Artificial Silk.

Samoanische Zeitung, Volume 23, Issue 33, 17 August 1923, Page 1

Artificial Silk.

..+. " Will Chemicals Supplant the Silkworm ?" is the heading of an interesting article in the "American Exporter." This states that the world's production of artifical, silk is at 80,000.0b<lb. annually. In the United States the production in 1912 was about 1,000,0001b, but in 1922 it jumped to ■ 25,000,0001b. Artifical silk is a chemical product, and it was a Frenchman, Count Hilaire de Chardonnet, who produced the first fibre ia 1884 by grinding up the trunks and limbs of the mulberry tree upon which silkl worms feed; In 1914 the Effnch Government took over the plant for the purpose of manufacturing gun cotton. Latterly the question has been raised as to whether the chemist, may not yet discover a process for producing artificial cotton.