DRESSING NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1549, 11 May 1916, Page 4

DRESSING NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

(From the New Zealand Herald,

May t)th, 1800.)

An interesting examination into the working of a simple and portable flax-dressing machine, put together by Messrs Eraser and Tinne, was held yesterday at their ironworks, Mechanics’ Bay. Several gentlemen interested in the matter were present, and the result was considered on all hands as highly satisfactory. The flax is first of all submitted for two-and-a-half hours (o the action of condensed steam, and is then passed through two plain cylinders worked by hand, which can be set at any distance apart. The cylinders are fed from a trough by a boy, and the flax, when it passes through them, inquires only to be drawn through the water to cause the vegetable matter to separate at once from the fibre, leaving the latter (dean and unbroken. These machines can, it is said, be made for about £8 each, are very portable, and can be worked by a man and a boy. A leaf of flax was dressed in just a minute, and at this rate the machine would turn out 401 b. of dressed flax in a day of 10 hours. The flax so dressed should be worth from 3d to 4d per lb in the Auckland market. By feeding the machine with two leaves at one time, the produce could, of course, be doubled.