The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-08-04
SUBSTITUTE FOR SILK.
4 Process by which 1t Is Made of Cob
webs and of Wood.

A prominent revenue officer of Mont
pellier, France, named Bon, conceived the
Idea of using cobweb as a substitute for
Bilk. The notion was not a new one. In
1865, when, one day, near Merseburg, Ger
many, the fields, meadows and trees were
covered by masses OF peculiar, blue cob
webs, the women Of that town, both mar
ried and unmarried wanted to preserve
souvenirs of the strange phenomenon.
They therefore by spinning made orna-
mental strings and similar trinkets of the
cobwebs.
Bon had gloves and stockings manufac-
tured of common cobwebs, and sent these
articles, together with treatise on the
raising of spiders, to the Academy of
Sciences at Paris in 1903. A commission
was appointed for examining these propo-
sitions, to which commission the famous
naturalist Reaumur belonged, the inventor
of a thermometer still bearing his name.
He showed that Bon's plan was impracti-
cable because not enough flies could be pro-
cured for feeding the spiders kept for
breeding. This seems to be credible, il ono
considers that nearly zoo, 600 spiders would
yield only one pound Of silk. Bons idea was
repeatedly revived and particularly Amer
lean spiders, yielding a more compact
thread, were recommended, but cloths
made of cobweb silk always remain curl.
osities. Thus the French naturalist dor
bigny had pair of solid trousers for which
South American spiders had furnished tho
raw material.
Reaumur. however, went further than
Bon. why shall we borrow from ami
mails" he asked. "If common worm is
able TO change the foliage it eats into silk,
man, with his higher intellect, should be
able, too, to make silk Of similar things"
Yet Reaumur failed when he attempted to
prepare silk of gums and rosins. In the
meantime mankind has advanced, chemis-
try has been greatly improved, and at Paris
they now manufacture silk of wood
In this respect even two methods have
become known Of late-that of Chardon-
net and another of Du Vivier, which both,
In reality, are based upon the same con-
trivances If one pours nitric and sui
phuric acid, not particularly concentrated
and in limited quantity, upon cotton, con
sisting OF cellulose (woody substance), one
receives kind of weak gun cotton that,
placed into mixture Of ether and alcohol,
becomes Il mucous mass known as COLO
dion. Exposed to the air this mass be-
comes solid again by volatilization of the
ether and the alcohol. The two French
chemists named prepare of wood n mass
similar to collodlon that, placed in water,
becomes solid nearly iustantaneously. From
this mass under water threads are spun
that are called artificial silk.
1t is well known fact that artificial
products are always inferior TO natural
products. This is also the case with the
artificial silk just described. 1t is glossy,
1t is true, but it differs in some degree from
natural or genuine silk, particularly by its
combustibility. 1t burns with a brighter
flame than silk proper, wool, or even cotton.
Ladies therefore wearing such stuff will do
well particularly to beware of coming in
contact with fire.
Nevertheless the beginning has been
made of producing artificial silk at the la
boratory. Perhaps the time will come when
man will excel the slkworm in the produc.
tion of silk. For the present, however, the
silkworm still eXccls man in this respect.
philadelphia Press.