An EJJay on Bleaching. *47 



jngfeals, have a great refemblance to thofe of the Efquimaux 

 Indians and the Greenlanders, there is fome reafon to con- 

 jecture that the northern part or' Europe has alio contributed 

 to the peopling of America % 



XXXVII. An Effav on Bleaching) with the Defcription of a 

 new Method of Bleaching by Steam according to the Pro~ 

 cefs of C. Chaptal ; and on its Application to the Arts. 

 By R. O'Reilly, of the Academy of Bologna, Member 

 of the hyeaum of the Arts, &c. 



[Continued from p. til A 



Of Cotton, 



V^OTTON is a filamentous Jubilance, or a kind of down, 

 which envelops the feeds of the cotton plant. This plant or 

 fhrub comes from the eaft, and grows only in warm climates. 



This fubftance, after being feparated from the feeds, is 

 always charged with a coarfe colouring matter, which foils 

 it, and renders it opake. The prefence of this unctuous 

 matter is proved by the (lowncfs with which cotton abforbs 

 water before it is fcoured, and by the force with which it 

 abforbs it after the operation ; by which means, from being 

 opake, it is rendered clear and tranfparent. 



Cotton varies a great deal in its qualities, according to the 

 different kinds, the climate where produced, and the culture 

 employed. Its colour is fometimes yellow and fometimes 

 white, but in general it is of a dirty yellow. 



To bleach it, does not require the fame preparations as 



* In a little known work intitled An Account of the Jjiands of Qrfaev, by 

 James Wallace, M.D. ai»d F.R.S. London 1700. 8vo. it is (rated, p. 60 

 and 6 1, ch it North Americans and Greenlanders, called there hinn-men, havt 

 been fometimes driven in their fma:l leather bo^ts to the Orkney iflands by 

 the dorms and currents, In the year 16^2 a ftran^er ofthifi kind arrived 

 in his boat at the extremity of the ilia id Eda, where a great number of the 

 inhabitants affembled to fee him; but, on a boat being fent out to catch 

 him, he foon made Ins efcape. About the year 16^4 an American, per- 

 haps the fame perlon, made his appearance at the iila d of Weftr«m. If 

 it was potfible for thele lavages to (get tp the Orkneys in fuch wretched 

 ▼efiels, the paffage from thence to America won id be much more poifible 

 in the worft veffels employed by the Europeans. Many of the fables related 

 in regard to Tiiton>> and Syrens, (aid to have been feen formerly on the 

 coafts of Europe, might peihaps be explained by hmilar circumftances of 

 Greenlanders or Efquimaux Indians, driven thither in the like manner. 

 According to Dr. VVallace, an Indian canoe, witti a paddle and arrows, 

 driven on (horc at the Orkneys, was peferved in the mufeum of the college 

 iif Kdinhur^h, Another is preferred in the church on the ifiand of Buna. 



CL4 hem P 



