WONDERFUL SOYA BEAN

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 19

WONDERFUL SOYA BEAN

May Be Used For Silk Yarn While it is proverbially Impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, it is possible to make silk yarn out of soya beans, if Hie experiment, curried out by a Japanese scientist:. Mr. Rboliel Inoue, proves commercially practicable.

Soya beans constitute the basic crop of Manchukno ami are already used for a wide variety of food and industrial purposes.

Almost anything from soap to salad oil can be made out of this versatile member of the bean family; it lias been reported that Mr. Henry Ford has been experimenting with soya beans as a source of raw material for automobile construction.

Mr. Inoue, however, has been a pioneer in the adaptation of the soyabean cake to the manufacture of silk yarn. His discovery has made such un impression in scientific circles that be has been awarded the Fuji Prize from tiie Japan Physical and Chemical research Society. This new “liean-sllk” is said to possess several advantages over staple fibre, the mixing of which with cotton and woollen fabrics has been made compulsory since the outbreak of the war stimulated Japan’s efforts to find substitutes for imported raw materials. Consisting mainly of protein, the bean silk is said to make a warm and soft fabric which can be mixed with wool an dottier materials and dyed successfully.

It is very cheap, a suit made out of this material costing only a few yen. Finally, Japan's dependency, Manchukuo, possesses un abundance of soya beans, so that the problem of paying for foreign raw material does not arise.

It is exi>ected that the Shown Industry Company, by which Mr. Inoue is employed, will manufacture twenty or thirty tons of the new fabric during the present year.