which the fibre obtained from the said materials is to be appliedthat is to say, according as the fibre is required to be long or short, fine or coarse, and the machinery in which it is to be spun is adapted to the spinning of one or other sort of fibre.

By the term "fibre," as used throughout the specification, I mean that portion of each plant which is capable of being spun or felted; and my invention applies to the "fibre" surrounding the stems of dicotylidenous plants, and to that existing in the stems and leaves of monocotylidenous plants.

In the following examplifications of my improved modes of preparation, I shall throughout suppose flax or hemp to be the material operated upon.

If I have to deal with the plant from the time of its being first cut down or pulled for use, I take it in the state of straw (after the seed has been stripped from it), and subject it to the following, which I call my "primary process:"

I first steep the straw in a solution of a caustic alkali of about one degree of Twaddel's hydrometer, and for such a length of time as may be most convenient. If despatch is required, I use the solution in a boiling state; in which case an immersion of about six hours is sufficient. If more time can be conveniently allowed, I employ a solution of a temperature of about 150° Fahrenheit, and prolong the immersion for about twelve hours; and so in proportion to the degree of temperature. The solution may be even used at a lower temperature, with a corresponding prolongation of time, but in no case need the immersion exceed a couple of days at the utmost.

The object of the preceding treatment is twofold:-First, to decompose, dissolve, or remove (more or less, as required) the glutinous, gummy, or other matters which connect the fibre with the woody portions of the plant, and, second, to discharge or decompose any oleaginous, colouring, or extraneous matter contained in the straw, without allowing the matters so discharged to stain the fibre; and these results are obtained by the action of the alkaline solution.

In the preceding mode of preparing vegetable materials, I generally use a solution of caustic soda; but other alkaline liquors will answer the purpose, such as a solution of caustic potash, or of lime dissolved in or diffused in water; or, indeed, any substance having the like power of removing, discharging, or decomposing the colouring, glutinous, gummy, or other foreign matters contained in the straw, and which would interfere with the whiteness of the fibre, or with its ready separation and manufacture.

If the fibre is required to be long, like that commonly spun in flax machinery, I subject the straw to a second process, for the purpose of getting rid of any of the alkali still adhering to the straw or fibre, and for the purpose of completing (if necessary)

the removal of any glutinous, gummy, colouring, or extraneous

matters.

To this end I take the straw from the alkaline solution, and steep it for about two hours in water acidulated by sulphuric acid in the portion of about one part of the acid to from two to five hundred parts of water. Some other dilute acids will also answer this purpose, such as dilute muriatic acid, &c.; but sulphuric acid is to be preferred. Or, I transfer the straw, while yet wet with the alkaline solution, to a suitable chamber or stove, where I subject it to the action of sulphuric acid, or the fumes produced by the slow cumbustion of sulphur. In both cases the acid combines with any free alkali, remaining on the straw or fibre to form a sulphite or sulphate, according to the acid employed; while an excess of either sulphuric or sulphurous acid will complete the decomposition, discharge, or removal of the glutinous, colouring, and other matters.

I next remove the straw from the acid bath, or sulphur-chamber, or stove, and wash or otherwise treat it with water, till all soluble matters are removed.

If the fibre is required to be decolorised, the straw may now be exposed to one of the bleaching processes which I have already described, or to any of the other known processes. It may then be dried, and made ready for breaking and scutching by the means ordinarily followed in the manufacture of long flax.

I would mention here that, in some cases, it will be found advantageous to pass the straw between rollers, or to break it roughly or partially, before subjecting it to the process above described, for the purpose of facilitating the action of the chemical agents upon it.

By the aforesaid method, I am enabled to remove from the straw certain matters which water alone cannot discharge. The fibre thus prepared is also freer to heckle, and the straw more easy to scutch, than fibre and straw treated in the ordinary way. Much time and much material are also saved: while the noxious exhalations attendant upon the water-rotting system are wholly prevented. If the fibre is required to be short, so that it may be felted or carded, and adapted for spinning on cotton, silk, wool, worsted, or tow, spinning machinery, either alone or in combination with cotton, wool, hair, fur, silk, or shoddy, I take the fibre, after treating it by the processes just described, and divide it in proper lengths by some suitable instrument or machine. I then transfer the straw or fibre to a bath containing a strong solution of bicarbonate, or even carbonate of soda, or any other similar compound; but the first two of these are to be preferred as nost abounding in carbonic acid. In this bath I allow it to remain for about three or four hours, during which time the fibre becomes well saturated with the salt. I then immerse the material impregnated with the solution of the carbonates before named, for about a couple of hours, in water acidulated by sulphuric acid, of about the strength of

one part of acid to two hundred parts of water. Or instead thereof, I expose the saturated materials while wet to the action of burning sulphur in a suitable chamber or stove.

In this operation it appears that a certain portion of gas being developed in the fibrous tubes, splits and divides them by its expansive power into filaments, having the character and appearance of fine cotton wool; in which state they may be dyed and manufactured like cotton or wool.

The same means of effecting the splitting of the fibre may of course be employed in the preparation of long fibre, and I do not limit myself to its use for the preparation of short fibre alone, but when the fibre is of its original length, the solution employed takes a longer time to penetrate the interior.

The decomposition of the bicarbonate of soda or other suitable compound, with which the fibre is saturated, may be also affected by means of electric agency, when a like evolution of gas and splitting up of the fibre will take place.

After the fibre has been subjected to the splitting process, it must be carefully washed to remove all soluble matters, and then dried.

The splitting process may be applied to the plant either in the straw (the wood of which is to be afterwards removed by proper means and machinery), or in the state of long fibre, whether pre pared by my before described process, or by any of the usual and known processes.

Thirdly. My invention, in so far as it relates to improvements in yarns and felts, consists in composing the same of the following new combinations of materials. I manufacture a yarn which I call "flax-cotton yarn," composed partly of flax fibre, prepared and cut into short lengths, as aforesaid, and partly of cotton, varying the proportion at pleasure. This yarn is much stronger than yarn composed of cotton alone, and also much whiter and more glossy, while it is equally capable of being spun in the ordinary cottonspinning machinery.

I also manufacture yarns, composed in like manner, partly of hemp fibre, or of jute, or of phormium tenax, or of other like vegetable fibre (China grass excepted), prepared and cut into short lengths, as aforesaid, and partly of cotton, which yarns each possess the same properties (more or less) as the flax-cotton. yarn.

I manufacture also a yarn, which I call "flax-wool yarn," composed partly of flax prepared and cut into short lengths, as aforesaid, or of any other like vegetable fibre (cotton and China grass excepted); and partly of wool, or of that description of it called "shoddy," or partly of the fur or hair, or partly of any two or more of the said materials; which yarn is stronger than any yarn. composed of wool alone. Some wools aslo, which are too short to be spun by themselves, may, by being mixed with flax-fibre, cut into short lengths, form a material very suitable for spinning.

I manufacture also a yarn, composed partly of flax, or other like vegetable fibre (China grass excepted), prepared and cut into short lengths, as aforesaid, and partly of waste silk; that is, silk of the short lengths in which it exists before reeling, or silk rags cut into short lengths and carded.

Lastly. Flax felts, of a fineness and softness equal to the best felts, composed wholly of wool, and superior to them in point of durability, are also produced by a mixture of flax-fibre, prepared and cut into short lengths, as aforesaid, with wool, fur, hair, or any other feltable material.

And I declare that what I claim as secured to me by the said letters patent, is as follows:

First. I claim the method of bleaching by double decomposition, before described, whereby the various bleaching agents and compounds used may be recovered and economized.

Second. I claim the method of bleaching by the combined action of chlorides, or carbonates, or chromates, or any other bleaching agent, with fumes of sulphur, as before described.

Third. I claim the preparing of flax and hemp, and of all vegetable fibre capable of being spun or felted, from whatever description of plants obtainable, by steeping the plant from which the fibre is derived, while in the state of straw, stem, leaf, or fibre, first in a solution of caustic, soda, or other solution of like properties, and then in a bath of dilute sulphuric or other acid, as before exemplified and described.

Fourth. I claim the preparing of the said vegetable fibre for spinning in cotton and silk machinery, and for being combined with cotton, wool, raw silk, or other materials of sort staple, by firstly steeping the same in a solution of caustic, soda, or other solution of like properties. Secondly, steeping them in a bath of dilute sulphuric, or other suitable acid, or exposing them to the fumes of sulphur. Thirdly, saturating them with a solution of bicarbonate of soda, or any other like agent, and then decomposing such salt, however such decomposition may be effected; and, Fourthly, cutting them up into short lengths, all as before exemplified and described.

Fifth. I claim the employment generally in the preparation of flax, hemp, and other sorts of vegetable fibre, of the mode of splitting by gaseous expansion, as before described, whether the fibre is long or short, and whatever may be the purpose to which the same is to be applied.

Sixth. I claim the manufacture of yarns and felts from a combination of flax, or like vegetable fibre (China grass excepted), prepared and mixed, as aforesaid, with cotton wool, "shoddy," silk waste, fur, and hair, all or any of them as before exemplified and described.

ARTICLE III.

INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE UPON LANGUAGE.

Effects of Commerce upon Language-Commerce influencing Language-Copiousness caused by extensive Commerce-Advantages of a copious LanguageThe American-English-Greek and Roman Languages-Deficiency in the American and English Languages-Probable progress and present position of the American Language.

(From the Merchants" Magazine.)

The effects of the Commerce, or of the commercial action of a nation upon its language, are very significant. National language, by the aid of Commerce, its attendants and consequents, becomes copious, expressive and influential: and, in proportion to the extension and increase of Commerce, the arts and sciences, language variegates and expands. A narrow and exclusive community, having intercourse by commercial traffic or otherwise, with but few other communities, must necessarily have occasion for fewer words, and a less number of ideas than those whose commercial privileges are more numerous, and whose business intercourse and capacities are more extensive. In such limited communities, we see the condition of nations or tribes, in respect to language, like the North American Aborigines, whose language, though energetic, was too sparse or barren to serve the purposes of familiar conversation;-and in order to be understood and felt, it required the aid of strong and animated gesticulation. We plainly observe then, that the wider and farther a nation's Commerce, with its concomitants, extends, the more excursive and comprehensive will be its lingual capacities. Words and ideas become matters of international exchange or acquisition; and Commerce the bridge over which they travel from country to country.

A language acquires copiousness and richness by the addition of terms and phrases "borrowed," and introduced, from the languages of other countries. Every new commodity, art and object, every new idea or invention, arising from conjunctive national minds, is followed by a name or meet expression. And each "winged word" is brought to the store-house of national language. A cultivated, copious language, derived from, or belonging to, any commercial people of the present time, will exhibit, in its constituent elements, many words directly introduced or derived from ancient and modern nations; and due attention to the sources of these words, will develop their nativity in the vernaculars of various nations of the Globe. A glance, for example, at the ingredients of our own language, exhibits the words. cherub, corban, eden, leviathan, sabbath, satan, seraph, &c., to be from the Hebrew; alphabet, anthem, chronometer, gymnasium, hydraulic, orthography, rhetoric, from the Greek; animal, artisan, adage, coinage,