FABRICS FROM SEAWEED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1940, Page 4

FABRICS FROM SEAWEED

DISCOVERY ANNOUNCED IN BRITAIN. ANTICIPATION OF WIDESPREAD USE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 14. Professor J. B. Speakman, Leeds University, has announced a textile discovery by which seaweed can be converted into attractive fabrics for stockings, underwear, curtains, and other articles. This discovery is the result of two years of experiments. When seaweed is transformed into viscous fibres it can be treated for manufacture similarly to rayon. According to Professor Speakman, fireproof seaweed fabrics can be made up for the same purposes as ordinary rayon, but they are cheaper. Woodpulp for rayon is increasingly difficult to obtain, but seaweed is abundant. Four hundred thousand tons a year is collected in the Hebrides alone. He added that experimental fabrics produced in Leeds were not only fireproof, but capable of dyeing in 41 shades. Seaweed fibre woven with silk, wool or cotton, resulted in attractive materials capable of many practical uses.