Bleaching

(from the A.S. blaec, ‘pale’) is the whitening of textile fabrics by removing coloured substances naturally present, or adhering to them in the course of their manufacture. It also signifies the decolourizing of bees-wax, castor-oil, and other fatty materials, by exposure to sunlight. It was once the custom to send Scotch linen goods to be bleached in Holland, and the name Holland is still used for a kind of unbleached linen. Another kind which, from its finene , was spread on the lawns or better gra fields, received the name of lawn. It is still used under that name. The first Scotch bleach-field was established about 1730 in East Lothian. Linen, cotton, jute, wool, silk, and paper are all capable of being bleached and in 1887 a succe ful attempt to bleach wood was; made.