Money Made of Linen?
‘ When I was a little kid, I always wondered how money survived a trip through the washing machine.’ I would often leave dollar bills in my pocket and look at the crinkled aftermath slightly bewildered.’ Even as a child, I knew that paper plus water equaled mush.
As much as I enjoyed toying with that inexplicably crinkled money, I was curious to unfold the mystery surrounding it.’ Cash is not your typical paper it turns out.’ ‘
To rewind just a little bit, perhaps we should first discuss paper more in depth. ‘ Normal paper, such as newspaper or notebook paper, is made out of cellulose.’ For this, trees are chemically broken down into wood fibers.’ Then, the cellulose fibers are selected to form very thin sheets of paper.
The process to create paper money is quite different.’ For the production of money, cotton and linen fabric are beaten into fibers.’ This is then used to produce the money we handle.’ There is 25% linen and 75% paper in the money we handle.’ Interestingly, before World War I silk was the chosen fiber used in place of linen.
The fibers that bond together money are much stronger than the ones holding together regular paper.’ The fibers used in money are basically unaffected by water, whereas cellulose fibers absorb water and then fall apart when wet.’
Well, that solves the big mystery.’ It’s an interesting fact and makes a lot of sense when you consider how durable linen is. ‘ This is also nice because I greatly prefer my money when it is not disintegrating.
Related posts
Colors Fit For A King
Let’s be honest, arming and equipping a small medieval army is not easy. They don’t sell broadswords at Walmart and searching “fully trained warhorse” yields no results on Amazon. Luckily, I had at least one place to start, BIKING RED. When you set out to make a short film about the rise of perhaps the…
Natalia Goncharova: The Spirit of Russia
“A spark of the spirit lives in us, it is connected with all spirit. It is divine. It is drawn to other, similar sparks. This is the urge to creation.” Natalia Goncharova was an explosive force of creativity, encapsulating the wild spirit of avant-garde Russia with painting, printmaking, performance and design. Throughout her long, prolific…
The Name of My Shop is “The Odom Reunion”
Is there anything more amazing than seeing a piece of plain cloth transformed into something spectacular? Seeing that “flat” piece of fabric, once it gets into the creators hands, go from material to a creation is nothing short of miraculous. I will never get enough of seeing what you guys will come up with next….
SEW THIS LOOK
LATEST COMMENTS
- My Seven Favourite Patterns for Linen Fabric
02 May 2024 @ 2:32 am by Nancy Gruber - A Brief History of Linen
02 Apr 2015 @ 5:13 pm by The Best Linen Pants For Petite Women - Beth Ferguson | Serious About Styling (SAS for Short) - In Tune with Nature: The Textile Art of Adriana Meunié
29 Apr 2024 @ 11:51 pm by Msapir13@gmail.com Sapir - One Yard Sewing Project: Phoebe Essential Linen Tank Tutorial
29 Aug 2017 @ 12:01 am by Claire O'Tuathail - Goodbye stale bread and How to keep bread fresh longer
30 Mar 2011 @ 12:33 pm by How to Store Sourdough Bread - The iambic
Leave a comment