. 

 The sloping side is presented to the ascending tea which, 

 by the motion of the machine, is made to easily slide 

 up it over the corrugation, but is prevented from re- 

 turning by the perpendicular side. The tea is thus 

 made to travel from the lower end of the machine to 

 the upper or feeding end, where it drops upon the next 

 lower sieve. The sieves are of the very convenient size 

 of eleven feet by two, and the whole machine is re- 

 markably strong and compact. I have; never s it work, 



as it is quite a new thing, but I fancy it wil 



success. The inventors advertize it as' capable of turning 



out 1,(300 to 2,000 pounds of tea per day with two 



attendants. 



