The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

188 FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE APPLl.
becomes more difficult to cleanse. The washing must be care-
fully performed, so as to prevent the fibre from becoming tangled
or knotted. The operation of washing or rinsing must be re-
peated until the fibre be thoroughly cleansed. If it be found
difficult to clean the fibre from the extraneous matter, in conse-
quence of not collecting the leaves from the plant sufficiently
early, or from any other cause, the operation will be facihtated
by boiling the fibre, after it has been beaten, and partially pu-
rified in a solution of soap in soft water. For this purpose the
fibre nmst be regularly disposed in any suitable vessel, so as to
prevent its becoming tangled, with sufficient water to cover it,
in which soap has been dissolved, in the proportion of about
5 lbs. to 50 lbs. of fibre, a light weight being then placed upon it,
to keep the fibre beneath the surface of the liquor ; the whole
is then to be boiled for the space of three or four hours, and af-
ter boiling, to be well rinsed out in soft water, and squeezed as
before directed. The fibre having been cleansed by these pro-
cesses, is to be gradually dried in the shade, and occasionally
shaken out, so as to prevent the too close adhesion of the filament
in drying, which would otherwise take place. The fibre
may be obtained free from the extraneous matter of the leaf
by other modes ;
but I prefer that which I have above described.
As to the second part of my said invention, it is only necessary
to observe that from the superiority of this fibre in several re-
upects over those now in common use (?), it is adapted to a
vast number of purposes, in which fibrous materials are now
employed ; it is of a glossy white color, it receives dyes with fa-
cility, it possesses great strength, and is divisible to an exceed-
ing degree of fineness, for upon examination each filament
that appears a single fibre, is, in fact, a bundle of very delicate
fibres, adhering more or less strongly together. These qualities
render it applicable to the manufacture of shawls, drills, damask-linens,
plushes, carpets, rugs, lace, bonnets, paper ; as a
material for rofe, twine, or thread, and a variety of other pur-
poses to which silk, cotton, flax hemp, wool, and other fibrous
materials are now applied. As a material for spinning in the
ordinary method in which flax is now spun through hot water,
this fibre requires to undergo the process generally in use for