1825.] of Claude-Louis Berthollet. 83 



rags for the manufacture of paper ; and to cut short a list which 

 might be extended to a tedious length, M. Berthollet, by means 

 of chlorine, introduced the important improvement of giving to 

 lint and to flax all the appearance of cotton.* 



It would indeed be difficult to mention any one course of 

 investigation which led to so many, so great, and so immediate 

 benefits, as that into the nature and properties of chlorine, 

 instituted and conducted by Berthollet. It often happens that 

 the author of an important discovery does not hve to see it 

 appreciated, and liimself acknowledged the benefactor of his 

 species ; but in this case our chemist had the felicity to enjoy 

 the sight of the advantages he had conferred, and even to have 

 many distinguished rivals competing with him in exploring the 

 various uses of which his discoveries were susceptible. Nor 

 should the biographer of Berthollet omit to mention that, not- 

 withstanding his being thus the source of great wealth to his 

 country andto England, he constantly declined to accept of any 

 emolument even from those whose riches had never been 

 amassed but for his researches. All the remuneration that he 

 would receive in return for his benefits was the simple present 

 of a bale of cloth from England, bleached according to his sys- 

 tem. Who the merchant was who devised a present at once so 

 delicate and so acceptable, is not now with any certainty known. 

 But it seems fair to conjecture, that it was probably made 

 through the intervention of Berthollet's much esteemed friend 

 Mr. Watt, the first Englishman to whom the process was 

 imparted, and of whom it was as worthy to bestow such a com- 

 pliment as it was of the French chemist to receive it. Indeed if 

 ever man loved science for her own sake with a pure and sacred 

 ardour, that man was Berthollet ; and he was fortunate in this 

 instance in receiving not only a reward such as no money or 

 power could purchase, but also an immortality such as few men 

 of genius feel assured of. By the universal assent of the French 

 nation, the name of the inventor was adopted into the language 



• This was not one of the least valuable among the practical applications of the 

 bleaching property of chlorine. Lint has neither the suppleness, the elasticity, nor the 

 softness of cotton : its fibre is not so slender or so fine ; it has a glistening appearance, 

 especially after being woven, from which the duU white colour of cotton is exempt, and 

 it has in conse(iuence the property of reflecting the light, so that its whiteness cannot bt 

 rendered so perfect as that of cotton cloth. Many attempts had been made to overcome 

 these disadvantages, of whicli carding and bleadiing proved the most substantially useful. 

 Yet even after the most careful performance of both these operations, the approximation 

 of iint in its appearance to cotton, although considerable, was still very imperfect, an , 

 the whiteness thus produced was not found to be very permanent. After Bertholle, 

 had, however, employed repeated inmiersions in chlorine, he obtained the gratifying 

 result of approximating lint not only in its appearance, but also in its pro])erties, much 

 more closely to cotton than had been effected l)y any previous process. The subject was 

 soon after taken up, and some amelioration introduced into tlie system by Giobert, who 

 explained his mode of operation at considerable detail. Inmiediataly after tills, thread 

 and cloth iTianufacturcd from lint were thrown into commerce, which it was impossible 

 to distinguisli from tlmse made out of cotton. 



