On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 21:41:47 -0400, (Peter Stickney)
wrote:


Well, there's canvas and then there's canvas. The first two dictionary
entries that pop up for me read as follows:

2) a) A coarse cloth so woven as to form regular meshes for working
with the needle, as in tapestry, or worsted work.

I needlepoint (do canvas work) and it's certainly not what you'd use
to cover a wing. The holes are bigger than the warp and weft threads.

Canvas, as in the fabric used in sails, is tabby weave, like duck. It
can be made from cotton, hemp, linen, ramie, or other fibers. The
weight and the closeness of the weave varies.

So, at a glance, Irish Linen could, in fact, be considered a type of
canvas, or, perhaps a cotton twill. IIRC, the Wrights used a Sateen,
which is a cotton with a treated surface.

Nope. Sateen is a weave, just like twill. It's not treated and it's
not necessarily cotton. Rather, it has floating threads on the
surface, just like satin. In fact, the difference between sateen and
satin is whether it's the warp threads or the woof threads that float.

Anyway, sateen can be made from any fiber, although some of them
aren't as practical as others. So can twill and satin, for that
matter.

Mary
--
Mary Shafer
"There are only two types of aircraft--fighters and targets"
Major Doyle "Wahoo" Nicholson, USMC