Volume 2
Cyclopædia of India and of eastern and southern Asia, commercial, industrial and scientific : products of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / edited by Edward Balfour.
- Date:
- 1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cyclopædia of India and of eastern and southern Asia, commercial, industrial and scientific : products of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / edited by Edward Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.
57/872 page 1253
![stroke of a divided, lon- MUSA PARADISIACA. best kind of fibre is produced, and wlmt would lie the loss of profit, supposing that the fruit is sacrificed for the sake of the fi- bre. The stem is described as being cut off about six inches above the ground, and being tender, it may, on being bent down, be cut asunder with a single hatchet or cutlass. It is then gitudinally, into four parts, the centre taken out and left to serve as manure, and the pieces con- veyed at once to the mill to be crushed. It is said that “ one man can cut down 800 trees, and split them in a day.” A very convenient size for the rollers of the mill, will be found to be about, three feet in length and one foot, in dia- meter. In the process of crushing, care should be taken to separate the tender from the harder layers of fibre. This may be attained by having the rollers of the mill placed horizontally ; and if the pieces of Plantain are passed lengthways through the mill the pressure will be uniform, and the fibre uninjured. “ In this manner, pass the different sorts of layers separately, and the produce will be about four pounds of fibre from each tree. The stalks of the branches of the Plantain (no doubt the midrib of the leaf is meant) give the best fibre, and a large quantity as com- pared with i he body of the trees ; 100 l'bs. of the stalk will give 151b. nett of fibre. In general, if a tree will give 41b, nett of fibre, the stalks will give 11b. out of the 41b. The stalks ought also to be crushed separately, because they are harder than the exterior layers of the’ tree. About 3100 trees may be passed through the mill in a day. Whilst the experiments were in progress, it was ascertained that, with a single horse,- 100 Plantain trees, on an average, were crushed in twenty minutes—giving five minutes’ rest for the horse ” The quantity of produce from each plant, is the point of greatest discre- pancy between the West Indian practice and Dr. Hunter’s experiments, as he mentions only a few ounces of fibre as procurable from each plant. But as he rejected the outer parts, and did not include the midrib of the leaves, the dis- crepancy may be partly accounted for. The comb- ings or tow, separated from the fibres during- their preparation, are also of value as a substi” tute for horse-hair, for stuffing mattresses, &c. • mid a so the peduncle or core, if pounded into half-stuff lor paper-makers. Some of the cellular tissue containing much fibrous matter, mi°lit probably, be converted to the same purposes’. In addition to the above processes of crushino- and washing, the West Indian account also civet the details of the process of boiling the fibre with carbonate of soda and quick-lime, in order, it is said, to get rid of the remaining vegetable’mat- ®r’li..and ft0. .blIea°h the fibre. The different qualities of which, having been crushed separate- ly, are of course to be kept so, and boiled separ- ately. The proportions given in the above ac- MUSA PARA D1S1ACA. count are for making three tons of fibre per day. For this, four large (SOO-gallon) boilers are re- quired, and about, 3(50 lb. of soda would be con- sumed, with a proportionate quantity of lime ; or the soda, that is its carbonate, may be first de- prived of its carbonic acid. This may be done by preparing, in a small separate boiler, the quantity of liquid necessary for a day’s consump- tion, which may. be done in about an hour, by taking, by weight, ten parts of soda, six parts of quick-Iiine, and not less than seventy parts of water. The operation of boiling in thb soda ley is said to be important in separating the gluten and colouring matter from the fibres, and -also to facilitate their bleaching. The lightest coloured fibres do not require more than six boms to bleach, whilst Hie darkest will probably take from twelve to eighteeh hours. It is advisable to place over .each boiler the means of lifting the mass of fibre when boiled, and sufferin'* it to drain into the boiler before it is carried away to be washed. The machinery necessary for cleans- ing and washing may be of various descriptions —as that used bv paper-makers in England, or by coffee-planters and arrow-root growers in the West Indies. The fibre may be dried, by being hung over lines made of the same material. These, when dry, may be pressed and packed. For carry- ing on the cultuie of the Plantain on an extensive scale, in the West Indies, it is stated that the materials will cost £-’000, buildings £500, pur- chase of land £1500, working capital £100 j to £5000. The estimated expense in cultivating one quarree or 5i English acres, in Plantains, wifi be £30, as the work can be easily performed by one labourer in 301 days, at 2s. sterling per day A quarree will produce 18 tons of milhfibre tile cost of the preparation of which is as follows : For workmen's wages, soda, lime, and fuel, at £3 ner ton £•-, t Freight to Europe, at £1 per toil P Mnnngcr .: ‘ Duty, insurance, office fees, &Ci, at £1 per ton 30 18 Thus 18 tons making of 1253 the total expense of producin'*- fibre £174, or £9 13s id. per tom hv another statement, derived from different data, but somewhat similar sources, it has been calculated that Plantain fibre, in a coarse state might be laic] down in England, at £10 6s Sd But fZ.eieXPf?nSe 'V0Uld be iHCUrred iu Lansing the taken L 11 WPUtl?°r9’ > ni,0ther amount, also I °; thidnm information, it is stated £7 lV m/Of/V0 C ,Caned fibre would amount to £7 Is. -id., to winch, of course, freight would have to be added; while half-stuff for paner- fromrthemSft’ a\th? SiUnetime> be produced fiom the efnse at about half that sum. As lan am fibre lias not yet, as far as we have heard, been systematically prepared as an article of commerce, these calculations of cost are some- what conjectural. But they are interesting showing, from the experiments which had teJ. made, that large quantities of a valuable product](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28708921_0002_0057.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
