| Cwts. | 81,610. | In 1837, | 126,739. | |
| Ditto in the husk, | Bushels | 292,444. | 282,377. | |
Rice Paper, as it is called, on which the Chinese and Hindoos paint flowers so prettily, is a membrane of the bread-fruit tree, the Artocarpus incisifolia of naturalists.
RICE CLEANING. Various machines have been contrived for effecting this purpose, of which the following, secured by patent to Mr. Melvil Wilson, in 1826, may be regarded as a good specimen. It consists of an oblong hollow cylinder, laid in an inclined position, having a great many teeth stuck in its internal surface, and a central shaft also furnished with teeth. By the rapid revolution of the shaft, its teeth are carried across the intervals of those of the cylinder with the effect of parting the grains of rice, and detaching whatever husks or impurities may adhere to them. A hopper is set above to receive the rice, and conduct it down into the cleansing cylinder.
About 80 teeth are supposed to be set in the cylinder, projecting so as to reach very nearly the central shaft; in which there is a corresponding number of teeth, that pass freely between the former.
The cylinder is shown inclined in the figure which accompanies the specification; but it may be placed also upright or horizontal, and may be mounted in any convenient frame-work. The central shaft should be put in rapid rotation, while the cylinder receives a slow motion in the opposite direction. The rice, as cleaned by that action, is discharged at the lower end of the cylinder, where it falls into a shute (shoot), and is conducted to the ground. The machine may be driven by hand, or by any other convenient power.
Rice consists chiefly of starch, and therefore cannot by itself make a proper bread. It is used in the cotton factories to form weavers’ dressings for warps. The Chinese reduce its flour into a pulp with hot water, and mould it into figures and plates, which they afterwards harden, and ornament with engravings, resembling those of mother-of-pearl. When a decoction of rice is fermented and distilled, it affords the sort of ardent spirit called arrack in the East Indies.
RIFLE; see [Fire Arms].
