Textiles, for Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools. William H. Dooley
Cloth
Experiment 59—Characteristics of a Good Silk Fabric
Experiment 60—How to Determine the Count of Yarn in Cloth
Experiment 61—Study of Fabrics
Experiment 62—How to Examine a Fabric
Catalogues of Cotton Machinery
Wool, Cotton, and Silk Samples
Catalogue of Woolen and Worsted Machinery
PREFACE
The author established and since its inception has been in charge of the first industrial school for boys and girls in Massachusetts. At an early date he recognized the need of special text-books to meet the demand of young people who are attending vocational schools. There are plenty of books written on textiles for technical school students and advanced workers. But the author has failed to find a book explaining the manufacture and testing of textiles for commercial, industrial, domestic arts, and continuation schools, and for those who have just entered the textile or allied trades. This book is written to meet this educational need. Others may find the book of interest, particularly the chapters describing cotton, woolen, worsted, and silk fabrics.
The author is under obligations to Mr. Franklin W. Hobbs, treasurer of the Arlington Mills, for permission to use illustrations and information from literature published by the Arlington Mills; to Mr. S. H. Ditchett, editor of Dry Goods Economist, for permission to use information from his publication, “Dry Goods Encyclopedia”; to the editor of the Textile Mercury; to Frank P. Bennett, of the American Wool and Cotton Reporter, for permission to use information from “Cotton Fabrics Glossary”; and to the instructors of the Lawrence Industrial School for valuable information. In addition, information has been obtained from the great body of textile literature, which the author desires to acknowledge.
TEXTILES
CHAPTER I
FIBERS
All the materials used in the manufacture of clothing are called textiles and are made of either long or short fibers. These fibers can be made into a continuous thread. When two different sets of threads are interlaced, the resulting product is called cloth.
The value of any fiber for textile purposes depends entirely upon the possession of such qualities as firmness, length, curl, softness, elasticity, etc., which adapt it for spinning. The number of fibers that possess these qualities is small, and may be classified as follows:
Animal Fibers: Wool, Silk, Mohair.
Vegetable Fibers: Cotton, Flax, Jute, Hemp, etc.
Mineral Fibers: Asbestos, Tinsel, and other metallic fibers.
Remanufactured Material: Noils, Mungo, Shoddy, Extract, and Flocks.
Artificial Fibers: Spun Glass, Artificial Silk, and Slag Wool.
The Structure of Wool. A large part of the people of the world have always used wool for their clothing. Wool is the soft, curly covering which forms the fleecy coat of the sheep and similar animals, such as the goat and alpaca. Wool fiber when viewed under the microscope is seen to consist roughly of three parts:
1st. Epidermis, or outer surface, which is a series of scales lying one upon the other.
2d. Cortex, or intermediate substance, consisting of angular, elongated cells, which give strength to the wool.
3d. Medulla, or pith of the fiber.
Difference between Wool and Hair. Not all animal fibers are alike. They vary in fineness, softness, length, and strength, from the finest Merino wool to the rigid bristles of the wild boar. At just what point it can be said that the animal fiber ceases to be wool and becomes hair, is difficult to determine, because there is a gradual and imperceptible gradation from wool to hair.[1] The distinction between wool and hair lies chiefly in the great fineness, softness, and wavy delicacy of the woolen fiber, combined with its highly serrated surface—upon which the luster of the wool depends.
Characteristics of Wool. The chief characteristic of wool is its felting or shrinking power. This felting property from which wool derives much of its value, and which is its special distinction from hair, depends in part upon the kinks in the fiber, but mainly upon the scales with which the fiber is covered. These scales or points are exceedingly minute, ranging from about 1,100 to the inch to nearly 3,000. The stem of the fiber itself is extremely slender, being less than one thousandth of an inch in diameter. In good felting wools the scales are more perfect and numerous, while inferior wools generally possess fewer serrations, and are less perfect in structure.
In