152 HEMP. 



recommended by M. Bralle ; among the second, to thos& 

 of M. Christian, as having attained the greatest notoriety. 



M. Bralle's chemical plan of steeping requires for the 

 execution of the process nothing more than a cylindrical 

 copper vessel, resting upon a small brick furnace. A 

 Toutoir of this description containing fifty gallons of 

 water is sufficient to steep at one time more than forty 

 pounds of hemp in the stalk ; and, as the operation is 

 completed in a couple of hours, two hundred pounds or 

 more can be easily steeped in a single day. 



The means employed by M. Bralle for steeping hemp, 

 consist, First, in heating the water in a vessel to the 

 temperature of from 72 to 75 of Reaumur's thermo- 

 meter. Secondly, in adding a quantity of green soap in 

 proportion to the weight of hemp which it is intended 

 to steep. Thirdly, in immersing the hemp so that it is 

 covered with the heated liquor ; in closing the vessel and 

 putting out the fire : and Fourthly, in letting the hemp 

 remain in this sort of routoir for two hours before taking 

 it out. 



The weight of soap necessary for a complete steeping 

 ought to be in the proportion of 1 to 48 to that of the 

 hemp-stalks ; and the weight of hemp to that of water 

 in the ratio of 48 to 650. Several steepings may be per- 

 formed one after the other ; all that is required is to 

 replace the quantity of soapy water which has been 

 absorbed by the preceding operation, and to raise the 

 temperature of the liquid to the above-mentioned degree. 

 In this way, the same water may be made use of for a 

 fortnight successively. When the bundles of hemp are- 

 taken out of the vessel, they ought to be covered with 

 straw or other matting, to make them cool gradually, 

 and to prevent the moisture from evaporating. Next 

 day, the handfuls are spread upon a boarded floor, their 

 bands being pushed upwards to the top of the stalks ; 

 they are rolled several times with a heavy stone or wooden 

 roller laden with a weight, to flatten them and dispose 

 the fibre to come away freely from the woody portion; 

 which is effected by means of the Irague, whether the 



