EXPERIMENTS WITH FIBERS.
By Dr. THOMAS TAYLOR.
As Microscopist of the United States Department of Agriculture, I am frequently called upon to make investigations as to the character of textile fibers and fabrics, not only for the public generally, but also for several departments of the Government.
Textile fibers are presented both in the raw and as articles of manufacture. In the latter case they may have been dyed, stained, or painted. It is obvious that under these conditions the fibers should be subjected to chemical reaction to bring them as nearly as possible to their normal condition.
Considering how well the structures of the common textile fibers of commerce—cotton, flax, ramie, hemp, jute, Manila hemp, silk, and wool—have been investigated and minutely described by able and exact microscopists, I will in this paper confine myself chiefly to such experiments as I have personally made with textile fibers, treating them with chemical agents while under the objective.
While I am aware that this method is not wholly new, I am satisfied that comparatively little work has been done in this direction, and that a wide field is still open for future research.
As microscopists, we have to fortify ourselves in every way that will sustain, by truthful work, the value of the microscope as a means of research, sometimes conducting our experiments under the most trying circumstances. Fibers may be so treated by experts as to make it difficult to determine how their changed appearance has been effected, and it may happen in this age of experiment and of fraud that important decisions in commercial transactions and in criminal cases may depend on our observations.