CATTELL'S SYSTEM FOR UTILI. SING VEGETABLE FIBRES.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3166, 5 April 1871, Page 2

CATTELL'S SYSTEM FOR UTILI. SING VEGETABLE FIBRES.

[From tho Bnnisn Teade Journal, Jan. 11.] By this system, vegetable substances, however bound up, surrounded by, or impregnated with silicious, resinous, cerumenous, albuminous, parenchymatous, shlorophyllous, and other impurities, are expurgated, 'purified, and ren- 1 dered available for the manufacture of textile materials of domestic and general utility in almost endless variety, thereby opening fresh sources of commercial enterprise to an unlimited extent. i Prior to the introduction of this system, attempts to utilize the great variety of fibrous substances abounding in such prodigious quantities in India, China, Africa. New Zealand, and othor localities, have for the most part failed, mas much as while it was necessary to isolate i the cellulose or fibre proper from its associated impurities, (he fibre itself be- j came so greatly deteriorated by oxida- , tion, or by chemical reaction, as really to negative and render comparatively useless the object intended. The system of Dr Cattell avoids and prevents any such results; and like all others which have been of real importance to the world, is characterised by groat simplicity and economy. It is a noticeable feature in the carrying out of this system that products are lornied, the value of which must necessarily lessen the working expenses, and one, at least, of such products is entirely new, and likely to become extensively useful. The attention of the manufacturer and the public is called to the important fact that fibres, yarns, and fabrics, treated by this system, acquire an increased capacity for imbibing and retaining coloring matter. The Government of ludia, fully alive to the. necessity and importance of making Rhea the staple commodity of that country, have offered a prize of £5000 for a process that will give to the fibre a value in the London market equal to £50 per ton. The New Zealand Government have also offered a large reward for a process by which the Phormium Tenax — New Zealand flax — may become more extensively utilised. Under this system surgical lint of first-class quality can be manufactured from flax waste rapidly and very economically ; for it must be observod that flax being the fibre for linen is, in the opinion of Dr. Cattell, the only proper material for lint, inasmuch as cotton consists of flattened twisted tubes without joints, the sharp edge of which has the effect of irritating the wounds to which it is applied ; whereas flax consists of jointed cylindrical tubes incapable of giving rise to any such consequences. The business, therefore, which will be done in this article will form no inconsiderable item in the profits of the undertaking. Under the system also — from the fact of the peculiar form of the flax fibre just described — a valuable material adapted for "milling" and " felting" can be produced, in appearance undistinguishable from wool, at a cheap rate. Hence woollen goods manufactured with a fair proportion of this and similar wool-substitutes which are readily obtainable from other fibrous vegetable substances, will also enable the public to procure them at a cheap rate. Under this system, in a like manner, a material can be produced undistinguishable in appearauce from cotton, and capable of being worked by cotton ina-hinery. A considerable revenue will also arise by the application of this system, to cotton and other fibres intended for the manufacture of pyroxiline and xylodine, these substances being used extensively for military, mining, photographical, surgical and other purposes, also for the manufacture of strong and imperishable paper, and likewise vegetable parchment, and for similar economic uses. The production of a tenacious fibre for ropes, especially for mining purposes and the rigging of ships, has always been a matter ardently sought after ; it is therefore satisfactory to know that fibre treated by this system will possess the following special advantages : — 1. A greater tensile resistance, estimated at twenty per cent, in ropes and cordage of equal thicknesses. 2. The material being pure, it will not be liable to the spontaneous decay which has occasioned so many sad disasters with ropes and cordage made of fibre treated in the ordinary way. 3. The necessity for employing waterproofing agencies will not be so essential, and when used their preservative action will be much greater. 4. The damage which always, more or less, accompanies the ordinary treatment of the fibre will be obviated. And if this system is applied goner ally to the iibrous substances in their raw or natural state, many important advantages will accrue : — 1. There will be a much greater yield of fibre from the same weight of plants than if the process of water-retting be resorted to. 2. The separability or fineness of the fibre will be praticably realizable to its full extent. 3. The inherent tensile resistance or

strength of the fibre will be conserved. 4, The discoloration of the fibre always moro or less attendant on the water retting process, as well as the extra expense incurred by the measures adopted to remove it (scarcely ever effectual), will be entirely obviated. 5. The enormous loss of time — the endless round of operations — and withall the usual accompanying expenses to render cotton, linen, jute- and other textile materials marketable, will be for the most part avoided. The advantages, to which reference has been made, will operate equally in the manufacturers' interest, under this system, as in that of the public : — Thus flax (referred to simply as an example) which would only produce a fifty or sixty lea yarn, would if a higher degree of filamentous division, or fineness, could " be wrought upon it, yield yarn leas of higher numbers, and at the same time augment in a corresponding degree their market value. This remark specially applies to Irish flax, which by this system may be made to produce a lea yarn approximating, if not equal in quality, to that of the best Flemish, Belgian, or French flax. Although quality, which is really estimated by fineness, is a salient feature of a fibre intended to be spun into a warp yarn, yet without inherent strength, the quality of fineness would be of little use ; the immense difficulty hitherto experienced in spinning warp yarn — the yarn which has to bear the principal stress in the weaving operation — will, by this system, be completely removed ; while that defect in yarn, called the manufacturer's neap on the thread, will, it is believed, be entirely obviated, and consequently a greatly increased value given to the material. When the warp yarns, which, under this system, can be produced from the phormium tenax, and many other strong and cheap fibres, equally with those made with the flax in general use, are spun clean, uniform or level and round, with the inherent strength of the fibre preserved in the thread, perfection has I been attained — a thing scarcely, if at all, possible with fibre treated in the ordinary way. Dr Hunter, an authority on the subject has remaiked, *' That the fibre of all plants would be better if prepared without water retting." And Mr Henley, another authority, speaking of jute, states, " There can be no doubt but that the application to it of a process of preparing the fibre without water- retting would effect the most signal improvements in its quality." The important desideratum pointed out by these and other great authorities has happily bebn accomplished by the discoveries of Dr Cattell, one of the most prominent merits of his system being that in realising the production of textile fibres uninjured and in a state of purity, as well, as cheaply and extensively, they become also in a corresponding degree more durable, and consequently of increased value to the nation at large.