TIMARA FLAXMILL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 266, 6 November 1905, Page 3

TIMARA FLAXMILL.

TO THE EDITOR. I Sir,—T must thank "Visitor" for ! his rather flattering account of my I flax-mill in your issue of Friday last; but in describing the results likely to !be obtained by the use of the " tail j scutcher" lately introduced into the mill, his enthusiasm has run away j with him, and he has made comments ■ that are vividly in excess of the truth, ! and I consider it my duty to correct them. Mr Branton says that some of the statements alleged to be made by him are absurd, and that he never made them. The invention is simply a small scutcher driven at considerable ! velocity. Each hank of flax is put through this scutcher immediately after being stripped, to take the :; tails" off, and so lessen the work at the large scutcher. It is hoped that this process will result in a considerable saving of tow. It is not claimed that it will improve the quality. The invention is still in its experimental stage. We have been running the '■' tailer " for a month, but have not yet finally scutched a bale, so that 1 am unable yet to say if the saving of tow will pay •for the extra labour, and the extra power required to run it. The real test of its efficiency will be if it will materially reduce the quantity of green leaf required to make a ton of fibre. I recently inspected a " tail" j scutcher at Mr R. F. Bell's flax mill, near Turakina, which does its work very completely. It has been running for many months. Mr Bell informed me that it took eight tons of green leaf to make a ton of fibre, " good fair average " 'grade. This is about the same quantity used by some of the Marlborough mills, without the tailer. Mr G. Seifert, of Tokomaru. used a " tailer " in his mill for some months, but threw it out, finding it more profitable to cut off the " tails " by hand. I shall be pleased if the extra profits to be obtained by the use of " Tommy's tailer" are one-tenth as good as claimed by "Visitor," and will be glad to give the actual results to those interested as soon as they are definitely known.—l am, etc., R. F. GOULTER.