2 



REPORT ON FIBRE MACHINERY. 



Sir, Botanical Department, Gordon Town P.O., 19th May, 1891. 



I have the honour to submit the following Report, prepared at the request of H. E. the Governor 

 on the Weicher Fibre Machine. 



2. The Machine is worked by a portable steam engine of 15 h.p., which is capable of driving two 

 machines, besides doing other work at the same time. 



3. The fibre-c eauing part of the Machine is covered in by an iron casing. It is stated that the speed 

 of the drum is 400 revolutions a minute, and that it is capable of 600 revolutions with certain fibres. The 

 drum is 20 inches wide, and 26 inches in diameter. 



4. The table of the feeding-apparatus may be compared to the feeder of a sugar- jane mill, which it 

 resembles in the mode in which it revolves in a long ellipse. The bars of which the table is composed, 

 are in sets of nine, eight of which are flat, and the ninth delta-shaped in section. Round the t:ible re- 

 volves another set of bars, — the grip-bars, — in an ellipse about twice the length of the table. The orbits 

 are close together except at the end remote from the fibre-cleaning apparatus. The grip-bars are reverse 

 V shaped in section, and are at just such a distance apart, as to fit down exactly on the deltoid bars of the 

 table. The effect is that as the leaves are laid on the table, the ends are gripped between two bars ; the 

 leaves are fed into the cleaner, and as the table revolves, are pulled out again below the table, brought 

 round to the workman, who easily reverses them, and the other end is fed in, and cleaned in the same 

 way. As the fibre is brought back, it is handed to a woman to be washed, and hung up to dry. The 

 speed of the table is stated to be 60 feet a minute. The workmen feed the machine, and one woman 

 washes and hangs up the fibre. 



5. Trials were made with the following plants : — Silk Grass (Fiircrcea eubensis,) Pinguin (Bromelia 

 Pinguin,) African Bow String Hemp (Sanseveria guincenms,) Common Yucatan Sisal Hemp (Agave rigida, 

 var elongata,) Pita Sisal Hemp (Agave rigida, var Sisalana). 



6. The leaves were not all ripe, and as only a small quantity could be obtained, the percentages of 

 fibre are not by any means exact, but the main point was to determine the speed of the machine in the 

 average output of xvet fibre. 



7. In the weights of the wet fibre of Silk Grass, Nos. (2) and (3) and for the weights of all the dry 

 fibre, I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. J. Sharpe, Manager of the Jamaica Fruit Company. 



8. The following Table gives the results of these trials, the last column being the most important. 

 I have added results obtained by a Government Committee, appointed in December, 1883, to test the 

 working of Kennedy's Machine, quoted in Mr. Morris' Annual Report for 1884, and also the average re- 

 sults obtained by the Mauritius Machine in cleaning Mauritius Hemp (Furcroea gigantea) quoted in the 

 Kew Bulletin for May, 1890 :- - 





I Number of 

 Leaves. 



\ Weight of 

 Leaves. 



Number of 

 minutes at 

 work. 



Weight of wet 

 Fibre. 



| Weight of dry 

 j Fibre. 



Percentage of 

 weight of dry 

 Fibre to weight 

 of Leaf. 



Average of dry 

 ! Fibre per 

 hour. 



Average of wet 

 Fibre per 

 hour. 



Weichek Machine. 









Lbs. 



Lbs. 



oz. 









Silk Grass No. 1 



238 



600 



33J 



45 



19f 







3 29 



35.37 



80.60 



Ditto 2 



55 



150 



Si 



10 



3 



1 



2.0 



21.62 



70 59 



Ditto 3 



25 



90 





8 



1 



10 



1.8 



21.67 



106.66 



Bowstring. Hemp 



1,200 



402 



54 



24 







4.35 





26.67 



Penguin 



363 



77 



23 



2i 









1.0 



l!96 



6 52 



Pita 



30 



46 



3* 



4* 



1* 







3.26 



25 71 



77.14 



Yucatan Sisal 



115 



185 



17 



20f 



8} 



u 



4.46 



29.12 



73.24 



Kennedy's Machine. 





















Silk Grass 





366* 



83 





n 







20.5 



5.42 



20.24 



Bowstring Hemp 





1,185 



1,000 





29 



10 



2.49 



1.65 



3.82 



Penguin 





1,131 



1,835 





20J 







1.79 



0.66 



2.13 



Mauritius Machine. 





















Mauritius Hemp 





















(Furcrrea gigantea) 

















26 '.72 



93!67 



9. Tbe cost of the Mauritius machine is 250 rupees in the Colony where alone it is manufactured. 

 Information about this machine is to be found in " Kew Bulletin" for May, 1890. It is stated that the 

 Weicher Machine is not for sale but a central factory will be established in any place where there is a 

 sufficient quantity of fibre plants available and where terms can be arranged with planters for the purchase 

 of the leaves. 



1<>. Each Weicher Machine requires 2 feeders at Is. 6d per day, 1 boy at Is., I woman at 9d. — 4s. 9d. 

 Two Machines can be driven by one engine, for which an engineer at 2s. per day is necessary. Total for 

 driving two Machines lis. 6d. per day. 



11. As stated in Bulletin No. 15, Death and Ellwood's Machine cleans 8,000 leaves per day, whereas 

 Weicher's will not clean more than about 3,000 



I have, &c, 



W. Fawcett, Director of Public Gardens and Plantations. 



To the Honble. the Colonial Secretary. 



