440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



The Algea Pradukter, a factory at Christiansund, Norway, was re- 

 ported in the fall of 1940 to be experimenting with new uses of 

 kelp, in particular with the manufacture of soap. 



One company of the Pacific coast has a line of soaps, shampoos, 

 soap pastes, and beauty lotions that it makes from kelp which they 

 advertise as giving "good results in cold, warm, soft, hard, and salt 

 water." 



ALGAE AND TEXTILES 



Since the earliest times, certain of the most succulent algae which 

 have gluelike properties have been used by the Chinese and the 

 Japanese for starching their clothes. The principal alga of this 

 type is Gloiopeltis coliformis, although Gloiopeltis intricata is prob- 

 ably just as satisfactory. Various other algae such as Ghondr-us 

 crisjms (pi. 3, fig. 2), Chondrus elatus, and Chondnts ocellatus (pi. 

 9, fig. 3) are also employed for this purpose, although they do not 

 make as fine a product. The Japanese call these algae funori, a word 

 which means material for stiffening fabrics. The manufacture of 

 funori is an important industry in Japan, although it does not rank 

 with the agar and kelp industries. 



In 1875 and 1876 the Societe Industrielle de Rouen instructed three 

 of its members, Clouet, Heilman, and Reber to study the possible 

 industrial applications of the substance called hai-thao or thao, actually 

 agar, which was imported from China and Japan. Attempts made by 

 a silk manufacturer at Lyon to prepare silk tissues with the thao had 

 given good results, therefore the Rouen officials desired information 

 in regard to its use with cotton and linen goods. Heilman recom- 

 mended that agar be used especially for fine tissues where suppleness 

 is more desired than weight and stiffness. Heilman tried the com- 

 parative effects of Senegal gum, tragacanth, Chondrus crispus or 

 Irish moss, and agar. He found that the Senegal gum gave the cloth 

 a rough, dry touch. Tragacanth made the cloth a little more supple 

 and almost as supple as the cloth sized with agar. The chief ad- 

 vantage of the agar was that it strengthened and compressed the 

 cloth while tragacanth left it shallow and without any body. 

 Chondrus crispus or Irish moss employed at a concentration of 3 

 percent gave the cloth a rich and "unctuous" touch which had no 

 analogy with the cloth sized with agar. He recommended it for use 

 in the silk stuffs, Heilman thought that agar would have a great 

 industrial future in the sizing of calicos when it had been sufficiently 

 improved. 



The seaweed products that are now used in the preparation of 

 sizes are Irish moss, funori, agar, and algin. Agar is too expensive 

 and too valuable a product elsewhere to be used in the sizing of any 

 but the most expensive fabrics such as silk. The amount of salt in 



