THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3847, 20 September 1928, Page 4

THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

,NEW WASHING MACHINE. It is hoped that the tlax industry will be considerably benefited as the result of the invention of a new process of washing, now being tried out at the Whitaunui Company’s mill on the Foxton-Shannori Line. For the past eighteen years washing has been done by a certain process. The flax fibre, up to the time of stripping, is clean and white, but the mechanical processes through which the flax is put releases various dyes which stain the fibre, and it is to remove these dyes that the washing is necessary. Under the present process, the flax is fed into a machine something like a big churn, where a continual beating operation is used to wash it. In the new process the flax is fed into the machine by an endless belt, and is continually passed through specially constructed heavy rubber rollers and rinsed in cold water. The repetition of this process is said to effectively wash the fibre. Up to this point, it is said, there is not much in the new machine ahead of the old one. Where the advantage comes in is that, whereas under the old process the washed flax had to be spread out to dry in the paddocks, and then turned over, under the new process it is claimed that the hanks can be placed on a fence or lines of support, need not be turned, and will dry much quicker, owing to the action of the rubber rollers.

In conversation with a “Standard” reporter, a gentleman prominently connected with the hemp industry said that the machine was almost past the experimental stage, and was on the verge of being a proved aid to milling. It had taken about four or five years to evolve, and since it was the work of experienced millers and manufacturers, should be well adapted to its purpose. At present it was being tried to see if it would work successfully with water from the Manawatu River—a requirement essential to the success of the machine in these parts.