A decorticator (from Latin: cortex, bark) is a machine for stripping the skin, bark, or rind off nuts, wood, plant stalks, grain, etc, in preparation for further processing.

Quoted from Hemp - American History Revisited by Robert Deitch copyright 2003 Algora Publishing

... because of the 1917 introduction of a machine designed by George Schlichten, known as the "Decorticator." The Decorticator separated the long hemp fibers from the pulpy celluloid (hurds) center of the hemp stalks, dramatically reducing the exorbitant labor costs associated with cleaning and preparing hemp for further processing."

Quoted from 'The Emporer Wears No Clothes - The Authoritative Historical Record of the Cannabis Plant, Marajuana Prohibition & How Hemp can still Save the World!' by Jack Herer copyright 1993 Green Planet Company Publishing

"Schlichten spent 18 years and £400,000 on the decorticator, a machine that could strip the fibre from nearly any plant, leaving the pulp behind. His desire was to stop the felling of forests for paper, which he believed to be a crime!"

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Decorticator". Image Credit.

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