Vegetable flannel is a type of

flannel Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, ...

using fibres from the

Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

, or ''Pinus sylvestris'', rather than traditional

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

len fibres. It is described as having a hemp like appearance, but with a tighter, softer texture. In addition to this, the term can also describe coarse linen used for underclothing.

Manufacture

Invented in the early 19th century by L. Léopold Lairitz of Germany, the manufacture of vegetable flannel became a

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

industry due to the wide availability of the pines there which provided the raw materials. The raw fibre, called ''Waldwolle'' ("forest wool"), and the

pine oil Pine oil is an essential oil obtained from a variety of species of pine, particularly ''Pinus sylvestris''. Typically, parts of the trees that are not used for lumber - stumps, etc. - are ground and subjected to steam distillation. As of 1995, ...

were separated, and then the ''Waldwolle'' was

spun ''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon, drug subculture. The ...

into yarn or thread, and either

woven Woven fabric is any textile formed by weaving. Woven fabrics are often created on a loom, and made of many threads woven on a warp and a weft. Technically, a woven fabric is any fabric made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to on ...

knitted Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...

. By 1900, vegetable flannel was mainly woven at

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, which at the time was located in Germany.

Properties

Vegetable flannel was promoted as a

hypoallergenic Hypoallergenic, meaning "below average" or "slightly" allergenic, is a term meaning that something (usually cosmetics, pets, textiles, food, etc.) causes fewer allergic reactions. The term was first used in 1953 in an advertising campaign for cos ...

option for those who could not wear wool, and was thought to be particularly good for rheumatism and

neuralgia Neuralgia (Greek ''neuron'', "nerve" + ''algos'', "pain") is pain in the distribution of one or more nerves, as in intercostal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and glossopharyngeal neuralgia. Classification Under the general heading of neural ...

. In the nineteenth century, this was attributed to the

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'' ...

s and resins present in the fibre, and " formic acid, which creates a gentle and constant excitement of the skin." Another contemporary article claimed that vegetable flannel regulated the release of

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

and other elements from the invalid's body. In 1900, vegetable flannel was widely used for blankets in German hospitals, prisons and barracks as it was thought not to harbour pests and vermin.

Criticism

The German ''Polytechnisches Journal'', which published several articles on ''Waldwolle'' as a promising new material, was later highly critical of marketing claims made for it. In an article in 1868 the journal stated that while the fibres extracted from pine needles were chemically identical to linen or

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

fibres, their mechanical properties – coarse, short and smooth – were such that spinning yarn from them was unlikely to be possible. The journal reported it had inspected samples of ''Waldwolle'' and found them to be mainly composed of cotton or wool and cotton blends with some pine fibre or pine oil added to provide a characteristic rough texture and pine scent.

References

Woven fabrics Fiber plants {{textile-stub