598 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



not be dependent upon a single locality for our principal cloth- 

 ing material. 



Mr. Dibben. — Cotton is naturally more durable than flax, hemp 

 and similar materials, because the latter are not in their growth 

 exposed to the weather, and hence not protected from it ; Avhile 

 cotton and wool are naturally weather proof. 



Mr. Butler explained the practical operation of cotton spinning, 

 in order to show the difficulties in the way of the introduction of 

 any new material. Cotton machinery, as a whole, is more perfect 

 than any other machinery in the world. The cotton can be picked 

 from the plant, and in twenty-four hours woven into cloth ; and 

 this cannot be done with any material requiring rotting, hatchel- 

 ing, mixing up, or such processes. As time is money, this is an 

 important consideration. If a manufacturer were to have five 

 per cent, of sea island cotton mixed with the medium upland to 

 which his machinery is adapted, he could not use it. The fibers 

 being too long, would be broken by the rollers. It would take a 

 century to produce complete working machinery for a substitute 

 for cotton. 



Mr. Pell prophesied that, in less than fifteen years from this 

 time, flax will be used wherever cotton is now used for a mixture 

 with woolen. He described a steam cannon, twenty feet long, 

 which would instantaneously convert flax into a substance so 

 nearly resembling cotton as to be indistinguishable from it with- 

 out the microscope. 



Mr. J. R.* Haskell exhibited specimens of the flax cotton pro- 

 du9ed by the process just described. He had tried it with cotton 

 machinery, and had come to the conclusion that it would not 

 answer for that. Upon mixing it with wool, half and half, it 

 worked as well as cotton ; and he had been told that the article 

 thus produced was superior to all wool, being susceptible of a 

 higher finish. In woolen machinery, in all probability, the flax 

 cotton could be spun into threads alone. Satinet has the warp 

 of cotton and the filling admixture; he should propose to have 

 the warp and filling alike, half, flax and half wool. 



Mr. Butler thought that, for admixture with wool, this flax 

 cotton would be valuable, but not as a substitute for cotton. He 

 would not by any means discourage its production. The fibers 

 range from half an inch to three inches in length, Avhich would 

 not do at all for cotton machinery. The sample exhibited he 

 should judge to be weaker than cotton. 



