ROMANCE OF FLAX

Southland Times, Issue 22013, 12 May 1933, Page 5

ROMANCE OF FLAX

NEW INDUSTRY FOR NEW ZEALAND. HIGHLY INTERESTING. DEMONSTRATION. Silks from flax! It seems absurd; but, first by disintegration and then by reaggregation, through logical and easily followed chemical process, an English scientist, Dr J. W. Brown, chief chemist of the Flaxgrowers’ Pulp and Cellulose Products of New Zealand, Ltd., has made silk from New Zealand flax, botanically known as phorrtiium tenax. Last evening in Everybody’s Building he gave a highly interesting demonstration of his work and his lecture on the development of what gives every indication of becoming an important New Zealand industry was closely followed by the large audience present. The process as explained by Dr Brown, is swift and simple, yet fifteen years of strenuous research work in various parts of the world were patiently spent by him before he discovered the proper treatment of the flax. The basic quality is cellulose, a constituent of all plant life, but found in only three plants in the world in economic quantities—cotton, white spruce, and phormium tenax, an indigenous New Zealand flax of the lily family. The changes that can be wrought in flax by Dr Brown’s process must really be seen to be fully appreciated. There is little in the sight of a swampy New Zealand flax area to induce thoughts of “chic” dress and lingerie fabrics or even of new, hygienic, tasteful and highly effective means of packing butter, cheese, meat and fruit for export to the markets of the world. Yet see the long, slender grace of the flax reduced to scraps by a chaff-cut-ter, watch it pass through half a dozen processes to emerge at the other end lustrous silken yarn or clear, transparent calorifoil suitable for the enclosure and packing of the most delicate or susceptible foodstuffs and a glamour immediately descends on the flax swamp to present it in entirely new colours. Under One’s Very Eyes.

The scientist with a wave of his hand displayed to his audience a jumbled heap of flax which had been passed through an ordinary chaff-cutter. “There is your raw material,” he said, “and here,” he remarked, picking up a handful of lustrous silken threads, beautifully tinted underwear, and cellophane packing, “here is your finished article. From flax pulp to silk or cellophane in a few hours.” It all seemed too absurd in the first view of the matter; but once it was explained and demonstrated it was astonishingly simple. The simple fact was that suiting his action to his words, the scientist set about the production of silk yarn beneath the surprised gaze of his audience. In the first place there was a heap of flax and after the first process it reappeared in the form of a dirty, greyish-looking mass of rubbish which might have been anything at all. Then another change and the spectator was shown a container of what had all the appearance of filthy wool requiring scouring. Another treatment and it took on the unspotted appearance of lambswool a trifle coarse perhaps, but good to look at. The use of evil-smelling chemicals of various kinds changes its form and substance again and finally it emerges as < yel-low-brown mass. At this stage the proceedings savour strongly of alchemy. What has all along been a solid of very definite solidity is amazingly converted into a liquid, viscid and honey-coloured, and looking like anything in creation but artificial silk. Then comes the most astounding change of all. The liquid is spun into the finest silky fibres of bright and shining material which ultimately becomes the artificial silk of the modem market. And yet in the word of the demonstrator, “remarkable, almost incredible though it may seem, it is the most logical thing in the world. That such soft-handling, exquisitely tinted and dainty apparel as makes up the artificial silk section of milady s wardrobe should be produced from wood pulp and other equally unprepossessing raw materials is difficult to credit, and to date wearers have merely to rely on the word of overseas manufacturers with respect to the beautiful creations that have had their origins in coarse vegetable matter. New Zealand, however, seems now to have definitely entered the lists in the matter of the production of artificial silks, and the new industry, which is already well established and out of the experimental stage, should have, a special interest for New Zealanders in that it will absorb Dominion flax in such a measure as promises to afford very welcome relief to a languishing primary industry. Methods Employed. The methods formulated by Dr. Brown for the isolation of cellulose from flax give his system of manufacture an immense economic advantage over the other known processes. In the

isolation of cellulose from white spruce, the period of digestion or cooking is 12 hours. The period of digestion of New Zealand flax is three and a-half hours. Further, the quantity of chemicals necessary in the digestion of flax is rather under 50 per cent of the quantity in the case of white spruce. In all the existing known processes of production of artificial silk yarns and transparent cellulose sheets, seven distinct operations involving a period of fourteen days are necessary from the stage of bleached cellulose pulp to the finished solution ready for precipitation. Only two and a-half hours are required in Dr Brown’s remarkable methods. Garments made from artificial silk are shown in Dr Brown’s laboratory. The yarns, it is claimed, are at least the equal of the imported yarns in quality and, from a price standard, will be lower, this remark applying to. all the company’s products. The finished yam has a natural lustre, which is removed for orders of “dead” artificial silk. Tire yarns take the dyes excellently. Clarofoil, which, like cellulose, is a trade name, is really rayonelle in sheet form, the only difference being in the form of precipitation, the cellulose being precipitated as fine endless filaments or threads to fox'm yarns, while for clarofoil, the cellulose is forced through a series of fine shots to form sheets. The methods of after-treatment are responsible for the difference in presentation—the clarity in the foil and the even opacity in the yarns. Cellulose foil is now universally used for hygienic wrapping. Tests made of the strength of the New Zealand product gave 3711 b to the square inch, while the best imported foil gave a test to an independent investigating firm of only 271 b. Cellulose foil is now being used for the wrapping of butter and meat for the Home markets, as it prevents the filtration of violet rays, a decomposing agent. Big bags to hold meat carcasses have been made, and they have carried a quarter of a ton of stones in a test. The foil is tight against liquids. Dr Brown has arranged for further lectures and demonstrations at Everybody’s both to-day (10.30 a.m., 2.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.) and to-morrow (10.30 a.m.) and no doubt there will again be large attendances of interested persons present to see at first-hand the various processes which the flax undergoes in its manufacture into artificial silk, clarofoil and cellulose lacquers.