SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
One section of ihe report deals with the many attempts that have 
been made to use bagasse for paper making. This gives the various 
processes that have been patented. The failure of most of the attempts 
are due to a lack of comprehension of the characteristics of bagasse 
as a paper-making material, or to an attempt to convert it into a grade 
of paper to which it inherently was ill-adapted. In the first instance 
two factors which operate against it are its large bulk and relatively — 
low yield of fibre, e.g., spruce yields 51 per cent. of fibre by the sulphite 
process, and a cubic foot of loosely packed dry chips weighs 10 lbs. 
Bagasse yields 30 per cent. of fibre, and a cubic foot of bagasse con- 
_ taining 20 per cent. moisture and loosely packed weighs 3 lbs. In 
other words, 1,000 cubic feet of digester capacity would yield from 
each cooking 5,100 lbs. of spruce pulp as against 900 lbs. of bagasse 
pulp. This objection is reduced if the pith is removed from the bagasse 
before cooking. The yield is then increased to about 45 per cent. 
In the Cuban experiments the bagasse had been prepared by the 
Simmons shredding process. The cane was shredded as it came from 
the field, then dried, reducing the moisture from 75 per cent. to 7 per 
cent., and next passed into a rotary screen, which allowed the pith to 
pass through, but retained the fibre. Hach had then to have the 
sugar extracted separately. The process now favoured is to shred the 
bagasse and sereen it. The Searby shredder as used in some of the 
experiments is not sufficient for Hawaiian bagasse. One method tried 
was a “beater separation.” The bagasse was reduced in an ordinary 
paper mill beater, and the pith separated in a washing cylinder con- 
sisting of a hexagonal box faced with 12-mesh wire and scoops on the 
inside. The cylinder is mechanically driven and caused to revolve, so 
that a portion of the hexagonal box is always stibmerged in the pulp. 
The pith and water pass through the wire and are removed. Dirt, 2.e., 
sand, grit, and similar matter, char, and bark, unless well screened, 
is likely to produce discoloured and faulty paper, and has been the 
cause of much trouble with the small-scale experiments. For large- 
seale separation the methods are not yet sufficiently tested and worked 
out. Grinding and shredding and screening through a rotary screen 
as carried out by the Simmons process, but after the crushing, bring 
about the separation of the pith and fibrous portion. The moist green 
bagasse screens readily, and drying does not seem to be an essential 
operation, \ 
Sampres Usep ror Invesriaarions. 
In the Hawaiian experiments, four samples were used :— 
1. Bagasse from “ Yellow Caledonian” éane. The milling 
machinery which prepared the bagasse did not include a Searby 
shredder. 2. Bagasse also from “ Yellow Caledonian” cane. The 
preparation included shredding by a Searby shredder. 3. Bagasse 
from variety “ Hawaii 109.” This was not shredded, but, coming 
from a 20-roller mill, was expected to be approximately as well 
' disintegrated as No. 2. 4, Bagasse from Lahaina variety. 
Shredded in Searby shredder. 
No particulars are given of the shredder, but a tabulated list of the 
various patents is included. — balan 
342 
