442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



shade was considerable and could be worked to a gi'eat intensity. In 

 an acid solution the dye would not become attached to the fiber. 

 Ammonia was the best alkali to use for this purpose. The brown 

 dye had little power of attraction for wool. Mordanting did not 

 increase the depth of the dye. 



Some species of algae are used to make string. Chorda flum, is 

 very abundant on the French coast where it is used for that purpose. 

 Plants of Chorda flumfi are often 5 to 6 meters in length. A series 

 of them are strung together, two or three at a time according to the 

 usage for which they are to be employed. They must be dampened 

 when used as then they are stronger and less likely to break. 



For centuries, the fishermen of Alaska have used the stipe of 

 Nereocystis (pi. 9, fig. 2) which is long and flexible and the size 

 of an ordinary window cord. They cut it below the pneumatocyst, 

 soak it in a stream of running water until it is almost white, then 

 stretch it, rub it to reduce it to the size desired, and then dry it in 

 the smoke of their dwellings. This type of cord is easily broken 

 when dried but extremely resistant when wet and much stronger than 

 fishlines of linen or cotton. The pieces of the stipe varying from 

 10 to 15 brasses in length are knotted together to form a line 80 

 brasses in length, the size required for fishing at the entrance to 

 the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, or of 200 brasses in length for 

 fishing the black cod off the Island of Queen Charlotte in British 

 Columbia. 



When the kelp in long streamers, with its big floaters which the 

 Alaskans call heads or bulbs, washes ashore on the beach of Juneau, 

 the children cut the ropelike thallus and use it to make swings and 

 jumping ropes as long as it is wet and humid. When it dries it 

 stiffens and would be of no further use to them unless they greased 

 it with some of the grease which is always present in the Indian 

 dwelling, in order to make it pliable. 



ALGAE AND CERAMICS 



The first commercial use that the Chinese ever made of agar was 

 for wrapping porcelains and bronzes which they sent to Europe. 



The ancients have always searched for alkalies to employ in the 

 manufacture of glass and pottery. It was not, however, until the 

 seventeenth century that we find mentioned the use of seaweeds or 

 the kelps in the manufacture of soda for the glazier's trade in Europe. 

 Carbonate of soda does not exist completely formed in the seaweeds 

 but is combined with fixed acid minerals and with organic acids that 

 by incineration give carbonate of soda. The ashes of the sea kelps 

 contain potassium salts mixed with sodium salts in relative propor- 

 tions that differ with the various species. The term "sonde" or soda 



