FLAX UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20178, 5 March 1931, Page 11

FLAX UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.

v • • *■ ■ r .■; IfSfib;)»t map to aid t (tboji PUS «iyUß]to*mti^V F ,3 A .., The largest r holograph which has', .eVer > been' taken is on vieyr in tha the- Linen. Research " Science Museum,. } >The photograph 60ft roronl s with the accurai-v of >aa Qiuri- » ande 'Survey m&ji'the el^tibrat'tffyriUfc}' 'of the inner cote of a single flax ateta)/-' if#uch as 'is regularly iu,ed as the raw material for the manufasture of ■,linen.' Seven hundred separate \ were taken beneath'the microscope'and 1 .."polarised light"—the most. abstruse . weapon if the modern, ; —was nraised -to (jive An "almost fenft' relief contrast between the' flak' ', dark beneath ,4t. i»* l .. '-."Prom this photograph,'' an official of the Association told a reprsnitf&tiVe? ? <tfthe "Morning Post/' j" it is possible to trace the putli of cauli of the minute ■fibres > which, make; up the flax,' i.of /these can bo seen not to ran the whole length of the bat to leas )to' the leawa, wlucH branch from it *tr frequent intervals. I •■' ■, *'■ J / >■* ' ' ,f fQther exhibits are dt"Bigned"i»"slU>w what .little change has .taken place in 'the spinningookf k flax since men 'by the Egyptians' >'jreat^.'-ago/ 1 , The finest strands whjctrtlley proftueejl 'were actually twice as lino as "the bestmodern product.,, *,ean -be" woven by hand ' than is pbMiblo' by; modern commercial methods. , '- i " "The Research Association "iq. noV to increase strands which »an be obtained from a' ' .single flax stem and so i*b to .redu'ae {working costs .and to producers to. compete successfully'' with, . clieap Russian supplies. The Anal aim is that all the needs /of the, British' manufacturer should be met i in the Empire." .