Fiber (material)

“ Both continuous and staple fibers can be made from basalt. Continuous fibers are produced using standard glass fiber production equipment. After the feedstock is fused in an electric furnace, the melt is fed to electrically heated platinum.rhodium bushings containing 200-300 perforations. As shown in figure 4.7 (Subramanian et al., 1975) , a drum winding pulls the fibers from the platinum.rhodium bushing perforations. Fiber diameter is a function of melt temperature and drum or centrifugal nozzle speed. ”

“ A few moments’ consideration of the changes which the fibers undergo from their condition of isolation as they exist mixed in the vat, to their status as components of a sheet of paper, will help to make clear much that seems obscure about the behavior of a sheet of finished paper, as well as to explain the reason for the different processes executed on the paper-machine.
The fiber is a hollow, collapsed tube, the ends bruised and frayed by the treatment in the beating and refining engines. Absorptive in nature to a marked degree, it swells with the water it takes up and is limp and flaccid. ”

“ Examination of Fibres.—The exact chemical analysis of [Pg 44] a new fibre is necessary in order to establish completely its value for textile and paper-making purposes, but the investigation of the suitability of the fibre for paper-making may be simplified by simple reduction of the raw material with caustic soda. ”

“ The fibre is decidedly inferior to flax and hemp in strength and tenacity; and, owing to a peculiarity in its microscopic structure, by which the walls of the separate cells composing the fibre vary much in thickness at different points, the single strands of fibre are of unequal strength. Recently prepared fibre is always stronger, more lustrous, softer and whiter than such as has been stored for some time—age and exposure rendering it brown in colour and harsh and brittle in quality. ”

“ This propensity of each individual fiber does not cease when the paper is made, but persists forever. A cellulose fiber will absorb moisture from the air in proportion to the relative humidity, just as the hair in a barometer is continually shrinking or expanding as the weather changes. ”

“ II. Papermaking.—The papermaking industry (see Paper) employs as raw materials a large proportion of the vegetable fibre products already enumerated, and, for the reasons incidentally mentioned, they may be, and are, employed in a large variety of forms: in fact any fibrous material containing over 30% “cellulose” and yielding ultimate fibres of a length exceeding 1 mm. can be used in this industry. Most important staples are cotton and flax; these are known to the paper-maker as “rag” fibres, rags, i.e. cuttings of textile fabrics, new and old, being their main source of supply. ”

“ The fibers of dyed black silk may be viewed with interest under the microscope. If a few threads of its warp are placed on a glass slide, and one or two drops of concentrated nitric acid placed in contact with them, the black color changes first to green, then to blue; a life-like motion is observed in all the fibers; they appear marked crosswise like the rings of an earthworm; the surface of each fiber appears loaded with particles of dyestuff; finally the fibers wholly dissolve in the acid. ”

“ There is one very serious objection to making books or catalogues “cross-grained.” This is on account of the way fibers are affected by moisture. The cellulose fiber expands in diameter on absorbing moisture, for which it has a great84 affinity. Indeed, a cellulose fiber is only stable under uniform atmospheric conditions. The expansion of each fiber in diameter makes paper expand much more across than with the grain. Obviously, the total expansion of a sheet equals the amount each fiber expands times the number of fibers that side by side go to make up the sheet. ”

“ As the water is pressed out, each fiber contracts to some extent, and, from a consistency like gruel, the formed sheet passes to a more stable state, wherein it can be gently handled without disintegrating. ”

“ All animal fibres are effectively dissolved by 10% solution of caustic potash or soda. The fabric or material is boiled in this solution for 10 minutes and exhaustively washed. Any residue will be vegetable or cellulose fibre. It must not be forgotten that the chemical properties of the fibre substances are modified more or less by association in combination with colouring matters and mordants. These may, in many cases, be removed by treatments which do not seriously modify the fibre substances. ”

“ The microscope is the only sure test for telling cotton and linen fibers. One can sometimes discover shoddy mixed with the all-wool fiber because of the color. Shoddy is sometimes made of old colored woolen rags. ”

“ Cellulose, or woody fiber, is the basis of all vegetable cell walls. Cotton fiber represents almost pure cellulose. From it are made paper and woven tissues. In paper manufacture, woody fiber is made into a pulp, washed, bleached, filtered, hot- pressed, and sometimes glazed. Parchment paper, vegetable parchment, is made by dipping unglazed paper for half a minute into cold dilute H2SO4, 1 part H2O, 2 1/2 parts H2SO4, and then washing. The fiber, by chemical change, is thus toughened. The cell walls of wood are impure cellulose ”

“ Reject and do not count all other fibers. c. Count bundles of fibers as one fiber unless individual fibers can be identified by observing both ends of a fiber. d. Count enough graticule fields to yield 100 fibers. Count a minimum of 20 fields. Stop at 100 graticule fields regardless of count. 19.
Start counting from the tip of the filter wedge and progress along a radial line to the outer edge. Shift up or down on the filter, and continue in the reverse direction. Select graticule fields randomly by looking away from the eyepiece briefly while advancing the mechanical stage. ”

“ In the processes of refinement preparatory to the spinning (hackling, scutching) and in the spinning process itself, the fibre-bundles are more or less subdivided, and the divisibility of the bundles is an element in the textile value of the raw material. But the value of the material is rather determined by the length of the ultimate fibres (for, although not the spinning unit, the tensile strength of the yarn is ultimately limited by the cohesion of these fibres) , qualified by the important factor of uniformity. ”

“ It is obvious that while the spinner has to do with these filaments, the paper maker works up the ultimate fibre constituents or fibres. It is also an obvious corollary from this distinction that a fibrous material which from “weakness” is unavailable for textile application, may yet be perfectly “strong” from the paper maker’s point of view; in other words, the individual fibres may be strong, but have little cohesion in the filaments. ”

“ Manilla [3] yields the strongest of all fibres. Jute, which is the fibre or inside bark of an Indian plant (Corchorus capsularis) , yields a strong fibre, but is very difficult to bleach white. Esparto fibre holds an intermediate place between the fibres just described and those of wood and straw.... The fibre of straw is short, pointed, and polished, and cannot of itself make a strong paper. The nature of wood fibre depends, as may readily be supposed, upon the nature of the wood itself. Yellow pine, for example, yields a fibre long, soft, and flexible, in fact very like cotton ”

“ The cotton fibre is about 30 mm. long, with an average diameter of ·025 mm. of tube-like shape, and having a prominent central canal. There are no cross markings on the cell walls, and the ends of the fibre are rounded off into a somewhat blunt point. It exhibits a marked tendency to twist itself, especially if dry, and this peculiarity is readily observed with the raw material.
The process of paper-making alters the characteristic structure of the fibre very greatly. The ends of the fibre are seldom to be seen; the curious twist is less prominent, and the fibres are torn and destroyed. ”

“ Too often this question is entirely neglected by those who bring new fibres to the notice of paper-makers, probably because they do not realise that enormous quantities of material are necessary to supply even a very small section of the paper trade, the fact being that few plants yield more than half their weight of paper-making fibre.
(2) Suitability.—The fibre should be properly examined as to its chemical and physical properties in a laboratory equipped with appliances for its conversion into bleached paper pulp on a small scale. ”

“ The vegetable fibres used in the manufacture of wearing apparel are all either hairs or what are called bast fibres and the latter, in non-scientific language, may be described as the strands which run through the roots and stems of most plants. The chief requirements of vegetable fibres, destined to be woven into fabrics, are strength, it is obvious that a weak fibre would be useless; length, the longer the fibre the better and as we shall see later, short fibres are often made up into inferior material ”

“ Each fibre has a broad lumen and is very similar to hemp fibre. Examination of all these fibres, by the way, is best made in water as described under cotton.
Hemp is another bast fibre and as we have remarked it resembles the short fibres of flax; there is a broad lumen with an indistinct margin. ”

“ Under the microscope, one of the specimens shows a single fiber, used as a tie at a position where a new bundle of fibers is added, weaving in and out of the old and new bundles. This gives the fibers much stronger binding than does twisting together alone. The twist is normally medium-hard to hard with an occasional crêpe twist.
Fur-wrapped cord, of which only fragments were recovered, consists of strips of hide with fur attached, about 1 cm. wide, wrapped around (S-twist) already prepared 2-ply agave fiber cord. No articles were found which had been constructed with fur-wrapped cord. ”

“ When it is required to place into an instrument a fiber of any particular size, all that has to be done is to hold the frame of fibers toward a bright and distant light, and look at them through a low-angled prism. ”

“ The matured fibres always collapse in the middle as described, and undergo no change in this respect when passing through all the various operations to which cotton is subject, from spinning to its conversion into pulp for paper-making.
Linen, or Flax Fibre, under the microscope, appears as hollow tubes, open at both ends, the fibres being smooth, and the inner tube very narrow, and joints, or septa, [10] appear at intervals, but are not furnished with hairy appendages as is the case with hemp. ”

“ Owing to this, it can be cut up into filaments having parallel fibers, running throughout their length, and producing a homogeneous carbon. There is no generic quality, however, in vegetable fibers, because they are fibrous, which adapts them to the purpose. Indeed, the fibers are rather a disadvantage. If the bamboo grew solid, without fibers, but had its peculiar cellular formation, it would be a perfect material, and incandescent lamps would last at least six times as long as at present. All vegetable fibrous growths do not have a suitable cellular structure. ”

“ So delicate is the fiber that the ingredients employed must be most carefully considered. The character of the water used is often an element which affects the fiber throughout its manipulation. Chemical science has done much to aid the manufacturer in this branch of his work. Invention has also provided steeping machines, to drive off the acid contained in the fibers, and dissolve the hard, dirty substances, without removing the yolk, which is valuable as a detergent. A preliminary machine is Fig. 7.—Ladies Carding, Spinning, and Weaving. ”

“ A description of each of the principal fibres is given, with the normal dimensions of the unbeaten fibres and the coloration given by the solutions specified. For general examination the lower powers of the microscope will be found most useful, the higher magnifications being employed for studying the markings and other characteristics of the fibres. The dimensions given of cotton, linen, and hemp fibres will not be met with in papers made from those materials, as in beating the lengths are shortened, and frequently the fibres are split longitudinally. ”

“ There is no upper limit on the fiber diameter in the counting rules. Note that fiber width is measured at the widest compact section of the object. 1 fiber Although long fine fibrils may extend from the body of a fiber, these fibrils are considered part of the fiber if they seem to have originally been part of the bundle. Do not count If the object is ≤ 5 μm long, it is not counted. 1 fiber A fiber partially obscured by a particle is counted as one fiber. ”

“ Sharp action between the roll and the bed-plate will, no doubt, make speedy work of the fibre, but the result will be short particles of fibre only, which will not interlace to make a strong felt. Indeed, the action I refer to will reduce the long, strong fibre of linen to little better than that of wood or straw. ”

“ All that can be said as to the suitableness of fibre in general may be summed up in very few words; any vegetable fibre having a corrugated edge, which will enable it to cohere in the mass, is fit for the purposes of paper making ”

“ One other class of fiber not generally recognized by us is sinew, or tendon. Among the Eskimo and the Indians of Canada it is of the greatest importance and also holds a high place in the bison area, the salmon area, and the northern part of the eastern maize area. In fact, when skin clothing is made, we find it in use, even in the guanaco area of South America.
SPINNING
The twisting of fiber into thread is the pre-requisite of the whole textile art. Its distribution over the world is as universal as the use of fire and its origin probably fully as remote. ”