284 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



Mr. Adams, the warehouse superintendent who could hardly have the 

 interests of planters and importers more at heart were he " in Tea " 

 himself uses his best endeavours to refill the boxes with as little delay 

 as possible, and thus to prevent it from being injured by undue 

 exposure to the atmosphere. He also -keeps the floors of the ware- 

 house as clean as practicable. But feeling that the best efforts, how- 

 ever well devised, and however strenuously carried out, must neces- 

 sarily be attended with but partial success, the East and West India 

 Dock Company have erected as has already been mentioned a Tea 

 bulking machine, a device which is ingenious and meritorious, and 

 which seems to be, so far as it has been tried, a great success. 



This machine, designed by Mr. Tydeman, of the company's 

 engineering staff, and constructed under his supervision, consists, 

 firstly, of a large hollow revolving drum weighing nearly two and a-half 

 tons, and of sufficient capacity to thoroughly bulk about 50 chests of 

 Tea. The drum is made to hold about 100 chests of Tea, which leaves 

 ample space for the bulking of the above quantity. Inside this drum 

 are frames fitted at intervals with iron rods, and extending at varying 

 angles from the axle of the drum to its extremity. Externally the 

 drum has two openings for the reception of the Tea, and two smaller 

 ones for its discharge. In a line with the axle of the drum, some 

 height from the floor, is a platform to which the chests are conveyed 

 by a double lift which simultaneously ascends with a full chest and 

 brings down an empty one. Adjuncts to the machine are a weighing 

 machine, a presser, and four beaters of the two latter the nature and 

 object will be immediately apparent. The process of bulking as 

 effected by this machine is briefly as follows: The drum being revolved 

 till its receiving openings are level with the platform, a chest of Tea 

 is raised, as before explained, and the contents examined on the door 

 of the drum, which falls back into a horizontal position for that purpose, 

 then by closing the tray or door the Tea is passed into the drum. The 

 lift then brings up another full chest and takes down the emptied one, 

 which is at once taken to a scale for taring purposes, and so the 

 process is continued till the break is exhausted. This filling process 

 can be carried on at both sides of a drum at once, as there are two 

 openings and two lifts. The Tea being in, the drum is made to revolve, 

 when the iron frames thoroughly mix the Tea in a very few revolutions 

 three would suffice. 



The drum has now to be emptied, and this operation is effected 



