XX1.-THE DESTRUCTION OF CELLULOSE FIBllES
AND FABRICS BY MICRO-ORGANISMS, AND
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN
THE STUDY OF THIS DESTRUCTION.
By A. C. THAYSEN, Yli.D., and H. J. BUNKER, H.A.
(From Bacteriological Laboratory, 1t.N. Cordite FACTORY, Holton
Heath, Dorset.)
(Read March 21, 1923.)
TWO PLATES AND ONE TEXT-FIGURE.
IT has long been known that cotton and linen fabrics become
brittle and short-fibred on storage, particularly when exposed to
the ATMOSPHERE. A good example of this destruction of cellulose
fabrics has lately been reported by the explorers of the tomb of
King Tutankhamen, who found most of the fabrics there deposited
deteriorated and turned into a brownish dust.
Had this destruction of cellulose fabrics been LIMITED to such
samples. which had been stored for thousands of years, the problein
of detecting the cause and of preventing the damage would have-
been of little practical importance.
Unfortunately, however, the destruction of cellulose fabrics
through exposure tc the atmosphere often proceeds at such a
rapid rate that its inzywtance was bound to be recognized in the
course of time. It was the urgent needs of the Great War which
set people working to determine the cause of it, and to find means
of preventing it.
As to the cause of the destruction, various suggestions have
been made, and sunlight, chemicals and micro-organisms have in
tarn been suspected. It need hardly be added that physicists
have favoured a physical explanation of the destruction, chemists a
chemical, and bacteriologists a microbiological. The truth appears
to be that physical, chemical and biological AGENTS can set up the
disintegration.
The authors prefer to leave other and more competent people
to deal with the physical and chemical side of the deterioration of
cellulose fibres, and are limiting themselves to a DISCUSSION of the
destruction caused by micro-organisms. It might be advisable to
add, however, that whatever the cause of the breakdown the effect
on the fibre appears to be the same. The final result in all cases
is that the fibres disintegrate into a powdery mass.