90 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



unsettled, though progress is being made from year to year, as old machines are 

 improved and new ones are devised. For further considerations of this subject, see 

 Appendix A. 



DEGUMMING of the Raw FIBER. — Before the fiber can be combed, it is subjected 

 to a chemical treatment called degumming. Through the researches of the late M. 

 Fremy . member of the French Institute, it has been shown that the gums and cements 

 holding together the filaments of ramie are essentially composed of pectose, cutose, 

 and vascnlose. while the fiber itself is composed of fibrose, cellulose, and its deriva- 

 tives. The theory of degumming, therefore, is to dissolve and wash out the gums 

 without attacking the cellulose. In order to eliminate the vascnlose and cutose it 

 is necessary to employ alkaline oleates or caustic alkalies, employed under pressure, 

 and even bisulphates and hydrochlorates. The gums being dissolved, the epidermis 

 is detached and can be mechanically separated from the layers of fiber by washing. 

 The larger number of degumming processes in present use embody these general 

 principles. 

 French experimenters have shown that it costs no more to degum the China grass 



that will fill a kier or tank of certain dimen- 

 sions than the charge of simple stripped 

 ribbons that will fill the same tank. Yet 

 the weight of China grass that will fill this 

 kier will be almost double that of the 

 stripped bark, and while the kier of China 

 grass will show a shrinkage (waste) of only 

 30 per cent, let us say, the loss from the 

 stripped bark may be 66 per cent. To state 

 this differently, a half-ton charge (1,120 

 pounds, French) of China grass may give 

 775 pounds of degummed fiber, the expense 

 of degumming (at $20 per charge, let us 

 say) being about 2f cents per pound. Now 

 the same kier, when charged with simple 

 stripped bark, will hold only 660 pounds 

 and give but 264 pounds of degummed 

 filasse. But, as the cost of degumming the 

 contents of the tank will be the same in 

 both instances, the last operation has cost 

 74 cents per pound of pure fiber turned out. 

 The commercial value of the degummed 

 fiber is stated according to French figures 

 at about 134 cents per pound. 

 Manufacture. — It is not important to 

 go into the details of manufacture here. This branch of the industry has passed 

 the stage of experiment and is an established fact. At the present time there are 

 two filatures or spinning mills in France, two in Germany, one in Austria, one in 

 Switzerland, and two English companies, one of which— the Boyle Fiber Syndicate- 

 operates at Long Eaton. Probably the most successful spinning mills are those 

 operated at Emmendingen, Baden, Germany. 



Uses of the Fiber.— As to the possibilities of ramie manufacture there seems to 

 be no limit. Stuff goods for men's wear, upholstery, curtains, hues and embroideries, 

 plushes and velvets, stockings, underclothing, table damask, napkins, handkerchiefs, 

 shirtings, sheetings, sail duck, carpets, cordage, fishing nets, and yarns and threads 

 for various uses not enumerated, bank-note paper, etc. Regarding these various 

 uses of ramie fiber in manufacture, however, M. Roux says we should not conclude 

 that this textile is destined to be employed so largely. The cost of its preparation 

 will always prevent its common use as a substitute for the textiles that can be more 

 cheaply grown and prepared. He concludes that while it has brilliancy it has not 



Fig. 35. — Ramie roots before subdivision. 



