Arghan
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a recently discovered fiber plant, native in the interior of South America. The fiber is said to be stronger than that of hemp or flax and weaves into a firm and enduring cloth capable of being bleached or dyed. It has also been found to possess high resistance to the destructive action of sea-water, being thus of value for the making of fishingnets, cordage, and other marine supplies. The plant was discovered by Sir Henry Wickham, who found the S. American Indians making use of it for harness, belts, and other articles. Its cultivation has been introduced into the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon, and India. ARMENIA. The Transcaucasian Republic, of which Russian Armenia constitutes a part, was definitely united with Soviet Russia by a treaty of confederation made December 30, 1922. A proposal of the Powers that the Turkish National Government grant the Armenians of Anatolia a national homeland was rejected by the Turks at the Lausanne Near Eastern Conference, 1922-23. In no part of Anatolia, it is claimed, do Armenians remain in thing but a minority. The total number of the race in Asia Minor and the Caucasus is estimated to have dwindled to about two millions, and this number is threatened with further reduction through weakened vitality brought on by starvation and hardship. A recent examination of thousands of refugees from Asia Minor showed 90 per cent of the people to be afflicted with trachoma and in dire need of medical help to prevent the spread of blindness among them.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921, arghan was being promoted as the coming wonder fibre, backed by Sir Henry Wickham, the same man who had shipped Brazilian rubber seeds to Kew in 1876. The plantations in Ceylon, India and Malaya never paid: the fibre was hard to extract in bulk, the Arghan venture collapsed commercially, and the word itself dropped out of botanical use, the plant being generally treated as the bromeliad long known in Latin America as pita. What finished the case entirely was not agriculture but chemistry, since nylon and other synthetics took over marine cordage and netting from the 1940s, precisely the market Wickham's fibre was meant to win on its resistance to sea-water. Pita is still cut by hand today, but for embroidered leatherwork in Mexico and Colombia rather than for ships' rope.
Written for this edition, 2026.