M. TECHNOLOGY. 503 



a solution of silk in hydrochloric acid (or ammoniacal solution 

 of nickel or copper). The solution is filtered through sand, 

 diluted until it begins to cloud, and the cotton (previously 

 mordanted) is immersed in it for two or three minutes, then 

 removed and washed. In this manner a silk-coated cotton 

 fabric is produced. 



NEAV METHOD OF FULLING WOOLEN GOODS. 



The following method, employed in Elbeuf, is said to re- 

 quire but a few hours, and to leave the wool very soft, while 

 it does not attack the color. It consists in simply replacing 

 the fuller's earth by suint. The latter is obtained as follows : 

 A wooden vessel is filled with raw, unscoured wool, on which 

 water is pumped from another vessel, and allowed to remain 

 upon it three hours. It is then all pumped back into the 

 second vessel, and again over the wool in the first vessel, and 

 allowed to remain on it two hours. The operation is re- 

 j)eated several times, according to the quantity of suiht in 

 the wool, and the latter is then removed and thoroughly 

 freed from water, and a fresh portion of wool introduced and 

 treated in a similar manner, until the water is sufficiently 

 saturated with suint, when it is drawn off and preserved for 

 use. The cloth fulled with the necessary quantity of this 

 liquid, in the machine, and then thoroughly washed, is said to 

 be found perfect. 



THE HAIR OF SQUIRRELS' TAILS FOR BRUSHES. 



A nseful hint in regard to the utilization of squirrels' tails 

 was contained in the Cliicago Fleld^ in the form of an ex- 

 tract of a letter written by Mills Brothers, manufacturers of 

 brushes, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to The Commercial of California. 

 They state a fact which is perhaps known to few of our read- 

 ers, that the so-called camels'-hair brushes are made from the 

 hair of the tails of squirrels, the demand for which is increasing- 

 very rapidly. It is a question, however, whether the tails of 

 the California squirrels animals extremely destructive to the 

 crops in California will answer the purpose, as they are not 

 true squirrels, but a spermaphile, or ground squirrel. The 

 hairs on the tail of this animal, although long^ are coarser 

 than those of the tree squirrel, and probably less desirable. 

 There would, however, be no difficulty in obtaining a suffi- 



