SUBSTITUTE FOR COTTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19905, 27 September 1926, Page 2

SUBSTITUTE FOR COTTON.

GRASSES TURNED INTO TEXTILES. A PROBLEM SOLVED. Alt ci toilsome research and experiments. Dr Dinshaw Nanjl, of Birmingham University, working in association with Dr F. J. Paton, of Bristol University, believes he has solved the problem of turning tropical grasses and other llbrous products Into textiles for personal wear and other uses. The separation of the fibres preparatory to spinning Is effected by a chemical process, for which patent rights have now been obtained throughout the world. This was no accidental discovery, Dr Nanjl says. It was, he explained, the outcome of close concentration on a scientific problem which had always had a powerful attraction for him from his youth. By the chemical process which ho and his collaborator had brought to the point of commercial application, the scientist states, vegetable fibre would have a marked economic superiority over wood pulp as the basis of artificial silk manufactures. lie claimed that while it would be as strong, or stronger, and would lend Itself to as artistic treatment, the production cost up to the spinning stage would be only about onefourth that of the present system. One of the most Important points to note about this, he said. Is that while the fibre can be obtained in abundance, and at t very cheap rate within the British Empire, the preparatory stages of conversion are inexpensive. The material produced will be capable of being worked up by existing spinning and weaving machinery with very little alteration. Dr Nanjl thinks it will be possible to utilise for papermaking the waste tissues of Jute, enormous quantities of which arc now treated as rubbish.