4. A method of separating sisal wax from a sisal leaf, which consists in contacting the surface of said with the vapor of a solvent of sisal wax, condensing said vapor in liquid form on said surface and extracting and dissolving the sisal wax of said leaf in said condensed liquid solvent and removing said solution from said leaf, said leaf being thus contacted with said vapor and said condensed liquid solvent and said solution being removed from leaf while said leaf has its fiber and also has its aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, said solvent extraction being substantially confined to said surface to retain in said uncrushed aqueous pulp substantially all of its wax and color bodies which are soluble in said solvent, said solvent being substantially immiscible with water
5. A method of treating a sisal leaf, which consists in contacting the surface of said leaf with a solvent of sisal wax and extracting and dissolving the sisal wax of said leaf in said solvent, while said leaf being thus contacted with said solvent while said leaf has its fiber and also has its aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, said solvent extraction being substantially confined to said surface to retain in said uncrushed aqueous pulp substantially all of its wax and color bodies which are soluble in said solvent, and then decorticating said leaf while crushing its aqueous pulp.
6. A method of treating a sisal leaf which consists in contacting the surface of said leaf with the vapor of a solvent of sisal wax, condensing said solvent in liquid form on said surface and extracting and dissolving the sisal wax of said leaf in said condensed solvent and removing said solution from said leaf, said being thus contacted with said vapor and said condensed solvent and said solution being removed from said leaf while said leaf has its fiber and also has its aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, said solvent extraction being substantially confined to said surface to retain in said uncrushed aqueous pulp substantially all of its wax and color bodies which are soluble in said solvent, then decorticating said leaf while crushing its aqueous pulp.
7. A method of treating a sisal leaf, which consists in contacting the surface of said leaf with a solvent of sisal wax and extracting and dissolving the sisal wax of said wax of said leaf in said solvent, said leaf being thus contacted with said solvent while said leaf has its fiber and also has its aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, said solvent extraction being substantially confined to said surface to retain in said uncrushed aqueous pulp substantially all of its wax and color bodies which are soluble in said solvent, and then decorticating said leaf while crushing its aqueous pulp, said solvent being heated to a sufficiently high temperature to make said leaf hot and limp at the end of said extraction, said leaf being hot and limp when the decortication of the leaf is begun.
8. A method of treating a sisal leaf which consists in contacting the surface of said leaf with the vapor of a solvent of sisal wax, condensing said solvent in liquid form on said surface and extracting and dissolving the sisal wax of said leaf in said condensed solvent and removing said solution from said leaf, said leaf being thus contacted with said vapor and said condensed solvent and said solution being removed from said leaf while said leaf has its fiber and also has its aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, said solvent extraction being substantially confined to said surface to retain in said uncrushed aqueous pulp substantially all of its wax and color bodies which are soluble in said solvent, and then decorticating said leaf while crushing its aqueous pulp, said vapor being at a sufficiently high temperature to make said leaf hot and limp at the end of said extraction, said leaf being hot and limp when the decortication of the leaf is begun.
9. A method of decorticating a sisal leaf which has its aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, which consists in heating said leaf to at least substantially 50˚ while removing the sisal wax from said leaf by surface solvent extraction to produce a hot and limp sisal leaf which has substantially all of said aqueous pulp in uncrushed form, and then decorticating said leaf while it is hot and limp by crushing said aqueous pulp.