The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-14


-to-wit, the introduction of artificial
silk manufacture into the United
States. Wood-common or garden
timber-will be the material from
which the new silk is to come, and our
sisters, annts and cousins, our mothers,
wives and daughters viii no longer
have to depend for their best gowns
upon the health of the mulberry silk
worm. In point of fact, the fashion
prophets are a.. ady limiting that the
cheapness and widespread use of the
artificial fabric may have the effect sof
attiring the masculine element, the
handles and gallants, in the silken gar
ments of their faraway forefathers.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE SECRET.
Artificial silk making in this country
during the year 1897 is, apparently, an
assured fact Already in France and
England the process is being tried with
success For years, however, what is
now an accomplished fact was looked
upon as the modern inventors phlloso-
piers stone. Scientists by the hundred
spent fruitless years in resultless ef-
forts to the manufacture of wood silk.
At last. where so many other and
greater men had failed, Count Hiliare
de Chardonnet discovered the secret
The story of NJ. De ChardonnetS IN
vention is almost a romance. me
worthy count, born in the silk-growing
districts of the Rhone, became grad
uate of the Partisan ecole polytec-
nique, and eventually a knight of the
Legion of Honor. This accomplished,
he retired on his laurelS to his native
Lyonnais, where he spent many days
in philosophical meditations. on
certain sultry afternoon. while sitting
in his park and carelessly munching
a. strip of bark from one of the trees,
he noticed the fibrous character of the
scrap of white rind. From this rapid
train of thought brought him to the
crude idea of the subsequent great in
vention Thereafter the count shook
off his habits of sloth, abandoned his
woodland siestas and devoted his life
to the procuring of silk from wood
Obstacles in shoals barred his way,
but the count was a man of courage
and perseverance. After years of labor
he succeeded in perfecting an invention
which is really a mechanical and chem
ical marvel.
The product of NJ. de Chardonnets
machinery is pronounced by the eX-
perts to be "a beautiful silk. equallng
ing in brilliancv, fineness and softness
of texture that of the silkwoTm." In
1891 the count founded a company TO
work his scheme and already the en-
teTprise has proved a commercial sue
cess. Great opposition naturally came
from the millions of silk worm cult
vators in central France. who viewed
the new innovation much as the hand
loom spinners of England looked upon
the spinning jenny But the silk buy
ers We're in Chardonnets favor. For
centuries they had been dependent up
on the grub and its state of health,
generally precarious, for their silk
crop. Now when one remen berS that
the silk worm suffers from five princi-
pal and at least 20 minor diseases, any
one or all of which may raVage it every
season. the notorious Irish potato har
vest would seem surety itself in COM
parison with the natural industry
Under NJ. de Chardonnets process
there is no fear of attacks OF muScar-
dine, pebrine. flacherie outline or gras-
serie Ghe five leading ailments of the
grub The amount of the product de-
ponds solely upon the capacity of the
machinery. Accordingly the dealers
enthusiastically aided Chardonnet. the
big works at Besancon were erected,
the silk growers of Ly1nnais and the
Rhone valley viii probably have to
shut up shop. and the overworl1ed grub
gets e well-earned holiday.
THE AMERICAN PROJECT.
England followed Frances lead, and
upon her heels came the United States
Mr.. BENJAMIN Folsom. formerly United
States consul at Sheffield, secured the
letters patent for this country, ana
announces the approaching birth of a
company to set the new industry going
here. The works will probably be 10
Gated at Niagara Falls-Mecca Of new
tndustries-and it is definitely an
nounced win be established within
the next few months for the manu-
facture of artificial silk from wood
It would seem as though, if there
was one thing beyond another which
il would be impossible TO produce from
wood that thing would be the lus-
trous and shimmering fabric known as
silk. And vet it is claimed that in this
field mans art can surpass nature.
and that he can produce silk which is
brighter, cheaper and more enduring
than that spun from the cocoon
The process by which wood is con-
verted into silk fibre is very inter-
esting one A number Of different
kinds of wood may be used. white pine
or spruce being best adapted to the
purpose, but il is also said that the
cottonwood, so common in the fiddle
west, will make excellent silk The
wood is first ground TO a pulp in the
usual manner, and the pulp is macer-
ated in a solution of nitric and sui
phuric acid. The acids are then
squeezed out, and the pulp is immersed
in watts of water. where it is left until
thoroughly cleansed. After the water
is drawn off and the mass has partially
dried, it is put into a huge revolving
cylinder containing alcohol and ether,
and is left TO the influence of these
substances for some hours. From
here it is passed through q filter, and
comes out as a sort of heavy gum,
which closely resembles collodion.
II is from this gum-like substance
that the silk is directly produced, and
the spinning process, which comes
next. is perhaps the most interesting
of all, because in it the silk worm has
been closely copied. The gum or col
lodium is forced into pipes, which run
along beside the spinning machines.
From these pipes are suspended a
number Of small glass tubes, the aper-
lures in which are not more than
half or a quarter as large as that in
the tube of the ordinary house ther-
rnometer. The pneumatic pressure
forces the semi liquid substance into
these glass tubes, which are the arti-
fetal substitute for the silk worm. The
simmer touches her finger to the open
ing IN the lower end of the glass
times. the substance adheres to il. and
she draws out a filament as fine as
that which is spun by the silk worm.
Contact with the air hardens the fila
rnents at once, and they are guided
directly into the bobbin and spun OFF
in the same manner as the natural
T,roduct 1t takes from six to ten of
the small filaments, according to their
fneness, to make a single strand Of
HE fe NV cir Nv