Popular Science Monthly 707 



Even Fruit Skins Are Utilized Now. Them There Pesky Tobacco- 



Chewin' Bugs Ag'in 



N 



This Machine Does It 



I apparatus which will dexterously 

 peel everything from limes to large 

 grapefruits (the first stage in the extrac- 

 tion of useful oils from the peels) has been 

 developed by the experts of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. With a battery of 



these machines 



placed in a fac- 

 t o r y , many 

 thousands of 

 dollars worth of 

 by-products 

 can be utilized. 

 Unlike other 

 peeling ma- 

 chines, the fruit 

 does not have 

 to be sorted to 

 fit into the grat- 

 ings. Fruit of 

 all sizes and 

 shapes tumbles 

 down through 

 an opening in 

 the storage box 

 on the top of 

 the apparatus and 

 falls in between the 

 flights at the end of 

 a long horizontal 

 screw. This screw 

 is revolved by a 

 motor with the re- 

 sult that the teeth, 

 projecting from 

 both sides of the 



screw flights, take hold of the material 

 and turn it around against a drum which 

 is rotating in the opposite direction. 

 . The drum is also provided with short 

 teeth. The teeth of the screw and 

 those of the drum, working in 

 opposite directions on the 

 fruit, grate the skins off. 

 As the screw tends to turn 

 the fruit around, it also 

 pushes the fruit forward 

 over the length of the drum. 

 The peels are thus made to 

 come off in spirals. The peel- 

 ings fall into a trough at the 

 bottom of the machine and 

 the fruit pulps are dropped 

 out on a chute at the side. 



W valua 



Fruit of all sizes and shapes tumbles down through 

 an opening in contact with a motor-revolved screw 



Delivenj 



Peel receptacle 



Teeth on the revolving 

 drum. The peelings 

 come off in spirals 



tobacco is recognized as a 

 uable insecticide which will, 

 kill most insects, there is at least one that 

 lives in it and on it and thrives exceed- 

 ingly far too exceedingly, to be pleasant. 

 This tobacco beetle, as he is called, is 

 very epicurean 

 in his tastes and 

 prefers the bet- 

 ter brands of 

 tobacco. He is 

 a native of Cuba 

 and the Philip- 

 pines, but has 

 spread all over 

 the world. He 

 only lives in 

 manufactured 

 and stored to- 

 bacco, never in 

 the growing 

 plant. 



There are 

 several other 

 insects that 

 prey on the to- 

 bacco beetle, and 

 his destructive lar- 

 vae, but it is none 

 the less necessary 

 to control him by 

 artificial means. 

 Extremes of heat 

 and cold will eradi- 

 cate him, and fumi- 

 gation with hydro- 

 cyanic acid or carbon bisulphide is also very 

 effective in compassing his destruction. 



The process of manufacture usually 

 does away with both beetles and eggs, so 

 that if protective measures are 

 adopted their ravages can be 

 more or less obviated. The 

 smoker, therefore, has no 

 well grounded reason to 

 feel concerned regarding 

 the possibility of finding 

 the beetle in his cigar or 

 cigarette. And the fact that 

 the insect prefers expensive 

 tobacco to the poorer grades 

 may prove consoling to hini 

 who can afford only cheap 

 "smokes." 



