MEANS AND APPLIANCES

IN this chapter we will take some miscellaneous appliances of force both in Art and Nature.

In the accompanying illustration is shown the Cassava Press of Southern America, a most effective and simple instrument for extracting the juices of the root. These juices are poisonous when raw, but, when properly boiled and cooked, they make an excellent sauce.

The press in question is an elastic tube made of flat strips of cane woven together exactly like the “Siamese Link,” which will be presently described. The cassava root, after having been scraped until it resembles horseradish, is forced into the press until it can hold no more. The result is, that the tube is shortened and thickened, being widest in the middle.

It is then hung by its upper loop to the horizontal beam of a hut. A long pole is passed through the lower loop, the short end is placed under a projecting peg on the upright post of the house, and a heavy weight attached to the longer end. A powerful leverage is thus obtained, the tube is forcibly shortened, and the juice exudes through the apertures of the woven cane.