JtjLY I, 1903.] THE TROPICAL 
agriguLturist. 
THE TEA FACTORY OP THE 
FUTURE. 
{Contributed.) 
(Contimced from page 806.) 
II. 
In any attempt to forecast the future of society 
in peueval or merely a single industry, it ia well 
to differentiate caiefoUy between the possible or 
probable development of preseut-day methods or 
systems, and wild and imaginative speculation. As 
a case in point, — the bookstalls and magazines are 
constantly coming out with perfervid prophetical 
descriptions of cities where half the population, or 
the lower classes, dwell more or less permanently 
under-sround, for want of apace above, while 
wonderfal mechanical flying machines whirl madly 
through the sky at incredible speeds ; both of which, 
as anyone with a fair amount of common sense 
can see, are ridiculous improbabilities ; the first case 
being limited by sanitary laws on the one hand 
and the cost of transporting the working classes to 
and from the suburbs on the other ; and the second 
case is in the light of present day science, so far 
ai it has gone — having regard to the public safety— 
a mechanical impossibility. On the other hand it is 
perfectly fair and reasonable that given a phenomenon 
or an effect, however insignificant to the casual 
observer, that effect may by a seeing few be re- 
cognised and contemplated upon es the main turning 
point in the particular industry or part of an in- 
dustry with which it has to do. That is to say, if 
a casual effect at one point of a process of manu- 
facture be observed to have a material bearing in 
improvement of quality or of economic production, 
it may be proposed to so alter the first process 
that effect shall be no longer casual, but a mathe- 
matical certainty. Such a case could not be termed 
merely an imaginative speculation, neither is it 
necessarily an inference from the obvious, rather 
it may be better described as a scientific deduction 
based on the possibilities of an observation, and 
even if the actual inference or deduction be in itself 
fallacious, it m.ay nevertheless eerve to open and 
to light a path to other real improvements in the 
direction indicated. In a former paper (published 
in this journal on the 3rd January last), I considered 
the reconstruction of a large tract of separate Tea 
Estates into one vast concern worked by a single 
factory, and enumerated some of the difficulties 
which have hilhfrto stood in the way of such re- 
construction. I shall now, with some diffidence, 
attempt to forecast the probable machinery with 
which such a factory would be equipped, taking each 
process in its proper order. 
Withering. 
In the present day, as from the first, the leaf 
is spread out on special racks containing a certain 
nnmber of trays of various materials, from gal- 
vanised wire meshing to bamboo mats, and in the 
inajority of factories the arrangement is supple- 
mented by some mechanical method of air draft at 
one or both ends of the withering room : frequently 
also the air so used is drawn by a system of con- 
duits and scieens from the room where the hot 
blast drying machines are situated. 
It seems to be a general and accepted principle, 
confirmed by old and experienced Planters, that a 
cold wilher is essential to the manufacture of good 
tea ; but this principle, if laid down as a law, 
neglects altogether to cake the natural elements 
into couBideration, and, where entirely relied on, 
the usual result is that in seasons of heaviest rain 
combined with a rush of leaf greater than the 
accommodation for it, the said leaf positively refuses 
to wither at all, and further accumulation results 
in the loft and factory floors (and often even the 
2 
Manager's bungalow) being inundated a foot deep 
in leaf, which has finally to be rolled off half- 
withered, producing inferior tea. In the new wither- 
ing apparatus there will be nothing of this, rather 
every single detail will be carried out and provided 
for with mathematical and scientific accuracy and 
precision Among details to be noticed in connection 
with the msohanical air draft %oith prepared air, 
is the fact that it is always the leaf on the racks 
furthest from the fans which is first withered : the 
obvious reason for this is that the evaporation of 
the moisture taken up by the warm air passing 
over the first leaf when wet, induces a reduction 
of temperature in the draft; and as warm air will 
support a larger volume of moisture than when 
cold, this moisture is redepoaited on the racks 
nearest to the fans, Thi.s fact, which can be 
observed by any user of heated air in wet weather, 
will be utilised as follovi's : — 
The withering room will be fitted from floor to 
ceiling and almost from end to end with continuous 
banks of movable trays or endless webs on chains, 
the trays for these being probably constructed of 
some light material such as papier mache, or thin 
perforated steel, and anywhere from 10 to i5 feet 
in length. There would thus be, say, three orfour 
banks of trays with a gangway between each in 
every room, the rov^s of trays would be about si.'c 
inches apart vertically, and would travel outwards 
from the central tower of the factory while carrying 
leaf. 
As no hot air would be used except in cases of 
great emergency, such as a breakdown in other 
rooms during a rush, the working speed would be 
slow, but it would be possible to greatly accelerate 
the motion for the purpose of spreading the leaf 
which would be done automatically, on the principal 
of one of the mechanical boiler stokers of the present 
day ; the latter being fed by shutes, as required, 
from the receiving loft above. The leaf on a whole 
bank of trays, or rather in a whole room having 
been spread simultaneously, each tray would be 
worked up until the leaf showed at the further or 
outer end and there stopped. The various shutters 
in the central blast tower would then be opened to 
the required aperture, and a very gentle current 
of air properly dried and cooled to an exact degree 
of humidity and temperature found by careful ex- 
periment to be the best, would be passed over the 
trays. At the discharge end, the European or Sirdar 
in charge would watch the leaf actually in sight at 
the hour when it should be ready, and would then 
set all the trays in motion. The leaf arriving at 
the end would fall into a travelling conveyor belt 
and be carried and fed directly into the roUera. 
Should the leaf coming up slowly behind prove 
imder or over withered, the motion will be reduced 
or accelerated, but in actual piactice this will not 
occur, save aa an exception, for reasons to be given 
later : rather will it be the rule that the Manager 
in his office below stairs will have his time-table 
showing the exact hour and minute when each room 
or part of a room will be ready, and if by accident 
the withering in that particular room is not going 
on correctly, as per schedule the blast apertures 
and temperatures will be manipulated. 
At this point it would be well to explain that 
all divisional managers will telephone to the factory 
at least half an hour before leaf weighing, stating 
whether or not it has been raining, and the pro- 
bable quantity and state ot the leaf to be sent in. 
During the actual weighing, he will be provided 
with some simple instrument whereby he can gauge 
the percentage of moisture in theles,f on an average, 
and inform the receiving loft of the nnmber of 
dfit'rees ascertained and the total quantity of leaf, 
before or while despatching it. B pen with our 
present one thousand acre gardens it ia no uncom- 
mon tiling to have it fine at the factory a whole 
