Chapter 5 THE MICROSCOPE AND COTTON FIBRE.

This story would be very incomplete if some reference were not made to the wonderful assistance which has been given to the study of cotton fibre by the microscope. As seen by its help, some striking peculiarities at once make themselves apparent. It is proposed, briefly, in this chapter, to do three things:

1. To describe the construction of a suitable instrument sufficient for a complete examination of fibres in general.

2. To indicate the chief microscopic features of cotton fibres.

3. To show how to exactly measure the lengths and diameters of fibres by means of micrometers.

First, as to the instrument: a good substantial stand is desirable, one that will not readily vibrate. The microscope shown in Fig. 6 is a cheap and commendable form, and good work can be done by this instrument, which is made by Ross, London. The stand carries the body-tube, and at the lower end is placed the objective, so called, because the image of the object (which rests upon the stage as shown) under examination is first focussed by it and conveyed along the body-tube.

The top end of the said tube contains the eye-piece, so named because by its aid the eye is allowed to receive the image duly focussed and enlarged.

As a rule, beginners work with one objective only, generally a one inch.

Fig. 6.-Microscope in position for drawing objects.

A much higher power than this is necessary if the fibre in question is to be seen at its best, and for the purpose of this chapter a quarter inch objective will be used.

Underneath the stage, which is pierced by a circular aperture, is a diaphragm. This regulates the quantity of light which is to be transmitted by means of the silvered reflector shown in the illustration.

As a rule, two reflectors are fixed in the same holder; one a concave mirror, the other a plane one. The former brings the rays of light to a point or focus while the latter simply passes the beam of light along just as it received it, viz., as a parallel beam of light.

In examining fibres the concave mirror will be of most use. An ordinary lamp is usually good enough for the light required, the one figured being very suitable and having a tube-like arrangement of wick. Behind the body-tube are two forms of adjustment, coarse and fine. The latter is worked by means of the milled screw, conical in shape, which is found immediately behind the coarse adjustment. The operator is supposed to have had some slight experience in the manipulation of the microscope. The slide is now placed upon the stage. Fine Sea Islands cotton is mounted in Canada Balsam and protected by a small circular cover glass.

Now rack down the body-tube by means of the coarse adjustment until within 1?16 of an inch of the cover-glass of the slide. Now see that the light from the lamp is fully on the cotton strands. Rack up or down, as the case may be, with the fine adjustment, and a wonderful sight meets the eye, for the cotton viewed through the microscope is altogether unlike what we should expect it to be.

Running completely across the field are a number of strands, varying in thickness, form and natural twist. What is meant by natural twist is very clearly shown in Fig. 7.

Most people have seen india-rubber tubing or piping such as is used in the chemical laboratory or that often found attached to feeding bottles. Take about a foot of this and hold one end firmly. Abstract the air by means of the mouth, and it will be found that immediately the air is taken out the tube collapses. Now if the rubber be variable in thickness, here and there along these lines of least resistance will be found certain twists, and it is the same kind of twists which can be so distinctly seen as the cotton fibre is viewed through the microscope. They are exceedingly irregular in number, on equal lengths of the same single fibre. When they run for some length, and are fairly regular, the edges appear like wavy lines or corrugations. It will now be seen by the reader why these twists are so invaluable in spinning: locking and intertwining with each other, they materially assist the spinner in building up a long and continuous thread.

Fig. 7.-Transverse and longitudinal sections of cotton fibre.

Then, too, are to be seen lying close to the regularly twisted fibres a number of others which are very like ribbons, with here and there an apology for a twist, and further, a careful scrutiny will be rewarded by finding in what is reputedly the best cotton a number of filaments which do not display any twists whatever and are very much like the round tubing referred to a little while ago. Others again are quite flat, without any distinguishing twists whatever. These are said to be the half-ripe and unripe fibres, and give much trouble later on (if worked up with good cotton) to the dyer and spinner.

As the slide containing the cotton is moved laterally, it will be seen that this twisting of the fibre is continued for almost the whole length, and as many as 300 twists have been counted on a single filament. In some, the fibre tapers slightly, becoming more and more cylindrical as the end most remote from the seed is approached, until it is quite solid. These stiff ends soon disappear after the cotton has been treated in the early processes of manufacture. Thus there may be found in almost every sample of cotton what are called ripe, half-ripe and unripe cotton. The last-named kind result from-

1. Gathering the crop before the boll is properly ripened and matured.

2. Bad seasons; too much moisture and too little heat.

Then again in the same boll all fibres do not ripen together just as all apples on the same tree do not ripen together.

Immature or unripe cotton cannot be dyed, and when small white specks are seen in any dyed fabric they are often due to the fact that unripe cotton has been used in the manufacture of the cloth.

Measurement of the Cotton Fibre.-This is not at all a difficult matter, and the ordinary student may, by means of very simple and inexpensive apparatus, obtain fairly satisfactory results in the measurement of fibres.

There is a choice of one of three methods, viz.:-

1. By having the mechanical stage so arranged that the slightest displacement either to the left or right can be measured, and having the eye-piece so marked (generally a hair stretched across it) that when an object is to be measured, one side of it is made to coincide with this central line and the stage rack is worked left or right until the opposite side of the object is brought coincident with the central line again; the amount of displacement can then be readily obtained on referring to the graduated stage.

2. By having a stage micrometer and camera lucida.

3. By having two micrometers, a stage micrometer and eye-piece micrometer.

This latter method is certainly the least expensive, and for all practical purposes can be safely recommended.

A stage micrometer consists of a slip of glass 3" × 1" on which are marked divisions of an inch, usually 1?100ths and 1?1000ths. As a rule these markings are protected by means of a small cover-glass.

Eye-piece micrometers vary much in form, size and value, but the one which is here described is of the simplest type. It consists of two circular pieces of glass carefully cemented together. On one of the inner surfaces are marked usually the 1?100ths divisions of an inch. In some 1?200ths are marked. If the top lense of the eye-piece be unscrewed, a diaphragm will be found on which the eye-piece micrometer will easily rest. Screw on the top lense again and, generally, the eye-piece will be ready for use. If the micrometer is not properly in focus after a few trials, it may easily be made right. In order, then, to measure the diameter of a single fibre of Sea Islands cotton, fit in the quarter inch objective and place the stage micrometer in position on the stage. First, focus the fine lines which are plainly to be seen, and remember the lines which are farthest apart are 1?100th of an inch; the others 1?1000th of an inch.

As a rule, these lines run from N. to S. of the field; in other words, from top to bottom across the circles of light. Now look at the divisions in the eye-piece micrometer, which are 1?100th of an inch apart.

It will be found often that an exact number of these divisions fill up one of the 1?100th divisions of the stage micrometer markings. If an exact number are not found, the draw-tube at the top end of the body-tube should be withdrawn until an exact number is found to lie within two lines of the lower micrometer.

Suppose twenty-two of the spaces on the eye-piece micrometer just cover one of the divisions (1?100th of an inch) on the stage micrometer. Then it is clear that each division of the former represents 1?100 × 1?22 of an inch, or 1?2200th of an inch. For every fresh objective used, a fresh estimation of eye-piece and stage micrometer ratio is necessary. Having now got in the eye-piece micrometer a unit of measurement, it becomes a comparatively easy matter to measure the fibre.

Remove the stage-micrometer and put a slide of Sea Islands cotton in its place. Focus the fibre and observe the number of divisions or parts of a division covered by any particular fibre, and its measurement is at once known. Thus if a single filament covers two of the divisions then it is 2?2200th of an inch in diameter, or 1?1100th of an inch. Exactly the same method is adopted if it is desired to measure the diameters of sections of the same fibres.

The making of the drawing of a fibre, either transverse or horizontal section, is not at all a difficult matter.

All that is needed is what is known as a camera lucida. This consists of a brass fixing for the eye-piece end of the body-tube and a small reflecting prism. This prism receives the image of the objective, and reflects it in this case at right angles downward on to a sheet of paper, which is placed beneath for the purpose of tracing the said image.

Focus the object, first having the microscope in a horizontal position. This will not be a difficult matter. Now remove the cap which fits on the eye-piece, and fix on the camera lucida as shown in the illustration (see Fig. 6). Adjust this until the image of the fibre is seen. Usually one or two smoke-coloured glasses are fixed below the prism, and these are now brought into position so as to allow the image of the fibre to pass through them. Place a sheet of drawing paper directly under the camera lucida, sitting as shown in the illustration. After a few trials it will not be a difficult matter to follow the outline of the image by means of a black lead on the paper as is shown in the figure. In this way many useful working drawings can be made, and a little careful calculation will give the amplification of the drawing after it is made.

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