Linen textiles

Linen textiles made from flax fibers have been known and used by mankind since antiquity (1 ). Flax has been used in many textile constructions including fine linen fabrics, laces, embroideries, and bridal fashions, and many historic linen textiles have become part of permanent museum collections. Older linen fabrics and laces are prized for their natural creamy color and luster and often have been recycled and reused. However, little is known about natural aging of linen. Most aging studies for cellulosics such as linen have involved accelerated heat-induced aging. 

The Shroud is a linen textile that consists of cellulose derived from flax. Each of the constituent elements of the cellulose (hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen) exists in several stable isotopic forms. The lighter isotopes 1H, 12C, and leO are generally more abundant, but smaller concentrations of the heavier D (2H), 13C, and lsO are also present in measurable amounts. In any sample, the relative quantities D/H, 13C/12C, and 180/160 depend on the physical, chemical, and biological history of the material. 

The degree of sensitivity that the textile fibers showed (both to the accelerated aging and to the different washing treatments) demonstrated that cellulose from cotton and linen textiles can be expected to be as susceptible to degradative processes as are the more extensively studied rag fiber papers. Therefore, much of the literature concerning treatments carried out on paper substrates should be applicable to textile conservation. However, it is still important to exercise caution in applying results from wood pulp papers to textile artifacts. 

A major proportion of the organic matter on Earth is plant tissue ( biomass ) and is composed of carbohydrates, principally cellulose. This is the structural support polymer of land plants and the material used since ancient times in the form of cotton and linen textiles, and later as paper. Chitin is a polymer related to cellulose that has skeletal function in arthropods and fungi. Other polymeric carbohydrates constitute the structural support framework for marine plants and the cell walls of microorganisms. The sweet carbohydrate of sugar cane, now termed sucrose, has been a dietary item for at least 10 millennia. 

HGM Edwards, E Ellis, DW Farwell, RC Janaway. Preliminary study of the application of Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy to the analysis of degraded archaeological linen textiles. J Raman Spectrosc 27 663-669 (1996). 

Fibers (see Fibers, survey) used in textile production can have a wide variety of origins plants, ie, ceUulosic fibers (see Fibers, cellulose esters) animals, ie, protein fibers (see Wool) and, in the twentieth century, synthetic polymers. Depending on the part of the plant, the ceUulosic fibers can be classified as seed fibers, eg, cotton (qv), kapok bast fibers, eg, linen from flax, hemp, jute and leaf fibers, eg, agave. Protein fibers include wool and hair fibers from a large variety of mammals, eg, sheep, goats, camels, rabbits, etc, and the cocoon material of insect larvae (sUk). Real sUk is derived from the cocoon of the silkworm, Bombjx mori and for a long time was only produced in China, from which it was traded widely as a highly valuable material. 

Textile fibers are made from chemurgic materials such as cotton, rayon, linen, and wool (qv). 

It is also common practice to classify filter media by their materials of construction. Examples are cotton, wool, linen, glass fiber, porosmooth surface caused by carrying the warp (or the weft) on the fabric surface over many weft (or warp) yarns. Intersections between warp and weft are kept to a minimum, just sufficient to hold the fabric firmly together and still provide a smooth fabric surface. The percentage of open area in a textile filter indicates the proportion of total fabric area that is open, and can be determined by the following relationship ... 

Byssinosis Reactive airway disease associated with inhalation of organic textile fibers,. such as cotton, flax, linen, and hemp. 

In 1932, nine out of ten kilos of textiles the Germans used had been imported. This ratio applied to most other household things. Farben went into the forests. Soon every other citizen arose to the tinkle of a Farben plastic clock, rolled back a new synthetic-fabric spread. Every other man shaved with Farben soap that had been made from the residue of the paraffin that had been made from the coal. At least twice a week, the German ate a new Farben food cooked in synthetic fat. Six out of ten dinner tables were spread with Farben cloths. After the worker went to his job, his wife cleaned the linen, the curtains, the casements, and dusted the furniture goods — all made from beechwood. 

Uses. About 35-40% of the methanol made is converted to formaldehyde. That s not because the embalming business is so good. Formaldehyde is a feedstock for amino and phenolic resins, which are used as adhesives in plywood, and in the automotive and appliance industry to make parts (all the agitators in washing machines used to be made out of phenolic resins). It is used as feedstock for hexamethylene tetramine, used in electronic plastics for pentaerythritol, used for making enamel coatings and for floor polish and inks for butanediol, a chemical intermediate and for acetic acid, which is widely used itself as a feedstock and solvent and warrants its own treatrnent later on. In the textile business, formaldehyde is used to make fire retardants, mildew resistant linens, and permanent press clothing. 

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