TREATMENT OF RAGS 33

SO 2j which they contain. The hyposulphite is more economical in use, but
is supposed to have an injurious effect upon the machine wires, owing to the
formation of free acid. This, however, does not seem to be really true in
practice, as we have run a wire for 18 weeks on a machine making 15 tons of
rag writing papers per week, and every beater was freed of excess bleach by
hyposulphite of soda.

Loss ON OVERHAULING AND DUSTING

The following statistics were carefully made in the rag loft during 4 weeks,
in order to find the loss on each separate grade of rags from the time they
entered the mill until they were ready for the boiler.

Normally, the dust from both dusters was not weighed for each lot, as this
would entail a great deal of delay, but for the purposes of this trial the dust
was carefully weighed for each grade.

Of. Qr. Lb. Cwt. Qr. Lb.
i. Second white cottons (dirty) (low-quality otitshots):

Gross weight of bales .............. 63 I 2

Less tare (bagging, hoops)..............2 3 i

Loss 4.34 per cent

Xess 'mulch* and rubbish, buttons and unusable material .. .. I 3 8
Loss 3.01 per cent

Loss due to dust in first duster before sorting rags, 1.32 per cent \
Loss due to cutting by machine—i.e. second duster—2.7 per cent J
Total loss in passing through rag loft, 11.37 per cent...... 6 3 20

Nett weight of paper-making material ./ ........ 5$ I 10

This would be considered a very good consignment.
The mulch is very low.

2. A good-looking parcel of old light prints (soft, coloured, clean
cottons):

Gross weight of bales .............. 48 3 13

Less tare (Hessian and hoops) ............I 2 4

Loss 3.1 per cent

Mulch picked out ................2 o 15

Loss 4.6 per cent

Dust from both dusters ..............i 3 i

Loss 3.91 percent

Total loss 11.51 per cent .............. 5 i ao

Nett weight of paper-making material .......... 43 I 21
A good parcel