Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-02
Cloth From Nettles.

1
| Felix Fremery, wel-known Prussiar
savant and inventor. is stopping at Zeiss
| hotel, this city. He has mission. 1t is to
revolutionize the textile industry of the
| United States.
II am native of Aix-la- -ChapAlle," said
Mr.. Fremery yesterday, ''and have devoted
my life principally to the study of botany. /
am not unknown in this country, since ]
took prize at the centennial exhibition fo1
| an oil to lubricate vegetable woods in course
of preparation for the spinning success.
sYou know the seersucker cloth so popu-
lar for summer wear in your country. How
light and strong it is and what pretty mate
rial too. You know, l suppose, that it is
made from the fiber of Chinese nettle.
The process is a very peculiar one. The
Chinese until 1851 alone possessed the secret
| of freeing the fibers of the plant from the
| resinous gum holding them together. These
| fbers are then, not spun, but cut into long
| narrow strips, and glued together at the ends
with a species of glue unknown to US. 1t is
| in all probability animal glue mixed with
certain per cent. of hard white wax. This
process preserves the peculiar gloss of the
fiber which causes some people to mistake it
for silk. If the cloth were spun it would
lose its luster.
''In Rhode Island, seersucker cloth is imi-
tated in cotton. There is no doubt that it
could be manufactured here in large quanti-
ties out of the fiber of the American nettle
The rarni or rhea of China and India grows
all through the southern States and portions
of California. The material is known in
England and China as grass.
GA gentleman sent me from Altoona, Pa,
few years ago, some cuttings of the Ameri-
can wild nettle. Urtica pastulata is its
Latin name. 1t grows in great abundance
all through the Allegheny mountains. l ex-
perimented with it, and became convinced
that here was cheap and common substi-
tute for fax. l have q nursery garden of
these cuttings now at Aix-la- -Chapelle. III
the course of my experiments I noticed that
the thread produced from the fiber SINH
lar to that of flax, bnt glossier and more like
silk in appearance. 1t can be produced very
cheaply, the plant being perennial one
that is to say it does not have to be replant
ed every year. These cuttings came to me
10 or = years ago. l found that the iber of
the American nettle was finer and stronger
than that of the European growth-Urtica
dioica.
''At this mome,t there are 10 or - manu-
factories in Germany where the fabric is pre-
pared to be made into clothing, handker-
chiefs, stockings, shirts, toweling, lace
curtains, and many hundred species of tex
tile articles. 1t completes with wool on
account of its greater strength and cheap
ness"
''Mr. Fremery, I thought Prof. wager OF
Stuttgart recommended woolen clothes and
even sheets as being more conducive to
health than any other material!'
$50 they are So they are. He is right.
But with the great mass Of humanity econ
omy is the first consideration. Wool is too
dear. The fiber of nettle costs but third
of the average price of wool, and its strength
admits of it's being mixed with wool in equal
proportions in the ordinary process of manu-
featuring. The material thus made combines
the warmth of the wool with the toughness
of the other material. 1t can be mixed
with what you call 'shoddy,' a short staple
or artificial wool, and the admixture of the
longer staple of the nettle with the shoddy
makes a very cheap and durable cloth. The
fiber can be produced at the rate of about
eighteen cents per pound while wool in a
natural state costs about fifty.
''This material takes very fast color, just
as wool does, and its introduction would not
require any change to be made in machinery
These discoveries of mine are covered by
several patents in the United States. Another
use to which it may be applied is for sail
cloth, ropes, or cordage. There are numer-
Gus varieties of the wild nettle in this coun-
try"