IMPROVED COTTON AIRPLANE FABRIC. 
13 
action of the loom and still show a breaking strength comparable 
to that of the filling alone. Some of this cloth was made in the gray, 
some was made from yarn mercerized under tension, and some was 
woven in the gray and later mercerized in the piece. The results 
of strength and stretch tests on these fabrics are shown in Table 10, 
■* and further corroborated the results found in the previous test. 
VARIATION OF WEAVE. 
Although the plain weave was generally considered the most desir- 
able for airplane fabrics because of its simplicity of manufacture, 
tests were made to determine the adaptability of other weaves, such 
as the 2/2 twill and the 2/2 basket weave. These results are shown 
in Table 9. 
Table 9. — Comparison of different weaves in cloths made from American Egyp- 
tian cotton. 
Twist per 
Oz. 
per 
sq. 
ycL 
Breaking 
Stretch in inches at different loads. 
Weave. 
inch. 
strength. 
Warp. 
Filling. 
Single. 
Ply. 
Warp 
Fill. 
10 lbs. 
20 lbs. 
651bs. 
10 lbs. 
201bs. 
65 lbs. 
Plain, 68 by 68 
Plain, 76 by 76 
Plain, 80 by 80 
2/2 twill, 68 by 68.... 
2/2 basket, 68 by 68.. 
2/2basket,104byl08 
3/80 
3/90 
2/60 
3/80 
3/80 
2/80 
35.62 
35.62 
30.5 
35.62 
35.62 
33.80 
20.6 
19.0 
21.5 
20.6 
20.6 
21.5 
3.90 
4.06 
4.23 
3.86 
3.75 
3.87 
75 
85 
87 
73 
70 
76 
84 
82 
89 
82 
77 
85 
0.24 
.49 
.53 
.11 
.12 
.11 
0.36 
.65 
.75 
.19 
.20 
.17 
0.67 
1.00 
U.20 
.49 
.41 
i .41 
0.24 
.15 
.19 
.16 
.11 
.16 
0.36 
.24 
.30 
.26 
.20 
.23 
0.66 
.53 
1.62 
.63 
.48 
1.52 
i The stretch for the 2-ply cloth was taken at 70 pounds instead of 65 pounds. 
Although the above figures indicate that the twill and the basket 
weaves made from the 3/80's yarn might be substituted for the 
plain weave because of the small amount of stretch, it is doubtful 
whether they could be used unless reconstructed to eliminate the 
tendency to " draw " when applied to the airplane frame. To rem- 
edy this tendency a 2/2 basket weave was made, using 2/80's yarn 
with a construction of 104 by 108, which resulted in a cloth having 
practically the same strength as the plain cloth but considerably 
less stretch. The objection to this fabric is that it had to be made 
out of a finer yarn, which increased the cost to the manufacturer 
by decreasing the production, there being 108 picks per inch in such 
fabric against 68 picks in 3/80's fabric and 80 picks in 2/60's 
fabric. It will be noticed that all of the fabrics, as shown in Table 9, 
come within the Signal Corps specifications, excepting the 2/2 
basket weave of 3/80's yarn, 68 by 68 construction, which broke 
in the warp direction several pounds under the tensile-strength 
requirement. 
