FLANEL, or Flannel, a kind of slight, loose, woollen stuff, composed of a woof and warp, and woven on a loom with two treddles, after the manner of baize.

Dr Black assigns as a reason why flannel and other substances of the same kind keep the body warm, that they compose a rare and spongy mass, the fibres of which touch each other so lightly, that the heat moves slowly through the interstices, which being filled only with air, and that too in a stagnant state, give little assistance in conducting the heat. From the experiments of Count Rumford, it appears that there is no relation between the power which the substances usually worn as clothing have of absorbing moisture, and that of keeping the body warm. Having provided a quantity of each of these substances mentioned below, he exposed them, spread out upon clean china plates, for the space of twenty-four hours, to the warm and dry air of a room which had been heated by a German stove for several months, and during the preceding six hours had raised the thermometer to 85° of Fahrenheit; after which he weighed equal quantities of the different substances with a very accurate balance. They were then spread out upon a china plate, and removed into a very large uninhabited room upon the second floor, where they were exposed forty-eight hours upon a table placed in the middle of the room, the air of which was at 45° of Fahrenheit. At the end of this time they were weighed, and then removed into a damp cellar, where they were placed on a table in the middle of the vault, the air of which was at the temperature of 45°, and, by the hygrometer, seemed to be fully saturated with moisture. In this situation they were suffered to remain three days and three nights, the vault being all the while hung round with wet linen cloths, to render the air as completely damp as possible. At the end of three days they were weighed, and the weights at the different times were found as in the following table :—
[table]

In regard to these experiments our author observes, ţ a though linen, from the apparent ease with which it receives dampness from the atmosphere, seems to have a much greater attraction for water than any other, yet it would appear,from what is related above, that those bodies which receive water in its unelastic form with the greatest ease, or a most easily wet, are not those which in all cases attract the humidity of the atmosphere with the greatest avidity. “Perhaps,” says he, “the apparent dampness of linen to [7:9:615]the touch arises more from the ease with which that substance parts with the water it contains, than from the quantity of water it actually holds; in the same manner as a body appears hot to the touch, in consequence of its parting freely with its heat; while another body which is really at the same temperature, but which withholds its heat with great obstinacy, affects the sense of feeling much less violently. It is well known that woollen clothes, such as flannels, &c. worn next the skin, greatly promote insensible perspiration. May not this arise principally from the strong attraction which subsists between wool and the watery vapour which is continually issuing from the human body? That it does not depend entirely on the warmth of that covering, is clear; for the same degree of warmth produced by wearing more clothing of a different kind, does not produce the same effect. The perspiration of the human body being absorbed by a covering of flannel, it is immediately distributed through the whole thickness of that substance, and by that means exposed, by a very large surface, to be earned off by the atmosphere; and the loss of this watery vapour which the flannel sustains on the one side by evaporation, being immediately restored from the other, in consequence of the strong attraction between the flannel and this vapour, the pores of the skin are disencumbered, and they are continually surrounded by a dry and salubrious atmosphere.”

Our author expresses his surprise that the custom of wearing flannel next the skin should not have prevailed more universally. He is confident it would prevent a number of diseases; and he thinks there is no greater luxury than the comfortable sensation which arises from wearing it, especially after one is a little accustomed to it. “It is a mistaken notion,” says he, “that it is too warm a clothing for summer. I have worn it in the hottest climates, and at all seasons of the year, and never found the least inconvenience from it. It is the warm bath of perspiration confined by a linen shirt wet with sweat, which renders the summer heats of southern climates so unsupportable; but flannel promotes perspiration, and favours its evaporation; and evaporation, as is well known, produces positive cold.

It has been observed that new flannel, after some time wearing, acquires the property of shining in the dark, but loses it on being washed. (Philosophical Transactions, No. 483, sect. 7.)