Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-08-01
ApULTERATED SILK

Real Reason That the Rustling Gar
ments Always Crack ALONG the Folds
Thousands upon thousands of women
have discovered to their great surprise
and sorrow that their silk skirts had
cracked along the folds while the gar
ments were practically new.
But. out of these thousands upon
thousands of women probably not q
score Of them knew that the real reason
for this was that they were wearing
more Of a tin skirt than silk one. In
other words, their handsome. soft, rust
ling silk garments with the rich sheen
were made up Of go to rs per cent tin,
and the remainder pure silk, or pure
silk except for an ounce or two to the
pound Of coloring matter. ..
Again, many woman, In fact prob
ably nearly every woman, has been
surprised and angered because new silk
waists have been discolored and rotted
under the arms and about the neck
Again 1t was the tin that was the blame
for this. The salt in the perspiration
act upon the tin and other foreign
matter in the silk in manner that not
only discolors 1t, but causes 1t to rot,
and in summer 1t is practically i'm
possible to avoid this, unless one is
certain of getting pure silk.
The woman who walks along the
street in a handsome silk gown that
rustles softly is extremely proud OF
her dress, but she does not know
that every twelve ounces Of silk, pure
silk, in her dress, has been so weighed
with pure tin that this original twelve
ounces is made to weigh sixty to sew
enty ounces, and there are instances,
according to the very best Of authori-
ties, where twelve ounces Of pure silk
is made to weigh as much as eighty
ounces.
There is a simple method Of finding
out whether a piece of silk goods has
been adulterated or weighted, as the
manufacturers call 1t, with tin, and
that is to cut off small sample and
burn it. Pure silk Is animal matter,
Just as feathers or hair, made as every
one knows, by the silk worm. Now II
pure silk is burned 1t will instantly
curl up into a crisp mass, just as
burnt hair or feather will do. But II
the silk goods has been adulterated
with from sixty to seventy five per
cent Of tin, 1t will not do this. 1t will
leave an ash in the se1nblance of the
fabric, much as burned piece OF
newspaper will leave an ash that still
shows the printing. The harder and
more firm this ash, the more tin there
was in the silk.
Silk manufacturers claim that COM
petition is so great they cannot afford
to produce pure silk goods. They admit
they do produce some, but 1t Is so ex-
pensive only those with plenty OF
money cam afford to buy II.
The pure silk goods, such as were
manufactured at the time our grand
mothers and great-grandmothers made
their wedding dresses, wore and wore
without any signs Of splitting or crack
ing in the seams. This was because II
was pure silk, with no foreign matter
In the goods. No tin was put In those
goods, and there are probably thous-
ands of women who have these old
dresses as heirlooms, and they find the
silk apparently as good as ever.
The great injustice Of weighting silk
with tin is that there Is nothing to in
form the public Of this. Poor women
can afford to buy silk because some OF
1t Is so cheap, but 1t very soon wears
out, and so they are really worse of
than before. 1t has been suggested
that the manufacturers be made to
plainly label all their silks, with
such explanations as the following:
Weighted with 60 per cent tin" This
should not only be on the silk labels,
but should be woven into the selvage
every yard or two.
When the raw silk goes to the manu-
facturer II is just as 1t came from th'
silk worms, and II contains quite lot
of gummy matter that has to be boiled
out. This boiling process. which re-
moves all the impure matter, and all
the animal matter, reduces the weight
of the original raw silk silk about four
ounces to every pound.
But" explains one big manufacture
er of silk threads. this loss Of four
ounces is generally made up when the
silk is dyed, so that there Is really no
such thing as a four-ounce loss to
every pound for the manufacturer"
And when these manufacturers In
sist that weighing silk with so much
~, athar rpinarai GuhatancaS does
not lessen it's resistance to wear, they
have little Justification for such q
claim" a representative Of we'll
known firm of silk manufacturers de-
clared.
1t is true that the pure silk goods
will not crack at the seams. nor dis
color or rot readily by means of pers-
piration, and 1t Is true that much OF
the modern silk skirts, and especially
the silk petticoats worn few years
ago, would crack along the seams and
along the creases in the plating and
flounces, frequently after a weeks
wear.
When the raw silk Is put through
the boiling process to remove the gum
nv animal matter, end the dyes are
added, this dye bath also contains dis
solved tin and other weight producers
making twelve ounces OF pure SILK gam
in weight, as already stated, from six
ty to seventy-five and even eighty
ounces. Silk doctored to such a degree
is worthless, according to the best oil
authorities. When 1t Is exposed to the
air the liquid tin absorbed by the fiber
in the dye bath crystaliZes, and when
the fabric (called silk by courtesy is
put under strain like that Of wearing 1t
made up in garments, these crystalliz-
ed particles actually cut the pure fibers
and therefore cause the cracks and
ruin the cloth.
And so 1t is that II you buy a COM
mon grade silk dress. the sort that
women have regarded as pure silk"
for years, the little silk worm has fur
nished about twenty-five per cent Of II
and the brawny laborers in the Corn
wallis or other tin mines have furnish
ed seventy-five per cent of it.-New
York American