A Study of the Effect of Cotton Fiber Structure on Luster

Abstract

Cotton and synthetic fibers were studied analytically and experimentally to determine the basic cause of luster in fibrous materials. The analytic technique used provided a mathematical description of the interaction of light with a nearly ideal fiber, namely, glass. An instrument was constructed to measure the angle and intensity of light scattered from single fibers. A number of fibers were investigated in this way. The ideal glass fiber gave experimental data which correlated with those from the analysis. By the use of polarized light it was possible to measure the coherency of the scattering process, which was found to be a measure of the luster of the fibers. Under suitable experimental conditions, it was shown that surface reflection from a fiber is the source of the luster quality and that a small degree of surface roughness is very effective in decreasing the luster. It is not known exactly what magnitude of surface discontinuity is most responsible for loss of luster; however, it is quite possible that ways may be found to decrease these discontinuities and so increase the luster of cotton to any degree desired.