101 
the weight of rubber between the two is considerable. There is no 
point in having rollers 18" long unless you are to utilize as much of 
this as possible. 
Washing and Dripping. 
After rolling, each sheet is washed and soaked in tepid water 
to get rid of any protein which causes what is called “ rust ” in 
sheet. I have found that without this washing in warm water, 
sheets have a tendency to stretch “ rusty ” and it is consequently 
worth doing properly. After washing, sheets are dripped till all water 
has left them. They are hung on racks which «re thoroughly washed 
each day, the racks being designed so that each tier hangs free 
from the drip of the one above it. The stands are in the shape of 
an inverted Y with round laths across to hang the sheets over. 
Square timber laths are not good, as the sheets take any impression 
very easily at this stage, and unsightly lines across the sheet 
invariably result where square laths are used. The dripping racks 
should be in a sheltered position where no dust can be blown on the 
rubber. Rolling is usually finished by 11 a.m. and sheets are ready 
for the smoke-house by 2 p.m. 
Smoking. 
• 
Sheets should be put into the smoke-house as soon as possible 
after the water has all dripped off, as they do not take in the smoke 
so well if too dry. The only reason for not putting them in 
immediately after rolling is that water would drip from wet sheets 
on to finished or partly finished sheets that happened to be directly 
underneath, and the introduction of too much moisture into the 
building would retard drying bej’-ond reasonable limits. Racks 
should be perfectly round and wiped over carefully before sheet 
is hung on them, to avoid dust getting into the rubber which 
will not wash off if it adheres before the sheets are fairly dry, 
and will appear as a cloudy grey line across the finished sheet, 
where it has come into contact with the dusty surface. Sheets 
should be turned and moved so that a fresh part is over the racks 
every day for the first four days of smoking, to ensure every part of 
the sheet getting smoke through it. The size of a sheet when 
it goes into the smoke-house is about 30" x 15" and it comes out 
25" x 11" so that contraction reduces the square measurement of 
a sheet by about 40 per cent. It is essential for good smoking 
that this should not take place too rapidly, and for this reason I 
believe in slow drying and smoking. Rapid drying closes ' the 
sheet against a thorough permeation of smoke and I give 19 to 20 
days slow smoking before I consider the sheet is finished, the 
temperature being kept low and too much up-draft avoided. If a 
building is of corrugated iron the smoke gets through the joints in 
the roof quite fast enough, and there is no necessity to have funnels 
to improve the current. My smoke house is a 60 feet by 30 feet 
9 
