Fibrilia; A Practical and Economical Substitute for Cotton Together with a History of the Growth and Manufacture of Wool, Cotton, Flax, Etc.

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ., . i v, I' I II . . -, i . i:, .-: ' .' ' ' '. i. ii- .' ' ' j T ..: ec i.i.', '';, . ', ': . i;.-:, ., i.- . .. VC.f, ..;. I, vi .., .i,1V ., ''.-..' .,: ., ''vr '. r .: .: .'', . v.t;-: , i i, ''. ', l.--i- [itiiKi i .': .: . i ''h.-': .. ' '. '''''. i-, '.il;', ' .-. ' ', ., ., .' ':: ; i 'i.'.-..? ', '' -;.':, i-.., -- and noxious exhalations, from vegetable matter, are very unhealthy; but they differ from the animal from the more abundant presence of nitrogen in the animal. Vegetables which abound in nitrogeniforous principles exhale peculiarly nauseous effluvia. Rapidity of putrefaction is much influenced by temperature, moisture, and access of air. If it falls below the freezing point, or is exposed to strong drying influences, or if oxygen is excluded, the process becomes checked at once. There is a counteracting influence in the volatile oils of the glumien, ? such especially as creosote and empyreumatic products, which are produced in some measure by the distillation of the woody part of the stalk, which would yield a' small amount of pyroligneous acid. Another counteracting influence is the astringent property, or tanin principle, which pervades vegetable fibres, and which would act as counter agent in preserving organic tissues. It enters into chemical combination with the albuminous and gelatinous membranes and fibres, and renders the ultimate fibril less liable to decay through long wear, when in cloth, than though this principle did not remain in the same. FLAX COTTON. The first attempts to prepare flax to resemble cotton, in appearance and texture, were made in Europe more than one hundred years ago. Experiments were made by Palmquist, in the year 1745. In the Swedish Transactions for the year 1747, a descripti...