Abstract
WE are indebted to Dr. E. Goulding for an account of forty years of investigation of vegetable fibres at the Imperial Institute, which was the subject of the Mather Lecture delivered by him during the annual Conference of the Textile Institute on June 3-5 in London. A record such as this emphasises the importance and value of the Imperial Institute to the Empire as a whole. Individual technical reports go to all parts of the Empire, but usually each country is concerned only with those which emanate from itself. A comprehensive account of this work is therefore more than welcome, in that it gives an idea of the immense scope of inquiries which have been investigated and of which records and technical reports are available. In recent years, since the creation of the Advisory Councils of the Imperial Institute in 1926, the Scientific and Technical Department has had considerably more scope; for these Councils, of which there is one for vegetable fibres, may propose and consider schemes of work for prosecution by the Institute and may advise on the best means of carrying them out. As a result of this, one of the main lines of investigation in the case of vegetable fibres has been the effect of sea-water on the life of ropes and twines. This work was commenced primarily in the interests of the sisal industry, but has since been enlarged to include New Zealand flax, Mauritius hemp and sannhemp. The results of this work have proved to be of the greatest value both to the producer and to the consumer, and have done much to advertise the extremely useful services which the Imperial Institute performs.
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The Imperial Institute and Vegetable Fibres. Nature 137, 1024 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/1371024a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1371024a0