44 PROPE!lTIES OF WOOL. 



tain its actual character, and proved it to 1 -750th of an 

 inch. 



" We next endeavored to explore the cause of this ser- 

 rated appearance, and the nature of the irregularities on the 

 surface, which might possibly account for the production of 

 these tooth-like projections ; we therefore took another fibre, 

 and mounted it as an opaque object. There was considera- 

 ble difficulty in throwing the light advantageously on the 

 fibre, so small a space only as l-30th of an inch intervening 

 between the lens and the object. At length Mr, Powell 

 perfectly succeeded ; and we were presented with a beauti- 

 ful glittering column, wdth lines of division across it, in num- 

 ber and distance seemingly corresponding with the serra- 

 tions that we had observed in the other fibre that had been 

 viewed as a transparent object. It was not at once that the 

 eye could adapt itself to the brilliancy of the object ; but by 

 degrees these divisions developed themselves, and could be 

 accurately traced. These were not so marked as the in- 

 verted cones which the bat's wool presented, but they were 

 distinct enough ; and the apex of the superior one, yet com- 

 paratively little diminished in bulk, was received into the 

 excavated base of the one immediately beneath, while the 

 edge of this base formed into a cup-like shape, projected, 

 and had a serrated, or indented edge, bearing no indistinct 

 resemblance to the ancient crown. All these projecting in- 

 dented edges pointed in a direction from root to point. 



" Whether these, like the cones of the bat, are joints, or 

 at least points of comparative weakness, and thus accounting 

 for the pliancy and softness of the fibre, or regulating the de- 

 gree in which these qualities exist, may perhaps be better 

 determined by and by ; one thing, however, is sufficiently 

 plain, that these serrated edges in the transparent object 

 produced (when the fibre was resolved into its true form as 

 an opaque one) by the projecting edges of the cups or hol- 

 lowed bases of the inverted cones, affi^rd the most satisfac- 

 tory solution of the felting principle that can be given or 

 desired. The fibres can move readily in a direction from 

 root to point, the projections of the cups offering little or no 

 impediment, but when they have been once involved in a 

 mass, and a mass that has been pressed powerfully together, 

 as in some part of the manufactory of all felting wool, the 

 retraction of the fibre must be difficult, and in most cases 

 impossible." 



