Parchmentising or parchmentizing is a kind of aesthetic finish for textiles. It is a finishing treatment for

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not th ...

that stiffens the fabric and imparts a degree of translucency.

Parchment

Parchment was a material for writing created in

ancient times Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

. It was created with animal skin. It means "stuff from Pregamos" in both the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Greek language Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southe ...

Eumenes II Eumenes II Soter (; grc-gre, Εὐμένης Σωτήρ; ruled 197–159 BC) was a ruler of Pergamon, and a son of Attalus I Soter and queen Apollonis and a member of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon. Biography The eldest son of king Attalus ...

developed parchment when

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

was banned for export to Pregamos by Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The skin of sheep, goats, or cattle was used to create parchment. The parchmentising process involves the application of sulfuric acid to cellulosic textiles in order to achieve the characteristics of parchment.

Organdy

Parchmentising offers a stiffened and somewhat translucent finish.

Organdy Organdy or Organdie is a kind of sheer fabric. It is a lightweight balanced plain weave cotton with features of sheerness and crispness. Characteristics Organdy is a stiffened material; sheerest among its peers, such as lawn cloth and Bati ...

is one of the sheerest cloths produced by the process.

Development

Parchmentising was described in 1850 by John Mercer, who treated cotton with solutions of 110–125 °Tw sulfuric acid, at room temperature, followed by washing. Mercer observed that the treated fabric was soft like fine wool when treated at 110°Tw, shrank and stiffened at 114°Tw, or shrank, stiffened, and became semi-transparent from 116–125°Tw. In general, treating indefinitely with concentrations below 110°Tw (64%) only swells and shrinks the fabric, while higher concentrations produce the stiff, translucent parchment-like effect in a few seconds, with some loss of tensile strength. Textile makers have combined sulfuric acid treatment with other processes to achieve different effects. For example,

Mercerising Mercerisation is a textile finishing treatment for cellulose fabric and yarn, mainly cotton and flax, which improves dye uptake and tear strength, reduces fabric shrinkage, and imparts a silk-like luster. Development The process was devise ...

cotton fabric before acid treatment appears to make it more susceptible to treatment at lower concentrations of sulfuric acid. At about 106 °Tw the Mercerised lustre is removed and the fabric becomes fuller, softer, and more wool-like, similar to a crêpe. The parchmentising effect is still present at higher concentrations, and may be obtained as low as 107.5 °Tw with somewhat longer treatment, perhaps a few minutes. Acid and alkaline treatments are sometimes applied several times in alternation, and patterns may be created by locally applying a

resist A resist, used in many areas of manufacturing and art, is something that is added to parts of an object to create a pattern by protecting these parts from being affected by a subsequent stage in the process. Often the resist is then removed. For ...

before or between treatments. At every stage the treatment is stopped by washing and neutralizing the fabric. After acid treatment and washing, a heavy calender, sometimes heated, can be applied to the wet or dried fabric to vary its translucency.

References

Textile industry Fibers Cotton 1850 introductions {{textile-stub