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Examination of an unproofed fibre dyed with logwood black shows again the same characteristic structure with the dye inside the fibre, colouring it a beautiful bluish-grey tint, the inner cellular markings being black.

I would strongly advise everyone interested in hat manufacturing or similar industries to make a collection of wool and fur fibres, and mount them on microscope slides so as to form a kind of index collection for reference. Natural wool fibre unproofed. Wool fibre showing proof on surface, filling up the cells and rendering the same dye-proof.

The subsequent "greening" of the black hats after a short period of wear is simply due to the ease with which such badly fixed dye rubs off, washes off, or wears off, the brownish or yellowish substratum which gradually comes to light, causing a greenish shade to at length appear. If we examine under the microscope a pure unproofed fur fibre, its characteristic structure is quite visible.

Fur fibre from surface of veneered felt, showing dye deposited in cells and on the surface, bright and lustrous. Wool fibre as in No. 2, with dye deposited on surface of proof. Section of proofed and veneered body, showing unproofed surface. The name or word "mordant" indicates the empiricism, or our old friend "the rule of thumb," of the age in which it was first created and used.

Thus the short-staple wool or fur felts itself on to the fibres already forming part of the hat bodies, and a new layer of pure, unproofed wool or fur is gradually wrought on to the proofed surface. This successful invention emphasises the value of the microscope in the study of processes connected with textile fibres.