THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK 
foundation of the Artificial Silk trade. As 
for Chardonnet, he built a small factory at 
Besancon, and made a very little Artificial 
Silk by a clumsy process. In a short time, he 
faded out of the picture, but he has received 
most of the praise as a pioneer. 
Chardonnet was not a practical business 
man. He made the new yarn as a hobby. In 
his first experiments, he pulped mulberry 
leaves. in imitation of the silkworm. 
Later, it was discovered that the pulp of 
spruce trees and the small fibres that wrap 
the cotton seed are much better. The silk- 
worm, not being able to pulp spruce trees, 
and knowing nothing of cotton fibres, used 
mulberry leaves. No doubt, the silkworm 
might have done much better if it had been 
put on a diet of spruce pulp and cotton fibres. 
The silkworm, very likely as ‘a matter of 
taste, preferred mulberry leaves, but British 
chemists soon found a much better material 
for the making of Artificial Silk. 
There is a general belief, even in Britain, 
that the Artificial Silk trade began in France. 
In an * Artificial Silk Supplement,” published 
by THE TiMES on March gth, 1926, Count de 
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