He pārongo atu anōStripping Machine at Miranui

Description

One of the seven stripping machines in operation.

A "benchloader" placed the leaf butt first onto the stripping table and the "feeder" passed the leaf into the mouth of the machine.

The leaf was fed between a revolving metal drum and a fixed metal bar where raised flanges of blunt steel on the drum struck the leaf at about 2000 rpm, stripping off the outer tissue and leaving the fibre to fall beneath the machine.

The leaf was fed through the machine at 25 cwt an hour.

Photo: Palmerston North Public Library - used in Bob Ayson's book Miranui.

Tautuhi