Fiber
or FIBRE, a filament, or thread, the minute part of either animal or vegetable substances. The scientific use of fiber is described with regard to the animal kingdom under muscle and tissue; and with regard to the vegetable kingdom, under vegetable tissue, wood, and woody fiber. In its more popular but perfectly accurate use, the word includes the hair and wool of quadrupeds, the threads of the cocoons of silk worms, etc.; the fibers of the leaves of gated cells or hairs connected with the seeds of plants, and the ordinary materials used in making cordage and textile fabrics. Mineral substances are called fibrous in structure even when it is imfibrous in structure even when it is im- The only fibrous mineral which has been a variety of asbestos, but that only to a very limited extent. The animal substances used are divided into two classes -the first including hair and wool, and FICKE The the second the silk of cocoons. Nearly all textile fabrics are made from the first, and the wool of the sheep is the most important division of the class. bison, and other animals is also used.
The hair of most animals is, however, in general, too short to allow of its being used for textile manufacture. vegetable kingdom yields the largest number of useful fibers, which are obtained from natural orders very different from each other. The carogenous ever, afford any. or cryptogamous plants do not, howplants, fibers are obtained from the From exogenous etc., and from the hairs of the fruit, as inner bark, as in the case of flax, hemp, fiber is sometimes obtained from the in cotton. In endogenous plants the fruit, as in the coconut fiber. The spathe of some palms is also used.
Some of the slender palms called rattans, and the bulrush, etc., are much used, on account of their fibrous nature, for wicker-work, chair-bottoms, and similar purposes. from endogenous plants come from the The most valuable fibers obtained from endogenous plants come from the cotton have long held the first place. vegetable fibers those of flax, hemp, and The principal additions, of late years, Manila hemp, Chinese grass, and some have been New Zealand flax, jute, Sunn others. One of the most important uses of vegetable fiber is in the manufacture others. One of the most important uses of paper.