Abstract

Single fibres from a commercial chrome tanned side leather have been extended and set by heating them in an oven and in a steam/air mixture. Dry heat setting is much less effective than moist. The set measured increased rapidly with temperature up to about 65°c and relatively slowly above this temperature; it increased with duration of setting; and it decreased as the imposed initial stretch increased. All these changes are similar to those in strips of chrome leather when these are extended and set. There are some grounds for believing that slip and re-alignment of the constituent fibrils do not account for the whole of the set in a fibre; probably setting is accompanied by changes on a molecular scale as well.