FLAX UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 111, 11 April 1931, Page 14

FLAX UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

A PHOTOGRAPHIC record. TO AID LINEN RESEARCH. Tho largest photograph which has over been taken through a microscope was on view recently in the special exhibition of the Linen Research Association at tho Science Museum, South Kensington, London. The photograph is 60ft. in length, and records with tho accuracy of an Ordnance Survey map the elaborate strands of tho inner core of a single flax stem, such as is regularly used as the raw material for the manufacture of linen. Seven hundred separate exposures were taken beneath the microscope and “polarised light”—the most abtruse weapon of the modern photogrnpher—was utilised to give an almost basrelief contrast between the flax and the dark background beneath it. “From this photograph,” an official of the association told a representative of the Morning Post, “it is possible to trace the path of each of the minute fibres which make up the flax. Many of these can be seen not to run the whole length of the stem, but to load to the leaves, which branch from it at frequent intervals. “Other exhibits are designed to show what little change has taken place in the spinning of flax since its development by tho Egyptians 7000 years ago. The finest strands which they produced were actually twice as fine ns the best modern product. Finer yarn can be woven by hand than is possible by modern and commercial methods.

“The Research Association is now attempting to increase the number of strands which can be obtained from a single flax stem and so as to reduce working costs and to enable Empire producers to compete successfully with cheap Russian supplies. The final aim is that all the needs of the British manufacturer should be met from within the Empire.”