“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 fila- 
ments. In 1842 he asked the British Associ- 
ation 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 
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