VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES: 



MATERIALS OF MANUFACTURES. 



CHAPTER I. 



SUBSTANCES MORE PECULIARLY APPLIED TO 

 WEAVING. 



FLAX. 



IN almost every age and country some fibrous 

 vegetable substances have been employed by man as 

 materials for the production of interwoven fabrics, 

 and of twisted cords. 



In the earliest periods which history records, or 

 even to which tradition alludes, we are told that the 

 manufacture of woven fabrics, and particularly of 

 those from vegetable substances, had attained a state 

 of high perfection, altogether incompatible with the 

 supposition of its being of recent invention. 



So early as the time of Joseph, the Egyptians had 

 acquired a considerable degree of proficiency in the 

 art of preparing and weaving flax into fine linen 

 cloths; constant mention is made of this material 

 in those sacred records which contain the earliest 

 history of the Jews. Solomon imported from Egypt 

 flaxen yarn, which was woven by his subjects into 

 Cloth; and fine linen is continually enumerated 

 among the ornaments of the temple of Jerusalem. 

 It is supposed that the Grecians likewise obtained 



