US1043575A - Process for obtaining the bast from ramie-stalks and from kindred plants. - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MAX EINSTEIN, F HAMBURG, GERMANY.

PROCESS FOR OBTAINING THE EAST FROM RAMIE-STALKS AND FROM KINDBED PLANTS.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, MAX EINSTEIN, a sub ject of the German Emperor, and a resident of Hamburg, Germany, have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes for Obtaining the Bast from Ramie-Stalks and from Kindred Plants, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is a process for obtaining the bast from ramie-stalks and from kindred plants.

The ramie-fiber is retained in the bast by gums and is freed by chemical dissolution of the gums in the known manner. In order to obtain the fiber in an undamaged condition great care must be taken in obtaining the bast. Although a great number of patents have been issued for the mechanical separation of the ramie-bast from the stalk, nevertheless the trade uses almost exclusively the hand separated bast from China, and with this the mechanically separated bast should be able to compete industrially. It must, therefore, be observed. that this process is not meant simply to separate the bast, but is for the purpose of most carefully separating the bast while protecting it from direct participation in the process of destroying and removing the woody parts.

The ramie-stalk contains at the interior the pith, around which is situated a tubular, brittle, woody tissue, the latter is also surrounded again in a similar manner by the bast which is covered by a thin hairy skin, the epidermis. It is evident that the fiber will be injured whenever the woody part has been broken right through the bast or when by spreading, flattening or crushing of the stalk, the woody part has been driven into the bast, or when the woody part and the bast are moved together at intervals toand-fro against a resisting object (called scutching). The fiber, being quite immovable within the bast, cannot yield to any influences exercised upon the bast of a bursting, tearing or cutting nature, and will consequently be weakened or break under such influences. The damage, however, is gener ally not perceptible, because an exact ex- Specifieation of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 5,1912.

Application filed. May 16, 1911. Serial No. 627,569.

manner. The pith and the woody parts on the one hand, and the bast and epidermis on the other are connected with each other whereas the bast only rests loosely against the woody part. That side of the bast which faces the woody part and that side of the woody part which faces the bast are slippery. The woody part is of a brittle nature and, particularly from inward to outward, owing to the concave shape and the lesser density near the pith, can easily be broken off. The bast being on the outer, and the woody part on the inner side of the stalk, the stalk is split and then bent in pieces over the bast. The woody part will thus be broken off at the bend. The bast with the attached epidermis are not thereby subject to any strain whatever, owing to their flexibility. Owing to the stifiness of the wood, the loose connection with the bast, and the slippery surfaces, the pieces of wood stand away at the cracks from the bast and form chinks, by which they can be seized and pulley away. After removal of the woody parts that side of the bast which had been facing them is liberated without any force having been usedon the bast itself. On its outer side the epidermis is rubbed off in the usual manner.

, I claim;

Process of obtaining the bast from the ramie and other stalks, consisting in splitting'the stalks substantially in half, breaking the woody portions transversely into pieces above the bast, and removing independently each piece of the woody portion thus broken.

MAX EINSTEIN.

Witnessesz ERNEST H. L. MUMMENHOFF, LEO ESOHERIOH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

- Washington, D. G.