ARTIFICIAL SILK. MADE FROM N.Z. FLAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 10

ARTIFICIAL SILK. MADE FROM N.Z. FLAX.

LAUNCH OF BIG BUSINESS VENTURE. IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT PROMISED. A new industry, and one which bids fair to find employment for a largo number of workers in Auckland, and also in the country, has been established by the Provincial Flaxgrowers and Millers' Association, Limited. The venture, which has been placed on b, sound financial basis, is the manufacture, from New Zealand Hax (Phormium tenax), of artificial silk yarn and "Clarofoil" paper wrappings. It has been clearly demonstrated that first-quality sulphite cellulose pulp can be produced economically by the new process, which is the discovery .if Dr. J. W. Brown, scientific chemist to the Flaxgrowers and Millers' Association. The proof of the success of Dr. Brown's work is to be seen in the window display in Messrs. Milne and Clioyce's window in Queen Street. The samples of finished artificial silk yarn and "Clarofoil" paper have caused great interest and favourable comment. All the material shown has been produced from raw material grown on the company's properties at Mangatawhiri

and Pokeno, and digested, bleached and processed in the company's factory and laboratories in Auckland. Dr. Brown first demonstrated his process before Government representatives in Wellington, and then at Auckland University. Following tins display, Provincial Flaxgrowers entered into negotiations with Dr. Brown to test the process, first in the laboratory and then in a small factory. These experiments have been going on over four months and now great possibilities are indicated in the utilisation of the flax, which should provide work and employment for a large number of workers. Industry to be Safeguarded. Dr. Marsden, of the Industries and Research Department, has reported to the Minister in charge that Dr. Brown is thoroughly efficient, anxl that he (Dr. Marsden) is prepared to recommend a measure of protection under conditions favourable to the company. The company lias securcd a suitable site at Mercer and has prepared a plan of the proposed factory building, and other business arrangements are in train. History of Artificial Silk. The close of the Great marked the beginning of the industl 'al development and scientific commercial manipulation of a natural substance which, although as old as life itself, has remained in almost complete obscurity until recent years, stated Dr. Brown in a recent lecture.

This substance, which is now known as cellulose, has, in a few short years, attained to such a position of profound importance and pre-eminent industrial significance as to warrant assertion that we are entering upon a cellulose age—an age during which the arts and the industries of the civilised peoples of the world will find the highest form of expression in the manipulation and general uses of cellulose. Cellulose is the predominating structural constituent of all forms of plant life. AH .plants consist of cells. Examined in cross-section under a powerful microscope they, reveal a honeycomb-like appearance or formation, and the cell-walls, inside which are stored the living protoplasm—the life blood of the plant — constitute cellulose. It is, in pure form, a colourless, tasteless, odourless substance which is insoluble in all the simple solvents, non-nitrogenous and relatively resistant to oxidation and hydrolysis. There are, however, as might be expected many varieties of celhilo:-c, and the word is now regarded generally as denoting a chemical group rather than a specific, well-defined substance. The variations in the celluloses isolated from different forms of plant life are more physical than chemical, and these variations are held to be attributable in the main to climatic and environment conditions under which the plant life grows and to the associated substances which natuie provides in the plant to act as protecting agents to the cellulose itself. Its significance in supplying the link between the vegetable and animal kingdoms is doubtless

of considerable interest, but quite outside the scope of this article. Great Industrial Romance. The story of the introduction of artificial silk (or Rayon), and the truly amazing progress it has made during the past few years is without d n ubt the greatest industrial romance of a.'l time. In the year 1918 the world output of artificial silk yarns was 500,0001b weight. In the year 1931 the worid output had reached the. tremendous figures of 000,000,0001b weight, and each succeeding month sees the output increasing. Artificial silk yams ar-„ wholly and solely ccllulose — one of nature's products reformed or remoulded in such a manner as to enable it to be used for man's benefit in clothing and textile presentations generally. Artificial silk, is in tru* no more "artificial" than are cotton, woollen or silk yarns. The interest of the Southern Hemisphere, in the absence of any other known and tried form of plant life, must be centred upon Phormium tenax. The enormity and world importance of the cellulose industries make it imperative that New Zealand should rea.ise the natural advantage she possesses m being the home of and having such abundant supplies of Phormium tenax.