REPORT ON THE SECTION OF TEXTILE INDUSTRIES IN THE U. S. 

 NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1885. 



By Komyn Hitchcock, Acting Curator. 



Among the more important additions to the collection of textiles dur- 

 ing the first six months of the year 1885, may be mentioned the follow- 

 ing: 



A model of the original Whitney cotton-gin, presented by Eli 

 Whitney. 



A fine collection of textile fibres from the vegetable kingdom used in 

 Brazil, presented by Dr. J. Carlos Berrini. This collection was made 

 especially for the Museum by Dr. Berrini, at my request. It embraces 

 more than thirty specimens, well named, and particularly well selected 

 for museum purposes. 



A number of specimens of cocoons, and reeled silk from North Caro- 

 lina cocoons, presented by M. Virion des Lanriers. 



A large number of textile fibres from the museum of the Department 

 of Agriculture. This collection includes wools, silks, and vegetable 

 fibres, many of which are valuable specimens, but a large number have 

 not been deemed suitable for exhibition for various reasons, and these 

 have been placed in the study series. The collection of wools in bottles 

 received from the Department is a good one. 



A collection of American and foreign wools from Mr. George W. Bond, 

 of Boston. This is an exceedingly valuable collection, the specimens 

 having been carefully selected by Mr. Bond, who is a recognized au- 

 thority on wools. More than one hundred different wools have been 

 selected for exhibition, and these, in connection with the specimens from 

 the Department of Agriculture, when installed in Museum cases in the 

 manner adopted, will make the largest and most complete collection of 

 wools to bo found. 



The routine work consists in the identification and cataloguing of 

 specimens for exhibition, and the examination of such material as is sent 

 to the Museum for report concerning its value for manufacturing pur- 

 poses. After a specimen is catalogued, it is either placed on exhibition 

 immediately, or held in reserve, or put in the study series. 



The only scientific studies that have been conducted in this section 

 are such as have been required in the ordinary course of identifying 

 fibres of uncertain character. There has been no opportunity to prose- 



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