Silk cloak lining fibers

20 X magnification

Silk cloak lining fibers

20 X magnification,

crossed polars with first order red plate

The investigators have examined microscopic samples of the cloak fibers under a polarized light microscope.

They analyzed how light passed through the fibers, as well as other characteristics, to determine if they were natural or man-made. The fibers of the velvet cloak and its lining are silk. The marked deterioration of these fibers is typically seen in silk fabrics from the second half of the nineteenth-century.