OF INTEREST TO FLAXMILLERS

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 55, 6 March 1911, Page 9

OF INTEREST TO FLAXMILLERS

A NEW STRIPPING MACHINE.

The following report from the United States Consul-General at Hong Kong has been supplied to us by Mr. W. A. Prickett, Consul-General at Auckland. It describes a hemp or flax-stripping machine such as New Zealand naxmillers have been seeking for years past:—-.

"A hemp-stripping machine, invented by a resident of Manila, and manufactured in Hong Kong, is being tested in the Philippines. The machine is an adaptation of the Philippine 'hand method of hemp-stripping. It consists of several rollers and cutters mounted on a framework 12ft. long, 4ft. high, and 4ft. wide, the machine being mounted on skids, so that it can be drawn about the hemp-fields by an ox or caribou. A 3J-horse-po\ver gas engine supplies the power. The machine strips the hemp from butt to tip, the butt-stripper preparing the stalk for passing through the machine by removing all secondary fibre, with the result that only the first-class fibre is saved. It is claimed by the owners that -with twelve men the machine will do the work of forty handstrippers.

"The only question about the success of the machine seems tv be in the quality of fibre turned out. To settle this, a number of the machines have been. taken into the Philippine hemp districts, and are now being employed in stripping a bundle of thirty bales of hemp fibre, which will be shipped to pacific coast rope concerns for tests in rope-making. Careful record of the work "done by the machine is being mode, and. the use of the stripped fibre will toe carefully watched, so that ; an exact knowledge of its economic worth from the first to the last stages of rope-making may be had. Inasmuch as this is the first serious effort to use machines in hemp production, the results are of great interest to all engaged in the industry and trade. In the event of the continued success of the machines, their manufacture in the United States upon a large scale will be undertaken."