Feminine Interests

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 585, 11 February 1929, Page 5

Feminine Interests

Chemistry Clothes the Modern Woman Faster Than the Silkworm

CHEMISTRY, not cotton or silk or wool, now clothes the modern girl from head to foot, according to Sally MacDougall, who writes the following article in the Sydney

“Sun.” As a result of recent inventions and innovations in industrial laboratories, the most popular feminine clothes of the day are entirely artificial, as artificial as the colour of the brightest lips or the shining tint of freshly -manicijred nails. Styles in clothes have undergone a great change since mothers and grandmothers wore dresses of pure silk, and wore them only on important occasions.

rj'O-DAY gills go to work in silk frocks a queen would have been proud to wear not so long ago. That they are not silk of the old-fashioned kind is a matter of no importance to the generation that wears them. What difference does it make to the girl of to-day whether the silk she wears went through the digestive processes of a silkworm that fed on mulberry leaves or whether it was made from pulp that went through chemical pro cesses in a laboratory? What she wants is silk. And because the chemists have made it possible for her to get cheap silk along with her lipstick and her synthetic jewellery, these scientists regard with pride the fact that they have helped to make the average girl of to-day the unprecedentedly decorative ornament she is in the world, besides obliterating most of the yawning chasm that so long existed between the clothes of rich and poor. If some catastrophe were to catch up all the silkworms, cotton-fields, flax plants and animal skins on earth, the chemists still would have no trouble at all in keeping the world well dressed. By the inexpensiveness of their abun-

dant output they have done more to make the status of the average wort ing girl what it is to-day than any other influence—things that never could have been done by armies of silkworms eating away at mulberry leaves

and leisurely producing their soft cocoons. Such commodities as sulphuric acid, ammonium chloride, sodium acid sulphide, zinc salts, and glue are a few of the things that had been combined with wood pulp in the evolution from raw material to artificial silk. Gaily woven coarse material of fabricated shoes, chiffon stockings and filmy lace-trimmed lingerie all belong to the

I To-day’s Recipe FISH AND TOMATOES ■m * -IVl' nice dishes can be made with fish as a foundaJr A i Hon. The cheaper lcinds of fish may be used, but the success depends largely on the way they are served. Now tomatoes are coming in, they can be used in the following way: Use six tomatoes and cut a slice off the top of each and scoop out the centre, leaving a firm case. Nub the pulp through a sieve; mix with it 6oz fish which has been previously cooked, freed from shin and bone, and pound well with los of butter. Add a quarter of a pint of white sauce and Xoz of grated cheese; season with salt and pepper. Fill the tomato cases and place on the : top. Bake in a buttered bahing L'j dish, with a piece of butter on M] top of each. When cooked serve -o on mashed tomatoes.

same synthetic family as the softly j rich gown. The differences in tex- I ture had been brought about by the I different kinds of alcoholic baths to j which each had been subjected during j the wet spinning stage which all syn- j thetic textiles must endure.

By placing artificial silk products on J the market at very low prices, the sci- j enlists have done more toward making : a democracy of all the people of the ) world than has been done by the law- j makers or any other agency. In this claim the synthetic chemists j

have a good deal of history on their side. Bet us go back to the infancy of silk, when it was first discovered about 2700 B.C. by the Chinese Empress Si Ling, who Is credited with j having been the first person to observe the structure of the cocoon of certain I worms with reference to its textile fibre possibilities. That long-ago imperial lady encouraged the feeding and care of the worms, had her subjects taught to spin handsome fabrics for her own royal robes, and her merchants to sell to Persian traders who, in their turn, drummed up a lively market in Europe back in those dim days when the world was young. But that market was for the chosen and wealthy few at the top of the human pyramid. , As late as A.D. 220 silk was so costly that a Roman Emperor, Heliogabalus, was severely criticised by his subjects because he wore a garment made entirely of silk. And in A.D. 270 the Emperor Aurelian refused to buy the Empress a silk dress, because he -was supposed to be carrying out an economy programme.

The manufacture of silk might still have remained a secret wrapped in Oriental mystery had it not been for tile cunning of two monks who in A.D. &60 smuggled silkworm eggs into the Roman Empire and introduced the culture to the sunny southern sections of the then Western World. Meanwhile, the silkworm goes on regardless spinning from four to six inches of fibre a minute, spending from three to four days on the cocoon which is made of an unbroken double fibre from 1,500 to 4,500 feet in length and being as fussy about climate as it was when the world began. As recently as the reign of Henry VIII. of England, stringent restrictions were placed on the use of silk.