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

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