64. , REPORT—1874. 
the success of jute-bleaching have, during the present year, been completely removed, 
by the i anecgeese of methods which have been invented by the son of the author, 
and which are at present in operation. In the processes employed, the cloth or yarn, 
by means of ingeniously arranged machinery, is made to pass in succession through 
baths of alkaline solutions and hypochlorites of magnesia and soda, the magnesia 
used being economically obtained from kieserite, which is found in large quantities 
in Germany in the kainite deposits, and has hitherto been regarded as of but little 
commercial value, 
The length of the fibre of the jute of commerce is frequently no less than 12 fect ; 
usually the lower end near the ground is dark-coloured and woody. At first the 
fibre is colourless, or only slightly coloured; but some kinds after a time become 
darker, just as wood darkens in colour by the action of the air. Many specimens 
preserve a dull yellowish colour, and in appearance can with difficulty be distin- 
guished from the finer qualities of hemp, The microscope, howeyer, shows us that 
the structure of the jute is different from that of any of our common textile fibres ; 
thus, while a fibre stripped from the flax-plant is shown to consist of bundles of 
cells with thick walls and somewhat circular outline, and exhibiting a very minute 
central space, the wall of the jute-cell is of very irregular thickness, and the cen- 
tral space does not conform to the external outline, but at one part will be found 
wide, while at another part it dwindles to a mere line, By this remarkable differ- 
ence in the contour of the inner and outer cell-walls, jute-fibre is distinguished 
from flax, hemp, cotton, and New-Zealand flax. The application of the sulphate of 
aniline proposed as a reagent for woody matter by Runge, and recommended by 
Professor Wiesner, of Vienna, also affords us assistance in distinguishing it from 
both hemp- and flax-fibres. Thus, while hemp is scarcely at all affected by this 
action of the reagent, and flax unchanged in colour, the jute-fibre shows that it 
contains a large amount of woody matter by becoming of a deep golden-yellow 
colour, The sulphate, however, does not enable us to distinguish jute from several 
other Indian fibres. 
In connexion with the technical preparation, bleaching, &c. of the jute-fibre, 
the author lately commenced a series of investigations which, though not so far 
advanced as he had hoped, may not be destitute of interest. The samples of fibre 
submitted to examination were of the kind known as “Red Seraigunge.” The 
tibre had a faint red colour, and measured in length 10 feet 9 inches. It had been 
prepared in the ordinary manner, and of course contained only those constituents 
of the plant which remained attached to the cellular structures after being sub- 
jected to the process of retting. Portions of the fibre cut into small pieces, after 
eing treated with distilled water and boiled for several hours, gave an acid solu- 
tion of the colour of pale ale, which evolved an odour which suggested the aromatic 
smell of moist flax-yarn. On evaporation over the water-bath, it left a brownish- 
black extract, which in appearance resembled black-currant jelly ; it was translu- 
cent at the edges, and was easily reduced to a light brown powder. This extract 
amounted to only 0°726 per cent. of the fibre, and was found to contain sugar and 
a tannic acid which gave an olive-green precipitate with persalts of iron, a fatty 
substance, and a brown-red colouring-matter. The extract was in part soluble in 
alcohol, and heated on platinum it carbonized without melting, leaving a white 
ash. It contained no starch. ‘The fibre employed, dried at 212°, was found to con- 
tain 15°5 per cent. of moisture, and when incinerated to leave 1:329 per cent. of 
ash of a pale yellowish-white colour, treated by the successive action of solvents, 
according to the methods described in the author's reports on flax *, and the amount 
of nitrogen determined by Wills’s method, both in the original samples and in the 
fibre after the action of the solvents. The results obtained were as follows :— 
One hundred parts yield— 
Moisture ........ PTY Sarath en re phan hata): 50] 
Organi mation cos ces sev ake vance, OSSD 
Mineral matters ,...cscsessseceeeces 1:329 
100:000 
* Reports of British Association, 1852 and 1852, 
