The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-07-11
ARTIFICIAL SILK.
a Strong, Lustrous Fibre Derived
< ~ "A From Wood Pulp.

K - "A From Wood Pulp.
Two different products are now
sold as substitutes for silk. One is
mereerizsd cotton which has a fne
gloss. The other Is pure wood, treat
ed with chemicals. SO that it{can be
span. The second article is anain-
vention of a Frenchman named Char
-donniery-and is snow~being made in
several European countries. Cloth
and, ribbons made of it have the
lustre of silk, but they lack the
strength and elasticity CT the material
of which they are an imitation, and
are highly inlammable. An official
report from England, where it is said
that S25G,00O was paid for the privi-
lege of working under the original
patents, supplies these details of the
methods Of manufacture:
Wood pulp, like that employed in
the production of paper, is imported
from Norway. 1t m in dry sheets,
four feet square. Having been re-
duced to a thin paste called "~yiscose"'
by certain chemicals, it is forced
through a series of microscopic holes,
four one-thousandths of an inch in
diameter, punched through a thin
platinum plate. A setting" bath
(acid) then hardens the hiaments so
that they can be twisted together to
form a workable thread. e Unusually
either sixteen or thirty-two of these
hlaments go to form what may be
termed the single" yarn. The spin
ming spindle, which is a weighty af-
fair Of some ninety ounces, is gear
driven at 5000 revolutions a minute,
and carries a soup" into which the
yarn is collected in the form of q
small cheese"
There will shortly be introduced
an improved spindle weighing but
thirty ounces, which it is expected can
be successfully driven at the rate Of
5000 revolutions a minute. A later
arrangement for feeding the "vis-
cose" through the microscopic holes
enables a varying pressure to be ex-
eTted on the liquid, and by this con-
trivance different, counts of yarn can
be made than could be conveniently
produced by the older arrangement
of increasing or decreasing the num-
Der OF component filaments in the
finished thread.
Aside from the apparatus for treat
ing the pulp prior to spinning, the
spinning machines are in themselves
costly, the present price per spindle
being SIS, the average production
per spindle being 100 metres a min
ute-of a-thread having two and a half
turns of twist to the inch. So far as
British experience is concerned, the
development of the work has been
most expensive. Starting with the
accumulated knowledge of the. Con
tinental producers has not prevented
comparatively enormous sums being
expended in simplifying complicated,
though somewhat crude, mechanism
and simplifying chemical processes
and standardizing the quantities and
qualities Of the ingredients en-
ployed.
The single yarn, bleached and
dyed, is put uD in three, qualities, A.
3 and c, and is sold in the hank at
S1.2O, $1.32 and $1.44 a pound, the
cost to the manufacturer OF the arti-
fetal yarn averaging seventy-ive
cents a pound. One-third goes for
raw material and chemicals, one
third for labor, supplies and power.
and one-third covers interest, depre-
citation, selling and other general ex.
penses: