PATENT FLAX BLEACHING PROCESS

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 4006, 5 October 1929, Page 2

PATENT FLAX BLEACHING PROCESS

INTERESTING DEMONSTRATION.

This morning Mrs. liedberg gave a public demonstration of the working of the Hedbel’g Flax Washing process by machinery at Mr. ,W. Nye’s •mill. Among those present was Mjr. W. Petrie, Chief Hemp Grader, who made a special trip up from Wellington to inspect the patent. Before being submitted to the bleaching and washing process Ithe green blade is stripped in the usual manner and after leaving the stripper falls on to a chain and is conveyed into the patent wash, passing through a 450 gallon trough filled with a milky substance in which soap appeals to predominate. The wash is steam heated and stirred up from time to time. Before entering the mixture the fibre passes through rollers which eliminates most of the ordinary wafer under which it passes after leaving the stripper and on leaving the wash box again passes through rollers and on to the pick-up man, passing again under a flow of clean “waiter and thence on to the poles.

The fibre which was treated at the mill this morning certainly appeared, after a little drying, to be. much whiten than the usual fibre treated in the ordinary manner, but Iho (final result could not be seen until the fibie was properly dried. In explaining the process to our representative, Mr. IT. S. Evans, North Island manager for the Oonah Co. which is exploiting the process, stated that the out-lay for the process was very little and treatment was easily adaptable to any mill. The wash trough required changing only once a week at a very small cost, but required small additions of the mixture from time to time. For this purpose two coppers filled with a soapy mixture were kept heated joutside from v.hieh the trough was supplemented. ‘This morning was the first occasion on which the wash had been able to keep time with the stripper, said Mr. Evans, who intimated that the small mechanical defects which had hung the successful working of the appliance' up for a considerable tune welre now surmounted. ‘

• MVs. Hedberg demonstrated various baulks of fibre treated by her in different ways, one of which had never been through a stripper. Soft w 001-like waste was also submitted. All the samples submitted were 'very soft and provided they can be manufactured at a reasonable cost and without ultimate detriment to the strength of the tex- . ( lire, should add to the importance of the hemp industry. When interviewed, Mr. Petrie said he had nothing to report in connection with the process at the present-time, but said that the process could easily be adapted to any mill at little cost, according to figures submitted to him by Mr. Evans. Mr. Petrie took away hanks of the fibre stripped this morning for further- investigation.