THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1884. 



shaking motion is evenly distributed upon it. The tea is 

 then carried along on the web, wluch revolves on rollers 

 at e»cl end, and as the webs turn over the roller it drops 

 the tea on to the next web, which is somewhat longer 

 than the first. It then travels back on this one in the op- 

 posite direction, and at the end falls in the same way on 

 to web No. 3, which is also, as they all are, longer than 

 the one above it. This is repeated on two more webs, the 

 tea meeting the current of hot air the whole time, until 

 it finally falls out of the machine into a receptacle from 

 the end of the fifth or lowest web. The air is not forced 

 through the heating tubes and drying chamber as in the 

 Kinmond Machine, but drawn through by an exhaust fan 

 on the top of the machine. As the air would be too hot 

 for tea at its entrance to the drying chamber, there is 

 provided a door opening to the external air near the inner 

 mouths of the pipes, by means of which a certain quantity 

 of cold ah - is allowed to mingle with the heated air and 

 bring it down to a proper temperature, and this is shown 

 by thermometers placed near this door. The hot-air is 

 allowed to impinge on the drying tea in two places, first 

 at the end of the bottom web, and next at the end of the 

 second web from the top. Thermometers are placed in 

 several parts of the machine to show the temperatures at 

 the different stages of drying. The speed of the travel- 

 ling webs can be increased or diminished as required by 

 means of cone pulleys. There are the necessary openings 

 for removing the yhooric or fine tea that falls through the 

 tray, and angle iron guides are fastened along the inside 

 of the chamber to prevent the tea from falling off the webs. 

 The tea will be fed into the shaker or distributor by a 

 boy, and will require no attention until it is discharged 

 from the last web, except seeing that the temperature of 

 the drying air be properly regulated. The reader will 

 observe also that the tea in falling from the end of each 

 web on to the next one turns itself, a point of great value. 



This machine will, I have no doubt, prove a great success, 

 as it fulfils, as far as I can see, every essential of a good 

 tea-drier. The tea is dried by pure hot air, the tem- 

 perature of which in any part of the machine can be re- 

 gulated. It will require little attendance. A boy to feed, 

 another to remove the dried tea, and a man to fire and 

 watch the temperature of the air, will be all the attendants 

 needed. It is bound to be economical in its consumption 

 of fuel as no more hot air will be used than necessary, and 

 as the flues and drying chamber will be surrounded by 

 non-couductiug material, the loss of heat by radiation will 

 be reduced to a minimum ; and being of large size it will 

 be capable of turning out a large amount of pucca tea. 

 This apparatus should combine the advantages possessed 

 by the Sirocco and Kinmond machines without the dis- 

 advantages of having to use trays and consequently to 

 increase attendance. And it is important to note that the 

 inventors propose the air which passes through the tea in 

 the last stage to be, although perfectly dry, much cooler 

 than is ordinarily used. This, however, need not be done, 

 as the temperature can be regulated, but will be at the 

 discretion of the tea-maker. The machine is now on its 

 way out and will be erected by Mr. Dalgarno of Messrs. 

 Marshall and sons, and as this gentleman is an experienced 

 tea planter and engineer, we may be sure that it will lose 

 nothing at his hands. It will be thoroughly tried this 

 season, and its trials will be awaited with much interest. 

 If successful, which it cannot fail to be, I think, it will be 

 by far the best tea-drier in the market. " 



We have now fully considered tea drying machinery, and 

 I can only say in conclusion that the very great advant- 

 ages of drying by some apparatus which will economize 

 space and thus save the cost of large buildings, must be 

 at once apparent. Not long since I made the plans of a 

 tea-house to make annually 12,000 to 15,000 maunds of 

 tea. Twelve Excelsior Boiling Machines were to be used 

 and no less than thirty-six Siroccos. The reader can pic- 

 ture to himself what an immense drying house would be 

 required if the tea from the twelve rolling machines, like 

 the Excelsior, had to be dried over the old-fashioned choolas. 



The Barky and Gibb Tea Dkier ia thus noticed 

 in a series of articles in the Indigo and Tea Planters' 

 Oazelle : — 



We will now proceed to consider a drying machine 

 which turns out a large quantity of pmca tea, and is also , 



continuous in its feeding and discharging. The drying 

 portion of the Barry aud Gibb machine consists of a long 

 cylinder placed at a slope. By means of machinery it is 

 made to revolve. The leaf is fed in through a hopper at 

 the higher end of the revolving cylinder. As the cylinder 

 revolves, the leaf is constantly turned over and naturally 

 tends to approach the lower end of the cylinder, but is 

 prevented from doing so too rapidly by projecting metal 

 webs or cells in the interior. It gradually travels down 

 the cylinder, becoming drier in its progress through the 

 action of a current of hot air (coke or charcoal gases may 

 be used) which meets it, being forced by a fan into the 

 lower end of the revolving cylinder. It is discharged as 

 pucca tea at the lower end of the cylinder. This machine 

 turns out a lot of tea and is a good deal used. Some 

 people object to it, however, on the grounds that it is im- 

 possible to observe the condition of the tea in it, aud thus 

 to regulate the quantity supplied or the speed at which the 

 machine should be driven, aud that thus the tea some- 

 times comes out not perfectly dry, and at other times is 

 longer in the cylinder than necessary. It seems, however, 

 to fulfil many of the essentials of a good drying apparatus, 

 and there are many testimonials of tea-makers in its favour. 



TEA MACHINERY— SIFTING MACHINERY, &c. 

 (From the Indigo and Tea Planters' Gazette.) 



The leaves selected by the pickers when plucking the 

 tea bushes are the youugest and tenderest on the bush, 

 including the young uuopened leaf forming the extremity 

 of the shoot and known as the tip. The leaves plucked 

 are not of equal size and fineness, and form coarser and 

 finer teas, the young fresh tip forming the finest tea of 

 all. Tea users driuk different qualities of tea as their 

 tastes or their means incline them, and it therefore be- 

 comes necessary to separate the finer from the coarser 

 teas to meet the market demands. It is difficult and 

 very expensive to do this with the newly-plucked leaf, so 

 the sifting or separating process is usually left till after 

 the tea has been dried ; although there are many who 

 partially sift out their finer leaf whilst the tea is being 

 rolled. This they do by giving tbe leaf a partial roll, say, 

 for about two-thirds the usual time, then taking it out and 

 putting it into a large revolving cylinder of bamboo net 

 work. A good deal, but not nearly all, of the tip and 

 finer leaf is sifted out here. The rest of tho leaf is re- 

 turned to the machiue and rolled up, whilst the tip and 

 finer leaf is rolled by hand ; or, if a bag machiue is used, 

 it is put into a separate bag. Now I am a great advocate 

 for this separation of the finer leaf before the drying pro- 

 cess for two good aud substantial reasons, one well-known 

 and the other scarcely known at all, generally. The first and 

 well-known reason is that by carefully rolling the tip and 

 finer leaf separately and afterwards drying them separately 

 they are not nearly so liable to be broken small. The 

 second and not well-known reason is, that I firmly be- 

 lieve in rolling the great bulk of the tea to a much greater 

 extent than is usually done. If this were done with the 

 tip in the tea the tip would be discoloured and the 

 appeannce of the tea destroyed, whereas by separating 

 it beforehand, fermenting and drying it separately its 

 appearance is retained, aud it can be returned to the 

 tea afterwards. The reason for rolling tea to the extent 

 I advocate is that the leaf-cells are more thoroughly 

 broken and the sap consequently better exposed to the 

 air. The readers may recollect that in the chapler on 

 rolling I spoke of certain teas being rolled to such an 

 extent that they seemed to be completely spoiled. Now 

 the very teas to which I alluded have fetched the high- 

 est average prices in the London market for the past 

 two seasons. They are not sold in India, but seut direct 

 home. In manufacturing them the tip is not sifted out 

 when the tea is half rolled, and consequently is blackened 

 and its appearance destroyed, but it is there all the same 

 with its flavour and strength. 



The usefulness of the " cutcha" sifting machine above 

 alluded to has been imperfectly recognized, or efforts 

 would have been made to improve it. The process of 

 siftiug, however, is usually effected after the tea has 

 been dried. This was formerly entirely, and is still to 

 a certain extent, effected by liand. Scarcity of labour, 

 the curse of the tea districts, is gradually forcing the 

 tea-planter to adopt machinery for this process. A good 



