also if the fibre is allowed to dry with the acid
upon or in it. Animal fibres are not nearly so
sensitive under these conditions. But whereas
caustic alkalis have not much effect on vegetable
fibres, if kept out of contact with the air, the animal
fibres are very quickly attacked. Superheated
steam alone has but little effect on cotton or vegetable
fibres, but it would fuse or melt wool. Based
on these differences, methods have been devised and
patented for treating mixed woollen and cotton tissues—(1)
with hydrochloric acid gas, or moistening with dilute
hydrochloric acid and steaming, to remove all the
cotton fibre; or (2) with a jet of superheated steam,
under a pressure of 5 atmospheres (75 lb. per square
inch), when the woollen fibre is simply melted out
of the tissue, and sinks to the bottom of the vessel,
a vegetable tissue remaining (Heddebault). If
we write on paper with dilute sulphuric acid, and dry
and then heat the place written upon, the cellulose
is destroyed and charred, and we get black writing
produced. The principle involved is the same
as in the separation of cotton from mixed woollen and
cotton goods by means of sulphuric acid or vitriol.
The fabric containing cotton, or let us say cellulose
particles, is treated with dilute vitriol, pressed
or squeezed, and then roughly dried. That cellulose
then becomes mere dust, and is simply beaten out of
the intact woollen texture. The cellulose is,
in a pure state, a white powder, of specific gravity
1.5,
i.e. one and a half times as heavy as water,
and is quite insoluble in such solvents as water,
alcohol, ether; but it does dissolve in a solution
of hydrated oxide of copper in ammonia. On adding
acids to the cupric-ammonium solution, the cellulose
is reprecipitated in the form of a gelatinous mass.
Cotton and linen are scarcely dissolved at all by
a solution of basic zinc chloride.
[Footnote 1: J.S.C.I. = Journal of the Society
of Chemical Industry.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
Silk.—We now pass on to the animal
fibres, and of these we must first consider silk.
This is one of the most perfect substances for use
in the textile arts. A silk fibre may be considered
as a kind of rod of solidified flexible gum, secreted
in and exuded from glands placed on the side of the
body of the silk-worm. In Fig. 4 are shown the
forms of the silk fibre, in which there are no central
cavities or axial bores as in cotton and flax, and
no signs of any cellular structure or external markings,
but a comparatively smooth, glassy surface. There
is, however, a longitudinal groove of more or less
depth. The fibre is semi-transparent, the beautiful
pearly lustre being due to the smoothness of the outer
layer and its reflection of the light. In the
silk fibre there are two distinct parts: first,
the central portion, or, as we may regard it, the