hennequin story, part 2

 

 

 

The first photo is the processing building...the big machinery and workers are on the second floor. I'll tell you why in a minute. There are partial columns on the end of the building, showing that at one time, there was much more overhead than we see now.

The second photo is the cart of wet, processed hennequin fibers, stacked on the cart, ready to be pulled by a mule to the drying racks. The third photo is another view of that cart... Those fibers, and the leaves they were released from, are about 3 feet long. The stacking process reminds me of piling tobacco in the barn during the day, waiting for the men to come from the field to hang it in the barn for curing. If you don't stack it well, it will either tumble over, or be hard to hang! Lord help the women, at the end of the day, if we didn't pile the sticks of tobacco well. The men were pretty tired, and didn't want to have to clean up our mess! I suspect the same cooperation is applied in the hennequin barn. There is an art to even the smallest tasks.

The fourth photo is the drying field. My best guess is that the field is about 10 acres, and it was strung with wires, sort of like a low-growing grapevine support. Those wet bundles of fiber were hauled to the field, and two workers unloaded the bundles, and draped the fibers over the wire to dry in the sun. In this heat, it shouldn't take long to dry a day's work.

So, the machinery of a very old, design, is now run by electricity, but apparently they were all operated with steam engines 100 years ago. The process is very simple, and as long as the conveyor is running, and the gears turning, all is well. The reason for processing the fibers one floor up is to allow gravity to assist in the entire process. When the raw fibers come through the wheels, they can be dropped onto the cart. The excess, the outside tough cover on the leaves is dropped straight down, into a cart on another railroad track, and then hauled to the field and dumped. Think of the cover on a melon...all you want is the inside, the outside part has to go somewhere.