In 1886 the most perfect mechanical contrivance hitherto brought out was tried in Manila by its Spanish inventor, Don Abelardo Cuesta; it worked to the satisfaction of those who saw it, but the saving of manual labour was so inconsiderable that the greater bulk of hemp shipped is still extracted by the primitive process.
In September, 1905, Fray Mateo Atienza, of the Franciscan Order, exhibited in Manila a hemp-fibre-drawing machine of his own invention, the practical worth of which has yet to be ascertained. It is alleged that this machine, manipulated by one man, can, in a given time, turn out 104 per cent. more clean fibre than the old-fashioned apparatus worked by two men.
Musa textilis has been planted in British India as an experiment, with unsatisfactory result, evidently owing to a want of knowledge of the essential conditions of the fibre-extraction. One report[1] says—
“The first trial at extracting the fibre failed on account of our having no proper machine to bruise the stems. We extemporized a two-roller mill; but as it had no cog-gearing to cause both rollers to turn together, the only one on which the handle or crank was fixed turned, with, the result of grinding the stems to pulp instead of simply bruising them.”
In the Philippines one is careful not to bruise the stems, as this would weaken the fibre and discolour it.
Another statement from British India shows that Manila hemp requires a very special treatment. It runs thus:—
“The mode of extraction was the same as practised in the locality with Ambadi (brown hemp) and sunn hemp, with the exception that the stems were, in the first place, passed through a sugar-cane mill which got rid of sap averaging 50 per cent. of the whole. The stems were next rotted in water for 10 to 12 days, and afterwards washed by hand and sun-dried. The out-turn of fibre was 1¾ lbs. per 100 lbs. of fresh stem, a percentage considerably higher than the average shown in the Saidápet experiments; it was however of bad colour and defective in strength.”
If treated in the same manner in the Philippines, a similar bad result would ensue; the pressure of mill rollers would discolour the fibre, and the soaking with 48 per cent. of pulp, before being sun-dried, would weaken it.
Dr. Ure, in his “Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines,” p. 1, thus describes Manila Hemp:—
“A species of fibre obtained in the Philippine Islands in abundance. Some authorities refer these fibres to the palm-tree known as the Abacá or Anisa textilis. There seem indeed to be several well-known varieties of fibre included under this name, some so fine that they are used in the most delicate and costly textures, mixed with fibres of the pine-apple, forming piña muslins and textures equal to the best muslins of Bengal.[2]