of steam required with an evaporation heat of r 2309 kj per kg steam the following steam quantity d is required 8 29 kg of steam is therefore required to heat the cotton bale to 80 u00b0 c the steam then condenses into 8 29 kg of water which is absorbed by the cotton this weight increase of 8 29 kg corresponds to a 3 32 increase since the above calculation does not take into account the original moisture content of about 6 the actual weight increase is about 13 more than calculated i e about 3 75 the difference between this figure and the measured weight increase of 3 93 u2014 which is greater than theoretically calculated u2014 is attributable to weighing precision of the balance of u2212 0 2 kg and of the physical data in a second test in accordance with the invention a 5 cycle procedure was performed on a bale under the following conditions after about 10 minutes the bale probes and pallet were wrapped in foil on op 5 a 1 cycle program was programmed with t 80 u00b0 c for 99 minutes during the holding time of 99 minutes the vacuum pump was switched on and off manually the holding time for each cycle was maintained until it was clearly established that the temperatures at measuring points 1 to 4 either changed or remained unchanged the startup vacuum of 50 mbar 95 was generated with a gas jet at the vacuum pump intake the gas jet was.