“In the 1st Century AD, the Roman author Pliny the Elder introduced his readers to a new kind of linen, known as "live linen", which could be used to make a variety of quirky products. He had even witnessed its properties himself – napkins which when added to a blazing fire come out cleaner and fresher than before. This same substance, he explained, was also used to make the funerary shrouds for monarchs; because live linen didn't burn, it helped to keep their ashes separated from the rest of the pyre.”