Part 6

=Leather Cloth.=--This name is given to a cloth which is known in the Bradford district as a Melton. It is a union cloth woven from cotton warp and woollen weft having the warp threads running in pairs or, as it is called, in "sisters." Generally measuring from 50 to 56 inches in width and weighing from 20 to 24 ounces per yard, it is finished with a bright, smooth face. The system of interlacing of warp and weft is not apparent either on the face or back of the cloth. By pulling away one or two weft threads it is easy to see that the warp threads are of cotton and that they are in pairs. Leather cloth is free from any figuring and is generally dyed in dark colours.

=Leno.=--Where a fabric is woven with a combination of gauze weaving and a few plain picks it is said to be a Leno. It is a term now currently used to designate all classes of light fabrics into which the gauze weave (in which kind of weaving all the warp threads do not run parallel or at right angles to the weft but are more or less twisted round each other) is introduced in combination with any other kind of weave. Lenos may have either an "all-over effect" or "stripes." The introduction in Lenos of the gauze weave tends to strengthen a material which from its very nature can only be but light. Lenos may show, in addition to the "all-over effect," an extra weft figure or spot. Whilst all these would be known as Lenos, their more correct designation would be Figured Lenos, or Extra Weft Spot Figured Lenos. The term is now loosely used, and sometimes a "lace" stripe Muslin will be called a Leno. The crossing threads used in the true or "net" Lenos are often of two or three fold yarn. The common so-called lace curtains are Lenos. The common varieties of Lenos are extensively used for the purpose of mosquito nets.

=Liberty.=--A light-weight silk having a satin finish. A trade name applied to a satin-finish silk of light weight now generally applied to such silks, although not the original "Liberty."

=Linen Yarn.=--When the count of linen yarn is given, it is denoted by "leas." Each lea is a measure of 300 yards, and 10 leas = 1 hank and 20 hanks = 1 bundle. It will be seen that as the "counts" increase, the weight per bundle decreases.

=Lingerie.=--This comprehensive term embraces ladies' and children's undergarments, such as skirts, undershirts, etc., infant's long and short dresses, stockings, chemises, night-robes, drawers, corset covers, etc.

=Lining.=--A cloth usually made from cotton warp and cotton, alpaca, or Botany weft, according to the type of cloth required, generally woven with a sateen weave. Italian Cloth is a typical example of lining cloth. The name denotes a class of fabrics rather than a given fabric.

=Lisle Thread.=--Yarns made of long-staple cotton, somewhat tightly twisted and having a smooth surface produced by passing the yarn over gas jets.

=Loading Worsted and Woollens.=--When the natural weight of any fabric is artificially increased, it is subjected to a treatment called "filling," "loading," or "weighting." Wool fabrics, by reason of their great hygroscopic properties, are usually weighted by being impregnated with hygroscopic substances, such as magnesium chloride. Other agents employed for filling worsted and woollen goods are zinc chloride, dextrine, starch, and water glass (alkali silicate).

Zinc chloride is a most useful loading agent on account of it possessing great hygroscopic properties. When a wool fabric has passed through solutions containing this agent the chloride is absorbed and permanently retained in the form of moisture, and a slippery handle or feel is imparted.

=Longcloth.=--This name is used to designate a fine cotton fabric, either plain or twill woven, of superior quality, made from a fine grade of cotton yarn of medium twist.

The fabric is used for infants' long dresses, from which it derives its name, also for lingerie. Longcloth to some extent resembles Batiste, fine Muslin, India Linen, and Cambric. It is, however, distinguished from these fabrics by the closeness of its weave. It has, when finished, a very good white appearance, due to the closeness of the weave and the soft twist of the yarn. The surface is rendered smooth by undergoing a "gassing" process.

=Long Ells (Woollen).=--This name is given to an all-wool twill-weave fabric woven with a worsted warp and a woollen weft, averaging in width from 28 to 30 inches and having a length of 24 yards to the piece. Calendered, finished, and often dyed a bright vermilion. Long Ells averaged in value during the 10 years 1904-14 about 17_s._ per piece. They are not met with in a large range of qualities, the most usual type answering to the above description.

=Long Stick.=--This term is used to describe a yard of 36½ inches in length. The abbreviated manner of writing this term on documents referring to textiles is LS. It is only used in connexion with textile fabrics and in opposition to "short stick," a yard of 36 inches. One authority states that "the yard is generously reckoned at 37 inches by manufacturers in the United Kingdom." This statement, however, should be taken with reserve, although in the woollen trade it seems to be a common practice. In addition to this extra 1 inch per yard, a quarter of a yard in every 10 is generally allowed, so that a nominal 40-yard piece would actually measure 40 yards + 40 inches + 1 yard = 42 yards 4 inches. The long stick measure is only used in the woollen trade.

=Louisine.=--A silk fabric having an uneven surface like that of an Armure, but finer in effect.

=Lustre Dress Fabrics.=--This class of union fabric, when woven with a fast black dyed cotton warp and a worsted mohair weft, is representative of union fabrics in general, and the treatment of this material when in its grey state applies to the majority of union fabrics. The warp is generally a 2/80's, _i.e._, a strong yarn, and the weft, say, a 1/14's. The warp being dyed prior to weaving, there only remains the weft to be dyed after the unfinished cloth leaves the loom. This is called cross-dyeing. The grey cloth, in its loom state, possesses a visible appearance of non-lustrous cotton. This appearance is changed and replaced by the lustre effect through the process of "crabbing," or drawing out the material in the direction of the cotton warp. The warp threads when drawn straight virtually throw the lustrous weft to the surface, whilst they themselves become embedded out of sight in the cloth. Orleans, Mohair Brilliantine, and Mohair Sicilian are fabrics which come under this heading.

=Maco.=--Applied to hosiery or underwear made from pure Egyptian undyed cotton.

=Madapolams= are all-cotton plain-weave bleached Shirtings or Calico cloths.

=Madras.=--A light-weight cotton fabric or a cotton and silk mixture sold in widths varying from 27 to 32 inches, usually made from dyed yarns. Extensively used to designate light-weight shirting materials as used for men's shirts, the term is equally applied to similar weight fabrics printed in simple designs frequently elaborated in weaving by stripes or figures woven on a dobby loom. In the distributing trade, comprising various subdivisions of the trade, the names Madras, Gingham, Madras Gingham, Zephyr, etc., are so closely allied as to be impossible of separation. The original intent of these several designations has apparently been completely lost. Madras may either be woven as a plain or twill or kindred weave fabric. Whilst this name is primarily applied to an all-cotton fabric, it is also used to designate a cotton and silk mixture, when it is sometimes described as a Silk Gingham. The salient characteristic of Madras is the plain white and fancy coloured narrow stripes running in the direction of the warp.

=Madras Gingham.=--This name is applied to all-cotton fabrics made in part or to a considerable extent of dyed yarns of various colours, woven into stripes or checks woven either plain or fancy or with a combination of two or more weaves, and of a weight distinctly suitable for a shirting material in countries lying in the temperate zone. In the United States the introduction of a leno or satin stripe for the purpose of elaboration or ornamentation does not change the trade designation of such Gingham. Madras Gingham may be woven either plain, diamond, gauze and leno weave, or a combination of these weaves. _See_ Madras.

=Madras Handkerchiefs.=--Plain-woven coloured cloths, with large bold checks. The yarns are dyed with a loose top, and the cloth is treated with acids, which cause the colours to bleed or run and give an imitation of block printing.

=Maline.=--A fine silk net of gauze-like texture. Practically the same as Tulle.

=Market Descriptions of Standard Cloth.=--Certain standard cloths are known on the market by an expression such as "36--76, 19 x 22, 32/36". This stated at length means that the cloth is 36 inches wide, 76 yards long, and contains 19 "ends" (or warp threads) and 22 "picks" (or weft threads) per quarter inch, whilst the twist (or warp) is 32's and the weft 36's--all being actual, not nominal, particulars.

=Marl.=--A term applied to a particular kind of coloured two-fold or single yarn. In the former (the two-fold) one or both threads making the two-fold yarn are spun from two rovings of different colours, causing the single thread to have a twist-like appearance; or the process may be begun earlier, by the two colours being run together in the thick roving, thus producing a twist-like effect in the smaller roving immediately preceding the spinning. These single twist-looking threads are usually folded with a solid colour, frequently black. If folded with each other they are called Double Marls; a single-yarn Marl is this yarn without the folding.

=Marquisette.=--A sheer plain-weave fabric of silk or cotton, having a mesh more open than that of Voile.

=Matelassé.=--A heavy compound-weave figured cloth, having a raised pattern, as if quilted or wadded.

=Matt Weave.=--Similar to a plain or one-over-one weave, with this difference, that instead of lifting one thread at a time two are lifted over two. It might be described as a double plain weave. This style of weave is noticeable in some varieties of embroidery canvas.

=Medium Cloth (Woollen).=--This is an all-wool fabric, plain woven from a wool weft and wool warp. In width it varies from 54 to 74 inches and in length from 19 to 36 yards per piece. The average value of this fabric per yard for the period 1904 to 1914 was 4_s._ 3_d._

This fabric approximates to, and by some is said to be identical with, Broad, Habit, and Russian Cloth.

=Mélange.=--The French word for "mixture." Name given to a yarn produced from printed tops. This class of yarn can be distinguished from Mixture Yarn in that many fibres have more than one colour upon them. In Mixture Yarn each fibre would only have one colour.

=Melton.=--Stout, smooth woollen cloth, similar to Broadcloth, but heavier. A heavily milled woollen in which the fibres have been raised, then the piece cut bare to obtain the typical Melton. Both light and heavy Meltons are made with cotton warp and woollen weft.

=Mercerised Cotton.=--Cotton fibre roughly resembles a tube which, being hollow and collapsed on itself, presents an uneven, twisted, tape-like appearance with a good many surface markings.

By chemical treatment (mercerising) with caustic soda, and the application of tension at the right period of the treatment, remarkable changes in the structure and appearance of the cotton fibre are produced. It is made to swell, to become more transparent, to lose its twisted tube-like appearance, and to become more lustrous, translucent, and elastic. Mercerised cotton gives an impression of silk to the naked eye, its microscopic appearance being changed, the fibre having swelled out and assumed a rounded rod-like appearance which, whilst resembling silk, still differs from silk by the absence of the characteristic swellings so distinctive to silk.

The mercerising process improves the dyeing properties of cotton. The most effective mercerisation is obtained with Egyptian cotton.

=Mercerising.=--The object of this very important operation in the manufacture of cotton goods, yarn, or cloth is to give them lustre, making them resemble silk, the use of which they have replaced in many instances. The process, which takes its name from the inventor (Mercer), consists of passing the yarn or cloth, preferably bleached or partially bleached, through a concentrated solution of caustic soda, which causes the straightening of the cotton fibres, and would also cause it to shrink considerably were it not for the fact that the material being treated is kept under tension, which prevents the shrinking. To this tension more than anything else is the lustre imparted due. Mercerising is only applicable to vegetable fibres. Animal fibres dissolve in caustic soda. The caustic soda solution is only allowed to react on the fibre for about two minutes, when it is washed out by abundant application of fresh water. _See_ Mercerised Cotton.

=Merino.=--Applied to hosiery or underwear made of part cotton and part wool mixed together. (_Note._--The word "merino" on a box label is often misleading, as it frequently happens that goods so called are composed wholly of cotton.)

=Mesh Underwear.=--All knit underwear cloth is mesh in varying degree, but the common application of the term means a woven or knitted fabric having a net-like appearance.

=Messaline.=--A light-weight satin of fine quality.

=Mixture Yarn.=--This class of yarn is spun from fibres which have previously, and separately, been dyed various colours. The fibres are then mixed together to produce the desired mixture tone and spun in the usual way. This class of yarn differs from Mélange Yarn, which is composed of fibres upon which more than one colour has been printed.

=Mock Leno.=--Mock or imitation Lenos are ordinary woven cloths, that is, the warp threads do not cross each other, the open effect being less pronounced than in the real Leno, resulting in a fabric which is not as strong as the real or true Leno.

=Mock Seam.=--Applied to stockings made with cut leg and fashioned foot.

=Mohair= is a lustrous wool obtained from the Angora goat. The hair is often pure white, fine, wavy, and of good length, being the most lustrous of the wool or hair class fibres. It is extensively used in the manufacture of Plushes and lustrous dress fabrics. The name Mohair is used to designate a lustrous fabric made from this class of material.

=Mohair Beaver Plush.=--This fabric is a pile-weave material having a long lustrous mohair pile and a cotton back. The mohair pile is generally a "fast" pile in the sense that it is firmly held to the back. The pile is not as lustrous as a silk pile or even a good mercerised cotton pile, but it will not crush as readily as the latter. Generally measures from 48 to 50 inches in width and 60 yards in length. To prevent crushing of the pile, this material is shipped on an iron frame, on which it is fastened by a series of hooks which hold the material by the selvedges. Generally packed two frames to the box or case. The backs of mohair pile fabrics show a certain amount of loose pile fibres which have worked through during the process of weaving. This is not found in either silk or cotton pile fabrics.

=Mohair Brilliantine.=--A typical lustre dress fabric, plain woven, free from ornamentation, cotton warp and mohair weft; width, 30 to 31 inches; length, 30 to 35 yards per piece. Finer in weave appearance than Lustre Orleans, with a fairly extensive range of qualities. Like most lustre fabrics, it is cross-dyed.

=Mohair Coney Seal.=--A long mohair-pile fabric, dyed black, in widths of from 48 to 50 inches. The pile of this fabric is mohair, the foundation cloth all cotton. Harsher to the touch than a silk-pile fabric, Mohair Coney Seal has, as a distinctive feature, a fuzzy appearance at the back due to the fact that certain of the pile fibres appear to have worked through. If a similar fabric were dyed brown instead of black, it would be known as a Mohair Beaver Plush. If a similar fabric were dyed black and the surface chemically bleached till the dye was all out, producing a pile dyed two-thirds black and the surface third white, it would be known as a Silver Seal or Chinchilla Plush.

=Mohair Sicilian.=--Similar in construction of weave and components to a Mohair Brilliantine and differing from this only by the relative coarseness of threads. Sicilian is three times as coarse as Brilliantine, presenting a surface in which the warp and weft intersections are clearly shown, whereas the Brilliantine, being so much finer woven, does not show these so clearly, presenting as it does a smoother surface. The weft threads in Sicilian are comparatively much coarser than the warp, whereas in Brilliantine this difference is not so apparent. In width Sicilian measures up to 54 inches and in length from 30 to 35 yards per piece.

=Moiré.=--A watered design applied to silks by pressure between engraved rollers, or by the more common process of pressing two fabrics together. _See_ Watering.

=Moleskin.=--An all-cotton Fustian, made extra strong by crowding the number of picks to the inch, napped before dyeing and put to the same uses as a strong Corduroy.

=Mottles.=--A variety of Velveteen or Velveteen Cord woven with a pile surface showing a distinct combination of yarn-dyed pile threads. Generally found with a pile combining black and white weft-pile threads; Mottles are yarn-dyed fabrics.

=Mousseline de Soie.=--A sheer soft fabric of silk, similar to Chiffon, but of more open weave.

=Mule-twist Yarn.=--Mule-twist yarn can be spun up to the finest counts; it is softer and more elastic than ring-twist yarn; it will take up more "size" than ring-twist and, generally speaking, is more regular in construction.

=Mull.=--A thin plain fabric usually bleached or dyed, characterised by a soft finish, used for dress wear. Various prefixes, such as Swiss, India, and Silk, are used in conjunction with Mull. Silk Mull is made of cotton warp and silk filling, and generally of higher count, finished either dyed or printed. The Swiss and India Mulls are fine, soft, bleached cotton fabrics; Silk Mull is in point of texture twice as fine as some grades of Cotton Mull. Cotton Mull is a plain fabric free from any ornamental features or fancy weaves, depending for its beauty or attractiveness entirely on the finish. When coarse-grade Mull, intended not for dress wear but for decorative purposes, is made, it is woven coarser than the dress fabric, stiffened in the finishing, and commonly known as Starched Mull. It is 30 inches wide, and has 36 picks and 40 ends per inch. Cotton Mull is generally woven from bleached yarns and not bleached in the piece.

=Mungo and Shoddy= are wool products or wool fibres which have previously passed through the process of manufacture.

Before either Mungo or Shoddy is produced, the rags, tailors' clippings, pattern-room clippings, or samples from which they are made have to be dusted, sorted, and ground. The last process tears thread from thread and fibre from fibre, leaving the Mungo or Shoddy ready to be once more made up into a yarn. The name is applied to textiles made up wholly or in great part from Mungo or Shoddy.

There actually exists a technical difference between Mungo and Shoddy, due to the class of fabric from which they are made. Mungo is the product of all types of cloths which have been subjected to the milling process. Shoddy is the product of unmilled fabrics, such as flannels, stockings, wraps, etc. Mungo is usually shorter and finer in fibre than Shoddy, because, in the first place, milled cloths are nearly always made from the shorter kinds of wool; secondly, because the fibres of a milled cloth are very difficult to separate from one another and break in the process of pulling.

Both Mungo and Shoddy are rather more comprehensive terms than names for any special type of material; both classes have a number of special divisions with different names.

=Nainsook.=--Nainsook is a light cotton fabric of plain weave which has a very soft finish. It may be distinguished from fine Lawns, fine Batiste, and fine Cambric from the fact that it has not as firm a construction nor as much body, and for that reason is not capable of retaining as much finishing material, the result being that when finished it has a very soft feel when handled. In width it ranges from 28 to 32 inches and in length from 20 to 60 yards per piece.

=Nankeen.=--The original Nankeen fabric was produced in China and was a plain-weave cotton fabric woven on a hand loom from a cotton yarn which had a natural yellow-coloured tinge. The name is now given to a cotton cloth produced in Lancashire, woven as a three-shaft twill and dyed a yellowish drab and other colours, often used for corset-making.

There is a mass of evidence to show that true Nankeen is a class of cloth having as a salient characteristic an inherent peculiar colour which is natural and due to its being woven from cotton of a yellow-brownish tint. The following extracts bear on this point.

"The statement that this stuff was made from a cotton of brownish yellow tint was for a long time discredited, but it is now certain that the yellow preserves the colour of the cotton composing it rather than acquires it by any process of dyeing" (S. William Beck: "Textile Fabrics: Their History and Applications").

Sir George Staunton, who travelled with Lord Macartney's Embassy through the province of Kiangnan, to which province the Nankeen cotton is peculiar, distinctly states that the cotton is naturally "of the same yellow tinge which it preserves when spun and woven into cloth" ("Embassy to China," by Sir George Staunton).

Sir George Thomas Staunton (son of the above) has translated an extract from a Chinese herbal on the character, culture, and uses of the annual herbaceous cotton plant, in which the plant producing "dusky yellow cotton" of a very fine quality is mentioned as one of the varieties ("Narratives of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tartars").

Van Braam, who travelled in China with a Dutch Embassy and who had been commissioned by European merchants to request that the Nankeens for their markets might be dyed a deeper colour than those last received, says: "La toile de Nanking, qu'on fabrique fort loin du lieu du même nom, est faite d'un coton _roussâtre_: la couleur de la toile de Nanking est donc naturelle, et point sujette à pâlir" ("Voyage de l'Ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales Hollandaises vers l'Empereur de la Chine").

"Each family (at Woosung) appears to cultivate a small portion of ground with cotton, which I here saw of a light yellow colour. The Nankeen cloth made from that requires no dye" ("Voyage of the Ship _Amherst_ to the North-east Coast of China, 1832," published by order of the House of Commons).

Other authors refer to a Nankeen-coloured cotton grown in India and state that the original Nankeen fabric was produced in Nanking, in China, and was woven from a natural-coloured yellow cotton. As produced in Lancashire the cloth is a closely woven three-shaft twill, dyed yellowish drab and other colours and used for stay and corset making and for pocketing.

An American Government publication (House of Representatives Document No. 643: Report of the Tariff Board on Schedule 1 of the Tariff Law) gives the general description of Nankeens as known in the distributing trade as: "Distinguished by their peculiar yellowish brown colour, natural to the colour of the cotton of which made."