SILK PRODUCTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 148, 8 June 1935, Page 11

SILK PRODUCTS

Testing for Genuine Article Artificial sdk manufacturers have so improved the softness and lustre of their products during the past two years that it is now often difficult to distinguish between artificial and real silk iabrics and garments by appearance alone. Two main types of artificial silk are manufactured and it is useful to be able to identify them, since their properties are so different. The moist widely used type consists of pure cellulose, which having exactly the same composition as cotton, can be hot ironed and dyed like cotton. The other type is made of cellulose acetate, which is a combination of cellulose with acetic acid (vinegar is essentially a dilute solution of this acid). It requires special dyes and must not be hot-ironed for it then becomes brittle and weak. To test a silk garment draw a few threads from a convenient seam, twist together, and light at one end. A cellulose artificial silk burns steadily in the same manner as paper, emits a similar odour, and leaves but little ash. As real sdk burns it smells like burning wool or bone and leaves a small black globule which is sufficiently brittle to crumble when pressed between the finger and thumb. A cellulose acetate silk burn* after the manner of sealing wax; smalt molten globules fall from the burning thread, and these are hard, and do not crumble as in real silk. After a few trials this test will be found extremely reliable for ascertaining whether artificial or real silk or a mixture of theee is present in a garment.