Abstract
LANCASHIRE is on the eve of some important expansions of the textile trades, for, from an interesting article in the Times, it appears that the manufacture of artificial silk from wood pulp will shortly be added to her industries. At present the wood-silk comes from France, large works having been established at Besancon under patents granted to Count Hilaire de Chardonnet, who discovered the process, and first established in 1893 the fact that it might be made into a commercial success. The demand for the new commodity increased so considerably that the idea of introducing its manufacture into England was mooted, with the result that a number of silk and cotton manufacturers met to discuss the question, and finally sent out to Besancon a deputation, consisting of some of their own number, an engineer, a chemist, and a lawyer, to investigate the subject thoroughly. This was done, and the outlook was found to be so promising that certain concessions have been secured and a company is now in process of formation, and, to begin with, a factory, which will cost £30,000, is to be built near to Manchester for the manufacture of artificial silk yarn from wood pulp, for sale to weavers, who will work it up by means ot their existing machinery. The way in which wood pulp can be converted into silk yarn is explained in the Times. The pulp, thoroughly cleansed, and looking very much like thick gum, is put in cylinders, from which it is forced by pneumatic pressure into pipes passing into the spinning department. Here the machinery looks like that employed in Lancashire spinning sheds, except that one of the pipes referred to runs along each set of machines. These pipes are supplied with small taps, fixed close together, and each tap has a glass tube, about the size of a gas-burner, at the extreme point of which is a minute aperture through which the filaments pass. These glass tubes are known as “glass silkworms,” and some 12,000 of them are in use in the factory at Besancon. The effect of the pneumatic pressure in the cylinders referred to above is to force the liquid matter not only along the iron tubes, but also, when the small taps are turned on, through each of the glass silkworms. It appears there is a scarcely perceptible globule. This a girl touches with her thumb, to which it adheres, and she draws out an almost invisible filament, which she passes through the guides and on to the bobbin. Then, one by one, she takes eight, ten, or twelve other such filaments, according to the thickness of the thread to be made, and passes them through the same guides and on to the same bobbin. This done, she presses them together with her thumb and forefinger, at a certain point between the glass silkworms and the guides. Not only do they adhere, but thenceforward the filaments will continue to meet and adhere at that point, however long the machinery may be kept running. In this way the whole frame will soon be set at work, the threads not breaking until the bobbin is full, when they break automatically, while they are all of a uniform thickness. The new product is said to take dye much more readily than the natural silk. The chief difference in appearance between the natural and the artificial silk is in the greater lustre of the latter. The success already secured by the new process in France is such that the introduction of the industry into Lancashire is expected to produce something like revolution in the conditions of trade there, not only by bringing into existence a new occupation, but also by finding more work for a good deal of the weaving machinery that is now only partially employed.
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The Manufacture of Artificial Silk. Nature 54, 66 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054066a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054066a0