100 INDUSTIIIAL USES OF WOOD. 



In vine districts a largo quantity of osiers are used as withes 

 for fastening the vines to their supports. S. riminalis and alba 

 are chiefly used. 



2. Wooil-plait'uuj. 



Wood-plaiting is the most highly artificial employment of 

 wooden threads, which are woven on a frame into various articles. 

 The simplest of these are sieves, mats and carpets made of 

 wooden threads at Klein-Cerma, in Bohemia. Silver-fir fibres 

 are chiefly employed in strands IG to 2-4 inches long, spun into 

 threads and woven into carpets. 



The finer kinds of goods are formed of woven material, which 

 is afterwards bent over moulds into hats, purses, cigar-cases, 

 table-covers, blinds, &c. Alt- and Neu-Ehrenberg in Northern 

 Bohemia are the chief seats of this industry, and only aspen- 

 wood is used, the wood being imported chiefly from Poland, and 

 kept in pits under water till required. 



The wood-fibres are prepared by the use of planes with 

 numerous longitudinal groovings, and from them the material is 

 woven on looms in pieces 2^ to 3 feet long and 2 feet broad. 

 The threads are sometimes coloured. 



Another way of making textile fibres from wood is to boil 

 pieces of sprucewood, 8 or 9 inches long, with gj'psum, as in 

 cellulose-factories, so that the wood becomes resolved into its 

 ultimate fibres. These fibres may then, like cotton or hemp, be 

 spun into threads and twisted into ropes. In California this 

 material is used on a large scale for various purposes. 



Section XVI. — Wood-Pulp. 

 1. FdV Paper-Mntiufdctnif. 



The conversion of wood into its component fibres prepares the 

 way for paper-manufacture by means of wood. For some time 

 past the increasing scarcity of rags has attracted the attention oi 

 manufacturers to substitutes from which paper can be made, and 

 of these, wood has hitherto proved the cheapest. Means have 

 been found to convert wood into a kind of pulp, which may be 

 advantageously used to make paper. "Wood-pulp is not only 



