70 THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



the bark decays, and the fiber, endowed with excep- 

 tional resistance, is freed. 



1 i Then the bundles are dried; after that they crush 

 them between the jaws of an instrument called a 

 brake, to crush the stems into small pieces and sepa- 

 rate the tow. Finally, to purge the tow of all woody 

 refuse and to divide it into the finest threads, they 

 pass it between the iron teeth of a sort of big comb 

 called a heckle. In this state, the fiber is spun either 

 by hand or by machine. The thread obtained is 

 ready for weaving. 



"On a loom they place in order, side by side, nu- 

 merous threads composing what they call the warp. 

 By turns, impelled by a pedal on which the opera- 

 tor 's foot presses, one half of these threads descends 

 while the other half ascends. At the same time the 

 operator passes a transverse thread in a shuttle 

 through the two halves of the warp, from left to 

 right, then from right to left. From this inter-cross- 

 ing comes the woven fabric. And it is finished ; the 

 garb of the plant has changed masters ; the bark of 

 the hemp has become cloth, that of flax a princely 

 lace worth some hundreds of francs by the piece." 



