The following article appeared in a recent number of the _London Times_:
The subject of the cultivation and commercial utilization of the China
grass plant, or rhea, has for many years occupied attention, the
question being one of national importance, particularly as affecting
India. Rhea which is also known under the name of ramie, is a textile
plant which was indigenous to China and India. It is perennial, easy of
cultivation, and produces a remarkably strong fiber. The problem of its
cultivation has long being solved, for within certain limits rhea can
be grown in any climate. India and the British colonies offer unusual
facilities, and present vast and appropriate fields for that enterprise,
while it can be, and is, grown in most European countries. All this has
long been demonstrated; not so, however, the commercial utilization of
the fiber, which up to the present time would appear to be a problem
only partially solved, although many earnest workers have been engaged
in the attempted solution.
There have been difficulties in the way of decorticating the stems of
this plant, and the Indian Government, in 1869, offered a reward of
£5,000 for the best machine for separating the fiber from the stems and
bark of rhea in its green or freshly cut state. The Indian Government
was led to this step by the strong conviction, based upon ample
evidence, that the only obstacle to the development of an extensive
trade in this product was the want of suitable means for decorticating
the plant. This was the third time within the present century that rhea
had become the subject of official action on the part of the Government,
the first effort for utilizing the plant dating from 1803, when Dr.
Roxburg started the question, and the second from 1840, when attention
was again directed to it by Colonel Jenkins.
The offer of £5,000, in 1869, led to only one machine being submitted
for trial, although several competitors had entered their names. This
machine was that of Mr. Greig, of Edinburgh, but after careful trial
by General (then Lieutenant Colonel) Hyde it was found that it did not
fulfill the conditions laid down by the Government, and therefore the
full prize of £5,000 was not awarded. In consideration, however, of the
inventor having made a _bona fide_ and meritorious attempt to solve
the question, he was awarded a donation of £1,500. Other unsuccessful
attempts were subsequently made, and eventually the offer of £5,000 was
withdrawn by the Government.
But although the prize was withdrawn, invention did not cease, and the
Government, in 1881, reoffered the prize of £5,500. Another competition
took place, at which several machines were tried, but the trials, as
before, proved barren of any practical results, and up to the present
time no machine has been found capable of dealing successfully with this
plant in the green state. The question of the preparation of the fiber,
however, continued to be pursued in many directions. Nor is this to be
wondered at when it is remembered that the strength of some rhea fiber
from Assam experimented with in 1852 by Dr. Forbes Royle, as compared
with St. Petersburg hemp, was in the ratio of 280 to 160, while the wild
rhea from Assam was as high as 343. But, above and beyond this, rhea has
the widest range of possible applications of any fiber, as shown by an
exhaustive report on the preparation and use of rhea fiber by Dr. Forbes
Watson, published in 1875, at which date Dr. Watson was the reporter on
the products of India to the Secretary of State, at the India Office.
Last year, however, witnessed the solution of the question of
decortication in the green state in a satisfactory manner by M.A.
Favier's process, as reported by us at the time.
This process consists in subjecting the plant to the action of steam for
a period varying from 10 to 25 minutes, according to the length of time
the plant had been cut. After steaming, the fiber and its adjuncts
were easily stripped from the wood. The importance and value of this
invention will be realized, when it is remembered that the plant is
cultivated at long distances from the localities where the fiber
is prepared for the market. The consequence is, that for every
hundredweight of fiber about a ton of woody material has to be
transported. Nor is this the only evil, for the gummy matter in which
the fiber is embedded becomes dried up during transport, and the
separation of the fiber is thus rendered difficult, and even impossible,
inasmuch as some of the fiber is left adhering to the wood.
M. Favier's process greatly simplifies the commercial production of the
fiber up to a certain point, for, at a very small cost, it gives the
manufacturer the whole of the fiber in the plant treated. But it still
stops short of what is required, in that it delivers the fiber in
ribbons, with its cementitious matter and outer skin attached. To remove
this, various methods have been tried, but, as far as we are aware,
without general success--that is to say, the fiber cannot always
be obtained of such a uniformly good quality as to constitute a
commercially reliable article. Such was the position of the question
when, about a year ago, the whole case was submitted to the
distinguished French chemist, Professor Fremy, member of the Institute
of France, who is well-known for his researches into the nature of
fibrous plants, and the question of their preparation for the market.
Professor Fremy thoroughly investigated the matter from a chemical point
of view, and at length brought it to a successful and, apparently, a
practical issue.
One great bar to previous success would appear to have been the absence
of exact knowledge as to the nature of the constituents of that portion
of the plant which contains the fiber, or, in other words, the casing or
bark surrounding the woody stem of the rhea. As determined by Professor
Fremy, this consists of the cutose, or outer skin, within which is the
vasculose containing the fiber and other conjoined matter, known as
cellulose, between which and the woody stem is the pectose, or gum,
which causes the skin or bark, as a whole, fiber included, to adhere to
the wood. The Professor, therefore, proceeded to carefully investigate
the nature of these various substances, and in the result he found
that the vasculose and pectose were soluble in an alkali under certain
conditions, and that the cellulose was insoluble. He therefore dissolves
out the cutose, vasculose, and pectose by a very simple process,
obtaining the fiber clean, and free from all extraneous adherent matter,
ready for the spinner.
In order, however, to insure as a result a perfectly uniform and
marketable article, the Professor uses various chemicals at the several
stages of the process. These, however, are not administered haphazard,
or by rule of thumb, as has been the case in some processes bearing in
the same direction, and which have consequently failed, in the sense
that they have not yet taken their places as commercial successes. The
Professor, therefore, carefully examines the article which he has to
treat, and, according to its nature and the character of its components,
he determines the proportions of the various chemicals which he
introduces at the several stages. All chance of failure thus appears to
be eliminated, and the production of a fiber of uniform and reliable
quality removed from the region of doubt into that of certainty. The two
processes of M. Favier and M. Fremy have, therefore, been combined, and
machinery has been put up in France on a scale sufficiently large
to fairly approximate to practical working, and to demonstrate the
practicability of the combined inventions.
The experimental works are situated in the Route d'Orleans, Grand
Montrouge, just outside Paris, and a few days ago a series of
demonstrations were given there by Messrs. G.W.H. Brogden and Co., of
Gresham-house, London. The trials were carried out by M. Albert Alroy,
under the supervision of M. Urbain, who is Professor Fremy's chief
assistant and copatentee, and were attended by Dr. Forbes Watson, Mr.
M. Collyer, Mr. C.J. Taylor, late member of the General Assembly, New
Zealand, M. Barbe, M. Favier, Mr. G. Brogden, Mr. Caspar, and a number
of other gentlemen representing those interested in the question at
issue. The process, as carried out, consists in first treating the rhea
according to M. Favier's invention. The apparatus employed for this
purpose is very simple and inexpensive, consisting merely of a stout
deal trough or box, about 8 ft. long, 2 ft. wide, and 1 ft. 8 in. deep.
The box has a hinged lid and a false open bottom, under which steam is
admitted by a perforated pipe, there being an outlet for the condensed
water at one end of the box. Into this box the bundles of rhea were
placed, the lid closed, steam turned on, and in about twenty minutes it
was invariably found that the bark had been sufficiently softened to
allow of its being readily and rapidly stripped off by hand, together
with the whole of the fiber, in what may be called ribbons. Thus the
process of decortication is effectively accomplished in a few minutes,
instead of requiring, as it sometimes does in the retting process, days,
and even weeks, and being at the best attended with uncertainty as
to results, as is also the case when decortication is effected by
machinery.
Moreover, the retting process, which is simply steeping the cut plants
in water, is a delicate operation, requiring constant watching, to say
nothing of its serious inconvenience from a sanitary point of view, on
account of the pestilential emanations from the retteries. Decortication
by steam having been effected, the work of M. Favier ceases, and
the process is carried forward by M. Fremy. The ribbons having been
produced, the fiber in them has to be freed from the mucilaginous
secretions. To this end, after examination in the laboratory, they are
laid on metal trays, which are placed one above the other in a vertical
perforated metal cylinder. When charged, this cylinder is placed within
a strong iron cylinder, containing a known quantity of water, to which
an alkali is added in certain proportions. Within the cylinder is a
steam coil for heating the water, and, steam having been turned on, the
temperature is raised to a certain point, when the cylinder is closed
and made steam-tight. The process of boiling is continued under pressure
until the temperature--and consequently the steam pressure--within the
cylinder has attained a high degree.
On the completion of this part of the process, which occupies about
four hours, and upon which the success of the whole mainly depends,
the cementitious matter surrounding the fiber is found to have been
transformed into a substance easily dissolved. The fibrous mass is then
removed to a centrifugal machine, in which it is quickly deprived of its
surplus alkaline moisture, and it is then placed in a weak solution of
hydrochloric acid for a short time. It is then transferred to a bath
of pure cold water, in which it remains for about an hour, and it is
subsequently placed for a short time in a weak acid bath, after which it
is again washed in cold water, and dried for the market. Such are the
processes by which China grass may become a source of profit alike to
the cultivator and the spinner. A factory situate at Louviers has been
acquired, where there is machinery already erected for preparing the
fiber according to the processes we have described, at the rate of one
ton per day. There is also machinery for spinning the fiber into yarns.
These works were also visited by those gentlemen who were at the
experimental works at Montrouge, and who also visited the Government
laboratory in Paris, of which Professor Fremy is chief and M. Urbain
_sous-chef_, and where those gentlemen explained the details of their
process and made their visitors familiar with the progressive steps of
their investigations.
With regard to the rhea treated at Montrouge, we may observe that it was
grown at La Reolle, near Bordeaux. Some special experiments were also
carried out by Dr. Forbes Watson with some rhea grown by the Duke of
Wellington at Stratfield-saye, his Grace having taken an active interest
in the question for some years past. In all cases the rhea was used
green and comparatively freshly cut. One of the objects of Dr. Watson's
experiments was, by treating rhea cut at certain stages of growth,
to ascertain at which stage the plant yields the best fiber, and
consequently how many crops can be raised in the year with the best
advantage.
This question has often presented itself as one of the points to be
determined, and advantage has been taken of the present opportunity with
a view to the solution of the question. Mr. C.J. Taylor also took with
him a sample of New Zealand flax, which was successfully treated by
the process. On the whole, the conclusion is that the results of
the combined processes, so far as they have gone, are eminently
satisfactory, and justify the expectation that a large enterprise in the
cultivation and utilization of China grass is on the eve of being opened
up, not only in India and our colonies, but possibly also much nearer
home.
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