PINEAPPLE FIBRE 199 



the fruits require to be exposed to the sun in order to 

 ripen properly. 



The fibre is extracted in a very primitive manner. 

 In Formosa, the fresh leaves are laid on a board and 

 scraped with a potsherd, the fibre being thus freed 

 from the epidermal and pulpy tissues. In the Philip- 

 pines, the epidermis is first removed from the leaves 

 by means of a blunt iron or wooden scraper. A layer 

 of fibre is thus exposed, and is lifted with the fingers 

 or a flexible knife. The scraping is then repeated, 

 and a second layer of fibre is exposed which is removed 

 in turn. This process is continued until the whole 

 of the fibre of the leaf has been extracted. After the 

 fibre has been extracted it is washed with water and 

 dried and bleached by exposure to the sun. The 

 yield amounts to from 45 Ib. to 65 Ib. of dry fibre per 

 ton of fresh leaves. 



Attempts have been made to prepare pineapple 

 fibre by means of machinery, but hitherto the machines 

 tested have not proved commercially successful. The 

 difficulty of obtaining a satisfactory machine is due 

 very largely to the peculiar structure of the leaf. The 

 upper surface is much more tender than the lower 

 which is more or less coriaceous. The fibres are 

 situated chiefly near the two surfaces and less abund- 

 antly in the centre of the leaf. It is therefore evident 

 that a machine capable of stripping the epidermis from 

 the lower surface would tend to tear away some of 

 the fibre from the upper surface and thus create a 

 good deal of waste. 



1 Pineapple fibre is soft, fine, strong, white and 

 lustrous, and may be 3^ feet or more in length. It 

 would probably serve as a substitute for flax.f Small 

 samples which have been received in London from 

 time to time have been valued nominally at prices 

 varying from 20 to 40 per ton. A specimen re- 

 ceived at the Imperial Institute from the Gold Coast 

 in 1907 consisted of soft, white, lustrous fibre of even 

 diameter and good strength, and about 3$ feet long. 



The ultimate fibres are remarkable for their extreme 

 fineness. They are from 0*12 in. to 0-36 in. long, 

 with an average of 0*25 inch, and have a diameter of 



