COMMERCIAL LINT 



143 



only be incapable of collapse, but its diameter will be the 

 same as that of the tube. The diameter of the ripe fibre 

 may thus vary from 157 to 100, according to the amount 

 of thickening, where 100 represents the diameter of the 

 original hair cell (Fig. 17). Thus, in terms of width of 

 the ribbon, the more a hair cell is thickened, the finer it 

 will be, which is obviously absurd; thus the term " fine- 



FIG. 17. HAIR STRENGTH AND DIAMETER. 



Diagrammatic transverse sections of lint-hairs, indicating how increased 

 wall-thickness i.e., hair strength must lessen the maximum 

 diameter of the ripe hair. 



Left, no thickening. Right, excessively thickened. Above, before the boll 

 opens. Below, ripe and collapsed. 



ness " does not relate to the width of the ribbon, and 

 has little to do with the maximum diameter of the col- 

 lapsed cell. 



If again we compare the two pure strains already 

 mentioned (p. 106), which had practically identical dia- 

 meters, but very different hair strengths and very 

 different designations in respect to fineness, we see that 



