GERMAN MARVEL OF NEW CELLULOSE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3146, 4 December 1922, Page 8

GERMAN MARVEL OF NEW CELLULOSE.

The new German products exhibited iu the Munich trade exposition lately are being hailed by German industrials as the greatest revolutions in manufacturing since the war. One group of articles consists of cellulose products and the other of dye stuffs. Further enthusiasm over the cellulose products is created because the largest ammunition works of the country have been put back into full swing producing them.

In the cellulose class is a new material known at Vistra fibre, which can he used as the basis for all other materials such as silks, satins, linen, cotton or wool. It. is being shown by the Koeln Rottwell Company, formerly munition makers. The manufacturers believe they will be able to revolutionise the textile industry with their material.

The fibre is show n in samples of imitation Smyrna rugs, which can hardly he detected from the original; delicately knitted silk sweaters; Gobelin tapestries and material for gowns. One advantage claimed for the material is that since' its origin is from wood, Germany’s own raw products can he utilised. independent of import difficulties. H van be manufactured cheaper than any of the materials for which it can ho substituted. The cellulose from which the fibre originates is now being made in the Koeln Rottweiler Powder Company's factory in the Rhguish Westphalian Explosives Works and in the Nobel Dynamite Works. The material is based on the constituents of pyroxylone or tri-nitro cellulose (gun-cotton), and was developed to its present form by Mox Dnttenhofer, general director cd’ the Rottwell factory, after three years of experiments. The completed fibre is turned over to ordinary spinning and weaving mills. A similar product is known as trinline, a soft, flexible substitute for linoleum or waxed cloth, which can he sold at one-third the price of the original products. Another invention of interest in the cellulose group is zcllon, a fire-proof cellulose, for simple insulation. Still another is trolit, a material for insulating high [lower wires and for use as a. substitute for ivory and hard wood in the manufacture of buttons, cane heads and similar articles.

Ten of Germany’s biggest dyo stuff factories have an exhibition of dyes and anilines, all produced under patents which havo been developed since the war. The chief 1 claim for the new materials is their permanency on all classes of materials. The materials are especially designed for the markets in countries which have developed the dy o industry during and since tho war.