314 DICKSON ON THE VALUE 



when known, very desirable for many purposes. It has 

 appeared, to all the practical men who have since then 

 examined it, as the strongest fibres with which they were 

 acquainted." 



Its capability for ship's rigging and ropes is beyond all 

 question. At Government trials, while St. Petersburg 

 hempen ropes broke at 169 Ibs. strain, Himalayan did not 

 break at 400 Ibs. Again at recent trials conducted by Mr. 

 Dickson, at Chatham, while Russian hemp yarn broke at 

 130, that prepared green by Dickson's process broke only at 

 170; this was 40 Ibs. in favour of Dickson's patent. (See 

 pp. 523 to 525). 



Jute is the best known fibre of India to our manufactures, 

 and is, perhaps, the more important on account of its peculiar 

 characteristics, and being an acknowledged staple and in 

 great demand. The quantity imported into this country now 

 reaches to nearly 700,000 cwts. annually. Mr. Henley says 

 of this plant: " In preparing jute, the cultivators push the 

 water-retting process to its utmost limits, short of actually 

 destroying the fibre, by excessive putrefaction." And he 

 adds :~ u Bengal jute has now attained such an important 

 position in the commerce of the world, that any suggestion for 

 its improved production merits attention ; and there can be 

 no doubt, but that the application to it of the process of 

 preparing the fibre without water-retting would effect the most 

 signal improvements in its quality." 



This has been sufficiently demonstrated by J. H. Dickson in 

 his treatise on the " Growth and Preparation of Flax and its 

 kindred Fibres." 



Were jute prepared by the process hereafter referred to, it 

 would be a fibre of the most valuable kind, possessing 

 qualities of peculiar excellence, and commanding an extensive 

 sale. 



Hitherto, all these fibres have been comparatively useless, 



