An Electric-Bleaching Process for New Zealand Hemp.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 418, 9 November 1889, Page 6

An Electric-Bleaching Process for New Zealand Hemp.

During his recent vibib to England, Mr J. Webster, engineer, spent some time in research into the recent advances in electrical science, and one of the processes which attracted his attention was a method of bleaching vegetable fibres by electrical action.- Mr Webster thinks that this process will be peculiarly applicable to New Zealand flax. It is known as the Her mite Electro-bleaching Process for paper pulp, iute, flax, and all vegetable fibres. Mr Webster states that there has recently been invented and patented by M. E. Hermite, a system of bleaching by electricity that has demonstrated that the bleaching action obtained by the process has a greater efficiency, is more rapid and cheaper than that of ordinary bleaching powder. The ' Hermite •" process is based on the following operations : — W hen an aqueous solution ot magnesium chloride (consisting of 5 per cent, of magnesium chloride and 95 per cent, of water) is electrolysed in a suitable apparatus, this salt is decomposed at the same time as the water. The nascent (?.e,, newly-liberated) chlorine of the magnesium chloride and the nascent oxygen of the water (resulting from the electrolysis) unite at the positive pole, and produce an unstable oxygen compound of chlorine of very high bleaching power. The hydrogen and the magnesium go to the negative pole. This last decomposes ths water, and forms magnesium oxide, whilst the hydrogen is disengaged. It in this liquid coloured vegetable fibres are introduced, the oxygen compound acts on the colouring matter, and oxydises it. The chlorine combines with the hydrogen to form hydrochloric acid, which finding itself in the presence cf magnesia, combines with it and forms the initial chloride of magnesium. Thus a complete regeneration takes place so long as the electric current acts on the solution in presence of colouring matter. The cycle is a perfect one, in which there are four factors — the electric current, chloride of magnesium, the water, and the colouring matter. Only two of these elements are used up in beaching the colouring matter — the electric current, or what i& the &arne, the motive power, and the water. The chloride of magnesium thus serves over and over again. There is only a simple displacement of molecules and the chlorine acts as a vehicle to discharge the nascent oxygen on the colouring matter, The ' Hermite ' process offers the following advantages :—l.: — 1. It allows every bleacher to, puodu.ee his own bleaching agent without important alteration or any interruption of the operations of the mill. ,2. The bleaching agent is pure, and lea\es no residue, 3. It possesses a much higher bleaching efficiency than bleaching powder. 4. -Its actions on the fibres is more rapid, ' more regular, and much more destructive. 5. The economy from its use is very great ; < aud (6) the cost is constant. For the application of this process suitable apparatus, of a thoroughly practical nature, has been designed by M. Hermite and Messrs.^Paterson and Coopei'. The various appaVaCus, as woll as the process, are the subject of numerous letters patent granted to the inventors in all countries. — Lyttdlon Times.

Lai'ge bonnets aye things of the past. The brims of sailor hats are very narrow. ■ The language of the deaf mute goes without saying. Our hasty actions disclose as nothing else does our habitual feelings. To cast ridicule on a person you love is to nip with frost a flower in your garden. Men of thought, without suspecting it, govern the world ; and men in power, also without suspecting it, are governed by the world. '• Money- talks," and in France its speech is franco.- , Mme. JPafcti sang "The Barber" at a farewell concert recently. It may have been a farewell concert, but there is something about " The Barber " which suggests "next." , , . Faie trado— A tramway car's." ,^ Marriage is no uneven game — it is a tie. A great nuisance — Bad coal. A greater — The price of it. Joys are our wings — sorrows our spurs.