In addition to all the above, the wholesale destruction of forests that now takes place in all Tea Districts, in order to supply the charcoal for Tea, would be much lessened.[45]
I have seen a machine advertised for packing Tea, that is to say, for so pressing it down that a large quantity shall go into a chest. I have never seen the machine, and so cannot say how it works, but I do not think such a machine at all necessary. By the mode of packing, described at page [150], as much Tea as a chest will hold with safety can be put into it. If more were forced in, the chest would probably come to pieces in transit.
I see a sifting machine is now being advertised—“Jackson’s sifting machine.” I have seen drawings of it, but not the machine itself. In the one respect, that it is much larger than anything used hitherto, it is more likely to succeed.
There is a machine for sifting and fanning Tea at one and the same time. I know not who invented it. It is a simple winnowing machine with sieves placed in front of the fan. By means of a rod and crank attached to the axle of the revolving fan the sieves are made to shake from side to side when the fanners are turned. The Tea is put into the upper sieve, a coarse one, and passing successively through finer ones, is thus sorted into different Teas. The open leaf at the same time is blown out by the fan.
I purchased one, but I do not find it does the work well. Sifting Tea is a nice process, and I did not find it sorted the Teas with any nicety. I have taken out the sieves, and use it now only for fanning, which it does very well, though no better than an apparatus which could be constructed at one-third the cost.
I do not believe in any present or future machine for sifting Tea, inasmuch as it is an operation which, to be well done, has to be continually varied. More will be said on this head further on.
I have now detailed shortly all the Tea machines or contrivances I know, or have heard of, and I think there is plenty of room yet for inventors.[46] The machine, as before observed, most to be desired is one to separate the small Pekoe leaves from the others, ere the rolling of the leaf is commenced. If such a machine existed, it would much increase the value of all Indian Teas, and if the Agricultural and Horticultural Society are inclined to offer a prize for any machine, it should be this.
At the point where the separation should take place, the stalk is much tenderer than elsewhere, and this led me to think a blow or concussion on the mass of green leaf might effect the object. I attached a bow by the centre to an immovable board, placed at right angles to the plane of a table (like the back of a dressing table), and then, causing leaf to drop from above, subjected it to sharp strokes from the string of the bow. It effected the object partially, for many Pekoe ends were detached, but it bruised and cut the other leaf too much also. I believe a revolving barrel, with blunt but thin narrow iron plates inside, which would strike the leaf placed within, as the barrel was turned, would perhaps answer. I give the above idea for what it is worth, for any inventive genius to improve on.
As it is impossible, as far as I can see, to construct any machine which should cut the stalk only in the right place, ergo, I believe some arrangement which would take advantage of the fact, that the stalk is tenderer there than elsewhere, is the only one that could answer.