CLEANING KAURI GUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18050, 27 March 1922, Page 8

CLEANING KAURI GUM.

OPERATION OF NEW PROCESS.

A new process for cleaning "chip" gum, which it is claimed will revolutionise the industry and bring into value large areas of northern gum lands at present unworkable, has been designed by Mr. S. P. E'van3, engineer to the Parenga Kauri Oils, Ltd., which has erected a new plant at Redhill, Northern Wairoa. It is estimated that over £100,000 has been spent by various companies on machinery and research work, chiefly with a view to dealing commercially with "chip" gum, which is found in considerable quantities in the northern gum swamps. The Parenga Company introduced a process for washing which produced gam of 80 te 85 per cent, purity, but it has remained for Mr. Evans to evolve a process which completely separates the earth and charcoal from the gum and delivers a product 88 per cent. pure. The process has been in. operation for some weeks. The material is placed in a closed vessel, in a simple solution, and subjected to pressure, when the foreign matter immediately sinks and leaves the gum on top. This method will, it is claimed, reduce tho cost of production by several pounds a ton and will enable the gum to be taken from the swamp face, passed through a continuous process, and bagged ready for shipment in two hours. An interesting model machine showing the working of the process is operating at the company's city office,,