in this country. In a personal communication to the writer M. Favier claims the following as the capacity of this machine:

With two workmen, employed ten hours, according to the degree of decortication required, the machine will produce from 120 to 180 kilograms of decorticated fiber; with four workmen, 240 to 360. The quantity of dry stalks passed through the machine "with one workman at the point of introduction is 600 kilograms;" and with "two workmen, of course double that quantity, or 2,640 pounds." Owing to the pecul iar construction of this machine the stalks are fed one at a time, the feed entrance being reached between a number of metal pins one-fourth inch thick, 4 inches long, and placed at proper intervals apart to admit easily a large stalk of ramie. These were evidently guides. When the stalks with leaves were fed, I supposed many of these would be stripped off by this attachment, but such was not the case. The machine may be described as follows:

The machine (as illustrated by Fig. 4) consists of two parts, which are shown combined, but which may be used separately if desired. The

first slits the stem or stalk either entirely through or nearly through, flattening it into two bands. As the stem is fed by hand two vertical feed-rollers receive it and pass it through a tube provided with the slitting-knife, and so shaped that the slit is opened out. These parts are hidden from view in the illustration. Flattening-rollers next receive the stems, crushing them, the wood and bark however maintaining their layer-like positions. Here the stems pass into the second machine. Rollers with wide grooves seize these ribbons or layers of wood and bark, breaking the wood into short pieces a quarter of an inch in length, which drop away, leaving the bark intact. This is then subjected to a series of rubbing and beating rollers, which manipulate the ribbon on both sides, removing the pellicle and disintegrating the fiber, which

is produced entire, cleaned and straight, within perhaps two seconds from the time the stem leaves the attendant's hands.

Since the trials the following letter has been received from M. Favier, which explains itself:

PARIS, October 27, 1889.

DEAR SIR: I have received your favor of 16th instant, and I had delivered already to Mr. Amory Austin some samples of ramie for you. To-day I deliver samples of fiber proceeding from my machine working the stalks in the dry state, and from my new machine working green stalks. Since the trials we have made new experiments, and here is the result:

In twelve minutes we passed through the machine 100 kilograms of green stalks, which correspond to 500 kilograms an hour, and 5,000 for ten hours, with but two workmen. With four workmen, it is not exaggerating to say that we can operate upon 7,500 kilograms.

This result will be probably interesting to your Government.
Entirely at your service.

I remain, dear sir, yours truly, (Signed.)

Mr. CHARLES RICHARDS Dodge,

Special Agent, Fiber Investigations.

A. FAVIER,

Le Directeur de la Ramie Francaise.

THE ARMAND-BARBIER MACHINE.

In the first trial with this machine 10 kilograms of stripped stalks were decorticated in six minutes, giving 1.30 kilograms of wet ribbons, or about 23 pounds of ribbons from 22 pounds of stalks. In the second trial 24 kilograms of stems with leaves were decorticated in ten minutes and thirty seconds, giving 1.20 kilograms of wet ribbons, or about 2 pounds of fiber from about 62 pounds of stalks and leaves. In the trial of dry stalks, 12 kilograms of stalks were passed through the machine in thirty minutes, yielding 2.20 kilograms, approximately 44 pounds of ribbons from 26.75 pounds of dry stalks.

The ribbons produced were not of the best quality, and the reverse action of the machine, that is running the fiber part way through, then withdrawing it and presenting the other end, makes it very slow in operation. The machine is quite simple, however, though to all intents and purposes is the same in principle of construction as the Landtsheer machine, considered a little further on. The dry ribbons produced are broad and flat, and none of the outer pellicle is removed. The refuse woody material comes away in large pieces, and a considerable percent. age of the fiber itself is whipped or torn off, and falls with the refuse of decortication. This machine occupies but a small floor space and weighs about 1,375 pounds. Its cost is 1,200 francs. No other information was obtained concerning it.

THE MICHOTTE MACHINE.

The trials of this machine were the most unsatisfactory of any in the contest, the quality of decorticated fiber being very poor, as it was filled with unseparated fragments of wood and the ribbons much broken and

injured. In the trial with stalks retaining their leaves, the machine clogged frequently, the cylinders becoming badly fouled. There were no tests with dry ramie. The record of the first trial is as follows: Green stalks 7 kilograms, equal to 153 pounds; time of the decortication, one minute and thirty seconds; product 1 kilogram, equal to 2 pounds of semi-cleaned ribbons. In the second trial 17.4 kilograms (38.28 pounds) of green stems with leaves were decorticated in two and one-half minutes, the result giving 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) of ribbons. There were no trials on dry stalks at this time.

This machine is composed of four crushing rollers of large size, having a special form of fluting. These rollers are followed by a steel breaker with elastic beaters working in connection with another breaker of similar form. The large rollers first crushed the stems and then

passed them to the beaters which were intended to free them from wood and fiber. I have specimens of the work of the machine on stalks of dry ramie, obtained from a private trial, and while better than the specimens of the green decortication, they are nevertheless poor. The price of the machine, made in two types, has been placed at 3,800 and 4,000 francs.

THE LANDTSHEER MACHINES.

In the first trials of the large machine 36 kilograms of stripped green stems were decorticated in two minutes and thirty-five seconds, the yield being 10 kilograms of wet ribbons (or about 22 pounds). This was in two lots of 10 kilograms without leaves and 26 kilograms with the leaves. At another trial, 46 kilograms of green stalks with leaves (two hundred

stems) were cleaned in eleven and one-half minutes, giving 15 kilograms of wet ribbons, filled with fragments of woody matter, chips, and even short sections of stems. This was then passed through the small machine in six and a half minutes, the 15 kilograms of partially cleaned ribbons giving 10.5 kilograms, showing a shrinkage of almost five kilo. grams weight by the second operation, or 30 per cent. Another trial of the small machine with 24.4 kilograms of green stalks with leaves, gave in ten minutes 6.50 kilograms of ribbons. This was at the rate of 14.32 pounds of wet ribbons from 53.79 pounds green stalks.

It was noticed that the larger machine did not decorticate well the last few inches of the stalk when fed in tops first, pieces of almost unbroken wood an inch or more in length loosely adhering to the ribbons. When fed butts first better results were obtained, though the ribbons invariably showed a percentage of semi-loose chips and litter. These machines have also the reverse action described in the Barbier machine, though in the trials with the large machine the action was continuous.

In the trial with dry stalks, without changing or cleaning the large machine, 30 kilograms were decorticated in twenty-one minutes, giving

10 kilograms of flat ribbons, the outer pellicle not being removed. Two men were required to run each machine.

The Landtsheer machine may be described as composed of three cylinders tangent to another central cylinder. The feeding cylinder is

arranged with spiral grooves to regulate the feeding of the ramie stalks. The crushing cylinders are alternately smooth and grooved longitudi nally in such manner that when working together the grooved part of one bearing upon the smooth parts of the other crushes the stalks. These cylinders are held in place by springs. After leaving the crushing cylinders the broken stalk passes between a pair of beaters, each supplied with sixteen winglets geared in such manner that they lightly interlock, this action brushing off or removing the woody matter and the bark. A force of one and a half to two horse power is required to drive the machine.

THE FLEURY-MORICEAU PROCESS.

This seemed to be simply immersion of a quantity of ramie stalks, either dry or green, in a rectangular galvanized iron tank of boiling water set upon masonry to admit of fire beneath to continue the boiling for a certain time, varying from five to fifteen minutes. The stripping of the ribbons was performed by hand by two men with occasional outside assistance. Eighteen kilograms of green stalks were used in the trial, the boiling occupying ten minutes and the decorticating thirty-six minutes, the result being 5 kilograms of good ribbons. The process is too laborious to be used in any country where living wages are paid, though the inventors claim that the ribbons can be produced, baled for shipment, for 8 to 10 centimes per kilogram, or about $21 per ton.

Here is the summary of the ramie machine trials of 1889, reduced to tabular form:

As a showing of the capacity of these machines for a day's work of ten hours, I subjoin a table prepared by Dr. Morris and published in the Kew Bulletin for November, 1889. The trials are numbered to correspond with the arrangement in my own table. The column relating to condition of the stalks is omitted.