M. TECHNOLOGY. 505 



spun ones, differences as high as thirty-five per cent., and even 

 higher, having been determined in a single thread of Asiatic 

 silk, which differences are less manifest when long threads 

 are taken, while the costliness of the material and the uni- 

 formity required in the woven fabric render it very desirable 

 to the manufacturer to possess as accurate knowledge as 

 possible of short lengths. Besides, comparison with the 

 other system could readily be made by doubling the num- 

 bers in that suggested. The Congress, therefore, finally 

 unanimously agreed, 1st, that the numbering of twisted and 

 untwisted silk, as of other textile materials, should be based 

 on metric and decimal measures and weights, with 1000 me- 

 ters as the unit of lensrth, and 1 decio'ramrae as the unit of 

 weight ; 2d, that as the scale of numbering the variable 

 weight of a uniform length shall be taken, and that 500 

 meters shall be weio-hed with a weio-ht of 0.05 o^ramme as 



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unit. These recommendations have been adopted at Lyons 

 and Turin, and will doubtless be universally accepted. 6 

 C, June 3, 1875, 214. 



CUIE-LIEGE ; A NETV^ FABRIC. 



At the Maritime Exhibition held in Paris in September, 

 1875, M. Horeau exhibited for the first time a new fabric un- 

 der the name of cuir-Uhge, or cork-leather, which is described 

 as possessing quite a remarkable combination of new prop- 

 erties, adapting it to numerous applications as a substitute 

 for products now in use. The mode of preparing the cuir- 

 li^ge is as follows : Thin sheets, or pieces of cork, are covered 

 on both sides with an extremely thin India-rubber skin, with 

 any ordinary textile fabric outside of all, the whole becoming 

 one quasi-homogeneous tissue ; and although the cork sheets 

 in their normal state are readily permeable by w^ater, friable 

 and brittle, and endowed with very little strength or cohe- 

 sion, having only the positive qualities of lightness and non- 

 conduction of heat, yet, when subjected to the treatment 

 above described, the resulting product, cuir-libge, is extreme- 

 ly supple, endowed with great strength to resist tensile 

 strain, and, while still retaining its comparative lightness 

 and impenetrability to heat, it is rendered water-proof and 

 impermeable to moisture. This new material may be crum- 

 pled up, rubbed and wrung like calico and linen in the wash, 



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