St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-12-16
ARTIFICIAL SILKS
They Have In a Measure suPplanted
the Genuine Article In
France.

/ Inc PAOuuClIOu VI dItIllCldl Silk u6s
for some time attracted the attention
of experimenters in France, and it ha,
been used with success to replace nat
ural silk in certain fabrics. Duke Dz
Chardonnet, who claims to be the frs
to have successfully carried out The
process, exhibited some fine specimen.
of artificial silk at the Paris exposi-
tion of 1889. Since then he has per.
fected his system and at the present
time factory of considerable impor.
tance is in operation at Besancon, un-
der the direction of Mr.. Tricano. This
factoryjs now capable of producing 15C
Kilograms of artificial silk day.
Natural silk is largely made up Of a
body called '.fibroin," together with
other substances, such as gelatin, al
bumen, wax, coloring matter, fatty and
rcsinous matter, etc, the cellulose of
the mulberry leaf being thus trans
formed by the silkworm. The
nature of these transformations is
of course unknown, and in order
to produce substance resem-
bling silk a method is adopted by
which the cellulose furnished by cotton
is used as base. The cotton having
been transformed into nitrocellulose or
guncotton by treating it with nitric
and sulphuric acids, this latter is dis
solved in mixture of ether and alcohol
and the resulting collodion is filtered
under pressure.
In nvS4ov. IN t,a fpp11v- frv
the production of artificial silk it is
found that the collodion must be al
lowed to ''age" for a certain period of
time, the reason of which has not been
definitely settled; however, it is certain
that the collodion, on being allowed to
by which it is better fitted for the pur-
pose. 1t is then run into cylinders
which have capillary holes in the bot
tom, and the ccllodion is forced out of
these holes under pressure of 40 to
so atmospheres. 1t comes out in the
form of white. cylindrical filaments;
these are united to form threads. which
are put up in skeins and all traces of
alcohol or water whi n they may con-
tain are removed. In this state, how
ever. the threads are extremely infiam-
mable, partaking of the nature of gun
cotton. and to remove this difficulty
they must be 'denitrated." that is to
say, the cellulose must be brought back |
INTO its normal condition. This part of |
the process, which is indeed an essen |
tial one, involves considerable dim-
.ulty and has been experimental upon |
for some time by Mr.. Du Char
lonnet and others. However.
process has at last been arrived
It which accomplishes this in a
manner. The details
# this process have not as yet been
made public, but it is certain that by
his operation white, silky threads are
Produced which are not appreciably
more inflammable than natural silk.
rhe skcins which have been made up
4 these threads are then dyed by i'm
nersing them in a heated bath of basic
milne color.-Scientific American.
excaFsionists Induce Immigration.
Excursions of Scandinavians from
his city aud section to their native
ountry last summer have resulted in
great increase of immigration to this
ountry. The excursionists had money,
ood clothing and a general air of pros
Gritty and the stories they told had
natural effect. Comparatively few Of
he newcomers will stop in eastern
tiles. The general movement will be
, the west and northwest, where their
riends and relatives have settled and
here they have played an important
art in building up the country. There
as also heen LARGE incnea 8 q In Esnn;xh |