Abstract
THE effect of steam on the fibre-forms of white fox guard hairs reported by Dr. R. O. Hall1 appears to be an example of a phenomenon, of very general occurrence in wool fibres, which has been described by me in connexion with fibre-forms in merino wool2. In the fleece this wool has a waviness which is, to a first approximation, sinusoidal, but the wave form is not entirely stable at ordinary humidities in single fibres withdrawn from the locks, so that in the natural state the fibres must be in a condition of strain, engendered, it may be, during the passage of the potentially curly fibre up the shaft of the follicle, or perhaps due merely to the closeness of packing of the fibres in the locks. The change in the form of a single fibre which proceeds slowly at room humidity is greatly accelerated when the fibre is wetted; it is an elastic deformation, and not a swelling phenomenon, since it is irreversible, and it may be resolved into torsional and fiexural changes of which the former are more important. The obvious interpretation of the effect is that in the fleece the fibres have cohesive set which is not relieved naturally because the closeness of packing and greasincss of the fibres in the locks preclude any readjustment under the action of atmospheric moisture.
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NATURE, 136, 28, July 6, 1935.
Woods, J. Text. Inst., 26, T93 ; 1935.
Woods, NATURE, 132, 709 ; 1933.
Asthury and Woods, Phil. trans. Roy. Soc., A, 232, 333 ; 1933.
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WOODS, H. Fibre-Forms in Animal Hairs. Nature 136, 262 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136262a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136262a0
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