Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-01
ARTIFICIAL SILK.
How an Ingenious Frenchman Proposes to
Compete With Busy Worms and Rafting

| How an Ingenious Frenchman Proposes to
Compete With Busy Worms and Rafting
Looms.
| From The Upholsterer.
In our February issue we had reason to refer
to the Chardonnet process for manufacturing
artificial silk. Industrial bodies and individuals
have alike been approached, for years and years
past, with SO many schemes of illusory character
| that little by little their confidence has been
destroyed and their interest fails to rekindle at
any fresh outburst of discovery.
Considering. however, that Consul Loomis of
St. Etienne has com municated long and elabo-
| rate article on the subject OF Chardonnets
| process to the United States government, the
| same being now in published form before US,
and considering also that Mr. LOOMS is a resi-
dent OF silk town. surrounded by experts and
| hard-headed business men. it is only fnir to pre-
| sumo that he knows whereof he speaks and the
| Chardonnet process Is no chimerical freak Of
| an addle-headed crank.
We quote from Mr.. LOOMS communication:
| For long time after its discovery the process
and system of NJ. de Chardonnet remained con-
cealed in his laboratory. 1t made its first ap-
| pearance at the exposition Of 1885, where it
| received the highest award that the jury could
give. Connoisseurs, savants and manufacture
| crs were greatly interested in it. though it had
not reached the degree of perfection to which
| it has been brought today.
| The great question, that which leads all
others. since the new inventor tends to produce
| revolution in one of the greatest Of French
industries. Is. can this discovery be utilized for
the growing needs of the people?
| A complete answer in the affirmative has been
| given by NJ. de Chardonnet, who has already,
| by eniisting the sympathies of several business
men, built mill at Besancon where tho silk
| is being manufactured The raw material is
made from wood pulp, such AS is used for the
| fabrication of certain kinds OF paper. Tho
pulp is carefully dried in an oven and plunged
into mixture OF sulphuric and nitric acids. then
washed in several water baths and dried in
| alcohol. The product thus prepared is dis
solved in ether and pure alcohol. and the re-
suit Is collodlon, similar to that used in photog-
raphy. This collodion, which is sticky and
viscous. is inclosed in solid receptacle fur
nished with a filter in the lower end An air
pump sends compressed air into the receptacle
| and by its pressure the collodion is passed
| through the filter, which removes all impuri-
| ties, and flows into tube placed horizontally.
This tube is armed with 800 cocks, of which the
! spouts are made Of ginss and pierced by n
small hole of the diameter of the thread
| OF q cocoon as 1t is spun by the silkworm. The
| spinner opens the cock. and the collodion issues
| in thread of extreme delicacy (it takes six to
to make thread of the necessary consistence
for weaving). This thread is not. however, fit
to be rolled on the spools by reason OF its
| viscosity ard softness; the matter is as yet
collodion, and not silk. To produce the neces-
sary hardness, the inventor resorted to a very
ingenious but simple method. Tho little glass
tube already mentioned is surrounded by a
small reservoir of the same material constan tlv
| filed with water when the thread issues from
the aperture in the manner described, it
traverses thiswater, which takes up the ether and
alcohol and then the collodion becomes
solidifed that is to say, it is transformed into
an elastic thread as resisting and brilliant as
ordinary silk
One more detail. On account of the ma
terials employed in the manufacture of this
sik-wood, ether and alcohol-it might rightly
be supposed. as was mentioned in the former
| report, that the stuff manufactured would be
| dangerously inflammable. NJ. de Chardonnet
has apparently obviated such a contingency by
plunging the spun thread in q solution of am
monia, thus rendering it as slow of combustion
as any other material
This discovery seems to have q great future
| have talked with great many silk merchants,
brokers, dyers and men who manufactured silk
goods about the Chardonnet method Of pro-
ducing raw silk from wood. and it is universally
admitted that the process will eventually yield
large practical and profitable results. great
step has been made toward this end in reducing
the intlammabil1ty Of the Chardonnet silk. Its
original combustibiiity was at the alarming rate
| OF two centimeters per second