RAMIE, RHEA, CHINA GRASS, OR NETTLE FIBRE* 



varied classes of goods in a given time, at the 

 same time employing the least possible manual 

 labour by making the machines as automatic 

 as possible. 



It will be evident that the same principle 

 applied to the machinery and apparata for 

 working ramie must of necessity produce like 

 results, and the time has now arrived when 

 one is justified in saying that the ignorance 

 of the past is rapidly disappearing and that a 

 full knowledge of ramie is taking its place. 

 During the last ten or twelve years practical 

 men of experience have been carefully study- 

 ing ramie both from a scientific and a practical 

 point of view, and by means of experiments, 

 in some cases quietly and unobtrusively car- 

 ried out, have gained such a knowledge of the 

 fibre and the means of treating it through the 

 various stages of its manufacture that the 

 whole process may now be regarded as being 

 placed on a thoroughly practical footing. 

 There can be no royal road to any manufac- 

 turing success. In the case of ramie, by care- 

 fully studying the peculiar qualities of the 

 fibre and overcoming the chemical difficulties 

 of the degumming and softening processes, and 

 by studying the mechanical requirements 

 necessary to treat it successfully in all the 

 various stages from the raw material to the 

 finished goods, success has been attained. In 

 the remarks which follow I have endeavoured, 

 speaking generally, to point out difficulties 

 overcome and processes and machinery adap- 

 ted for the particular purposes in view, and 

 I believe that the successful manufacture of 

 ramie is now an assured fact. Ramie has 

 entered into a new phase and the time is at 

 hand when it may be expected to become 

 a very important and leading fibre in the 

 textile world. 



Referring to the second cause, I desire to 

 point out that ramie fibre presented several 

 serious difficulties in the way of its successful 

 treatment. One of these difficulties is the fact 

 that the separate filaments of ramie are, by 

 reason of their form and construction, not 

 congenial to each other : they partake largely 

 of the nature of hairs. The consequence is 

 that the filaments have no natural affinity or 

 tendency to adhere or cling together. Their 

 tendency is rather to go each its own way, 

 hence the serious difficulties experienced in 

 forming the slivers, the roving.s, and the yarn. 

 This tendency is liable to be increased by the 

 treatment received during the degumming pro- 

 cess, which, if unskilfully carried out, imparts 



to the fibre a harshness more or less developed. 

 The use of chemicals in the treatment of fibres 

 has generally a tendency to produce brittleness 

 and harshness. This tendency had to be overcome 

 by using with great discretion the very mini- 

 mum of chemical treatment in degumming and 

 by softening the fibre afterwards. The same 

 remark applies in the case of wool, which, 

 after washing with chemicals, needs the appli- 

 cation of oil previous to passing through the 

 machines, in order to soften it and enable it to 

 pass freely and quickly through the various 

 mechanical processes. Another difficulty arose 

 from the fact that ramie fibre is composed of 

 filaments of serious diversities of length say, 

 from 1^ inch up to 14 and even 16 inches. To 

 pass simultaneously fibres of such varying 

 lengths through the machinery in a practical 

 manner was not possible ; therefore means had 

 to be invented for successfully overcoming this 

 difficulty. 



The third cause of failure was also serious. 

 For some years I have been endeavouring to 

 lessen the evil effects of it by getting the 

 growers of the fibre, who have also to decorti- 

 cate it, to meet in conference the manufac- 

 turers of ramie, so that each class can point 

 out to the other how to overcome the difficul- 

 ties experienced (see Appendix B). I have 

 dealt at some length with this matter in de- 

 scribing the manufacturing processes, and 

 therefore I summarise here this cause of fail- 

 ure in past years as due to the isolated and 

 independent action of the persons actively in- 

 terested in ramie and the absence of combined 

 knowledge and co-operation. Thus the fibre 

 grower failed to realise that he seriously in- 

 creased the difficulties of the chemist through 

 imperfect decortication, by sending to the 

 market fibre bruised and full of skin, wood, 

 etc., thus rendering the degumming a slow and 

 difficult process and necessitating undue 

 strength of chemicals, in addition to many 

 complicated and expensive operations. Fur- 

 thermore, the grower entirely ignored the fact 

 that his fibre would have to pass through the 

 combing process, and that if its decortication 

 was defective, the combing machine would in- 

 j evitably prove it. Properly decorticated 

 | ramie for instance, china grass which has 

 been decorticated fey hand labour ought to 

 give, after combing, about 70 per cent, of long 

 I fibre and about 30 per cent, of short fibre 

 I (noils) ; but if the fibre has been bruised and 

 damaged by decorticating machines of imper- 

 fect construction, the result is only from 30 



