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Hemp-brake.

A machine in which rotted and subsequently dried hemp-stalks are beaten to remove the bark and cellular pith from the fiber. Among the forms of the machine may be noticed the simple sword or slats driven between two slats set edge up; the hemp is laid crossways of the slats, and is violently bent by the blow, cracking off the scale of bark and powdering the pith.

In Fig. 2499 the slats of the reciprocating portion and of the bed are arranged in gangs, to break the stalks which are laid crossways between them. The brake is in a gate which moves in guides by means of a pitman from a wheel above.

Other forms of brakes have rotatory motion. A series of fluted roller whose projections interlock like cogs. Slatted interlocking cylinders. Planetary systems of fluted rollers, operating on beds of fluted rollers. In the example, the hemp is passed between braking rollers and thence is carried forward by and between endless slatted carriers, where it is broken by the action of oscillating beaters above and below, whose teeth strike it in concert between the bars of the carriers.

Hemp-brake.

[1100]

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