Chapter X: Fibres or Silken Material of the Pinna

The Pinna--Description of--Delicacy of its threads--Réaumur’s observations--Mode of forming the filament or thread--Power of continually producing new threads--Experiments to ascertain this fact--The Pinna and its Cancer Friend--Nature of their alliance--Beautiful phenomenon--Aristotle and Pliny’s account--The Greek poet Oppianus’s lines on the Pinna, and its Cancer friend--Manner of procuring the Pinna--Poli’s description--Specimens of the Pinna in the British Museum--Pearls found in the Pinna--Pliny and Athenæus’s account--Manner of preparing the fibres of the Pinna for weaving--Scarceness of this material--No proof that the ancients were acquainted with the art of knitting--Tertullian the first ancient writer who makes mention of the manufacture of cloth from the fibres of the Pinna--Procopius mentions a chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna, and a silken tunic adorned with sprigs or feathers of gold--Boots of red leather worn only by Emperors--Golden fleece of the Pinna--St. Basil’s account--Fibres of the Pinna not manufactured into cloth at Tarentum in ancient times, but in India--Diving for the Pinna at Colchi--Arrian’s account 174

CHAPTER XI.

FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE-APPLE.

Fibres of the Pine-Apple--Facility of dyeing--Manner of preparing the fibres for weaving--Easy cultivation of the plant--Thrives where no other plant will live--Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke’s patent process of manufacturing cloth from the fibres of this plant--Its comparative want of strength--Silken material procured from the Papyfera--Spun and woven into cloth--Cloth of this description manufactured generally by the Otaheiteans, and other inhabitants of the South Sea Islands--Great strength (supposed) of ropes made from the fibres of the aloe--Exaggerated statements 185