Ws I 5 %. Ce nw a Ee ad ve a me EOE Me Ens falpe apr Vera or i % ul i ain a LT Sie - - Enh E eae F, = a Hb int YN Ee, THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Rs Herbert N. Casson re >. ‘. 'n Published by the 3 EFFICIENCY MAGAZINE Kent House, 87, REGENT STREET, LONDON, W.I, FrepeErick H, BURGESS Printer 18-21 Charterhouse Square Tondon E.C.1% on , "a CNL ae WR BGA r oT a PREFACE a, 2 IRE LAE RE LIAS IAD WILL begin this book with a Fact and a Prophecy. Here is the Fact—the Arti-4a ficial Silk business is the only one in Great Britain that is making 100 per cent. net profit. And here is the Prophecy—the largest profits in the next 10 years will be made in Artificial Silke. . il None can dispute the Fact and few wi dispute the Prophecy, when they have finished reading this book. I will confess that my eyes were not opened to the vast possibilities of Artificial Silk, until [ saw the 1928 Artificial Silk Exhibition in Holland Park Hall London. Very few of the outside public were admitted to this Exhibition. It was for buyers 11 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK only until the last day, when it was packed with an amazed throng of 12,000 people. Here were the most beautiful fabrics that I had ever seen. Famous actresses were posing as mannequins. It was a display, one would think, for queens and princesses alone. And yet the prices put these fabrics within the reach of millions of women. This new Artificial Silk, I realized, is at the moment the most important new thing in the world. It will eventually re-clothe the human race. It will revolutionize the whole textile trade, from silk to jute. It will make good clothes cheap and universal. Best of all, it now gives us a chance to recover our supremacy in textiles, as we control 80 per cent. of the Artificial Silk trade of the world. ARTIFICIAL SILK Is BrrtisH. It was invented and developed by British chemists, and its present success is wholly due to British business men. I venture to say that we are now making more net profit out of Artificial Silk than out pie THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK a of the whole “ American Section’ of our cotton trade. We are making more than either the woollen or linen trades. iles as Artificial Silk is at the top of of thie book 3 money-maker, and the purpose %so that, as is to create an enthusiasm for BH e of most a nation, we shall follow the lin profit. The fact is that a textile revolution is Rong on before our eyes. Go into any large drapery shop and look around you. You will See that the clothing habits of the world are changing. In 10 years more they will be So pliely changed. Make no mistake about at. We must cease being cotton-minded. Or woollen-minded. Or linen-minded. We must accept the new facts of the last 10 years. We must rub our eyes and realize the possibilities of this new business, which has sprung to the top so quietly. Every British business man must now ask himself : “ What does this new Artificial Silk trade mean to Me ? How can I link up with it ? How can I secure my full share of THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK these new profits? How can I hitch my wagon to this new star ? ” There will be vast changes, very soon, in our clothing trades, textile machinery trades, carpet and rug trades—in all manner of trades. As for our cotton, wool and linen trades, they must at once face new problems. Their markets are in danger. Nothing is as it was 10 years ago. A new factor has changed the whole situation. So far as I can find, this is the first nontechnical book on Artificial Silk that has been written in any language. There are very few books on it of any kind. There are only four in the English language that give a technical description of the processes. Not much is known by the public of this wonderful new textile. There has been very little advertising, for the following four reasons -— (1) The demand is greater than the supply. (2) The Artificial Silk firms have had to concentrate their attention upon manufacturing problems. THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK (3) It is at present largely a secret process. Its mills are not open to the public. It is not favourably inclined towards publicity. (4) The manufacturers of Artificial Silk do not themselves realize the vast possibilities of development. All their mills, so far as I have seen, are too small By means of this book, I have hopes of Creating a keen national interest in this great new industry of ours, so that we may retain our supremacy. To-day, in the first lap of the race, we are far ahead of all our competitors. Artificial Silk offers us our greatest opportunity at the moment. It can ros is prestige and prosperity as a maker o SX Liles. It can pay us back ‘what we have cotton. It can bring in tens of millions a year— perhaps hundreds of millions. It can provide work for our unemployed workers and our Unemployed capital. It can make Britain Once more the nation that clothes the world— All of which is shown clearly in the following Pages. Eh CONTENTS CHAPEER I. A MARVELLOUS CATERPILLAR II. HOw ARTIFICIAL SILK WAS INVENTED AND MARKETED . . III. How ARTIFICIAL SILK IS MADE IV. THE STORY OF COURTAULDS AND BRITISH CELANESE . s THE HYGIENIC VALUE OF ARTIFICIAL SILK CLOTHING . THE VAST POSSIBILITIES OF THE ARTIFICIAL SILK TRADE . . BRITISH MAKERS OF ARTIFICIAL SILK MACHINERY . PAGE x7 27 55 73 89 105 129 iii fe AN eS A Marvellous Caterpillar £ ; nN 2 SEER THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK CHAPTER A MARVELLOUS CATERPILLAR HERE are many women who do not like caterpillars. In fact, very few Women do. This is unfair. It is really thoughtless ingratitude, as caterpillars have done more for women than any other sect in the world. > If it were not for caterpillars, gy would have no silk. We would not even have the idea of silk. We would never have dre med 2 Soft, radiant fabric, with a sheen ke that of Precious stones and yet as s vicuna woo] The inventor of silk—inventor and manufacturer both—was the little greenish-white Caterpillar which we call the silkworm (Bombyx Mors), For some reason known only to itself, and by a Process which is still a mystery to every 7 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK chemist, a silkworm spins 300 yards of fine silk around itself when it is nine weeks old. It makes what we call a cocoon—a snug, warm, little sleeping-bag. It sleeps for three weeks, and then breaks out of its sleeping-bag and finds that it has become a moth—a very beautiful moth, with a thick, hairy body and large, broad wings. This resurrection is still one of the marvels of Nature. We know nothing about it. We can merely watch it happen with wondering eyes. A poor little caterpillar, creeping along with its 16 short legs, goes to sleep in a silk bag and wakes up to find itself a little moth angel, flying freely in the sunshine. As to how this is done, not a scientist in the world tan say. We do not care much for the caterpillar itself, but we are greatly interested in the resurrection robe that it spins for itself. We rob the sleeping worm of its robe. To tell the brutal truth, we kill the sleeping worm. Then we slightly roast the cocoon, dip it into warm water and unroll the silk threads. We kill hundreds of worms to make just one silk dress. be THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Sm For tens of thousands of years, the silk-Worms spun their little sleeping robes, and No one gave them a thought. Millions of naked savages glanced at them stupidly and never conceived of the glory of silken clothes, They looked at them as stupidly as you and I look at the tides, moving back and forth With an infinite power that we do not know how to harness. ._ Then, about 4,600 years ago, there came Into the world a wise man and woman, who discovered that the silkworm was the ablest of all clothiers. The name of the man was Hwang-Tj, and the name of the woman was Lui-Tsu, They were Emperor and Empress of China, which was then the most enlightened country in the world. The Empress Lui-Tsu was called ‘the goddess of the Silkworms.” She and her husband found a way to unroll the silk from the cocoons and to make beautiful fabrics. : ide of These fabrics were the glory and pri the Chinese people. They were worn only by the royal family and a few very mandarins. The Chinese wrote poems about silk. They 19 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK were the only people who had it. They kept their monopoly of it for a thousand years. They forbade anyone to take silk goods or silkworms out of China. They wanted silk all to themselves. When the Emperor and Empress died, the Chinese built altars to their memory. They planted mulberry trees around these altars. The great Confucius wrote about what they had done and the Chinese have never forgotten it. The people of Europe knew nothing about silk until about 2,275 years ago. Then Alexander the Great captured great quantities of silk goods in the East and brought them home to his palaces in Greece and Macedonia. Very soon afterwards, the Romans learned how to make silk goods. They made them into garments in Sicily and Venice. No doubt, when the Romans came to England, they brought silk clothes and used them on State occasions. But when the Romans left England, there was little or no silk in England for a thousand years. There was only wool, linen and leather. THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK am The Silk Era began in England in 1553. Then, on a bright June day, Sir Thomas Gresham went to the palace of King Edward VI and presented the King with a pair of silk stockings from Spain. In that year— only 12 generations ago—there was only this one pair of silk stockings in the British sles. They were a nine-days’ wonder. They were the first ever seen in England by the people of those days. The King was delighted. He gave Gresham a large estate. “ You shall know that you pleased a King,” he said. Poor King! He did not live long enough to wear out his silk stockings. He died three weeks afterwards. In 1685 tens of thousands of French Huguenots fled to England for safety, and they brought silkworms and looms with them. They began to make silk and to fashion it into garments. Their trade grew. They prospered and helped to start England on her way as the greatest of the textile-exporting nations. There was a time when there were 30,000 people in Bethnal Green, London, all engaged 2T THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK in making silk goods. They had very little machinery. You can still see a few of the old craftsmen at work with their crude machines. They make ‘‘ Spitalfields Squares ”’ for men's ties. There is still a strong demand for these homespun. squares, as they are regarded as curiosities. They are in the same class with antiques. They are made of the purest silk and wear for many years—" for ever,” the old weavers sav. Such was the origin of the silk trade. As you can see, it could never grow into a trade that would benefit the great mass of the people. There were not enough silkworms. There never could be enough. Silkworms are delicate little creatures. They have diseases that destroy them. One of these diseases is Muscardine, caused by tiny germs entering their air-tubes. Another is Pebrine, which has at times caused a loss of £4,000,000 a year in France. And another disease is Grasserie, a sort of dropsy. Pasteur showed the French people how to prevent these diseases, but they are still liable to occur at any time. 22 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK There was not enough silk to supply the demand. Every woman in the world wanted it. There was always a shortage. There is a shortage to-day. It was very evident that some other way must be found’ to make silk. So, we had to call in the CHEMIST, and he did the trick. We had to create an entirely new trade, with a new technique and new machinery. And, as we shall see in the next chapter, the man who started it was an Englishman. 27 Sm 40M fa - lia ne o_ Sil 2 dl How Artificial Silk was Invented and Marketed P Wade n wo Fg” sh So A 5 ol 7 1) CHAPTER II HOW ARTIFICIAL SILK WAS INVENTED AND MARKETED VERYTHING begins with a Thinker, E Every commodity in the world of trade was once no more than a thought. First comes the Thinker, then the Inventor, then the Business Man, who creates the technique and routine of making and marketing. In the case of Artificial Silk, the Thinker was Robert Hooke, an English physicist who lived 250 years ago. He wrote a book, called ““ MICROGRAPHIA.” It has long since been forgotten, but there was one sentence in this book which has been remembered. It was as follows :— “ There might be a way found out,” said Robert Hooke, “ to make an artificial glutinous composition much resembling, if not full as good—nay, better, than that excrement 277 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK or whatever other substance it be, out of which the silkworm wire-draws his clew.’”’ This was a new Idea. The Romans had never thought of it. The Greeks had never thought of it. It first came into the brain of a thoughtful English scientist, in the darkness of the seventeenth century. Then, in 1740, a Frenchman named Bon made stockings from cobwebs. = Another Frenchman made silk filaments of a sort by hashing up dead silkworms. But nothing came of these experiments. No manufacturer paid any attention to such oddities. In 1754, a great French naturalist, Reamur, brought Hooke’s idea to the front again. He said : ““ Silk is only a liquid gum which has been dried. Could we not make silk ourselves with gums and resins ? *’ But nothing practical was done until 1846, and it was done, in Manchester, by a Blackburn man named John Mercer. Every one in the civilized world knows “ mercerized cotton ’—a more durable cotton cloth that has a silk-like gloss. But very few people know the story of John Mercer, who invented the process of mercerization. 38 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK —— The whole story was told in a book, *“ THE LiFe AND LABOURS OF JOHN MERCER,” by Edward A. Parnell. It was printed by Longman’s for private distribution in 1886. Few copies were sold. Most of them were given to friends of the Mercer family. It is now out of print. Very few copies are in existence. However, Mr. Henry Williams, Librarian of the College of Technology, Manchester, was kind enough to lend me his copy for a month. This book has suddenly become of great value, as it describes the early beginnings of the Artificial Silk industry. Little did the author think that his book would become so valuable. Neither he nor John Mercer knew the vast influence of Mercer's experiments. This story is here made public for the first time. John Mercer was born in 1791, at a small village called Dean, near Blackburn. His father had a small spinning-mill, but, when the new spinning machinery came in, the Mercer family were forced out of the spinning business. They bought a small farm and 20 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK made a scanty living. They were very pOOT. When young John was nine, his father died. John went to work as a bobbin-boy. He never had any schooling, although he eventually became one of the most learned men in Great Britain. He was fond of reading, and he found several good friends among his fellow-workers, who gave him lessons in the evening. When he was 16, he was struck with the beautiful orange colour of a dress worn by his little step-sister. At once, he resolved to be a dyer. He spent all his spare money, which was not much, for dyes. Soon afterwards, he became an apprentice in a dyeshop. At 23, he married Mary Wostenholme. On his way to buy a wedding licence, he stopped at an old bookstall and bought a book that shaped his career—" THE CHEMICAL PockET-Booxk,” by James Parkinson. This old and forgotten book was published in 1803. It set Mercer on fire to try new experiments in producing beautiful colours. 0 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK “It introduced me into a new world,” he said. ““ I devoured it.’ It almost made him forget his wedding. At 27, he became the chemist of the Oakenshaw Print Works. His salary, to begin with, was only 30s. a week. But he soon made it larger. He created new colours and new styles. His mill was soon over-sold. His employers were afraid of losing him, so they wisely made him a partner. The owners of the mill were two brothers named Fort. John Mercer had one of the most creative brains in Lancashire, which, in those days, was saying a good deal. He began to take out patents for all manner of things connected with the dyeing industry. In 1849 he sent a paper to the Royal Society. Then he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He had become one of the ablest chemists in Europe. At 57, his firm was dissolved. He had made a fortune. He was now free to do as he had wanted to do for several years. He set out to experiment with the effect of caustic alkalis on cotton cloth. I THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK —— In one of his first experiments, he filtered caustic soda through six folds of strong bleached cotton. The result amazed him. He could hardly believe his eyes. I found that my filtering cloth had undergone an extraordinary change,” he said. “ It had become semi-transparent, contracted and thickened.” He showed it to his friends as a curiosity. He did not at first realize the immense value of his discovery. The filter-cloth, too, had become glossy. IT LOOKED ALMOST LIKE SILK. He tested its strength. It had become almost as strong as linen. It was more receptive to dyes. It was the most superior bit of cotton cloth that he, or anyone else, had ever seen. He found, by the aid of his microscope, that caustic soda actually improves the cotton fibre. It ripens it. It makes the filament round instead of flat, and consequently makes it glossier. In 1851, he had an exhibit at the Crystal Palace Exhibition. It attracted great atten- THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK tion. He received a Council medal and a special letter of praise from the jurors. Queen Victoria had declined all offers of gifts from the exhibitors, but she made two exceptions. One of the exceptions greatly pleased John Mercer. She accepted two nandkerchiets of mercerized cotton from im. A French company immediately offered Mercer £40,000 for his patents, but Mercer refused the offer. The patents remained in England. He had much difficulty in persuading manufacturers to use his process, because of the high cost of chemicals. But eventually he succeeded, and his process has brought in tens of millions of pounds to Lancashire. Mercer was an eminent scientist. He gave lectures on light and heat and chemistry. He was a great pioneer. He did not make his discovery by chance, as many people believe. He helped to start Technical Schools in England. He conceived of the ‘energy theory ”’ of the universe before Kelvin, and ~ 3 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK il he wrote on the “germ theory’ before Pasteur and Koch. He was a great admirer of Cobden, who was for a time one of Mercer's commercial travellers. He was a deeply religious man, highly esteemed by the many who knew him. In 1866 he died. He was planning a new kind of reservoir for a dye-house. His foot slipped and he fell in the reservoir. The wetting brought on a severe cold, which in a few weeks proved fatal. He was 76. He lies in the little graveyard at Great Harwood. He was a rugged, strong-featured man, with long hair even in old age. He had heavy eyebrows, a strong nose and square chin. He did not live long enough to know what he had done. He never dreamed-of Artificial Silk, but his inventions prepared the way for it. Other inventors came after him and used his work as a stepping-stone. The Artificial Silk men should never forget what they owe to John Mercer. The man who first used the phrase ‘ Artificial Silk ”” was a Swiss of Lausanne—George Audemars, in 1855; but the first man who 1 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Fim ¥ — actually made it by the squirting process was an Englishman— Joseph Wilson :Swan. He took out his patent in 1883. “ £1 ee He squeezed a mixture of wood and ‘cotton pulp through small holes and made a thread of it. He did more than this. He actually made Artificial Silk woven goods and showed them at the Inventions Exhibition in London in 1885. It is very necessary to remember this fact, as many writers are now giving the credit to a Frenchman, Count Hilaire de Chardonnet, as the first maker of Artificial Silk. Chardonnet did not begin his experiments until 1884, a year after Swan had taken out his patent. He did not show any Artificial Silk goods until 1889, at the Paris Exhibition. But Swan was a plain, unknown Englishman. He received no notice and no honours from the British Government, but the French Government awarded Chardonnet the Grand Prix and made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour Swan received no encouragement from anyone. He battled on and laid the solid 25 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 silkworm, 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 6 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK I Chardonnet was called * the Father of the Artificial Silk Trade.” This he certainly was not. He might truly be called its ‘ godfather’ or some similar title. He was for a time its best friend and propagandist. But his method of making Artificial Silk— the nitro-cellulose process—has almost entirely gone out of use. Only 4 per cent. of all the Artificial Silk made in 1927 was made by his process. The real creators of the trade —the men who solved both the problems of making and marketing—were Henry Greenwood Tetley and Sir Thomas Latham, two of the Directors of Courtaulds. Chardonnet has had more credit than he deserves. Tetley and Latham have had less than they deserve. Chardonnet was a shining, conspicuous figure. He was a Count. He was the only man of hereditary title who has ever had anything to do with the Artificial Silk business. He was a picturesque figure— a man of imposing appearance, with white moustache and side-whiskers. Tetley and Latham, on the other hand, were plain, practical English business men, who were 37 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK very much averse to publicity. They did their iob and let fame take care of itself. Chardonnet discovered how to make filaments by an accident. He dropped a piece of film on a hot stove. The cloths that he made were inflammable. They were prohibited by a French law from being sold. He had to sell them in South America, where there was no such law. And he had to adopt an English denitrating process, eventually, in order to prevent his cloths from being inflammable and dangerous to wear. He was helped all through by an English firm in I eck. In 1927 the League of Nations, for some strange reason, published a Report on Artificial Silk. This Report said : ‘ The Artificial Silk industry began in France in the closing years of the last century, and thence spread to the countries of Central Europe.” It does not mention the English pioneers. It gives very few British figures. This Report was prepared by an Italian, a German, a Frenchman and a Pole, and it is wholly inaccurate and misleading—a distinctly anti-British Report. One of my purposes in writing this book is to correct the entirely wrong im-3 “HE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK pression that has been given by this very faulty and biassed Report. As we have seen, the very first conception of Artificial Silk was given to the world by an Englishman—Robert Hooke, who was born in 1635. Then, in 1840, two men—an Englishman and a German—made the first practical experiments. The name of the Englishman was Louis Schwabe, and the name of the German was F. G. Keller. Schwabe was a Manchester man, who had silk mills in Portland Street. He was a very able and inventive man. Also, he was a prosperous manufacturer. He made silks for Queen Victoria and the French Court. He was determined to find a substance that could be drawn through fine holes into filaments. In 1842 he asked the British Association to help him to find such a substance, but the scientists of those days gave him no answer. To tell the truth, they did not know what he was talking about. Schwabe persevered and actually made filaments out of various kinds of pulp. He 30 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK was in the end overwhelmed by the obstacles that he encountered. In 1845 he died by his own hand. Apparently, his life had been a failure. In reality, he had succeeded. He was the first filament-maker in the world. He started a new process which has now become world-wide. Unhappily for Schwabe, he did not know what was being done at that time by a German—F. G. Keller, of Hainichen. Keller was a clever and inventive man. One day, he noticed some little children at play. They were making chains of cherry stones. They put the cherry stones in small hollows in a board and ground holes in them with a erindstone. Keller noticed that the grindstone ground a powder of wood, which fell in a pan of water. - He picked up some of this powder and noticed that it had been wetted into a pulp. He understood paper-making. All paper was at that time made of rags. It was scarce and dear. He thought: “ Why not make paper from wood ? ”’ He at once made experiments. He succeeded. He made paper from wood pulp. He made no fortune out of his discovery. Others THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK developed his process and became rich. He had no idea as to the value of his invention. To-day, 10,000,000 tons of wood pulp are made and used every year. Penny newspapers and cheap books have been made possible. The Artificial Silk trade has been made possible—all because a thoughtful man noticed the play of children in 1840 in a small German town. Then, in 1851, John Mercer exhibited his mercerized cotton at the Crystal Palace Exhibition and proved that fibres can be improved—made strong and silk-like—by the use of caustic soda. Five years later, W. H. Perkin discovered the coal-tar dyes. Perkin, too, was a Manchester man. He did his best to sell his dyeing secrets to British manufacturers. Failing in that, he at last sold them to the Germans and made Germany supreme in dyes. The next great pioneer was Sir Joseph Swan. He was making filaments from parchmentized cotton as early as 1883—a full year before Chardonnet. It was he who first conceived the idea of using cotton pulp and squirting it from a glass tube into methylated spirit. THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK His aim at first was not to make a textile, but to make a filament for incandescent lamps. He succeeded. Later, he made a finer filament for textile purposes. It was used for crochet work. remember this filament being made into fringes for small mats and doilies,” says Kenneth R. Swan, his son. These mats were shown at the Inventions Exhibition in London in 1885. They are still in the possession of the Swan family. The material was at that time called *‘ Artificial Silk.” So, the first Artificial Silk factory in the world was not in France. It was the Swan laboratory at Bromley, Kent. This laboratory became the headquarters of a group of chemists and inventors—Stern, Topham, Wynne, Powell and others. It was here that Swan invented denitration, so that the filaments were non-inflammable. His process was adopted by Chardonnet. And it was here that Fred Topham invented the centrifugal spinning-box—a very clever invention that has been priceless to Artificial Silk manufacturers. After Swan and his group of inventors, 12 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK came Cross and Bevan and many others. They created the Viscose process. They made new machines. They reduced the waste. They invented new baths for the pulp. They developed the whole process in all its details. And nine out of ten of these men were English. In gb per cent. of the Artificial Silk industry there is no invention or improvement that was due to Chardonnet. Both in its earliest beginnings, and in its latest development, the creators of the Artificial Silk trade have been English. The first men who actually made VISCOSE Silk, such as you may now see in any drapery shop, were three Englishmen—C. F. Cross, E. J. Bevan and C. Beadle. They took out their patent in 1892. Theyinvented the word“ Viscose,” which is now universally used. Strangely enough, they were not trying to make Artificial Silk. Their aim was to make a better filament for electric globes. They aimed at one trade and hit another. The two Swiss chemists, the Dreyfus brothers, came into the search about 1890. 13 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 improved 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 inventors 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.” 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 15 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK the closest examination. They were well made, but rather stiff to the touch. *‘ Three days’ rain would ruin them,’’ said a spectator. There was a pretty blouse, trimmed with blue insertion. There was a night-dress with lace collar and cuffs. And there were three handsome table-cloths in three colours. One garment only—a sort of white shroud— was evidently of paper; but even it was crinkled in such a way that it resembled linen at a distance. The maker's name was Herr Grunfeld, of Berlin. The whole exhibit was treated as a joke by the London Press. One London reporter, on an evening paper, paraded the street in one of these ‘‘ paper suits.” And one London tailor said that ‘““no British working man could possibly get any satisfaction or warmth out of a paper suit at any price.” This was only eight or nine years ago. It shows the attitude of mind that had to be overcome by the makers of Artificial Silk. At the time, I wrote: ‘That pair of 4s. trousers is an omen—a warning that ought not to be ignored’; but I was laughed at, ~ 0 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Every one was laughed at who believed that clothes could be made by chemists out of the pulp of trees and cotton waste. The first uses of Artificial Silk in England were for the making of artificial flowers and hat ornaments. Then it was used with mercerized cotton for embroidery purposes and for making the clocks on stockings. The hosiery manufacturers refused to look at it for years. Then, one manufacturer in the Midlands bought a new kind of hosiery machine by accident. He did not know what to do with it. He thought he might as well try it on the new Artificial Silk yarns. He did. He made stockings that cost less and sold like hot cakes. After that, all the hosiery manufacturers tumbled over one another to buy the new yarns. Three months before they had been offered these yarns free, and they had refused them. At about the same time, Artificial Silk jumpers came on the market. They were sold faster than they could be made. Tt was the silk hosiery and the jumpers that first opened the market in Great Britain and America to the Artificial Silk products. -/ THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK At present, there seems to be no limit to its uses. It is made into plush, tapestry, bedspreads, cushion covers, table-cloths, elastic webbing, dress fabrics, shirtings, linings, crepe-de-chine, marocain, foulard, satin, taffeta, etc. No one can now say what are the limitations of Artificial Silk. Every week a new material is put on the market. Several hundred of the cleverest chemists, inventors and designers are now giving their full time to the development of this new Artificial Silk trade. The first British public man who appreciated Artificial Silk was Lord Rothermere, and he did not. wake up to realize its vast possibilities until he paid a visit to Italy in 1926. In Italy he found Artificial Silk yarns being made for 2s. a pound——cheaper than cotton. ‘“ The name ° Artificial Silk’ is a misnomer,” he said. * This new yarn may take the place of cotton, wool and linen, as well as silk. Anything in the line of textiles may be made of it, from carpets to camisoles.” THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK ee RE. Rothermere pointed out that Italy has thrown down the gauntlet to Lancashire. It is making the coarser and cheaper yarns, which will soon be much lower in price than cotton. At present, Artificial Silk stockings are universal. They are worn by the mill girls in Lancashire. They are no longer the privilege of the rich. They have been brought within the reach of almost every family. In feel and appearance and lustre and brilliance, the new Artificial Silk goods are now practically equal to the silkworm silk. Only a close scrutiny will enable you to tell the one from the other. Calling the new yarn “silk ” has given it an immense advantage. It keeps the prices at a higher level and increases the demand for the goods. When “ Bessemer ” iron was invented, it was called steel. It is not steel. It is, strictly Speaking, only air-refined iron. But it was called steel, and this helped very much to keep its price up and to increase the demand or it. fod THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK As yet, Artificial Silk has no name of its own. The word “rayon” has not been generally accepted, not even in America, where it originated. Eventually, it will have a name of its own. In fairness to the great firm that is now supreme in the Artificial Silk trade, it ought to be called “ Courtauld.” To-day, no one jibes at Artificial Silk. The women who laughed at it eight years ago are now clothed in it. The dazzling Artificial Silk display at the last British Industries Fair completely won over all the doubters. It greatly fascinated the Queen. She stopped almost breathlessly in front of one of the stands and at once selected a fabric for her own use. It was a gorgeous fabric, of original design, in which a scarlet Chinese vase was most conspicuous. It was fit for a Queen. At the last Cologne Fair there was the most complete display of Artificial Silk goods that has ever been shown in Europe. The stands were crowded with mannequins and ““ Fashion Queens.” There were many gorgeous pavilions. Also, there was a clever pantomine -, THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK showing alchemists discovering how to produce “textile gold.” The use of Articifial Silk products was doubled in Germany in 1927. BY eee Badin, 5 How Artificial Silk is Made eran SHEL ETS CHAPTER III HOW ARTIFICIAL SILK IS MADE HE making of Artificial Silk is a new process—so new that there are no -. words in any language to describe it. In order to describe it, I shall have to use old words In a new way. There are only two lines on Artificial Silk in the latest large Dictionary—"‘ Collodion made into threads by being forced through very small apertures.” Only eleven words to describe the most important new industry in the world, and this definition is already somewhat out of date. The making of Artificial Silk is a technical process, full of secrets. No outsider is allowed to enter a factory where it is being made. And no one but a chemist, or rather, one chemist out of ten, can understand the technical books that have been written on it. ~ More than this, it is a swiftly changing iIndustry—this making of Artificial Silk. What 55 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK ra TE is right to-day may be wrong to-morrow. As yet, there is no right way that is generally agreed upon. There is very little routine. Hundreds of clever brains are at work, altering, improving and making experiments. At any time there may come a new invention that will put an Artificial Silk factory out of date. The whole industry is changing from month to month. No one knows what new miracle will happen next. It is a dynamic industry. For this reason I shall not go into details as to the technique. The technique is now in process of being created. I shall only describe it in a general way, so that those who sell or wear it shall know how it is being made Artificial Silk, at present, is being made of spruce pulp and cotton linters—the soft short fibres from cotton seeds. These are not cotton fibres, as Lancashire understands the word. Lancashire wants long fibres—the longer the better, but the Artificial Silk men want them as short as possible. Cotton waste is now being used, too. The waste in the back yard of the Lancashire “6 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK mills has suddenly become valuable. If the cotton men had only known what to do with it, there would never have been any slump in the cotton trade. They are now sending this waste in bags, wonderingly, to the Artificial Silk mills. Spruce trees are cut down in Canada or Scandinavia. The making of Artificial Silk has provided a new customer for the lumber trade. The logs are floated to a saw-mill, where they are cut into 6-foot lengths. The bark is taken off. As yet, we have found no uses for the bark of spruce trees. These logs are then cut into 1-inch wheels and broken up into small chips. Forty tons of these chips are put into a * digester ""— a huge cylindrical boiler. Chemicals are put in and the chips are boiled. They remain in the “digester ” for 24 hours. This is the first mechanical process in the making of an Artificial Silk gown. Then the chips are emptied into draining chests. From these they pass to sand traps— long narrow troughs in which they are cleaned of impurities. They are then bleached in large vessels 7 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK called “ Hollanders,” and put on the drying machine—an endless belt of wire gauze. After being dried, they are cut into sheets. The mixture is now complete as pulp and is shipped to the Artificial Silk mills to be made into filaments. When these pulp sheets reach the mill, they are soaked in dilute caustic soda for several hours and broken up into little bits called “crumbs.” Caustic soda has a remarkable solvent effect upon many organic substances, both animal and vegetable. It makes many things transparent. ‘‘ Caustic ”’ means the power of corroding or eating away tissues—breaking them up. These “crumbs” are then mixed with cotton fibres and by means of chemicals they are made into a brown gelatinous mass. They are softened and blended into a thick syrup, which looks very much like brown heather honey. This mass of syrup is then forced through the multiple jets of a nozzle, which is like the rose of a fountain. Fine filaments are squeezed out into a hardening liquid. They £8 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK are then twisted into threads and wound on big bobbins. The finest filaments are made by pulling the filament as it comes out. They can now be made as fine as the filaments of the silkworm. Before cotton fibres can be used, they must be cleansed from oil, fat, wax and colouring matter. They must be boiled, bleached, dried and teased out. The yarn made from wood alone is a pale cream, while the yarn made from cotton is a bluishwhite. The cotton yarn is 25 per cent. stronger than the wood pulp yarn. Wood fibre, we have learned, is a very strongly made substance. The microscope shows that it is made of peculiarly elongated cells—spindle-shaped and pointed at the ends. This sort of cell gives greater strength and tenacity than the structures that have spherical cells. Also, it gives greater density. You could, for instance, pack cartridges together more tightly than bullets. _ Nature designed a specially shaped cell in the making of trees. We have only recently appreciated this fact. There seems to be no limit to the number of new uses 20 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK i ——-that we can find for these spindle-shaped wood cells. There are four different processes at present in the making of Artificial Silk :— (x) Viscose. (2) Cuprammonium. (3) Nitrocellulose. (4) Cellulose-Acetate. The first is the most universal process, but the last—acetate, is now being rapidly developed. Acetate silks are finer and better for hard wear. They stand washing better. They can be boiled in all kinds of detergent liquors. When wetted, they lose only half their strength, and are as strong as ever when dry. They are the closest imitation of real silk. They are superior in lustre, softness, warmth of handle and non-creasability. They are best for fabrics of the crepe-de-chine type. They burn like real silk, leaving a cinder, while viscose silks burn like cotton, leaving only a fine white ash. The moisture in acetate silks ranges from Hho THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK — 3 to 6 per cent. only, depending upon the humidity, while the moisture in viscose silks ranges from II to I3 per cent. A test has been made of the strength of acetate silk after a long immersion in water. Several pieces of acetate silk cloth were immersed in sea water for five weeks. Before immersion, this cloth had a breaking-point of 7.05 lbs. After immersion, its breakingpoint was 6.6 Ibs. It was almost as strong as ever after five weeks in sea water. This proves that it can be used for fishing lines and nets. Acetate silk is a good insulator. It is being used more and more in the electrical industry. Much of it is now being used by the Telephone Department of the Post Office. The world output of acetate silk is at present 15,000,000 lbs. a year, but when the new mills that are now being built are finished, the output will be increased fourfold. But, to continue the description of the process, it is a matter of great importance to have a constant and uniform pressure on the syrup as it is being forced through the tiny holes. At first, this pressure was regu-61 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK lated by a skilled workman, but there are now automatic regulators of pressure. If there were variations in the pressure, there would be thick places in the filaments. This act of forcing the syrup through the holes is called “ spinning,” although, of course, it is no such thing. As yet, we have no word to describe it. The Germans call it ““ wire-drawing,” which is a more suitable word. A filament is a single strand. When several filaments are twisted together, they form a thread. The twist given to the filaments is very slight. It averages 2; turns per inch. The threads are reeled into skeins, 1,680 or 3,360 yards in length-—z-mile lengths. Some experts think that every filament has a skin, and that when the skin is thin, the filament has most elasticity. These tiny filaments, in fact, are a new product of the brain of man. There is nothing else that is precisely like them in Nature. We do not vet know all that we shall know about them. The water used in making Artificial Silk must be chemically pure. If it has lime or iron in it, the silk will be less lustrous. - Wi THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK ssi The first thing that must be done, before a new silk mill is built, is to analyse the water. Unless the water is pure, the silk will be dull and must be sold at a low price. Any investor, before he puts money into a new Artificial Silk enterprise, should ask if the water is suitable. Great care, too, must be taken in the drying of the filaments. They must not be dried too quickly. They are like furs in this respect. If they are dried too quickly, they will have a yellowish stain. Green stains, as well, sometimes appear because of a fault in the washing. An Artificial Silk mill requires its own Special climate. It needs a certain degree of humidity, just as a cotton mill does. It is a strange fact that the threads are more lustrous when they are dried under tension. This fact was first noticed in the mercerizing of cotton. The reason for this is that when a thread is stretched, the surface is not broken. It retains its gloss. Viscose silk has a bright silvery lustre. Acetate silk has a glistening metallic lustre. Cuprammonium silk has a glassy appearance. 6° THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK chor The lustre can be increased or decreased by the treatment of the threads. Also, the lustre can now be accurately measured by an optical instrument—the Goerz Glarimeter. There is at present a great deal of waste in an Artificial Silk mill—probably from 20 to 25 per cent. This is caused by defective valves, bursting of glass pipes, splitting of rubber tubes, breaking of filaments, etc. There is also the waste of stoppages. The actual working time of the machines is not nearly as long as it might be, because of the many difficulties of a new process and a large number of makeshift machines. A process has just been discovered whereby the waste varn can be re-spun. A mill with 500 employees can now produce 775 bs. of Artificial Silk a day, with 150 h.p., says Mr. J. Foltzer, a German expert. And the factory would require about go.ooo feet of floor space. The world output of Artificial Silk in 1927 was as follows :— Viscose . Acetate . . Cuprammonium. Nitro-Cellulose . fF THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK The world market has been made on Viscose silks and they will probably remain the most popular, on account of their strength and cheapness. Acetate silks are more like natural silk. They are of finer quality, but for several reasons they are not likely to displace Viscose. Artificial Silk filaments can now be made as fine as the filament that is spun by a silkworm ,,5, of an inch in diameter. They are not yet as strong. They have from 30 to 40 per cent. as much strength as real silk. They have from 60 to 80 per cent. as much strength as cotton. Every year they are being made stronger. It is only a matter of time until they can be made fully as strong as cotton and more than 75 per cent. as strong as silk. Already they have what is called ‘‘ Scroop ** —the squeaky feel or rustle of real silk, Women prefer this rustle. It is a sign of quality. And the best Artificial Silk garments possess it. There was at first a belief that Artificial Silk threads could not be knotted, but this is an error. They can be knotted, but they 6% THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK should be tied only with ‘‘ weaver’s knots,” made neatly and with the ends cut as short as possible, All Artificial Silk garments should be kept dry, as far as possible. Otherwise, they are in danger of mould or mildew. They are made of rich organic material and will provide sustenance for bacterial moulds. This has been proved by recent tests. The only serious drawback to Artificial Silk is that it has no name of its own. Itis notin any sense ‘‘ artificial.” No one thinks of calling brick by the name of * artificial stone,” nor steel by the name of “ artificial wood.” It is a new and independent creation of the brain of man—something cleverer than Nature has given us. Several names have been suggested— ““ Glos,” “ Rayon,” “ Glossamer "’ and others. The “ DRAPER’S ORGANISER ’ offered a prize for the best name. The winning word was ““ CELLINE,” but it was found that this is a registered trade name and cannot be used. The word ““ Rayon ” is not suitable, as it has so many other meanings in the French language. £6 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK At first, there were many difficulties in dyeing Artificial Silk. It had to be handled carefully, as it loses much of its strength when wetted. The dyeing at first was uneven, because of differences in the batches of thread. The dyers had to study the whole problem and prepare special dyes and baths. They had to learn their trade all over again. They had to face a new mystery. There was not a book nor an expert in the world to help them. Their previous experience with other textiles was of very little value. But they succeeded, as you can see, by looking at the radiant Artificial Silk garments in the shop windows. Artificial Silk, like natural silk, is now being weighted with tin. From 10 to 50 per cent. of tin is added. This weighting is destructive, but it adds to the appearance and the body of the goods. It lifts the goods up into a superior class. Women want it. They prefer style and appearance to durability, consequently the weighting of silk goods is likely to continue. 7 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Artificial Silk can be made from many materials. It has been made from maize and milk and various other substances. The main thing, so far as raw materials are concerned, seems to be cheapness. No one knows, as yet, what Artificial Silk will eventually be made from. Apparently, our marvellous chemists can take almost anything and make a silk gown out of it. Eventually, the whole process will be done continuously, on one great machine. The machine will be in two parts, the first dealing with the chemical operations and the second with mechanical operations. The material will flow steadily forwards in a river of mass production. All this mastery of new materials and production of new textiles has been wrought by the Chemist. The victorious CHEMIST! He deserves a word of praise for it all. He is the new Magician of trade and commerce. He takes a tree, waves his wand and Presto—it becomes a silk dress, all shining and radiant. He picks up a sack of despised cotton waste, from the rear of a mill in Oldham. He plunges it into magical baths FS THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK and runs it through a dozen magical machines and behold! It becomes a silken tapestry fit to be hung on the walls of a palace. There is nothing in the Arabian Nights Entertainments that is one half as wonderful. £0 Gr \ 2 HO J v4 The Story of Courtaulds and British Celanese GR de, A RTI 2" ah GG) CHAPTER IV THE STORY OF COURTAULDS AND BRITISH CELANESE OURTAULDS is the most brilliantly successful firm in Great Britain. It is a firm to study—to emulate. Whatever Efficiency means in the Artificial Silk trade, Courtaulds has it. No other firm in Europe has piled up so many millions in so short a time for its lucky shareholders. At an annual meeting of railway shareholders, when the small profits for the year were announced, a disappointed shareholder rose and asked : ““ Why cannot we get a Director from Courtaulds on our Board, to show us how to make profits ? Courtaulds has a capital of £32,000,000, and only £2,000,000 of this was paid in. The rest came out of profits, It has paid the 73 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK original shareholders 5,500 per cent. For every pound they put in, they now have £55. The net profits in 1927 were £4,585,000. The reserves are £12,000,000. And the present market value of the shares is now more than £110,000.000. In 1927 it paid a bonus of £12,000,000 to its shareholders. It is the only British firm that has ever given its shareholders so large a bonus. Several years previously, it gave a bonus of £8,000,000. Altogether, it has paid five bonuses to its shareholders, on top of a 25 per cent., tax free, dividend. The biggest and most joyous boom on the London Stock Exchange ‘in 1927 was caused by this Courtauld bonus. The Courtauld shares leapt up in value £12,000,000 in a single day. A feeling of confidence and optimism was created by this bonus such as Great Britain has not known since the pre-war days. In 1913 the capital of Courtaulds was only £200,000. Its shares were selling at 32s. apiece. If any foreseeing man had bought I,000 shares at that time, he could now sell ~4 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK —— them for £55,000. He would have got 34 for 1. Courtaulds control the Viscose Corporation of America, which makes 69 per cent. of all American Artificial Silk. It has interests in mills in Italy, Germany and France. It makes most of the Artificial Silk in the world —possibly 75 per cent. of it. This one firm makes five-sixths of the Artificial Silk in Great Britain, and it is not likely to lose its supremacy. Its main asset is not its money, but its experience. It has the group of specialists who have solved the problem most completely. As we have seen in previous chapters, the making of Artificial Silk requires a new Technique. This new textile is not made by money, nor by standardized machinery, as cotton goods are. It is made by skill all the way along. This skill is in the brains and fingers of very few men, and they have not yet made it known to the public. They have not written books. And most of these men are in the Courtauld Company. _ Courtaulds’ biggest competitor in America is the Du Pont Company, but it makes only 75 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL STLK 40 per cent. as much Artificial Silk as Courtaulds. There are only three companies of any size in the United States. The third is the Tubize Company, which makes only 20 per cent. as much as Courtaulds. The two outstanding pioneers of Courtaulds, who created the Artificial Silk industry, were Sir Thomas Latham and Henry Greenwood Tetley. Latham came from Manchester. He was a skilled financier and business-builder. He had been thoroughly trained in the business of making and marketing textiles. Tetley came from Leeds. He was skilled in the manufacturing end. He was a competent Works Manager. He was inventive— constructive—managerial. These two men—the Lancashire man and the Yorkshire man—were the flint and steel that struck the spark of the Artificial Silk trade. By a lucky chance, these two men met each other. Both had heard of the experiments of Swan, Cross, Chardonnet and others in the making of Artificial Silk. They looked about 7, THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK for a firm that would give them a chance to make the new yarns. They chose Courtaulds. At that time, Courtaulds were making black crape, mostly. But it was going out of fashion. The sales had fallen off. It was Queen Alexandra, I believe, who put mourning out of fashion. Little did she think, when she made this decision, that she was starting a vast new industry. Latham and Tetley were given a free hand by Courtaulds. At first, they had failure after failure. They had to work with unskilled men and makeshift machines. And there was no demand for the new yarns. No manufacturer would have them at any price. They offered free yarn to any manufacturer ih would try it. Very few accepted the offer. There was one critical moment when even the Courtaulds’ Board of Directors lost hope. Tetley needed a few thousands more for new machinery. They were inclined to refuse. Tetley sprang to his feet and made a speech—one of the most effective speeches that has ever been made in the British Isles. bird THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK He showed in strong words how near he was to success. He pointed out the possibilities of the new trade. He made a most earnest and even eloquent speech. He convinced the Board of Directors. They gave him the few thousands of pounds that he needed. He was enabled to perfect the process. From that time Courtaulds never looked back. They pushed on until in a year or two success came like a flood and almost swept them off their feet. It is a curious fact that most business men are apt to undervalue the power of an effective speech. But many a large business enterprise has been started on its way by an earnest speech, packed with facts, delivered to the right audience. The great Steel Combine of America was started by a speech by Charles M. Schwab. It convinced J. P. Morgan, and the largest company in the world was the result. And in the creation of the vast business of Courtaulds, it was a speech by Henry Greenwood Tetley that overcame the last obstacle. To-day, in the large red-brick factory of Courtaulds at Coventry, more than 140 miles 23 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK of Artificial Silk filament are made every Seconp. This is equal to seven- miles of thread. Every spinning machine has 88 nozzles, and every nozzle has 20 pin-holes, through which the filaments are forced. There are also two other factories at Braintree and Wolverhampton. As for the Courtaulds themselves, they are a historic family. They are descended from Augustine Courtauld—a fine old gentleman of France. He was a Huguenot. He fled to England to escape the wave of persecution that swept over France in 1685. The Courtauld family settled at Braintree. In 1800, George Courtauld started a little silk mill. It has never been pulled down. It can still be seen—a little old water-wheel mill that stands in the shadow of a new large factory. The Courtaulds are quiet, untitled people. They dislike publicity. All told, there are eighteen of them who hold shares in the company. They have become richer, I fancy, fay beyond either their dreams or their wishes. 7() THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK The largest block of shares is held by Mr. William Julian Courtauld. He is crippled by a weakness of the thigh, but he is very active in the public affairs of Braintree and Essex county. He is a magistrate and town councillor. He lives in a house called ““ Penny Pot.” His hobbies are music and astronomy. He has given Braintree a £20,000 recreation ground, a £25,000 hospital, and a £50,000 town hall. They have many interests besides business —these Courtaulds. Major John S. Courtauld is M.P. for Chichester. Miss Sydney C. Courtauld is a sculptor. And Miss Katherine M. Courtauld is a practical farmer. The Rev. Maitland S. Courtauld is a curate—the richest curate in England, no doubt. He has spent his whole life in the London slums. He is an ascetic-looking man of about 50. His church is St. Peter’s, at Wapping. He has been labouring here, to relieve the miseries and to strengthen the faith of the poor, for more than 20 years. Many stories are told of his selfless benevolence. ‘“ The . children worship him, and so do the aged women,” said one of his In THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK parishioners. =“ He is always helping the people in their troubles and sending the children away for outings.” Every one on “ Wapping Island *’ knows and loves “ Father Courtauld.” The active head of the Courtauld Company is Mr. Samuel Courtauld—* Mr. Sam,” as he is called. He lives at Stanstead House, Halstead, Essex. He had a sound business training. He is very competent and highly esteemed. He, too, has enriched Braintree by his generosity. It was he who gave the nation a £50,000 collection of French paintings in 192+. The Courtaulds’ Board of Directors does not approve of personal publicity. It is an active Board. There are no deadheads on it. Every Director is a worker. It acts as a whole. All important matters are brought before it, There is no Dictatorship. Every problem is solved in conference. This is, very likely, one of the secrets of its continued SUCCess. Courtaulds is a wise company. It does not believe in cut-throat competition. It has prevented price-cutting by making agree-Rr THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK ments with German and Italian competitors. It collaborates with other companies in matters of research. It is not a pugnacious company. It believes in a “live and let live” policy. It makes alliances. It creates good-will. There is no sign that its supremacy in Artificial Silk may be threatened by any of its competitors. There is now a great Viscose Combine, composed of Courtaulds, Glanzstoff, Snia Viscosa and almost all the other large companies, with the sole exception of British Celanese. The object is not only to stabilize prices, but to foster inventions and research and in every way to develop and strengthen the trade as a whole. The Snia Viscosa, of Italy, is the second largest producer of Artificial Silk in the world. It has many British shareholders, as 1,000,000 of its shares were sold in London at [3 per share. They were snatched up quickly. No prospectus was issued. The early birds got the worms. This company is now building a factory in England. The two leaders of the Artificial Silk trade in Italy are Signor Gualino and Baron > THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Fassini. They are men of great ability and ambition. Their aim is “to accomplish in the world’s textile industry what Henry Ford has done in the motor-car trade.” In the main, they are concentrating upon the making of the coarser and cheaper yarns. They are determined to make * Artificial Cotton ** As for the British Celanese Company, there is not much that can be said until its new Directors have been given a charce to carry out their policies. This company had a bad start. It was founded by the aid of the Government in 1911. It had a capital of £5,400,000, half of which was paid by the Government. At first it made enormous losses. It paid no dividend on its ordinary shares for 16 years. It was one more instance of the fact that State control is always disastrous. Then, in 1927, it was taken over by the Dreyfus brothers—two eminent Swiss chemists. The Government sold all its shares —sold them at the bottom. If it had waited a few months and sold at the top, it would have made a profit of £4,800,000. 2 3 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK The company was drastically reorganized. Dr. Henry Dreyfus became Chairman. In 1927 the shares had a boom. They soared suddenly to £6. A few years before, they could have been bought for 2s. gd. This illustrates the difference between State control and private management. The company floated new shares. They were over-subscribed 20 times over. Dr. Dreyfus asked for £2,500,000, and the British public offered him £50,000,000. This flotation proves that the British Artificial Silk industry will never suffer for lack of capital. Dr. Henry Dreyfus is 46 years old. He is well known in Switzerland. He has plunged like a meteor into British industry and finance. He is a dynamic man—quick, masterful, decisive. His purpose is to make Artificial Silk goods of the highest quality. He has already stopped the losses and brought the company up to the point where it has begun to pay dividends. So, we have now in England the supreme company of all—Courtaulds, moving forward quickly and wisely and holding fast to its supremacy. We have also a large and R THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK prosperous company—DBritish Celanese. And we have a score of other companies, most of which appear to be well financed and well managed. We are at the head of the Artificial Silk trade. Four-fifths of the net profit made by the trade as a whole comes to England. The trade is managed and financed from London. Most of the experts of the trade are British. Through and through, from its earliest beginnings, the Artificial Silk trade has been English. And there is every probability that it will remain so, at least for many years. 35 i. LN The Hygienic Value of Artificial Silk Clothing (ay “oA Te > gle) CHAPTER V THE HYGIENIC VALUE OF ARTIFICIAL SILK CLOTHING HIS is a new subject. As yet, there is no book on it. So far as I know, this is the first article that has ever been written on the hygienic value of Artificial Silk clothing. r— Here is the great new Fact upon which this chapter is based—THE ULTRA-VIOLET RAYS OF THE SUN DO NOT GO THROUGH COTTON, WOOLLEN, LINEN OR REAL SILK CLOTHING, BUT 50 PER CENT. OF THEM GO THROUGH ARTIFICIAL SILK CLOTHING. The Ultra-Violet rays, which are necessary in order to have perfect health, do not go through ordinary glass. We are now making a special new kind of glass that allows them to ‘go through. They do not go through 8g THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK re ordinary clothing, and we are now making a new kind of clothing, through which they may pass to the body. At last, we have found a way to clothe the body without endangering its health. We have found a new textile that gives sunshine —almost complete sunshine, to the body. As you can see, this is a revolutionary fact. One hundred years from now, it may be regarded as the greatest invention of our generation. We have found out how to make HYGIENIC CLoTHES—the first clothes that the human race has ever worn that did not have a bad atest upon the health of the body and rain. For thousands of years we have worn Anti-Sun clothing. Our clothing manufacturers have never given this matter a moment’s thought. No tailor—no dressmaker, has ever dreamed of such a thing as SUNLIGHT CLOTHES. Not even the manufacturers of Artificial Silk had ever thought of it. They produced a new material without knowing its hygienic value. It was only recently that Professor Hess, of the Columbia NO THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK University, New York City, made the startling discovery that Artificial Silk clothing admitted the Ultra-Violet rays. Cotton and woollen clothes are like armourplate to these rays. They bar them from our bodies. Only our faces and hands are left open to the rays that are necessary to perfect health. When people wear broad-brimmed hats and gloves, they are shut out completely from these medicinal rays. Their bodies are wholly in the dark, so far as these rays are concerned. As we all know, the human race grew up in sunshine—sunshine that shone directly upon naked bodies. For hundreds of thousands of years the human race was a practically naked race. It enjoyed 100 per cent. of the sun's rays. Clothes have only been worn in comparatively recent centuries. First came the fig leaf or some other leaf, and then the skins of animals and then cotton and woollen clothes. Naked bodies were covered up. And what this has meant in weakness and disease we are only beginning to realize. After all, we have the same physical needs ¢) ¢ THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK as plants and animals. We must have sunlight and fresh air. The main health factors are sunlight on the body, fresh air in the lungs and sound unbroken sleep. Savages have more of all three than we civilized people have. Suppose I were to civilize a cabbage ! Suppose I transplanted it into my drawingroom and put a suit of woollen or cotton clothes on it | What would be the fate of that cabbage ? It would not grow. It would wither and die. Suppose we put sun-resisting clothes on apples or marrows or dogs! They would be injured, not helped. Every living thing needs the whole of the sunlight and continual fresh Air. The semi-naked races have no knowledge of science nor hygiene. They live in the midst of smells. They drink foul water. They know nothing of germs. But they live fairly long and are amazingly strong and healthy. Why ? Because they have a PLus which we lack. They have the Ultra-Violet rays on the skin of the whole body. This one advantage helps to pull them through and gives them a hardihood that civilized 2 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK races do not possess. We pity them, but we, wrapped up in our delusion of superiority, do not see that they also pity us. The South Sea islanders were a healthy lot until the missionaries put clothes on them. They were taught to wear shirts and trousers and they died in thousands of tuberculosis. The same fate has happened to the Red Indians of America. They, too, were taught to wrap themselves up like parcels and to live in closed houses. Very few of them have survived. The fact is that the bleached, clotheswrapped races are physically weaker than the natural-colour races. The dockers of London cannot compare, for strength and endurance, with the coolies of China and the natives of Africa. The law of compensation has made us pay dearly for our comforts and inventions. Everywhere, hospitals follow civilization. The white races are like the white grass that grows underneath a board. Their colour is not a sign of strength, but of weakness. Too many white people are frail and anemic and half alive. We have built up a vast para-13 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK phernalia of Medical Science, but the whole of it does not atone for what we have lost by the diminution of sunlight and fresh air. We human beings are children of the Sun. The sunlight that comes to us through 93,000,000 miles of space is our source of life. Lt is filtered through 100 miles of atmosphere and smoke and dust and cloud. It is not pure when it reaches us, but it is the power whereby we live. It is an extraordinary fact that we knew nothing about the composite nature of sunlight until two centuries ago. Sir Isaac Newton discovered it. He showed us for the first time the marvel of the spectrum. Then, in 1801, Ritter discovered the Ultra-Violet rays—the invisible rays of shortest wave-length. About 1850, Arnold Rickli, an Austrian, started the first Sunlight Clinic at Veldes, in Austria. He amazed the doctors by his success in healing diseases. In 187%, Dr. Downes and Dr. Blunt read papers on the healing power of Ultra-Violet rays before the Royal Society. In 18go, Koch proved that the bacilli of tuberculosis are killed by these rays. They are killed in D4 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK ten minutes. Then Finsen, the Dane, produced these rays artificially at Copenhagen by means of the carbon arc. In 1907, Dr. Rollier started his Sunlight Clinic on a Swiss mountain, 4,000 feet above sea level. He has now more than 1,000 patients. He has been healing defective white people for over 20 years. His success is known all over the world. The Swiss call him the “Sun God.” He is the ablest pioneer of Sunlight treatment, which will eventually become universal. Under his treatment, the whole body is exposed to the sun for three hours a day. In 1924, the Sunlight League was organized in London, under the patronage of the late Queen Alexandra. Its first ar was Dr. C. W. Saleeby. Strangely enough, it was Queen Alexandra who opened the way for Courtaulds by putting mourning out of fashion, and it was she who helped the new “* Sunlight Treatment ’’ to become established. In Germany, there is a nation-wide movement, mainly among young people, to give sunlight and air to the body. It has been scoffed at by prudes, as it is in a sense a revolt 0% THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK against clothes. But it is a movement in the right direction and much good—physical, mental and moral. will come of it. The attention of scientists and doctors has been directed more than ever to the power of these Ultra-Violet rays by the discovery of X-rays by Rontgen in 1895 and the discovery of radium by the Curies in 1897. Both of these rays are shorter still than the Ultra-Violet rays. As for the rays of radium, they have become the greatest wonder of the scientific world. They pass through metal. They discharge the electricity of an electrified body. They disintegrate elements. They have broken down the Atomic Theory and brought in a new view of the universe, As you can see, this matter of rays is a vast new subject. It has opened our eyes to new possibilities of power and health. No one knows what new truths and new powers may be discovered in the next 10 years. To tell the truth, we are just emerging from the Dark Ages—the Dark Ages of Anti-Sun Clothes—the Dark Ages of Prudery and Sex-Consciousness. 7 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK The value of sunlight on the body was known by the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Herodotus mentions it. All the Roman Emperors had sun-baths as well as waterbaths. But for 2,000 years the value of sunlight as a creator of health and strength has been forgotten. The incredibly stupid and immoral doctrine has been taught that the body is an unclean thing that must be covered up. All of us, in Europe and America at least, are still under the dark blight of this preposterous delusion. The effect of the Ultra-Violet rays on the skin is now accurately known. They stimulate the sweat-glands. They dilate the capillaries. They relieve the congestion. They increase the Vitamin D of the body—the bone-making element. They keep the skin active. They increase the power of resistance to infection. They reach the blood and increase the number of red corpuscles, so that it can the more easily destroy the germs of disease. They thus destroy bacteria within the body. They increase the amount of lodine and iron and phosphorus in the body. They make high-quality blood, which is the main thing in health. They act on the ry | 3 7 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK central nervous system, causing mental stimulation and cheerfulness. They help to maintain the temperature of the body at 98.4 degrees. Here are at least 13 beneficial effects of the Ultra-Violet rays. What medicine can show as many ? What other method for the promotion of health is as efficient as these marvellous rays, whose nature we did not know until a few years ago ? These rays have been found to cure eczema, rickets, scurvy, tuberculosis, ulcers, carbuncles, boils, neurasthenia, etc. They even take the whoop out of whooping-cough and often cure ordinary colds. They relieve and often cure rheumatism, lumbago and gout. They are by no means a cure-all, but few doctors who use them would care to set limits to what they can do. They are a very effective help to all other forms of treatment. No one, as yet, knows what they may do when the apparatus has been standardized and when the technique has been still further improved. Years ago, Dr. Palm discovered that the children who had rickets were usually those “hy THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK who lived on the shady side of the street. Those who lived on the sunny side were in almost all cases free from this defect. Since then, we have discovered that the lack of sunlight is a prolific cause of all manner of bodily troubles. As everyone knows, a bright sunny day is a tonic for the mind as well as the bodv. In the last 10 years, we have awakened to the part which is played in health by the SKIN. We have an outer and an inner skin. The longer Ultra-Violet rays penetrate to the inner skin and reach the blood and nerveendings. ‘‘ Sunlight is the best masseur,” says Dr. Rollier. The skin eliminates many of the poisons that form in the body. We breathe through the skin. as truly as we do through the nose. There are four methods of eliminating the wastes and poisons of the body—by the bowels, kidneys, skin and breath. A man could live for 20 days without any action of the bowels and for ro days without any action of the kidneys. But he could only ive for ONE Hour without any action of his skin. 20 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK An old tale is told of a little boy in Madrid, who took the part of a golden cherub in a erand Festival. He was gilded from head to foot. He was shining and beautiful and his parents were very proud of him. But before the Grand Parade was over, the little fellow sickened and had to be taken home. Before the day was ended he was dead. The golden paint on his skin had killed him. Give the skin sunlight and air and the dangers of disease are greatly decreased. Radiant, 100 per cent. health can never be enjoyed without fresh air and sunshine. There are 52 weeks in the year and we spend only two of these weeks in the open air, lightly clad. But these two weeks of holiday have a marvellous effect upon our health and spirits. We imagine that this recuperation is due to our freedom from work. That is not the main reason. The recuperation is mainly due to the fact that we live according to the laws of health during our holiday period. We disrobe. We unwrap. We open up the body to the action of the sun and the air. That is why a holiday is so beneficial. So, while the use of Artificial Silk clothes roo THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK J will not bring us all the way back to Nature, they will at least bring us half-way back, as they admit 50 per cent. of the Ultra-Violet rays. This is a talking-point—a quality-point, that the Sales Managers of Artificial Silk companies should use to the full. These new shining cloths are not only more beautiful. They are more hygienic as well. They admit half of the essential rays of the sun, that all other cloths exclude. When you remember that Great Britain lost 90,000,000 working days in 1927 because of illness, this new subject of hygienic clothes becomes very important. We lose 12 times more time by illness than we do by strikes. In 1927, we lost #5 times more time by illness than by strikes, as 1927 was a year of industrial peace. Any doctor who has used Ultra-Violet rays will agree that the wearing of Artificial Silk clothes must have an effect upon our national health, far beyond our power to realize. As we wear more and more Artificial Silk, we shall come gradually to notice its hygienic effect. We will be convinced, as IT THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK usual, not by arguments and theories, but by results. We will, according to our national habit, slowly and reluctantly follow the facts. We will learn to wear Artificial Silk clothes because they will give us a fuller measure of health and enable us to live longer and more happily. TO2 Be fi0 Crk el J SHC The Vast Possibilities of the Artificial Silk Trade J 3 ie: I cp RL EG TE apn) CaAPTER VI THE VAST POSSIBILITIES OF THE ARTIFICIAL SILK TRADE Fi \HE Artificial Silk trade is now, in 1928, giving employment to 200,000 -~ people, in a dozen countries. It is supporting 1,000,000 people. The total capital invested is about 250,000,000. The total assets are more than £400,000,000. This is a guess, as no one knows the exact figures. The British capital invested is more than £35,000,000, and the securities of British companies are worth over £I150,000,000. In production, America leads, but most of the mills are owned by Courtaulds. Italy comes second. Great Britain is third. Then come Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Japan and Czecho-Slovakia. 105 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Britain has about 20 Artificial Silk factories. America has 16. Germany has 2r. Italy has 23. France has 43. Belgium has 8. Switzerland and Japan have 5 each. Holland and Czecho-Slovakia have 3 each. Spain has 2. And the following nations have one apiece—Australia, Canada, Poland, Sweden and Russia. The world output of Artificial Silk was 280,000,000 lbs. in 1927. The production is rising by leaps and bounds. It has doubled SEVEN times in the last 30 years. No one can predict what it will be in 1935. It is now about 2 per cent. of the textile output of the world. One garment out of every 50 is made of it. At its present rate of increase, it will catch up to cotton in 1952. Its rate of increase in the near future is likely to be more rapid. It may possibly catch up to cotton in 1940. Never before has there been such a rapid development in the making and marketing of a textile. It is a revolution, Nearly 200,000 tons of Artificial Silk will be made and sold in 1928. rob THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Enough to load 40,000 railway wagons | A thousand train-loads! And the Artificial Silk business is barely 12 years old. In 1924, only two Artificial Silk companies had their shares listed on the London Stock Exchange—Courtaulds and British Celanese. To-day there are a score of companies listed. They are springing up, not like mushrooms, as the pessimists say, but like young trees. In a few years there will be twice as many as there are to-day. The demand for the new cloths is insatiable. We have the dyes to make these new cloths in the most radiant colours. Our “ British Dyestuffs Corporation” has now escaped from Government control. The Government has sold its shares. This company is now managed by competent men. At the head of it is Lord Ashfield _one of the ablest business-builders in the British Isles—the man who built up the transportation service of London. While under Government control, this company lost £5,000,000, but it is now making money. It has made a working agreement with the German dyers. It is pledged to 107 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK remain 75 per cent. British, but it is free to purchase good dyes from any foreign country. The coming in of Artificial Silk means that we shall learn, more and more, to use and appreciate bright colours. Britain, in spite of having the most charming rural scenery in the world, has always been a land of duil colours, because of the rain and the smoke. We wear greys and browns. But when the smoke nuisance has been abolished, then the Age of Bright Colours will come in. Our dinginess, in the matter of clothes and buildings, is wholly abnormal. It has all been caused by the smoke. By nature, we love flowers and bright colours. = And as soon as the pall of smoke has been abolished, we can dress ourselves more gaily, as other nations do. As anyone who is not mentally blind can see, Artificial Silk is compelling the reconstruction of the cotton trade. If ever a trade was frozen fast in its old ways, the cotton trade was. It was fixed, unteachable, immovable. Tt learned little and forgot nothing. It was the supreme trade of Great Britain, It had been established for five generations, af THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK _— It was being run by great-great-grandsons. It had given Great Britain two-thirds of her exports. It had been the chief means of support of the British nation. It had bought most of our food. No wonder it was nonprogressive. It had been successful, on its old lines, for more than 125 years. This vast cotton trade is now in trouble. It has lost its control of foreign markets. Other nations can produce the cheaper lines at a lower cost. England has still 40 per cent. of the spindles and 29 per cent. of the looms, but they are not busy. We still have 2,000 firms of cotton exporters, but not many of them made a net profit in 192%. At first, the cotton men regarded Artificial Silk as an upstart and a dangerous competitor. They scoffed at it. But in a few years they looked at the figures and stopped scoffing. They began to use it in their mills. The more they used it, the more they increased their sales. In 1927, American cotton mills used 23,000,000 lbs. of it, an increase of 50 per cent . It has been found that Lancashire cotton looms can be adapted to weave Artificial Th THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Silk, but eventually a new type of loom will be invented—one which is not a makeshift. An ideal loom for Artificial Silk would be quite different from an ordinary cotton or worsted goods loom. This new yarn is compelling the cotton, woollen and linen men to overhaul their machinery and improve their methods. If it had done nothing else, this alone would be a great achievement. They were forced by outside pressure to reorganizé and improve their methods and their machines. When the Lancashire mill girls began to wear Artificial Silk jumpers and stockings, the cotton men learned that Artificial Silk bad to be taken seriously. It ceased to be a joke. There are now 1,200 textile manufacturers in Lancashire who are using Artificial Silk in some form or other, mostly in the making of shirtings, linings and fancy dress goods. They are combining it with mercerized cotton very successfully. They are finding that it is enabling them to win back their foreign trade. : In 1927, the Artificial Silk manufacturers, TTH THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK very daringly, held an Exhibition in Manchester—the home of the cotton trade. It was an eye-opener for the cotton men. There has been no scoffing since. The beauty and the durability of the new cloths amazed the cotton men. So did the prices. They found that Artificial Silk is now the cheapest of all fabrics, considering the value, in both appearance and durability, received by the wearer. All wise textile manufacturers are now realizing that Artificial Silk is in reality a godsend to them. It gives them a new yarn that is not at the mercy of the weather and of foreign trade conditions. There is to-day a shortage of cotton, wool and flax. There are 15 per cent. fewer sheep in the world than there were in 1913. There is only half enough flax. Half of it formerly came from Russia, and this source of supply is now cut off. As for cotton, it is apt at any time to be reduced by boll weevils or restriction of output. It is not a dependable crop. The woollen manufacturers are still sceptical, but they must face the following facts. There are 90,000,000 fewer sheep in the world LD ¢ THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK than there were before the war. There are 200,000,000 fewer than in 1895. Sheep are being squeezed out, all over the world, by cattle and farmers. There is less and less wild land for sheep to graze on. Argentina has only half as many as it had 30 years ago. Even Australia has only 80,000,000 sheep, whereas it had 120,000,000 in 1895. Flocks are decreasing everywhere. The world crop is running about 1,000,000 bales short. Wool is climbing up to an impossible price. Already Artificial Silk yarns are being used to brighten woollen fabrics. They give a special lightness and brightness to them, that greatly increases their saleability. In 1924, the displacement of wool by Artificial Silk rose to 165,000,000 lbs., says Sir William Bulmer. This was about 6 per cent. of the wool production. Also, and here is the main fact for wool men to consider, there is now a TUBULAR yarn made of Artificial Silk. This may well be called ARTIFICIAL WOOL. Its trade name is CELTA. It gives warmth, as wool does. It is very suitable for underrg THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK wear and hosiery. It is now being used for plushes, velvets, motor rugs, pram covers, curtains and upholstery. By an ingenious process, the filaments are spun hollow. These little tubular filaments are lighter, bulkier and warmer than other Artificial Silk filaments. They are more like wool. They have 50 per cent. more covering power than the solid filaments. And they rustle like real silk. There seems to be a great future, not yet realized, for these hollow yarns. They will be in great demand in cold countries, Eventually—in the very near future—Artificial Silk will be used in the making of clothes for men. Bradford does not think SO, but Bradford cannot stand out against the victorious march of this new textile. Artificial Silk is now being used for men’s ties, socks, pyjamas, shirts, etc. Why not for suits and overcoats ? The general belief is at present that a suit made of wool and Artificial Silk, half and half, would not hold its shape ; but this is only a theory. “ There is no reason why a standard suit of clothes could not be made as cheaply as X13 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK a book and sell for 12s.,” says Roger W. Babson, speaking of the future development of Artificial Silk. This is now only an idea. But in five years it may be a fact. Clothing has evolved. For hundreds of thousands of years, the human race wore bark and feathers and skins. Then they wore homespun wool. Then linen came in, for the rich only. Then came cotton and gave the world cheap clothes. Silk was only for the rich few. And now comes Artificial Silk, for rich and poor alike, with infinite possibilities such as no other textile has ever had. It is now known that Artificial Silk will create a boon in the chemical trades. It has given the chemical companies an unexpected new customer, needing thousands of tons of chemicals a year. It will create a boom in the making of textile machinery as well. New types of machines are now wanted. Many that are now in use are makeshifts, adapted from cotton mills. This new yarn, that can be spun in two-mile lengths, requires new machines for the weaving of it. It offers a great opportunity for inventors—for the Ark-ITA THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK wrights and Hargreaves and Cromptons of to-day. Here, at last, is a chance to introduce the most automatic machinery, such as the textile trade has never known. Already, Courtaulds are making two special fibres for hats. Both are produced from Viscose that costs only 2d. a pound. The one resembles felt and the other resembles straw. Furs, too, are now being made from Artificial Silk. They are natural enough, says a London editor, “ to make leopards, squirrels and other animals turn green with envy.” Looking still further ahead, it seems clear that Artificial Silk will create a revolution in house decoration and furnishing. We shall want more varnishes and enamels—more bright colours in our rugs and carpets and curtains and cushions. A woman who wears silk stockings will soon want a silk home to live in. One silk thing suggests another. Even the jewellers, now so depressed, may take heart, when they realize what Artificial Silk will eventually do for the jewellery trade. Silk clothes demand jewellery. Cotton clothes do not. Silk is the natural background for 115 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Atl jewellery. The more that women wear brightly-coloured silks, the more they will want gold and silver and precious stones. There will be a boom in the paint trade, too, as well as in the dyeing trade. We shall have brighter buildings as well as brighter clothes. This drab, dingy island will eventually be transformed. We shall have our eyes opened, so that we shall notice the dinginess. Already, we are pulling down hundreds of our ugly buildings. We have built a new Regent Street. Our banks have erected noble and stately palaces of finance. Even Lloyds and the Bank of England and the Hudson’s Bay Company have moved into magnificent new buildings. As for private houses, we have built more than 1,000,000 since the war—bright, handsome and well-designed homes. Many other things besides cloth are now being made from this wonderful wood-andcotton pulp. There is, for instance, CELLO-PHANE. This is a trade-marked name for a new transparent wrapping material. It protects goods from dust, smoke, insects, etc. It is a sort of textile glass. Customers can TH THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK see what they are buying. It can be made thick enough for soap and confectionery boxes. It has a thousand uses. We have, within the last few years, awakened to the immense possibilities of this wood-pulp industry. More and more uses will be found for it, now that Artificial Silk has led the way. Wood has never been studied until recently. The fact is that it is a textile, woven into marvellous strength by Nature. The microscope shows that it is made of fibres. Nature has made the strength of an oak tree and the fineness of mahogany. First, we made paper. Then we made synthetic leather. Now we are making Artificial Silk. What shall we not be making in the next 10 years ? If we can make a filament, why not a BoARD ? May there not be a revolution in the lumber trade ? May we not eventually abolish our crude saw-mills, which waste so much of the wood ? May we not be able to use crooked trees to make straight boards? May we not be able to use the branches as well as the trunk of a tree? Shall we not Ixy THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK some day make boards by a continuous process, as we are now making paper and glass ? Why not ARTIFICIAL TIN for containers ? There is a shortage of tin. Experts say that the tin mines may be exhausted in 20 years. The price may soon rise to £500 a ton. What shall we do in 1950 unless we can find a way to make this marvellous pulp into sheets that can be used in the place of tin ? As you can see, Artificial Silk has opened up the way to a new industrial world. Dozens of other industries will spring up out of it. There will be scores of specialty companies. There will be all manner of novelties— entirely new commodities. The whole world of manufacturing will have to adapt itself to this new raw material that has come into being in the last 10 years. In the Artificial Silk trade there will be openings for skill and inventiveness. There will be a need for better salesmanship, as competition will be keener. There was an over-production in 1926. This may happen again unless the Artificial Silk companies learn to appreciate the value of skilled Sales Managers. 118 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK There will be many openings for designers. Already, there are designers of Artificial Silk dresses, in America, who receive £2,000 a year. Here is a chance for artistic men and women—a chance to design beautiful garments that will be sold by tens of thousands. Several years ago, the manufacturers of Bradford opened a ‘ Temple of Fashion” in Regent Street. It was soon closed. It was a brilliant idea that should have been carried through—a brave attempt to compete with Paris. A second attempt should be made by our Artificial Silk manufacturers. They should establish a permanent ‘ Temple of Fashion in London, so that we shall lead in the matter of fashion, and not wait for Paris and Vienna. In America, courses of lectures on Artificial Silk are now being given in Universities. A ““ RayoN INsTITUTE ’ has been organized, which is carrying on a campaign to make Artificial Silk popular and fashionable. It holds Fashion Shows in the ballrooms of the best hotels. It gives talks and demonstrations and mannequin parades. It collects and distributes information about Artificial Silk. TIQ THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK It is a general clearing-house and centre of propaganda for the whole trade. There is a chance to-day for the most progressive draper in every town to make his shop known as the “ Artificial Silk Shop ” of the town. This will give him a great advantage over his competitors. Just as Liberty’s—the famous shop on Regent Street, London—became known throughout the world as the one best shop for real silk goods, so there is now an opportunity for other shops to become known as the best places to buy the new Artificial Silk goods. ~ At least one drapery shop in every town can emulate Liberty’s, and make its windows radiant with brightly-coloured garments that are cheap as well as beautiful. An immense demand has sprung up in the United States for Artificial Silk dresses that retail for two guineas. These are made by mass production. Fifty are cut at a time by electric cutting knives. The sewing costs 4s. 2d. They are sold by manufacturers at 21s. to 24s. They are made of weighted crepes-de-chine, crepes-georgette, etc. A woman who formerly bought one real silk dress for six guineas can now have three 120 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Artificial Silk dresses for the same price. And tens of thousands of women who could not afford to buy real silk dresses are now buying these new mass production dresses. Great Britain is at present the best market for Artificial Silk goods, as we buy more per capita than any other nation. In 1924, we imported £20,000,000 worth, but now that a tariff has been put on, new mills are springing up in Great Britain. In 1927, the British people bought and used nearly 33,000,000 lbs. of Artificial Silk goods. This was an increase over the previous year of more than 50 per cent. But we are still importing almost as much as we export. In my opinion, Artificial Silk goods will have a magical effect upon the people of India, China, Africa and South America, perhaps even upon the people of Russia, when they escape at last from their oppressors. Artificial Silk brings bright and beautiful clothing for the first time within reach of people who are very poor. It offers them silk—S1Lk that has been worn only by the Thon families—the very emblem of royalty itself. I f=: THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK The use of cotton cloth in India has risen from 11 yards per capita to 13. The natives of India have been slowly growing more prosperous. Suppose India swings from cotton to Artificial Silk ! Suppose 300,000,000 people demand 13 yards apiece | There are the same vast possibilities in China, which has 400,000,000 people, who have up to the present time been clothed in cotton. India and China together contain nearly one half of the human race. They are the largest potential market in the world for Artificial Sill In these two populous countries, the mass of the people want little and consequently work little. They work in an inefficient way, with hand tools. They have a low standard of living. But now that it has become possible for a native in India or China to clothe himself and his family in shining silk, it is likely that he will become more efficient and industrious. One new thing leads to another. The standards of living will be raised all along the line. The WANTS of one half of the human race will be increased—think what this means 122 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK to the volume of world-wide trade and commerce. It means more mills and factories—more shops—more ships—more banks —more securities—more prosperity. As it occurred to me that my opinion of the vast possibilities of Artificial Silk may seem to be too optimistic to many readers, I have secured the opinions of a number of eminent business men, in both retailing and manufacturing. As you will see, they are fully as optimistic as I am. Sir William Pope says: “ We are only now beginning to discern dimly certain main lines of research which may be fruitful. “Up to the present,” he says, “ progress has been achieved largely through empirical means, and the best methods for preparing and treating the solutions for spinning Artificial Silk have been worked out chiefly by experiment of the trial and error type.” Sir William Pope has written a Foreword to Mr. E. Wheeler's book—‘ THE MaNU-FACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL SILK,” in which he points out that in spite of the marvellous progress that has already been made, the Artificial Silk trade is only in its early dawn. 1223 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK The full noon-day of its prosperity is yet to come. Sir Edwin Stockton, who may well be said to speak for Manchester, says: “I certainly believe that the prospects of the British Artificial Silk industry are of the very brightest, and I suggest that we have so far merely touched the fringe of its potential future development. “ Manufacturers, producers and designers,” he says, “are now offered enormous scope for their imaginative minds. Who can dare to say what the result will he ? Roger W. Babson, the American financial expert, says: ‘‘ My advice is to watch these so-called cellulose industries. Nobody knows exactly what cellulose is, but that does not stop us from making and using it. The beauty of 1t is that cellulose can be made chemically from almost anv old thing.” Mr. Ben W. Veysey, the head of John Dyers, of Southsea, says: ‘‘ Artificial Silk has come to stay. The good and reliable yarns are rapidly taking ascendancy over the poor-quality stuff, which for a time threatened to bring the whole industry into disrepute. 124 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Ninety per cent. of our customers demand good washing properties. “Tt is a thousand pities,” says Mr. Veysey, “that the term ° Artificial Silk’ was ever coined. It is not artificial anything. Itis a new fabric with its own virtues and characteristics, quite capable of holding its own. It is not in any sense artificial. “1f the word ‘ Rayon’ is not universally adopted by manufacturers, they should get together and agree upon a better one and stick to it. When this name is chosen, the new yarn can take its place with cotton, wool and silk as a basic yarn.” Mr. John Fenwick, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, says: ‘‘ Everybody wants Artificial Silk. The manufacturers now know how to blend the right dyes and there are no more dull and nondescript colours. The colours are equal in brightness and variety to anything produced 1n real silk.” Mr. Fred B. Fenwick, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, says: ‘ Artificial Silk companies have not only kept pace with the fashions, but in many cases have anticipated the style of goods which would be required. As the 125 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Artificial Silk industry is new, there are no hidebound men with old ideas in it. “T think that the trade is waiting for two or three branded names at reasonable prices, which can always be obtained in every good shop and up to date in style,” says Mr. Fenwick. ‘ The opportunity for sales is only beginning and will enormously increase in the future. The public is still ignorant of the marvellous effects obtained in household use, such as curtains, upholstery, etc.” Mr. P. A. Best, Managing Director of Shoolbred’s, says: ‘ Artificial Silk is likely to be the salvation of the English textile industry. The only anxiety I have about it is that, in common with so many other industries, it is in danger of being exploited by the financial wizards. Apart from this menace, I predict a very fine future for it.” Lord Rothermere says: ‘ Textiles are our job. We have led the world in cotton goods, woollen goods and linen goods. We make the best quality of all three. To-day we are at the beginning of a new era in the textile trade, and England must act at once or drop behind.” i) THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Ta I must give the last word to the leader of the world’s Artificial Silk industry—Mr. Samuel Courtauld. He is a modest, understating man. He says: ‘No industrial development could be more beneficial to this country than a growth in the weaving side of the silk and Artificial Silk trade, but there is a long and hard row to hoe first.” There is much work yet to be done. There are new machines to be invented. There are new miracles of chemistry to be performed. There are markets to be opened. There are larger mills to be built. There are hundreds of millions of pounds to be made. ‘ If this little book helps a bit to arouse the minds of British business men to the unimagined possibilities of this most wonderful of all new trades, it shall not have been written in vain, [24 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK BRITISH MAKERS OF ARTIFICIAL SILK MACHINERY. DossoN & Barrow, LTp., Bolton. HETHERINGTON, J., & Sons, Lrp., Manchester. RusaTON, ENOCH, & Sons, Macclesfield. ScrAGG, ERNEST, & Sons, Lrp., Macclesfield. ScaweIter Lrp., Horgen, Manchester, etc. Universart Winning Co., Boston, Manchester, ete. Stusss, J., Ltp., Manchester. Burrings FiuTERS, L1D., London. Baney, Sir W. H., & Co., Lp., Manchester. Tomrinson’s (Rocupare), Lp., Rochdale. PerriE & McNavesr, LTp., Rochdale. UniteED WATER SorTeNERS Co., L1D., Wolverhampton. KenNicoTT WATER SOFTENER Co., LTD., Wolverhampton. Boy, Wum., & Co., L1D., London. Carry & Son, Ltp., London, S.E.15. AruNDEL, CourTHARD & Co., L1D., Stockport. Boyp, J. & T., Glasgow. Greenwoop & BatLey, LTD., Leeds. GriMsLEY & Co. (LeIcEsTER), L1D., Leicester. Harr, ROBERT, & Sons (Bury), Lrp., Bury. Tae SNEvp ENcINEERING COo., LTD., Leek. SwiNpELLS ENGINEERING Co., Macclesfield. WmTELEY, WILLIAM, & Sons, Lrp., Lockwood, Huddersfield. Wor & Co., L1D., Leicester. AsaworTH, THos., & Co., Lb., Burnley. Larmure Bros., Timperley, Manchester. STANDARD MacHINE WORKS, L1p., Nottingham. Donner, OswaLp, & Co., Kilmarnock. MerLLor, Bromiey & Co., Ltp., Leicester. StieBE, G., & Co., Lrp., Nottingham. Harrison Patent Knirrine MacsINE Co., Manchester. Foster, W, & F., Preston. TreENT ENGINEERING Co0., LTD., Nottingham. BracksurN, G., & Sons, Lip., Nottingham. CorroN, WwM., LtD,, Loughborough. HosLey, J., & Co., Leicester, =0 THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Corrier & Co., Macclesfield. Pratt Bros. & Co., Ltp., Oldham. HarTERSLEY, GEO., & Sons, Lrn., Keighley. Horr, Teomas, Lrp., Rochdale. Hosiery MacmiNery Bumping Co., Lrp., Nottingham. Livesey, Henry, Lrp., Blackburn. Wikinson, T. F., & Co., Coventry. AYRTON, WM., & Co., Manchester. BroaDgeENT, R., & Sons, Lrp., Stalybridge. Brooks & Doxey (1920), LtD., Manchester. CannoN & Stokes, Lrp., Leicester, Economic WinpiNg Co., Leicester. Leek, CHARLES, & Sons, Ltp., Leek. Prince, Smite, & Son, Keighley. SeLsoN EncingeriNe Co., Lrp., London, E.C.1. BritiseE NorrErROP Loom Co., Lxp., Blackburn. Hacking & Co., Lrp., Bury. HopesoN, GEORGE, Lrp., Bradford. KosORN, Oscar, & Co., Manchester. HiLu & HerBerT, LTD., Leicester. BRADBURY, SAUNDERS, LD., Radcliffe. DownsaM, JonN, & Co., Bury. FarMER, Sir JAMES, Norton, & Co., Ltp., Manchester. FoxwerL, DANIEL, & Son, Cheadle, Cheshire, LongcrLosE ENGINEERING Co., Lap., Leeds. MATHER & Prarr, LtD., Manchester. PEGe, SAMUEL, & SoN, Leicester. SELLERS & Co. (HupbERSFIELD), Ltp., Huddersfield. WaiTEREAD & POOLE, LrD., Radcliffe. Evron Cop Dyeing Co., Lrp., Bury. Paramount Hosiery Form Co., Lrp., Beeston, Notts. BRAITEWAITE, Isaac, & Son (ENGINEERS), Lrp., Kendal. WALKER, SAMUEL, & Sons, Ltp., Radcliffe. RypEr, TrROMAS, & Son, Lrp., Bolton. LIVESEY & CrowTHER, LTD... Manchester. ali: NE TECHNICAL BOOKS ON ARTIFICIAL SILK THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL SILK, by WueeLER. (Chapman and Hall). 18s. post free. ARTIFICIAL SILK, by Dr. Franz REIN-THALER, translated by Proressor F. M. Rowe. (Chapman and Hall). 15s. 6d. post free. ARTIFICIAL SILK—ITS MANUFACTURE AND USES, by TroMAs WOODHOUSE. (Pitman). 5s. 8d. post free. ARTIFICIAL SILK AND ITS MANUFAC-TURE, by J. FovLtzeEr, translated by TaoMAS WoOoDHOUSE. (Pitman). 21s. 6d. post free. THE ARTIFICIAL SILK HANDBOOK, Compiled by the Silk Journal. (John Heywood. Ltd.). 38s. 9d. post free. These books may be obtained from The Efficiency Magazine, KENT HOUSE, 87. 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All Books sent post free. The First Book on Quality There are millions of books in the world, but there is only one book on Quality. We have recently published it. The title of it is sem The Quality of Our Goods By HERBERT N. CASSON It is a book for manufacturers, salesmen and buyers. This book proves that it does not pay to make or sell or buy trash. If you are keen on quality, you will appreciate this book. 5/- post free The Efficiency Magazine KENT HOUSE, 87, REGENT STREET, LONDON W.1L. “EVERY INVESTOR WILL BE GLAD TO HAVE THIS BOOK.” 12 TIPS ON FINANCE dD MOST PEOPLE LOSE THEIR MONEY. Most people lose their money because they do not know how to invest it. They do not know the danger-spots in the jungle of Finance. The danger-spots are pointed out in Mr. Herbert N. Casson’s book. Mr. Casson is an authority on the Stock Exchange. He is a practical business man and financier. In this book he tells frankly how he made 18 per cent. last year, tax free, by his system of investment, The Statist says : * Sound—Useful—Excellent.” The Financier says: * Novel—Lucid—Instructive.” Order from THE EFFICIENCY MAGAZINE, KENT HOUSE, 87, REGENT STREET, LONDON, W.1. yi fly uli] ll} | i isfy, 20680778837 I . £ 5 (C ? oa Sm € ] = 2 THE STOR fy. wear and hos plushes, velv curtains and By an inged spun hollow. are lighter, b Artificial a like wool. covering pow And they rust to be a great fi hollow yarns. in cold countri Eventually— ficial Silk wil clothes for me, but Bradford victorious mat Artificial Sil ties, socks, p3 for suits and is at present Artificial Silk, its shape ; but O N jus NI & oo th > ‘3 p. (oe sl. 00 eet om li a 'TIFICIAL SILK rT, 3; now being used for rugs, pram covers, ss, the filaments are le tubular filaments warmer than other They are more 50 per cent. more he solid filaments. ~ | silk. There seems et realized, for these be in great demand 1 y near future—Artiin the making of d. does not think so, nd out against the 1ew textile. ““eing used for men’s rts, etc. Why not The general belief made of wool and 1alf, would not hold y a theory. - oOo “ There is 1 of clothes cou oo oD Q <a 5 7hy a standard suit made as cheaply as 113 oO N i+ ol ed 0 ~d