Investigations on textile fibres

Although fibres form the most important raw material in the textile industries, few or no attempts have been made to investigate their fundamental properties. On this account most of the phenomena met with in the treatment of textiles have not been explained. The most important of these phenomena are those which occur during the application of stress, heat, and moisture. An opinion commonly accepted by workers in the wool industries is that heat and moisture combined soften wool and render it plastic. This opinion appears to be right in principle, but is only qualitative, since wool exhibits plasticity under ordinary conditions. With regard to cotton, numerous investigations have been made on its chemical derivatives and their products of hydrolysis, but little attention has been paid to its physical properties.