The effect of surrounding media on the apparent volume of cellulose.

Cellulosic materials have been and are of great and varied use in the world today. They form the major portion of all plant growth. In reality, cellulose is the backbone of plant structure. Since it occurs in such immense quantities and is comparatively inactive chemically, it is of utmost importance in our commercial life, forming as it does, the mainstay of the pulp, paper and textile industries. Its modified forms are used in a wide array of products from rayon silk and celluloid to high explosives. In any investigation into the properties of cellulosic substances and their relation to water, it is of importance to have some insight into the organic structure of cellulose aven though much of the nature of callulose concerns its physico-chemical properties, such as fibre structure, strength, swelling behaviour and dielectric properties. Only by the combining of these two phases, organic and physico-chemical, may it be hoped to give satisfactory explanation of the results of such an investigation. [...