156 TRICIIOLOGIA MAMMALTUM; 



No. 8. Wallachian, - 1,600 scales on an inch in length. 



" 9. East India Deccan, 1,280 " 



" 9. Lincoln, 1,280 " 



" 10. Van Diemen's Land, being slight and indistinct, were not counted. 

 We must next speak 



OF THE SHAPE AND POSITION OF THE SCALES. It will be obvious, that besides the 

 number of the scales, Iheir shapes and their positions upon the shaft may materially 

 influence the felting power ; for if the scales (although numerous) are smooth, rounded 

 at their anterior extremities, and they adhere to the shaft, they will be less likely to entangle 

 and mat together than under opposite circumstances. Hence the necessity of examining 

 them under a microscope of high power, and of depicting and describing them, as pro- 

 posed to be done. 



OF FULLING. Wool, while being manufactured into cloth, is not felted, but scribbled,* 

 carded, spun, wove, and then fulled ; the latter process consisting in causing the filaments 

 of fleece (after having undergone all the other operations above enumerated) to entangle 

 and mat together, thereby giving more compactness to the fabric. 



It must be obvious that the same property in wool that causes it to felt, must also cause 

 it to full. But there is another peculiarity in wool which is auxiliary to boih these pro- 

 cesses, namely, its tendency to form spiral curls, w 7 hich must now be explained. 



OF SPIRAL CURLS. It is one of the consequences of the eccentrically elliptical shape of 

 wool to form these curls. If a filament of Merino or Saxony wool be separated from the 

 rest, it will be found to be contracted into these curls. If it is extended until it is straight, 

 and then set at liberty, it will, spontaneously, return to its original spirally-curled condition. 

 Now it is easy to conceive, that filaments in this spirally-curled state are more likely to 

 entangle and mat together than they would have been were they straight, or even undu- 

 lated. But, preliminary to spinning, the wool has (as above stated) to undergo the operations 

 of scribbling and carding, by which these curled filaments are broken into minute curves or 

 sections of rings, and these interlock still more than the entire spiral curls, as will be 

 obvious to the reader; for these curves and sections of rings, having been tossed about in 

 every direction by the scribbling machine and cards, will present to the points of each 

 other's scales opposite points of their own, which will be much more likely to interlock 

 than when, on the unbroken filament, their points were all in one direction. Let us 

 endeavor to make this still more plain by the aid of diagrams. (See fig. 98, a and b.) 



Suppose A and B to be spirally-curled filaments of wool, presented to each other, root 

 to point. The points of the scales being in opposite directions, confer a tendency to inter- 



* The scribbler consists of a large number of wooden cylinders, placed horizontally on a frame, almost touching each 

 other, with small cylinders placed above them. The cylinders are covered with iron teeth, which, as they revolve in different 

 directions, tear the wool into minute portions. After having been transferred from cylinder to cylinder, the wool is finally 

 thrown off in a flake. It is then carded. 



