An ingenious planter, a Mr. McMeekin, in Cachar, invented a rolling table with the object of separating the said leaves. It is constructed of battens, and while rolling the leaf on it, many of the small leaves fall through. The said table is now well known in Cachar, and is in use in several gardens. I have tried it and find that it in a great measure answers its object, but the objection to it is that the leaf must be rolled lightly, and lightly-rolled leaf, as observed, does not make strong Tea.
The Pekoe tips may be, in a great measure, preserved by rolling all the leaf lightly on a common table. But then again the Tea is weak, and the plan will not give so many Pekoe tips as McMeekin’s table.
In short, in the present state of our knowledge, except by the hand process (a tedious and expensive one for separating the leaf), strong Teas and Pekoe tips are incompatible.
The difficulty is just where it was, and will so remain until dealers give up asking for Pekoe tips (not a likely thing), or till a machine is invented to separate quickly and cheaply the two said small leaves from the others after they have been all picked together. That such a machine is possible I am certain, and the inventor would confer a boon on the Tea interest far beyond the inventor of any other machine, for all the other processes can be done by hand without much expense, this cannot.
I may here notice such machines and contrivances as exist for cheapening the manufacture of Tea, or rather such as I know of.
Rolling-machines have for their object the doing away with hand labour entirely for rolling the leaf. Kinmond’s rolling-machine is first on the list, for it is the best yet invented.[41]
Kinmond’s consists of two circular wooden discs, the upper one moving on the lower, which is stationary, with an eccentric motion. The adjacent faces of the said discs are made rough by steps in the wood, cut in lines diverging from the centre to the circumference, and over these rough faces is nailed coarse canvas.
The leaf is placed between the discs and rolled by the motion described. The lower disc is arranged by means of weights running over pulleys, so that it shall press against the upper with any force desired.