Jute, another important fibre is readily distinguished under the microscope, for its margins have perfectly smooth walls and its lumen is wide in some places, narrow in others and interrupted altogether in places.
Photos by Flatters & Garnett
A Spider’s Foot
The toothed claws are well adapted to enable their owner to obtain a firm grasp of the fine threads of its web.
The Foot of a Fly
The two claws enable the fly to walk up rough surfaces, whilst the suckers between the claws give it a firm hold on smooth surfaces.
There are an extraordinary number of vegetable fibres which are woven into articles of commerce, of one kind and another. Then again, many fibres are so short or so brittle that they cannot be woven but are used for other purposes such as filling cushions, cheap bedding, etc. There are also a certain number of vegetable fibres which are valuable because they are stiff and bristle-like as well as durable, and they are used for brushes, door mats and for similar purposes. To the microscopist who is interested in this work there is a wide field open.
For the examination of paper, which may be described as a “felt of finely divided fibres,” the microscope is invaluable. The essentials of a good paper are that it be durable, that it retain its colour and not become brittle. The least observant of us cannot fail to have noticed that there are an extraordinary number of different kinds of paper, not only the many kinds which the paper manufacturers could show us, but the obviously varied papers which we meet with every day. Added to the papers, there are cardboards which are really a kind of paper. It is clear, therefore, that the man who can tell us exactly how any and every paper is made and what it is made of has laid up a goodly store of knowledge. In carrying out tests of paper we rely partly on chemical and partly on microscopic tests.