Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 529 



field of view, both as to size and number. The area of the field was 

 now ascertained ; it was one-fortieth of an inch in diameter. By 

 means of the micrometer we divided this into four, and then we 

 counted the number of serrations in each division. Three of ns 

 counted all four divisions, for there was a difference in some of them. 

 The number was set down privately, and it was found that we had all 

 estimated it at fifteen in each division. Having multiplied this by 

 four, to obtain the whole field, and that by forty, the proportionate 

 part of an inch of which the field consisted, we obtained a result which 

 could not be disputed, that there were 2,400 serrations in the space of 

 an inch, and all of which projected in the same direction, viz. : from 

 the root to the point. Then, before we quitted the examination of 

 tli£ fiber as a transparent object, we endeavored to ascertain it's actual 

 diameter, and proved it to be 1-750 of an inch. 



" We next endeavored to explain the cause of this serrated appear- 

 ance and the nature of the irregularites on the surface, which might, 

 possibly, account for the production of those tooth-like projections. 

 We' therefore, took another fiber and mounted it as an opaque object. 

 There was considerable difficulty in throwing the light advantage- 

 ously on the fiber, so small a space only as one-thirtieth of an inch 

 intervening between the lines and the object. At length Mr. Powell 

 perfectly succeeded, and we were presented with a beautiful glittering 

 column, with lines of division across it, in number and distance seem- 

 ingly corresponding with the serrations that we had observed in the 

 other fiber 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. All these projecting indented 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 fiber, or , regulating the degrees in which ^hese 

 qualities exist, may be better determined by and by ; these ser- 

 rated edges in transparent object, produced by the projecting edges 

 of the cups or hollow bases of the inverted cones, afford the most sat- 

 isfactory solution of the felting principle that can be given or desired. 

 The fibers can move readily in a direction from root to point, the pro- 

 jections of the cups affording little or no impediment ; but when they 

 ha\^3 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 



[Inst.] 34 



