FLAX UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1931, Page 6

FLAX UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

A PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD. MAP TO AID LINEN RESEARCH. LONDON, -launary 17. The Is i ‘gest photograph which has ever been taken through a microscope is on view in tile special exhibition of tins Linen Research Association at the .Science Museum, South Kenningston. The photograph is 60ft in length and records with the accuracy o! an Ordnance Survey map the elaborate strands of the inner core of a single flax stem such as is regularly used as the raw material for the maiiutacture of linen. Seven hundred separate exposures were taken beneath the miscroscopo and “polarised light”—the most abstruse weapon of the moidorn photographer—was utilised to give an almost basrelief contrast between the (lax and the dark background beneath it. ' “From this photograph,” an official of the Association told a representative of the “.Morning Rost.” “it is possible to trace the path of each of the minute fibres which make up the flax. Many of those can lie seen not to run the j whole length of the stem, but to lead to the leaves, which branch from it at frequent iiitervuls. “Other exhibits are designed to show what little change has taken place in the spinning of flax since its development by the Egyptians 700 years ago. The finest strands which they produced were actually twice as fine as the best modern produet. Finer vain can be woven bv band than is possible by modern commercial methods. “The Research Association is now attempting to increase the number ol strands which can be obtained from a single flax stem, so as to reduce working costs and to enable Empire producers to compete successfully with cheap Russian supplies. The final aim is that all the needs of the British manufacturer should he met from with in the Empire.”