476 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [December i, 1884 



which in from two to three mouths are from three to 

 four feet long. Divested of their foliage, these stems are 

 passed through Death and EllwoocVs machines (Smith's 

 patent) in liandfuls of five or six at a time, the smaller, 

 delicate end being first inserted, and cleaned nearly to 

 the thicker end where held in the hand, when the wisp 

 is slowly withdrawn, and the unfinished end passed into 

 the machine for the completion of the operation. The 

 fibre, when wet, is white, clean, and soft, but as it dries 

 the gum asserts itself and the fibre gets stiiTer; m this 

 state appearing like the China grass of commerce, as hand 

 prepared by the Chinese, and worth from £15 to £50 per 

 ton in England. Samples of this same fibre chemically 

 treated, from which all the gum was extracted, are 

 beautifully white and as soft and pliable as silk. In 

 working the machines,— of which there are eight— three 

 expert men are required, who change places among 

 themselves: one on the right of the machine— and 

 one on the left, to feed the green steins, while the third 

 man supplies the other two with handsful of the stems 

 as required from the heaps weighed and stored before 

 the machine. Behind a boy receives the wisp of fibre as 

 it is drawn from the machine, and after wiping it down 

 with a cloth to remove the moisture and gummy matter, 

 hangs it on a bamboo rod provided lor the purpose beside 

 him. As the rods are covered with fibre, other boys re- 

 move and fix thi'm in niches prepared for their reception 

 in the drying shed, where tliey are left until dry. 



The work at present performed with the machines is 

 on a limited scale, and is intended to give the operatives 

 experience and celerity in the manipulation. The greatest 

 quantity of work yet done is rather less than the passing 

 of 3 cwt. of young green stems of wild rhea per hour, 

 instead of the 10 cwt. promised in the advertisements of 

 the General Fibre Company. But as the men acquire ex- 

 perience, the outturn may reasonably be expected to be 

 much greater. The eight machines have been erected, and are 

 driven by a powerful turbine formerly intended to drive the 

 stamping Rear of the Gold-mining Company, and in 

 stead of the pump, which are supplied with the mach- 

 ines, being used to cause the jet of water by which 

 the fibre is washed during treatment, the water is taken 

 off from the bottom of the turbine columns, and by 

 this means a much greater ferce is obtained. The drying 

 shed is to be provided wifa steam pipes for beating 

 the air, and is of capacity sufficient to dry off a single 

 bale of fibre at a time. Owing to the humidity of the 

 climate it has been found necessary to press and bale 

 off the fibre immediately after it is dry, for which pur- 

 pose a screw baling press is in process of erection. Dur- 

 ing the monsoon it is impossible, without artificial ap- 

 pliances, to dry the fibre. A boiler will supply the steam 

 for heating the pipes in the drying shed, and at the 

 same time will be found useful in the Favier decortic- 

 ation process for boiling the alkali lyes for preservation 

 of color and prevention of mildew, as well as for the 

 chemical mixtures in which the fibre is steeped in sub- 

 sequent processes. The vast and miscellaneous stores of 

 machinery on the premises, sent out for the goldmining 

 operations, have been largely utilized, and the European 

 artisans on the spot, whose terms of service with the 

 Glenrock Company have not yet expired, are turning 

 their ingenuity to the best account and showing the 

 greatest zeal in starting the new industry. 

 On Glenrock, therefore, special advantages are found, 

 but not greater than are presented in many districts 

 in Ceylon where water in abundance for power as 

 well as for decorticating or bleaching purposes is avail- 

 able. We have now received the detailed report of 

 the trial of the patent Khea Machine in Calcutta, 

 and we see that what was done in 23 minutes and 

 " could be done by Madras natives in 9" was not 

 work supposed to be done by hand as might be 

 inferred, but with the machines — the natives referred 

 to being the men who had gained experience ff 

 Death & Ellwood's machine in Madras. The full 

 report in the Calcutta Englishman is as follows :— 



FIBRE-EXTRACTING MACHINES. 

 Mr. Death has been rather unfortunate, not only in the 

 unsettled state of the weather, which kept everyone who 



was not actually interested in fibres away from the public 

 trial of his machine which took place on Saturday, 

 but also in the absence of the assistance he calculated 

 upon to render that trial more perfect, as he had engaged 

 two trained Madrasees who have been working similar 

 machines in that presidency to exhibit their skill, aud the 

 capacity of the machine in the hands of an ordinary native 

 workman, but the steamer, in which they left Madras on the 

 ISh hist, had not arrived up to the time of going to trial. 

 Despite the rain and uninviting aspect of the day, about 

 twenty-five people had collected in the shed by 1 o'clock, 

 when Mr. Death, protected all over by a waterproof agaiust 

 the spray from the machine, began operations with 12 lb of 

 fresh rhea stalks, cut that morning. Single-handed, using 

 only one machine of the pair and feeding three stalks at a 

 time, he completed the whole quantity in 23 minutes, and 

 that with perfect ease, without the least attempt at hurry, 

 in fact talking a good deal all the time. The Madrasees 

 would have done the same quantity in 9 minutes working 

 the pair of machines. The engine is a vertical portable 

 of 4 I4-P. with 50 lb of steam, and working GOO revolutions a 

 minute. It is quite capable of working another pair of 

 machines at the same time and at the same speed. Each 

 machino can strip 3,500 stalks per hour, or in a working 

 day of 10 hours one engiue and its four machines can strip 

 140,000 stalks, or 46,500 strings ot rhea per day, requiring 

 four trained workmen aud four cooly attendants merely to 

 hand the stocks, which are held lightly in the hand and 

 allowed to be drawn in by the breakers. When half the 

 stalk has been treated the hand is lowered, and the fibre 

 tightened on the f eedsplate and drawn quickly, but evenly 

 back, when the stalks are reversed and the other half 

 treated in the same way, which is Tilso drawn out by the 

 same motion. The string, as it is now called, is then hung 

 up to dry. Every " eye " along the stalk, that is, every 

 place where a leaf has been, will occasion a certain amount 

 of breakage in the fibre. All such broken portions are 

 collected together at the end of the stalk, and are sub- 

 sequently cut off. These tufts are to rhea what " Ohuseu " 

 is to silk, only of relatively greater value, as ' rhea waste,' 

 as it is called, brings within £8 per ton of the average price 

 paid for the baled fibre, aud is made into the best Whit- 

 ney blankets. The fibre requires no further process what- 

 ever. "When dry it is tied in bundles about 9 to 10 

 inches in circumference, doubled across the centre and 

 baled. It still retains a small portion of gum which is 

 latent in the fibre and exudes in the process of drying, 

 but this, so far from being any harm, is a decided 

 advantage, as it protects the fibre from damage during 

 haling and subsequent shipment and carriage, and is easily 

 removed by the manufacturer before being worked into 

 its intended fabrics. The machine itself is beautifully simple, 

 consisting of a hollow cast-iron cylinder or drum ISinehes 

 diameter and 14 inches wide, with brass angle bars pro- 

 jecting about one-iuch-and-a-half from the outer rim. These 

 are the breakers. In front is a flat feed-bed made of heavy 

 white metal with flanged sides and adjusting screw to re- 

 gulate the distance between it and the breakers, so as to 

 suit anything from plantain to funn. There is a mov- 

 able sheet iron cover over the drum, and all the parts 

 of the machine are very neatly finished. Beneath the feed- 

 bed is its speciality — a perforated pipe which throws a very 

 powerful flattened jet of water against the fibre. It is 

 sufficiently strong to remove and carry away every portion 

 off the woody centre of the stalks after it has been broken 

 up by the breakers, and aided by the high rate of speed 

 it keeps the string curved round tho drum which scrapes 

 on the bark, and washes out the gum and fecula in the 

 stalk and turns out the fibre ready for baling.- The Death 

 and Ellwood is no doubt a perfect success, in so much 

 that it does all it professes to do, and it does it expeditiously, 

 cheaply and well. In the warm weather of April and Way 

 living rhea could be cut in the morning, passed through 

 the machine, dried, tied, baled and shipped before sunset. 

 This is due to the absence "of any retting process, which is 

 so dilatory, troublesome, aud requires localities specially 

 suited in the matter of steeping places. Rhea fibre is at 

 present not much quoted in the home markets, because the 

 supply is so uncertain that manufacturers do not use it. In 

 1870 it was selling in London at £120 per ton, but this is far 

 above its value. At present it is quoted at £35, which again 

 is far below the value. Once it becomes an established 



