| Dear colleagues, Today a group of students and I went about carrying out the drying twist test on linen and hemp fibres, following the method described in "Identification of textile fibres", The Textile Institute, 1985, 7th edition Make a fibre thoroughly wet then remove excess water with a tissue. Grasp one end with the tweezers and hold the free end over the heat source (in this case, a hot plate). Observe the movement of the fibre by pointing the free end directly towards you. results • clockwise - linen, ramie and nettle • anticlockwise - hemp and most other fibres • alternating clockwise and anticlockwise - cotton Our results: two different linen samples repeatedly twisted anti-clockwise while the one hemp sample (identified by the Neocarmine W stain test) twisted clockwise. Cotton performed as to be expected. So many contrary reactions (particularly with the linen) would seem to cause doubts as to the accuracy of the described expected result. Could this book possibly be wrong? Could there be other factors at play? Any other thoughts? Not having any other references to hand in which this method is mentioned, I hope someone has another source for this test to check the expected direction of twist for linen and hemp. With thanks, Jennifer Barnett Regina Textilia historic textiles conservation, research and consultancy Route de Dancé FR - 42260 Bully tel/fax * 33 (0)4 77 65 20 11 |