Mercerized yarn is employed in almost every conceivable manner, not only in the manufacture of half-silk and half-wool fabrics, and in lustrous all-cotton tissues, but also in the production of figures and stripes of cotton goods having non-lustrous grounds. Mercerized yarn used in connection with silk is difficult to detect except by an expert eye.
Characteristics of a good piece of Cotton Cloth. A perfect cotton fiber has little convolutions in it which give the strong twist and spring to a good thread. In this respect the Sea Island cotton is the best. There are five things requisite for cotton cloth to be good, viz.:
1. The cloth must be made of good fiber, that is ripe and long.
2. The fiber must be carefully prepared. All the processes must be well performed—for the very fine thread fiber must be combed to remove poor fiber. The combing, however, is not always done.
3. The warp and woof threads must be in good proportion.
4. The cloth must be soft, so that it will not crease easily.
5. It must be carefully bleached—the chemicals used must not be strong.