d it
around a cylinder (which would take the place of the operator's
hand and stick under the present system), then a machine could be
contrived to accomplish the work. Machines with cylinders to reduce
the tension have been constructed, the result being admirable so
far as the extraction of the fibre is concerned, but the cylinder
upon which the fibre coiled, as it came from under the knife, always
discoloured the material. A trial was made with a glass cylinder,
but the same inconvenience was experienced. On another occasion the
cylinder was dispensed with, and a reciprocating-motion clutch drew
the bast, running to and fro the whole length of the fibre frame,
the fibre being gripped by a pair of steel parallel bars on its
passage in one or two places, as might be necessary, to lessen the
tension. These steel bars, however, always left a transversal black
line on the filament, and diminished its marketable value. What is
desired is a machine which could be worked by one man and turn out
at least as much clean fibre as the old apparatus could with two
men. Also that the whole appliance should be portable by one man.

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
[134] 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 car