THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK 
Not even the French people, who are so 
fond of silk, would accept these new radiant 
fabrics that were made by chemists. For 
years they could not be sold in France. They 
were exported to South America, where they 
were taxed as natural silk goods. Argentina 
has the honour of being the first market where 
Artificial Silk goods were welcomed. 
There was much amusement in London, 
soon after the war, created by several “ paper 
suits ”’ that were sent over from Germany. 
Ten of these paper garments were exhibited 
in the Imperial War Musuem at the Crystal 
Palace. 
I went to see these despised paper clothes, 
and found a very remarkable exhibit. There 
was one pair of black-and-grey-striped 
trousers. It did not look like paper in any 
respect. 
If it had not been labelled paper, I would 
have believed it to be a cotton fabric—a sort 
of coarse, heavy denim. The price was 
35 marks. In English money, at the time, 
this mean about 4s. 
Nine of the ten paper garments were woven 
and could not be detected as paper, even by 
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