SUBSTITUTES FOR COTTON AND NEW FIBRES. 127 



made its manufacture a matter of some difficulty. It was no wonder, 

 therefore, that the manufacturers declined to take it in hand. Under 

 these circumstances, the Claussen process was confined to preparing flax 

 for mixing with wool. The vast improvement in carding machinery 

 since that date would now probably obviate the only practical difficulty 

 in the way of spinning flax cotton, and, as manufacturers would be as 

 eager to try the experiment as they were then indifferent, the commercial 

 value of the material, if brought again into the market, would speedily 

 be satisfactorily tested. In the Claussen process refuse flax was first 

 boiled in caustic alkali and then steeped in dilute acid. This dissolved 

 out the gum and colouring matter from the fibre, and prepared it for 

 disintegration into its ultimate filaments by the expansive action of 

 suddenly disengaged carbonic acid gas. To effect this, the boiled flax 

 was lowered into a vat of weak carbonate of soda solution, which soon 

 permeated the whole of the fibres. It was then rinsed in a dilute 

 solution of sulphuric acid, which, coming in contact with the carbonate 

 of soda in the fibre, combined with the alkaline base, and set the car- 

 bonic acid free. This, in assuming its gaseous condition, exerted a 

 sufficiently great elastic force to separate the normal fibres of flax into 

 fine cotton-like filaments. A peculiar process of bleaching followed, 

 which rendered these filaments perfectly white, and the material, when 

 dried, was then fitted for the processes of manufacture. The favourable 

 opportunity offered by the present cotton famine has induced the 

 owners of the patent for this country to again turn their attention to 

 the production of this flax substitute. 



A new mode of preparing jute to mix with cotton for the production 

 of the coarse kinds of cloth has also lately been submitted to practical 

 cotton-spinners, who speak very favourably of its adaptibility for the 

 purpose. If brought into use, this prepared jute will economise cotton, 

 but will not supersede it, as it is unfitted for being spun alone. Several 

 other substitutes for cotton have been spoken of, but they do not promise 

 to become of much utility. They are chiefly valuable as indicating the 

 vast amount of investigation and research that is going on with a view 

 to relieve the present pressing want of raw material, and which, there 

 is good reason to hope, may result in discoveries of importance to the 

 manufacturing and commercial interests of the country. 



Mr. Arthur Robottom of Birmingham, who has long been most 

 energetic on all that relates to new fibrous materials, thus writes to one 

 of the local papers : 



" Public attention has been drawn of late to the various fibres which 

 are now being brought forward as substitutes for cotton, and although 

 it is my firm conviction that no article will entirely supersede the use of 

 cotton, I wish to call your attention to a fibre* which I have imported in 

 small quantities for some years, and which I think would prove one of 



* This is the Urtica tenacissima. — Editor. 



