The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-17
TIN IN SILK GOWNS.


New York Commercial Advertiser.
Would ladies believe that quite 70 per
cent. of the so-called silk used for skirts,
tin, pure and simpler" A correspondent
In proof of that statement, forwards SAM
pies OF what is in reality tin-weighted silk.
He asserts that the practice of substituting
tin for vegetable weighing substances or
iginated in Germany. The vegetable mat
tiers were no detriment, though equal bril-
hancy of color was not obtainable, and
there was not the same sheen and feel
when handled as that produced by real
silk, which has the rustic so pleasing to
ladies' ears. The practice of the DYER,
he explains, ito whose hands the silk yarn
Is intrusted for dyeing and weighing, is
TO boil 1t, and in SO doing he reduces every
sixteen ounces to twelve, thus eliminating
foreign matter added for the purpose Of
spinning. The twelve ounces were then
brought up TO fourteen by the use OF tan
mic acid. etc. To-day, by the substitution Of
tin, the twelve ounces are raised to Six
teen ounces, even thirty ounces"
The proportion of weighing is more
than that in black silk" said manufac-
turer to whom this statement was sub
mitted. Very frequently only one-fourth
of the woven material is real silk; the
other three parts are tin and dye"
Any lady can test for herself whether
the silk she is buying is tin-weighted. For
the purposes of an experiment, a dozen
samples were selected. Three of these
were colored glace silks sent by the corre-
figured silk. Two others were supplied by
a firm weaving with genuine silk. One
specimen was of real silk; the other Ger
man imitation. A soft washing silk and a
Tussore silk, and four cuttings of glace
silks in actual wear made up the number.
One by one these were all held in a flame,
with the result than the genuine left an
ash resembling that Of wood when burned,
with no traces of filiament, while the tin
weighted simply lost its color and tenacity,
each thread remaining distinct in a thin
wire gauze. This was the result that our
an attempt to burn the tin-weighted silks,
and he believes that very good substitute
for an incandescent light mantle might be
made with il. Carried little further, the
burned material under microscope re-
veals the glisten of tin.
Out of the fire tests the only silks which
proved genuine were the stuffs woven from
unweighted thread, the soft washing silk
and the Tussore, all of them either woven
in London or Essex, or dyed in this cOun-
try, having been woven In the East. The
glace silks and the German imitation, with
the remnants of blouses, ties and dresses
submitted to the flame, gave the incrim-
mating tin issue. The decline of a -four
fishing industry is attributed by our corre-
spondent TO this form of adulteration.
Surely" he says, sit is in the interests OF
the manufacturers to seek at once some
We have the food and drugs act, under
which adulteration is severely dealt with.
Why cannot the wearer of silk be protect
ed similarly through the statute book?
INSCRIPTIONS foreign competition Is prac-
ticed to such extremes that English manu-
are often at the expense of cutting loom
cards for original patterns only TO find
their stuffs accurately copied by the Ger
mans in tin-weighted silk.