Answer: How is it made? (flannel and snake oil)

 Flannel up! 

Image by Gemini. [young woman wrapped in flannel blanket at window, pre-Raphaelite]

We've had a string of chilly mornings, perfect for answering a couple of SRS Challenges. Get that cup of tea and start searching!   

But back to flannel... how?  

1. Can you find out how flannel cloth (e.g., that used for comfy sheets or shirts) is actually made?  How is that distinctive nap made?  

Quick answer:  it's brushed by a mechanical device that raises the nap of the underlying cloth.  

A quick: 

     [ how is flannel made ] 

teaches us that "Flannel may be brushed to create extra softness or remain unbrushed. Brushing is a mechanical process wherein a fine metal brush rubs the fabric to raise fine fibres from the loosely spun yarns to form a nap on one or both sides. If the flannel is not napped, it gains its softness through the loosely spun yarn in its woven form."  Wikipedia on Flannel 

Reading that made me realize that the word napped suggested that there was probably a process for doing the napping.  So my next query was: 

     [ process of raising the nap on cloth ] 

which took me to the "Napping of Cotton Fabrics" technical document, which goes into great detail about how flannel is actually made.  In there, they point out that: 

NAPPING - A mechanical finishing process in which fibers are raised on the surface of a fabric by means of teasels or, on contemporary equipment, by rollers covered with steel napper wires. Other names for napping are Gigging, Genapping, Teaseling, and Raising.

That makes sense.  Of course, once you've napped the fabric, you need to trim it back down, so that means: 

SHEARING - This process normally follows napping, and involves the mechanical cutting or trimming of fibers projecting from the surface of the cloth to produce a uniform and level pile.

They also tell us all the details: 

"Different napping results can be obtained by varying the speed of the napper rolls relative to the speed of the fabric. A positive napping action occurs when the points of the napper wire travel at a speed greater than the speed of the fabric. Additionally, the pile versus counter pile roll speeds can be varied. In general, greater pile energy produces a loftier nap, while greater counter pile energy produces a shorter, thicker nap. When the napper roll wires travel at a speed slower than the speed of the fabric, a tucking or felting effect of the fabric pile occurs. When a napped fabric is felted, the raised fiber ends are tucked back into the base of the fabric, producing a smoother fabric with better appearance retention after washing." 

A double-action napper device made by Gessner.

Of course, I wanted to see this in action, so a jump over to YouTube and a search for: 

     [ machine making flannel cloth ] 

led to a bunch of videos... many of which look good, but you have to watch them with care to find a segment that actually shows the napping (or "brushing") process.  Here's one that I found (link to video).  

At the 8 second mark, you can see the red fabric running through the rollers with the napping wires.  

Interestingly, Regular Reader Arthur Weiss got much the same results by using Perplexity (see his comment in the original post).  The LLM also gave a few additional pages that I didn't see in my regular Google search, so there is a breadth and diversity of results here, which is good to see.   

And since multiple web pages mentioned teasels as the original tool used to make flannel, I did a search for: 

     [ teasels used to make flannel ] 

and found this device: 

A "teasel cross" National Trust Inventory Number 117317.14On display at Lavenham, Suffolk

.

Here's a closeup of what the teasel seed head looks like: 

Teasel seed head closeup.  A few of the seeds are geminating after recent rains. p/c Wikimedia

2. Is snake-oil a real thing, or is the falsity of "snake oil" that it doesn't really exist?  How much fat is on a snake that could then be rendered into oil?

Snake oil has come to mean something fake, often a medicine that's passed off as something efficacious, but actually has no real merit.  

The Wikipedia article is interesting, telling us that there really IS a kind of snake oil that's traditionally made from Chinese water snakes.  

But in the US, there was a famous case that in 1917, when Stanley's Snake Oil was discovered to contain no actual snake oil, creating the notion that bottles of snake oil (and their salesmen) were essentially fraudsters.  

To our question, though, how much fat can a snake have that might then be rendered into oil?  

A quick query for: 

     [ fat on snakes ] 

leads to any number of discussions of how to deal with your obese pet snake.  Curious about how and where fat is stored on a snake, I did a follow-up query: 

     [ fat snake dissection ] 

and found a large number of dissected snakes showing exactly where the fat stores are kept.  (Often in the tail, but fat nodules can be found anywhere!)  It's remarkable how many images there are online.

So, much to my surprise, snakes CAN be fat.  It's not incredibly common in the wild, but it clearly does happen when a snake lives in a meal-rich environment.  

How about the utility of real snake oil?  

     [ snake oil effective ] 

led me to a large number of articles about the legacy of snake oil salesmen, but also to a number of discussions of the amount of Chinese snake oil may have had.  There seem to have been real benefits due to its high concentration of the omega−3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)—more than that of salmon

So... I learned a bunch here.  Real snake oil can be useful, but it's nearly impossible to buy actual snake oil these days (and apparently even more difficult in the past).  

SearchResearch Lessons 

1. Finding a video of the actual operation of "how it's made" devices can be difficult.  There is not, as of yet, a great video search system.  I found LOTS of "how flannel is made" videos that didn't actually show you anything of interest.  At this point, dedication is still required.  Hang in there. 

2. Using an LLM as a "lead generator" is a good idea.  It's yet another way to broaden the set of leads you follow when pursuing a particular topic.  

Keep searching.