THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK They, too, were not trying to make Artificial Silk. They were trying to make better films and dopes for aeroplane wings. They are very clever and inventive. They soon im- proved the making of Artificial Silk at many points, and their valuable inventions created ou second largest company—British Celanese, td. It is very seldom that chemists and in- ventors alone can create a new industry. They usually lack business ability. They are never efficient at putting new goods on the market. As we have seen, Artificial Silk goods were shown in London by Swan in 1885. But no one took them seriously. The idea that durable clothes could be made of wood and cotton pulp could not penetrate into people’s minds. It was too new—too absurd. In a word. it was preposterous. Artificial Silk was a Lancashire joke for 20 years. The mill is still standing in Manchester which was for years pointed at with roars of laughter as ‘the mill where they weave silk stockings out of cabbages.”