414 MR. c. o^neill's experiments and 



fixed generally upon a part more than halfway towards the 

 root-endj sometimes three-fourths of the way, always leav- 

 ing the tapering end as far as I could ; then, by inclosing 

 all the rest of the hair between the gummed papers, I con- 

 sidered I had the strongest part of it to experiment upon. 

 In selecting the hairs to be experimented upon, I endea- 

 voured to get them fairly representative of the bulk, and 

 did not pick or reject any hairs unless obviously injured. 



In the tabulated results which follow, I have arranged 

 the hairs in the order of their strengths, and have given 

 the mean of the strengths. I have been careful to put 

 down all the results I got, without regard to any preconceived 

 hypothesis ; and, with the tables before the reader, I shall 

 abstain from making any remarks as to their applicability 

 to any practical purposes, except to say that the experi- 

 ments were not undertaken with any such aim, and are 

 not presented now with any such pretensions. I only 

 claim for them to be good experiments, made with care 

 and accuracy, and, I believe, the very first made upon 

 cotton hair. 



Breaking-weights of 19 hairs of Edisto Sea Island cotton. 

 December i860. Price 2s. 2d. per lb. 



Distance between points of suspension from O'l to 0*4 inch. 



No. 



grs. 



No. 



grs. 



No. 



grs. 



No. 



grs. 



I . 



.. 24*0 



II . 



. 62-6 



19 . 



. 88-3 



5 •• 



• 1185 



4 • 



•• 36-9 



10 . 



. 68-6 



17 • 



. 9i'6 



3 • 



. I20*0 



a . 



.. 417 



18 . 



• 72-9 



13 • 



. 102-4 



7 • 



• i30'5 



14 . 



.. 44-6 



6 . 



• 73-9 



16 . 



. lirS 



12 .. 



• H^'S 



8 . 



•• 55-2 



9 • 



•• 74*4 



15 • 



.. 115-2 







Mean breaking- weight = 83-9 grs. 



This fibre, which has the longest and evenest staple, is 

 the lowest in strength, and, with one exception, its maximum 

 and minimum hairs stand also lowest in strength. 



