INDIA, HEMP AND FLAX, AT LEEDS. 



53 



substance that certain qualities of oils, Cotton seed, Rape seed, 

 Flax seed, Cocoa nut, or Palm oils, with a certain portion of 

 ammonia to convert the oil into a sponaceous liquid with water 

 at a given heat, was Sufficient to bring into all those resin- 

 bound fibres, a spinning quality and a softness equal, as you 

 see, to any Flax, and to a lustre equal to Silk. In addition to 

 this advantage, the fibres will take and retain a permanent 

 dye— black in particulars—that neither sulphuric acid nor any 

 known test will remove. Velvets and plush have been made 

 in Amiens and Lyons, out of some of the Indian Eheea fibre I 

 prepared for the East India Company, which was found to 

 stand up in the pile and so much resemble silk that a French 

 firm has offered to purchase my patents for France and 

 Belgium ; and now the sale depends on my success in pro- 

 ducing yarns and velvets, in Leeds and Manchester, from 

 my produce, before I return home to London. 



The utility and advantage of my application of oil in pre- 

 paring the resin-bouncl fibres of India, are further proved by 

 the fact that the canvass and ropes used in Her Majesty's 

 Royal Navy, can be made from them more durable and to 

 bear a much greater strain, (in consequence of the OIL being- 

 substituted for the resin or gum, which caused all such resin- 

 bound fibres to cut or break wherever a knot was made) than 

 canvass or ropes which are made from the retted — I would say 

 rotted — hemps of Russia or Italy, all of which are steeped in 

 pools of water for a month, in order that the wood or epidermis 

 may rot, and the fibre released that surrounds it. The late 

 Dr. Royle mentions this in his last publication ; he says : " the 

 Indian fibres were proved to be greatly superior in strength to 

 Russian hemp, by the most efficient tests applied to ropes, at 

 Her Majesty's Dock Yards." 



With such facts to support my views, I think 1 am in a posi- 

 tion to satisfy all but the enemies of progress and the narrow- 

 minded, who are jealous of rival productions, though I know I 



