Strength of Cotton Fiber Bundles

There appeared in the December 1942 issue of TEXTILE RESEARCH an article entitled "Plastic Bonded Cotton Fiber" by M.A. Goldman and Gerner A. Olsen, that has attracted some attention. In this article the authors de scribe a new process for laying a thin web of cotton fibers in parallel arrangement and bonding them to form un woven sheets. Early experiments have indicated that this method may utilize the inherent high tensile strength of the cotton fiber, which strength is, to a great extent, lost when the fibers are twisted to form a yarn. It is well known that the tensile strength developed by cotton yarn is only from 10 to 20 per cent of the combined strengths of the fibers in a given cross section of the yarn.

A statement in the article that a part of the loss in strength is due to the fact that the full strength of a tensile member is only attained when it is perfectly straight, with the applied load acting along its longi tudinal axis, is confirmed by data given in the following letter received by Mr. Goldman from R. W. Webb:*