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