The Textile Fibers: Their Physical, Microscopical and Chemical Properties

In the present edition, therefore, the reader will find that a great deal of new matter has been introduced and the general plan of the book has been readjusted to meet. The demands of a logical development of the subject. The field of textile chemistry and the processing of textile fibers has taken on new proportions during the past ten years. To mention only one branch of the subject, the artificial silk industry, for example, has expanded until at the present time more artificial silk is made than is obtained as a natural product from the silkworm. The use of mercerised cotton has become an established factor in the cotton industry and has become stabilised into a standard process. The World War caused much research into the possibilities of utilising other fibers than those normally employed, and we find a great variety of experimenting, such as in the spinning of the so called staple fiber yarns. Some of these sporadic attempts have passed out with the necessity of their use, while others have shown themselves to be of sufficient worth to remain in the general body of textile products. The fact that several reprintings were called for in the third edition of this book has encouraged the author to feel that his attempt to bring together such a large mass of scientific and technical data concerning the textile fibers has been more or less appreciated by those interested in the fiber industries. He has scoured the literature of this country and Europe rather thoroughly in the search for information, and anything of interest or value he has not hesitated to take and has endeavored to fit it in its proper place in this volume. The patent literature has also been thoroughly digested, though it has been the author's experience that in this province great care must be exercised so as not to distort in one direction or the other the technical values in a patent.