“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