The Iola register., 1885-02-06
CLOTH FROM NETTLEs.

Than Any knOWn-A xonke0 Substitute
for Chinese seersucker-Suits Made Of
Rami.
Mr.. Felix Fremery, a well-known
Prussian savant and inventor, is stop
ping at Zeiss' Eotel in this city. He
has mission. 1t is to revolutionize
the textile industry in the United
States.
81 am native of Aix-la-C -Chapelle," :"
said Mr.. Fremerv yesterday, s'and
have devoted my life principally to the
study of botany. am not unknown
in this county, since / took prize at
the Centennial Exposition for an oil to
lubricate vegetable woods in the course
of preparation for the spinning pro-
cess.
"YOu know the seersucker cloth so
popular for summer wear in your coun-
try. How light and strong it is, and
what pretty material too. You know,
l suppose, that it is made from the
fibers of the Chinese nettle. The pro-
cess is very peculiar one. The Chi
nese until 1851 alone possessed the Sc
cret of freeing the fibers of the plant
from the resinous gum holding them
together. These fibers 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
hll probability an animal glue, mixed
with certain per cent. of hard white
wax. This process preserves the pc
ellliar gloss of the fiber, which causes
some people to mistake it for silk. If
the cloth were spun i: would lose its
luster.
SIN Rhode Island seersucker cloth is
Initiated in cotton. There is no doubt
that it could be manufactured here in
large quantities out of the fiber of the
American nettle. The rami or rhea of
China and India grows all through the
Southern States and portions of Cali
fornia. The material is known in En-
gland as China grass.
"a gentleman sent me from Altoona,
Pa, few years ago some cuttings of
the American wild nettle. Urtica pos
tulata is its Latin name. 1t grows in
great abundance all through the Allie
ghony Mountains. Iexperimented with
it, and became convinced that here was
a cheap and comman substitute for flax.
/ have a nursery garden of these cut
tings now at Aix-la-Chapelle.
'',n the course of my experiments no
ticed that the thread produced from the
fiber was similar to that of flax, but CLOS
sier andmore 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 replanted every year.
twelve years ago. l found that the
fiber of the American nettle was finer
and stronger than that of European
growth--Urtica dioica.
''At this moment there are ten or
twelve manufactures in Germany
where the fabric is prepared to be made
into clothing, handkerchiefs, stockings,
shirts, toweling. lace curtains, and
many hundred species of textile articles.
1t completes with wool on account of
its greater strength and cheapness,"
MIR. Fremery, thought Prof Yae-
ger, of Stuttgardt, recommended wool
en- clothes, aud even sheets, as being
more conducive to heath than any
other material?'
$50 they are. So they are. He is
right. But with the great mass of hu-
manity economy is the first considera-
ton. Wool is too dear. The fibre of
nettle costs but third of the average
price of wool, and its strength admits
of its being mixed with wool in equal
proportions III the ordinary process of
manufacturing. The material thus
made combines the warmth of wool
with the toughness of the other raw
material. 1t can be mixed with what
you call 'shoddy,' a short staple of ar
tilicial wool. and the admixture of the
longer staple Of the nettle with the
shoddy makes very cheap and du-
rable cloth. The titre can be produced
at the rate of about eighteen cents per
pound, while wool in its natural state
costs about fifty.
This material takes every 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 cOrdaSe. There are
numerous varieties Of the wild nettle in
this country. One of the commonest
kinds in the South, where it grows side
by side with the rami. is the Bacheria
urtica. of which there are more than
120 varieties.
IAN Hungarian nsmed Neum ann
has at Nicholas, near Antwerp, a
manufactory of this material The
daily production averages about 80, 900
pounds. Neumanu started another
manufactory near Dusseldorf, in Rhen-
ish Prussia, but had to fly the coun-
try on account of some trouble he got
into with a Government official. He
was convicted Of sla1der and sem
fenced to one years imprisonment.
But for this trouble he would be doing
well. as the Government had, up to
this time, helped him BY every means
in their power. Supplying him gratui-
tously with large quantities of nettles
from East Prussia.
do you see this piece of red wool?
Well, it doesn't happeE to be wool at
all, though anybody who didn't know
1t. might be willing to swear it was.
1t is nettle fibre from place l know
near Newark, N. j. This piece of
gray cloth you see was made Of the
same stuff; so were these hankerchiefs,
and these stockings, too. They are
almost indestructible. l wore pair
of trousers made of the cloth several
years; wore them at work in my gar
den. but they seem practically inde-
structible, and have been washed
dozen times. Most of these articles
we're manufactured for me at Passaic,
II Tho rv,.,,- n11kh oo,,oa froy, bo