![]() If molecules attract each other, the resulting intermolecular forces can sometimes be considerable. So what could be happening in the wet cotton fibres to make them stronger? Paper absorbs a lot of water, making it heavier and separating the fibres - so it falls apart. Now wet paper is definitely not stronger than dry paper. (Note: I don't think the jail-break stunt would have worked if there had been a horizontal bar welded about halfway up, as is the case in modern jails.) And the chemistry?Ĭotton and paper are mainly composed of cellulose, a very large molecule (a polymer) made up of several hundred glucose molecules linked by an O atom (see structure). Also the leverage obtained by the cloth knot and wooden stick was enough to bend a steel bar 2.4 m long, similar to those used in the jail in Shanghai noon. So the wet cloth did seem to be stronger. On average, a heavier weight was required to break the wet cloth than the dry cloth. I then tested strips of cotton by hanging weights from them made from buckets which I could slowly fill with water (not urine) to make them heavier. They weren't sure if wet clothes were stronger but they seemed to think that wet clothes were less likely to tear or get damaged in their machines (apart from wool perhaps). To start my investigations, I went down to the local launderette to ask the staff what they thought. ![]() ![]() Then knotting some of the cloth around a pair of prison bars and using a broken -off wooden chair leg as a lever, he tightens the knot which bends the bars so he and his mate can get through and escape! So is this possible? Is wet cloth really stronger than dry cloth? A trip to the launderette ![]() Holding them up he proclaims: 'when the shirt gets wet it doesn't break'. ![]() He takes off his shirt, tears it up into strips and urinates on them. In the film Shanghai noon, Chon Wang (Jackie Chan), a Chineseman in the US and his new-found friend, Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) a small-time robber, are trying to escape from an old-style Wild West jail which has metal bars from ceiling to floor. ![]()
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