82 CORDAGE FIBRES 



be carted or shipped. Inventors must remember that all 

 parts of the machine coming in contact with the fibre imme- 

 diately after it is cleaned must be free from steel or iron 

 surfaces, which would discolour the fibre. The distance from 

 the scraping knives to the grip holding the leaf must remain 

 practically constant, and must not exceed 8 or 10 inches, 

 otherwise the fibre is likely to be strained and broken. 



Decorticating machines which have been more or less suc- 

 cessful are provided with organs for crushing, scraping or 

 beating, or both. Some of these machines bear the name 

 of the Favier, the Todd, the Landstsheer, the Andrew, the 

 Weicher, the Villamore, the Aquilla, and the Prieto. 



The Favier machine has a series of pairs of crushing 

 rollers and beaters. The Todd fibre-cleaning machine has 

 been much used in the cleaning of Sisal hemp. It is said 

 to produce from 700 to 1,000 Ibs. of clean fibre per day. 

 The Landstsheer machine consists of two pairs of fluted 

 crushing rollers and two sets of beaters. Andrew's patent 

 machine has been successfully used in the extraction of 

 New Zealand hemp, the fibre being cleaned by a hammering 

 process, and the gummy matter removed by jets of water. 

 The principal organ of the Weicher machine is a drum 

 fitted with beaters. The Villamore and Prieto machines 

 have been successfully used in Mexico. They are fitted with 

 scrape wheels which, acting against a wooden block or shoe, 

 scrape off the woody pulp from the fibre. 



Figs, ii and 12 give two views of the Prieto Machine Co.'s 

 Irene No. 31 Machine, which has a capacity of 30,000 leaves 

 per day, and requires 15 h.p. to drive it. 



The crusher, fig. 13, is used to prepare the leaves for this 

 machine. 



Fig. 14 shows Lehmann's fibre extracting machine. 



