The Universal Fibre Cleaning Machine. 
Fig. 1. 
rillUS Machine extracts and cleans the Fibre of 
JL the RHEEA, JUTE, HEMP, AGAVE, 
PINE APPLE and NEW ZEALAND FLAX Plants, 
as well as all other Fibre producing STALKS,and 
LEAVES, when operated on in the green and 
freshly cut state. 
The Fibres of the great majority of plants in the 
green growing condition are naturally white in 
colour, they become discoloured subsequently from 
the action of their juices under exposure to the sun 
and air, as also during the retting process to which 
many of them are now subjected, and which has 
frequently the effect of weakening them as well. 
These juices or saps in the fresh growing plan's, 
before they luive reached their full maturity, contain 
the various gums and colouring matters in a state of solution, and are removed by means 
of cold or., tepid water, but hot water or steam coagulates and fixes certain of the gummy 
substances in them, and also sets the colouring matters on the Fibres in a manner which 
often renders it impossible to prepare the Fibre afterwards in a satisfactory condition. 
With the new Machine these juices are at once washed out of the Fibre by means of 
a thin sheet or flattened jet of water, the quantity and force used being regulated 
according to the condition of the leaf or stem operated upon. This jet or stream of water 
plays upon the Fibres, and at the same time holds them up to tlie action of the beaters, 
forming a species of elastic cushion, or backing of water, during the operation. In this 
way there is little or no waste of Fibre, and the whole of the juices, together with the 
gr ecu .bark and broken up stems of hexogenous plants-, and tlie pulpy and othe^fedherent 
matters of endogenous Fibre yielding leaves, are at once removed. Their H^bres are 
extracted in their natural state, and only require to be dried and baled for exportation. 
These Machines are already in use in India and other countries. The Fibres, from 
the first consignment of Bales delivered in London, presenting so beautifully white an 
appearance, were thought to have been subjected to some bleaching process; the fact 
being that, for the first time, the Fibres were obtained in their natural state, and in the 
pure condition in which they exist in the plant. 
The introduction into commerce of the new Indian Fibre—the Moorva,* from the 
Sanscciera teylanica —equal, if not superior, to Quilot Manilla Hemp—is one of the 
important results already obtained by the use of the new Machine, the action of which, by 
extracting the various Fibres in the state in which they exist in' the plant, makes it at 
length, and for the first time, possible to determine the comparative merits of the different 
Fibre yielding plants, to select and bring to notice those most worthy of cultivation, and, 
at the same time, to fix the periods of growth of particular plants, when their Fibres are 
at then best for certain purposes, although there can be no doubt that, for fine textile 
purposes, in the majority of cases, it is necessary to abstract the Fibres before the plants 
which yield them arrive at their full maturity. 
■ The first consignment of this Fibre was sold at £89 per ton, but a second consignment lately received 
from Madras fetched £40. aud as at the same time the best Qnilot Manilla was selling at £55 per ton, the 
price of Modrva may rise still higher once its superior qualities become more generally known, it tiny he 
mentioned, however, that Roping Miinilla at the above period was selling at only £38. 10s., and the ordinary 
Mauritius Hemp from the Foura-oya ylyanHa, or large Agave, at from £26 to £$S per ton. 
