, 1885-02-07
CLOTH FROM NETTLEs.
A RAW MATERIAL CHEAPER AND
TOUGHER THAN ANY
A Yankee Substitute for Chinese Seen.
sueker-suit- Mad Of R~amI-Enu
meration Of the virtus.
OF Nettls FIbor.


lPhiiadsiphia Preszl
Mr.. Felix Frem8ry. a we'll known Prus-
sian savant and inventor, Is stopping in this
city. He has a mission It Is to avoiu-
tionIze the textile industry In the United
States
Mr.. Fremery. ~and have devoted my lHe
principally TO the study OF botany. 1 am
not unknown In this country, since l took o
prize at the Centennial exposition for an oil
10 lubrlcats vegetable woods In course Of
preparation for the spinning process.
-Xou know the soersucker cloth 50 popu.
lar for summer wear In your country. How
light and strong IL Is, and what a pretty ma.
tsriai TOO. You know. ! suppose. that It 4
made from tho dbers OF the Chinese nsttls.
The process Is a very peculiar one, The
Chinese until 1851 alone possessed tho secret
Of freeing the nben Of the plant from the
ressnoH gum holding them together. These
hbers ara then, not spun, but cut into long.
narrow strips, and glued together ut the
ends with a species OF glue unknown TO us.
1t Is in all probability animal glue, mixed
with a certain per cent Of hard wax. This
process preserves the peculiar gloss Of the
hber, which causes some people to mistake Il
for silk. II the cloth were spun IL would lose
It's llster.
-In Rhode Island sesrsucker cloth Is mi.
tatsd In cotton There Is no doubt that IL
could be manufactured here In large guam
Titles out Of the hber OF tho American nettlo.
Tbs raani or rhea OF China or India grows all
through tho southern states and portions Of
California The material Is known In Eng.
Land A. China grass.
"A gentleman sent mo from Altoona, Pa,
n fsw years ago for some cuttings Of the
American wild nettle. Urticn postulata Is
its Latin nnma. IL growsin great abundance
all through the Allegheny mountains. ex.
I~srtnisntod with II, and became convinced
that hers was u cheap and common substi-
tut. -Sr max. ! have n nursery garden OF
thesa auttingu nov ar Aix-lA- Chapells.
In tbs s0uTss " .ny experiments 1 noticed
that Ia. znread producsd from the fiber was
VA, ~sin.iia- - that u Iiax, but glossier and
more ike silk VA Appearance. IL can be pro
daced .sry cheaply. the plant being a
perenniai ons-that Is to say, it does moi
Lave ~ be rcpiantod every year. These
cutti1g5 came G.. me ton Or twelve years ngu.
1 found that ths nber Of the American nettle
was nnaf AID stronger thaa that OF Euro
pean erussth-Urtica dioica.
AT this motnsnt there are ten or twelve
manuiactories fn Germany where tho fabric
Is prepared to be made into clothing, hand
ksrchiefA stockings, shirts, towelinK, lace
curtains, and many hundred species OF tex.
tile articles Ii competes with wool on nc
count OF its greater strength and cheapnesa %
This material takes every fast color. Just
as WOOL does. and its Introduction would not
require any change 10 be made In machinery.
These discoveries OF mine are covered by
several patents in the United States.
Another use 10 which It may DO applied Il
for sailcloth, ropes, or cordage. There are
numerous varieties OF the wild nettle in
this country. One Of the commonest kinds
In the South, wheru It grows side by side
with tho rami. Is the Bacheria urtica, OF
which thers are morr than 40 varieties
~An Hungarian mined Neumann has al
St Nicholas. near Antwerp, a mandatory
OF this material Tbs daily production aver
ages about $1,000 poundL Neumann started
nnother mandatory near Dusseldorf, 10
Rhenish Prussia. but had to fly the country
on account Of some trouble he got into with
n government official He was convicted Of
lisnier and sentenced to ono years imprison-
ment But for this trouble he would be
doing we'll, as the government had, up to
this time, helped him by every means in
their power. supplying him gratuitously
with large quantities Of nettles from East
prussin.
"Do you zee this piece OF rcd WOOL Well,
II doesn't happen to DO wool at all, though
anybody who didn't know It might be will
ing 70 swear Il wns. IL Is nettle fiber from q
place l know near Newark, N. J.. This
piece OF gray cloth you see was made OF the
same stuff; 50 were these handkerchiefs, and
these stockings, too. They are almost indie
htructible- / wore a pair Of trousers made
Of the cloth several years: wore them at
work in my garden, but they seem prkctic-
ally indestructible, and have been washed a
dozen times. Most OF fhess articles were
manufactured for mo at Passaic, N. J.. The
gray cloth came from tho Gsrmanla mills In
Holyoke. This cheviot cloth can be washed
twenty times without injuring the material.
1t would DO splendid for workingmenis
clothes.
Though possessing 50 great a power Of re-
sistance To the action Of water, a lint can be
manufactured Of American nettle fiber SUI
perior to the best cotton as an absorbent.
See, l drop this piece OF nettie-grass lint In
this tumbler OF water. In an instant 1t has
become saturated with the fluid and sinks TO
the bottom.
These netties grow In prodigious quantity
all through the Jersey swamps. This year
the yield ON my place near Newark was 20 10
% per cent OF pure fiber from this dried stock.
The nettles must DO cut about the end of Sep
tember, when the SAP begins 10 ripen in accord
anee with tho laws Of your climate here. or
cnurss. As one goes further south the nettles
viii ripen earlier. There Is no market for
the American nettle fiber. but IL could BE-
made u profitable article of export
Kicked by a Mule.