The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-03-03
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. @.
NEW FABRICS.
Washington, d. @.

Will SOOIl OC WHALING 6olhlCAto AiAeAd Z
from seaweed and grass. if the vege-
table fabrics recently produced by
German textile manufacturers become
popular in this country.
The Germans have achieved some
remarkable results in the textile line
by proceeding upon the assumption
that almost any vegetable product,
from q dandelion to a parsnip. can be
turned into clothing if necessity de-
mands it. During the war, necessity
did. The German supplies of wool
and cotton became exhausted: they
were unable to smuggle their new sup
plies thru the blockade, SO there was
nothing left for German chemists to
do but to produce something new in
the way of fabrics.
An exhibit of these novelties. ground
out under the exigencies of war, was
recently held by the bureau of foreign
and domestic commerce here, and was
widely attended by American textile
manufacturers 1t included samples of
overcoatings, table cloths. paper, sport
jackets. sweaters, underwear, stock
ingS and socks, worsted and many
other mems and .-omen's garments
all made from various vegetable prod
ucts heretofore scorned as being of lit
tie value. Nettles. hops. willow bark.
pine needles, cornstalks, and asparagus
are merely few of the things repre-
sented in the materials.
Instead of being brittle and fragile
and Impractical for windy weather, as
might be supposed, the new vegetable
fabrics are soft and serviceable and
guaranteed to Withstand the toughest
gale. The German underwear. made
from China grass, is said to be better
than that made of puEs wool or wool
and cotton. as it prevents the garments
from shriAking- 1t is also declared by
textile experts to be of better wearing
quality.
A large variety of clothing sources
is something absolutely new in the
history of our civilization. 1t is reyo-
lutionary-for ever since men decided
that they looked better in clothes they
have been making them from the
same old products, which are WOOL
silk, cotton and flax. Archaeological
records show that the arts of spinning
and weaving were in late stage of
development as far back as 1900 B.
c., which is as far back s the matter
can be traced. and that these four
fabrics were well known then.
The -Four Sources.
In other words, all that we wear
our frocks and frock coats, our neck
ties and stocks and laces and frills
and furbelows-comes from only these
four sources, that We're discovered far
back when the race was young
r Our wool supply is obtained chiefly
from the pelage of sheep, while
small quantity is also obtained from
the hair of certain goats Cashmere
and Mohair, for example) as we'll as
from the hair of camels. The earli-
est cloth-makers tapped the same
source for their wool.
All of our raw silk is provided for us
by obliging caterpillars, which secrete
the substance in their glands and spin
it into cocoons or cases>in which they
make their change from worm to
moth. And the Mongolians had the
silk worms well trained for this pur-
pose Centuries q CO. a.
Cotton, obtained from the seed pod
of the cotton plant, was also well
understood by the ancients, while
early history records the use of rich
linens made from flax
In recent years. but two other
have been added to these four.
American manufacturers have sue
eeeded in producing rough textiles,
such as burlap, from the jute plant.
and American chemists, after much
experimenting, have been able to pro-
duce artificial silk
Then the Germans began their ex-
periments with various plants. These
commenced really some years before
the war, and the first successful vege-
table fabrics were brought to this
country as early as 1914. But it was
the war, which for the time being
eliminated the four big textile staples
from the market, that gave them their
chance.
According to a statement of the
bureau of foreign and domestic COM
merce, the new vegetable fiber indus
try was established at Fuerstenberg,
Germany, in 1912. During the first
year in which the plant was operated
It confined it's activities merely to the
manufacture and sale of fibers-the
raw product.
TN 1913 spinning machinery was
set up. and since then the spinning of
yarn from these fibers has been car
-fed on on an ever-increasing scale.
In the eight years of its existence the
products of this concern have covered
q. wide range of vegetable fibers, in
GLIDING China grass, Australian sea-.
weed. jute. old jute rags and shoddy7
worsted yarn. A number of others
were worked up during the war and
used in the textile indus
try. Some of these fibers were alan
foned after the war, owing TO the fact
sufficient to warrant their permanent
use.
Cloth From Grass.
''The vegetable fiber derived from
China grass is known as solidonia. 1t
Is similar to ramie, which is known
and used IN the United SIateS- Inc
German fiber company, by means ola
special process. produces a. long. fine,
soft and curly fiber. 1t looks very
much like wool and mixes readily with
that product, thus opening a wide field
for its use in the wooden industry.
Solidonia gained a wide use or. ac-
count of shortage of wool during the
war. AS a substitute for linen, soli-
donia has been used in Germany for
the manufacture of table linen of
beauty and strength. 1t has also been
used for machine betting. Hosiery
mills and underwear mills have pro-
duced from it stockings which are diff
ficult to tear; unshrinkable underwear
and sporting jackets of fine quality
and strength.
THE German wooden mills have
also manufactured an army cloth
which, composed of Is per cent wool
and rs per cent solidonia. surpasses,
it Is asserted, in tensile strength any
pure wool cloth. W,omen's clothing
IL - h4I 80,