4800 On Improvements in bleaching Linen and Cotton Cloth. 



which it was to a certain degree already reduced, and its 

 colouring matter so completely separated as not to impede 

 the action of anv corrosive agent upon its fibres. Is it not 

 then more than probable, if in any instance sound cloth 

 is tendered in the usual process with the salt of lime, that 

 it must either be owing to an error in using too strong a 

 solution of the salt, to the presence of free muriatic acid, 

 or to negligence in the after treatment of washing, sour- 

 ing, &cr? 



Need I ask, after such experiments and results, what de- 

 gree of credit should be given to the unqualified assertion, 

 that even a a'wgle steeping of sound linen in muriate of 

 lime was sufficient to rot it ! ! 



Could I f'Ce the smallest relation there is between this 

 question and the bleaching an, I would certainly think it 

 my duty to bring the subject before the Linen Board, and 

 request the honour of performing the experiments in their 

 presence, beins: satisfied what would be the result. My 

 former results were submitted to and examined bv several 

 members of the Kirwanian Society. Since that time the 

 subject has been taken up by several persons in this place, 

 A very intelligent gentleman, Mr. S. Witter, of Chester, 

 assures me, that he has steeped both linen and cotton for 

 five days in very strong soKu ions of muriate of lime, and 

 found their texture perfectly unimpaired. This gentleman 

 informs me at the same time, that upon making several 

 trials of different specimens of the oxy muriate of lime of 

 commerce, he finds only 87 grs. of the real salt in 240 gr.i. 

 From this it is easy to calculate, that in the bleacher's 

 steeping liquor there never can exist one part of muriate 

 of lime to 2000 of water; such a state of dilution, that, if 

 possessed of all the energy of caustic potash in, its state of 

 concentration, it could not affect the most delicate sub- 

 stance. Mr. Donovan* has also at 'iny request repeated 

 the experiment with every possible precaution, and found 

 a result similar to mine. Here then is assertion opposed 

 to assertion, fact to fact : who then is to decide? to which 

 side does the suspicion of inaccuracy and unfairness in- 

 cline? This nuist be left to those who are judges of such 

 subjects, and who will think for themselves. 



I am, sir, with much respect, 



Your obedient servant, 



Dublin,Augu6t22, 1812. .IaMKS OoiLBr. 



* This is the gentleman who assailed Professor Davy's favourite hypothesis 

 of the identity of chemical and electrical attraction. — Vide Phil. Mag. 

 vol. xxzvii. 



XXXVI. Jn 



