Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus 23-77 CE) tells us how linen was made in the first century. After hand spinning the fibers of the flax plant into yarn, individual hanks of yarn were bleached and dried. When it was time to weave the yarn (thread) into cloth, warp threads were strung vertically on a loom so that weft threads could be passed over and under them. On the loom, the warp threads were lubricated with crude starch to make weaving easier. Doing so reduced friction and lessened the chance of fraying. When a length of linen cloth was finished it was removed from the loom and washed in the suds of the Soapwort plant (Saponaria officinalis). After washing out most of the starch, the linen was laid out across bushes or hung to dry.
Washing, even with repeated rinsing, does not remove everything. Soapy residues and small amounts of starch would remain in a water soaked cloth. As the cloth dried, moisture would wick its way to the surface to evaporate into the air. As the water made its way to the surface it carried with it dissolved starch fractions and saccharides: glucose, fucose, galactose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, and glucuronic acid. As the water evaporated into the air these chemicals were deposited as a superthin coating on the crown fibers, the very outermost fibers of the thread.
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Chemists tell us that this superficial residue of reactive saccharides is at the evaporation surface of the cloth.
