246 



Oji Claussen^s Flax-Cotton. 



the salt ; it is then placed in a third vat containing a weak solu- 

 tion of sulphuric or other acid. The hollow cylinders of the 

 fibres, by the laws of capillary attraction, speedily become charged 

 with the acidulated solution in which they are placed ; and the 

 acid, coming in contact with the soda which the fibres had taken 

 up in the first and second solutions, generates carbonic gas, the 

 expansive force of v/hich splits or divides the fibres into a vast 

 number of ribbon-like filaments, which, examined under the 

 microscope, present the appearance of raw cotton. 



After having passed through these several stages, and having 

 been dried, carded, and spun in the ordinary method, it will be 

 found that the quantity of yarn produced from a given quantity 

 of flax, instead of being less than a similar weight of cotton, 

 will be equal to it, or considerably more, the produce varying in 

 quantity according to the character of the fibre operated upon 

 and the strength of the material employed. The specific gravity 

 of the cottonized substance will also be precisely similar to that 

 of cotton itself. At the meeting of the Council of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England in February last. Professor Way 

 exhibited this very interesting process. We give the account of 

 the experiment in the words of Mr. Hudson, the Secretary of the 

 Society : — 



" Although we have long been practically familiar with the expansive 

 effects of aeriform fluids suddenly disengaged chemically from an apparently 

 solid and inert substance like gunpowder, either in fire-arms or the blasting 

 of rocks, and with their elastic recoil when released from the pressure 

 of condensation, as in the air-gun or the liquid gases of Dr. Faraday, we 

 were not prepared for so beautiful an instance of the application of this 

 principle as the one Chevalier Claussen has given us in the splitting of 

 vegetable fibre, by conveying into its interstices the carbonic acid gas 

 concealed in condensation and chemical alliance with soda, and then 

 setting it free by the addition of acid, which breaks off that alliance by its 

 own superior elective affinity for the alkali. Means shown in their result 

 to be so powerful, and in their operation so gentle yet decisive, gave to 

 the simple experiment, made in the presence of the Council by Professor 

 Way, more the air of a new instance of natural magic, than the sober 

 reality of an ordinary operation of natural laws, of which the application 

 only v/as novel; and its effect on the meeting was accordingly both 

 singular and striking, occasioning evident marks of their agreeable sur- 

 prise and admiration at the result obtained. The flax fibre soaked in the 

 solution of carbonate of soda was no sooner immersed in the vessel con- 

 taining the acidulated water than its character became at once changed 

 from that of a damp rigid aggregation of flax to a light expansive mass of 

 cottony texture, increasing in size like leavening dough or an expanding 

 sponge. This change was no less striking when this converted mass in 

 its turn was placed in the next vessel, which contained the hypo-chlorite 

 of magnesia, and became at once bleached, attaining then the colour, as it 

 had just before received the texture, of cotton." 



Two points yet remain to be noticed on this subject, viz. 

 whether the substance produced under this treatment can be 



