16 BULLETIN 882, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Not only has piece mercerization the advantage over yarn mer- 
cerization of equalizing and reducing the stretch in the warp and 
filling, but it also has the commercial advantages of increased produc- 
tion, decreased cost, uniformity of output, and conservation of labor, 
material, and transportation. 
In respect ,to increased production, it was ascertained that three 
representative finishing plants could with but slight changes in 
equipment produce enough airplane fabric of the desired quality to 
meet all the requirements of this country during the war. These 
three plants represent only a very small portion of the entire mer- 
cerizing capacity of the country. The cost of piece mercerization 
would be about 2 cents per yard, while in the case of yarn mercerized 
fabric the cost of mercerization would be about 10 cents per yard. 
In the case of piece mercerization economy also results from the 
elimination of considerable waste caused by extra handling and 
tangled threads common to the manufacture of yarn mercerized fab- 
rics. Uniformity of results in piece mercerization can easily be 
maintained because of the small number of men handling the cloth 
during mercerization and the simplicity of the operations. Labor 
and transportation problems are also simplified in that the operations 
of quilling and beaming are eliminated and a return shipment of the 
mercerized yarn to the mill is unnecessary. 
CORROBORATION OF CERTAIN MILL TESTS BY SIGNAL CORPS AND 
THE BUREAU OF MARKETS. 
"With the exception of the special weaves and the 2/60's piece mer- 
cerized fabric all of the fabrics which had been produced were sub- 
mitted to the Signal Corps for strength and stretch tests. The re- 
sults of these tests were given in Tables 12 and 13. These cloths were 
numbered and the key to the numbers retained by the Bureau of 
Markets with full description so that the fabrics could be reproduced 
at any future date. 
