MEGASS AS FUEL. 



pressure of 90 Ibs. per square inch with 450 Ibs. dry soda and 250 Ibs. quick- 

 lime. After washing the material was ready to go to the paper machine. 



The resulting paper is very strong and suitable for wrapping purposes ; 

 from 40,000,000 Ibs. of chips 8,000,000 Ibs.* paper were obtained, which sold 

 at 2 cents, per Ib. or 9'3 per ton. More recently paper making from 

 megass, para grass (Paspalum sp.) bamboo, etc., has been initiated at the 

 Tacarigua estate in Trinidad by Laraarre 12 where a material worth 5 per ton 

 is stated to be produced. 



A very recent examination of megass by Remington, Bowack, and 

 Carrington 13 gives the following analysis of megass fibre: Water, 11*05 per 

 cent.; ash, 1*54 per cent.; loss on ^-hydrolysis, 30'01 per cent.; loss on 

 i-hydrolysis, 48*70 per cent. ; loss on mercerization, 32-73 per cent. ; gain on 

 nitration, 10-21 per cent.; cellulose 47'11 per cent.; length of ultimate fibre, 

 3'5 mm. These authors speak very favourably of the possibilities of megass 

 as a raw material for paper making, especially when mixed with other 

 substances such as chemical wood pulp, lalang (Andropogon caricosm] and 

 Para grass. 



Finally, Raitt 14 comes to the following conclusion, based on very con- 

 servative figures : 



" Cane sugar factories are usually situated in localities where all manu- 

 factured goods have to be imported at a considerable cost for freight, and, 

 probably, import duties also. Where such circumstances exist, together with 

 a sufficient local demand for unbleached wrapping and packing papers, or even 

 for the thin, unbleached paper so largely used by the natives of India and 

 elsewhere for correspondence and accounts, it is quite possible tq show that a 

 paper mill may prove a very profitable auxiliary to a sugar factory, and that 

 the megass may be worth considerably more for this purpose than its present 

 fuel value. 



A paper mill suitable for this class of paper, to produce 40 to 50 tons per 

 week, would cost, roughly, 20,000. A conservative estimate of the cost of 

 production, under average conditions, exclusive of the fuel value of the megass 

 but including repairs, depreciation, and 5 per cent, interest on cost of plant, 

 amounts to 10 10s. per ton. Under the conditions above referred to the 

 product should be worth 15, leaving 4 10s. as the paper-making value of 

 the 2 tons of megass required to produce it, or, say, 2 per ton. The 

 cost of steam coal to replace it in the sugar factory furnaces would be 

 at the outside l 10s. per ton. In calorific effect a ton of good steam 

 coal is usually assumed to be equal to four tons of megass, so that the 

 full value of the latter cannot exceed 7s. 6d. per ton. Deducting this, 

 there remains an estimated profit of 1 12s. 6d. per ton of megass converted 

 into paper." 



* i.e., 20 per cent.; but the megass only contained 16'5 per cent, cellulose originally ; the 

 figures are correctly quoted. 



425 



