August, 1910.] 



109 



Fibres. 



new product, one which is completely 

 different from any material hitherto 

 produced by machine or chemical process 

 from the fibre-yielding bark of the plant. 

 This is a soft fibre which Mr. Orr 

 terms " processed ramie," which can be 

 shipped by the planter to the manu- 

 facturer, who can then by simply passing 

 it through a carding machine obtain 

 ramie "wool" which felts, aud is spin- 

 nable at once. This product mixes admir- 

 ably with cotton, sheep's wool, etc. The 

 process can be worked by any planter 

 with the aid of any coolie labour at his 

 command, and it requires no chemical 

 skill. The process itself requires no 

 chemicals whatever, and the machinery 

 employed is somewhat of the nature of 

 scutching machinery. 



Samples of the material have been 

 shown in London aud have been pro- 

 nounced to be valuable as a wool, aud 

 the inventor has had it spun iuto yarn 

 and woven mixed with natural wool, 

 wool rags; and waste wool aud flock. 

 The woven materials look well, have 

 dyed successfully, and make a strong 

 warm cloth suitable for many purposes. 

 Mr. Orr has improved upon his original 

 patent, and he estimates the cost of the 

 treatment of a ton of dried ramie canes 

 by his process would not exceed in India 

 Rs. 5 per ton in addition to that of 

 passing through his scutching machine, 

 which he states would be only small, 

 but he says it would not amount to 

 more than Rs. 7—8 per ton, and it will 

 extract more ramie from the canes than 

 any other process for treating the fibre. 



The present and prospective prices of 

 wool emphasise the importance and 

 timeliness of this new method of dealing 

 with ramie, and the invention should 

 prove of great value to many who are 

 engaged in the weaving of woollen cloth 

 mixtures. Natural wool, of course, of 

 good quality costs anything from 8d. 

 to over 2s. per lb., and the object of this 

 process is to enable the planter to pro- 

 duce a more widely valuable article 

 from ramie, at very small expense, than 

 he has yet been able to offer to the 

 textile industry, and of such a character 

 as will produce ramie wool in such a 

 manner as to be an entirely new textile 

 product; and as a result of careful 

 enquiries into the matte' 1 and tests, he 

 considers tbis ramie wool can be pro- 

 duced and offered to the woollen and 

 other trades at a price which will enable 

 it to be very largely and profitably used 

 by them, say, about 5d. per lb., possibly 

 less. 



The machines for preparing the mate- 

 rial from the ramie canes, and which Mr. 

 Orr has patented, cost £20 each for a 



machine which will produce 5 cwt. of 

 his " processed ramie " daily, and he 

 states that more than 5 % of fibre can 

 be produced by the machines from the 

 dry canes, no fibre is destroyed by their 

 action, or hardly any which simply 

 eliminates the bark, etc. 



Value of the Product. 

 The value of this new product from 

 ramie lies in the fact of the far greater 

 strength which the material possesses 

 to any rags (flock), or waste wool, which 

 is used by the woollen manufacturer, and 

 by making use of it in the place of this 

 he will be able to produce far superior 

 cloths, and ones which will command 

 better prices at less cost for manufacture. 



This new process is ready to be set in 

 active operation in ramie growing areas, 

 and is protected by Letters Patent in 

 India. In additiou to this ramie wool 

 being used iu place of flock and waste 

 wool in combination with cotton, and 

 natural wool of good quality, it will 

 prove of considerable value in connection 

 with the large Yorkshire Shoddy trade 

 for weaving mixed with shoddy, aud in 

 these instances, a cloth of very much 

 better quality aud higher commercial 

 value, will be obtained. Flock is in- 

 ferior, it may be said, to "shoddy" 

 which is used so largely, and at present 

 it is only employed for stuffing mat- 

 tresses ; when it is mixed with this ramie 

 wool a stout and strong cloth results of 

 a very much more serviceable character 

 than a cloth made wholly from flock, 

 and it costs practically no more to 

 manufacture. 



Pure ramie cloth is much softer in 

 texture than the above mixtures, and 

 one cloth which Mr. Orr has had woven 

 composed of 50% selected white wool 

 rags and waste wool, and 50% of ramie 

 wool is a perfect specimen of good 

 weaving, and a very soft warm cloth, 

 which might be successfully used for 

 almost any domestic purpose, and would 

 indeed make very good suitings. 



In these ramie woollen goods but little 

 is seen of the silky lustre which is 

 possessed by the fibre which is decorti- 

 cated and degummed in the ordinary 

 way, but they are remarkably warm and 

 strong. The combinacions of rags 

 (flock) and ramie would serve well for 

 curtains, and woven heavier for carpet- 

 ings which it was not desired should 

 take up dust in the same way as woollen 

 floor druggets. 



Mr. Orr points out that hitherto the 

 decortication of ramie has been one of 

 the great obstacles to its being turned 

 to account profitably by planters and 



