VEGETABLE FIBERS. 563 



series includes husks, extracted fiber, spun fiber, or yarn, and specimens 

 of well-bleached crash and oil-cloths. The specimens were received from 

 the Austrian Government in 1863, together with a large series of papers 

 made from the same material. 



The first experiments in manufacturing paper from maize were made 

 under the direction of a Bohemian nomed Moritz Diamant, at the Imperial 

 paper-mill at Schlogclmuhl, near Gloggnitz. The experiments, how- 

 ever, were not satisfactory, as the endeavor to procure paper direct 

 from the unwoven plant fiber was always met with great expense. The 

 fact that cotton, flax, &c., were first woven and worn and then converted 

 into paper, suggested the possible conversion of the new material into 

 textiles first, and afterwards into paper. Thus the first process beeamo 

 last, and led to the production of a coarse cloth which is useful for forming 

 the "body" of oil-cloths, as well as for a kind of toweling which will be 

 useful only as it proves durable. The bleached specimens look well, 

 however, and have a kind of softness, which, though several removes 

 from linen, would recommend them for toweling of the coarser grades. 



The paper samples appear in great variety, and many of them are 

 fine and strong. (See the report of this department for 1863, pp. 436- 

 438.) 



Arundinaria tccta. — Southern Cane. — In the paper collection of the 

 museum there are a number of specimens of pai)er made from a fiber 

 produced from the southern cane by " steam-blowing," samples of the 

 fiber being also exhibited. In reducing the cane to this fibrous state, 

 tightly -compressed bundles of the "bamboo" are placed in steam cyl- 

 inders or guns 24 feet long and 12 inches in diameter, and there sub- 

 jected to the action of steam at a pressure of about 170 pounds to the 

 square inch for about ten minutes. " The gums and glutinous matters 

 which hold the fibers together are thereby dissolved or softened, and 

 while in that state the cane is blown into the air by the force of the 

 steam in the gun, and the fibers are separated by the expansion of 

 steam among them." 



The papers exhibited are of different grades of wrapping-paper, 

 "book," and "news" paper, some of the latter quite white and clear. 

 It was claimed by the liatentees of the process that good fiber could be 

 fui'uished, from the gun, at $5 per ton. 



The idea of utilizing so coarse a material for paper is not new. The 

 Chinese have foa* ages used the bamboo for the purpose of paper-making, 

 employing "shoots" one or tAvo j'ears old for the i)urpose. The system 

 of reducing the bamboo is not so simple as the steam-blowing process 

 employed with cane, for it necessitates macerating in water for a week 

 or more, after which the pieces — some 5 feet in length — are washed 

 and placed in a dry ditch and covered with slacked lime for a number 

 of days, when they are again washed, cut into filaments, and then dried 

 or bleached in the sun. In this state they are boiled in large kettles 

 and subsequently reduced to pulp in wood mortars by means of heavy 

 ])estles. A glutinous substance is then mixed with the pulp, and ujion 

 this mixture the goodness of the paiier depends. 



Bamboo lias been and is still used for paper-making in Japan, but only to a very 

 small extent. The i^aper called Chikvshi, notwithstanding that the translation of thia 

 ■word is "bamboo jjaper," is not made of bamboo; the name has only been borrowed 

 fiom China. 



While upon the subject of maize and cane paper it may be well to 

 mention that quite an industry is CiU'ricd on in the South by the manu- 

 facture of paper from "bagasse," or refuse sugar-cane as it comes from 



