1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Crash

CRASH, a technical textile term applied to a species of narrow towels, from 14 to 20 in. wide. The name is probably of Russian origin, the simplest and coarsest type of the cloth being known as “Russia crash.” The latter is made from grey flax or tow yarns, and sometimes from boiled yarns. The simple term “crash” is given to all these narrow cloths, but the above distinction is very convenient, as also are the following: grey, boiled, bleached, plain, twilled and fancy crash. A large variety obtains with and without fancy borders, while of late years cotton has been introduced as warp, as well as mixed and jute yarns for weft. After the cloth has passed through all the finishing operations, it is cut up into lengths of about 3 yds., the two ends sewn together and it is then ready to be placed over a suspended roller; for this reason it is often termed “roller towelling.”