Chapter D: Fig. 2

The most reliable tests for a mixture of cotton and wool are chemical or microscopic ones, but as these are not practical for the average buyer, others must be sought. Wool has luster and “kinks;” the ends of the threads are stiff and look rather wiry. When a sample is carried home, burning will serve to distinguish between the two. Wool burns slowly, chars, has an odor of burnt feather, goes out easily and leaves a crisp ash; cotton burns quickly with a flame, with little odor and leaves no ash.

A little practice in breaking the threads will help one to distinguish between the two; the difference is not one that can be easily explained, but the experienced housewife knows it well.

Fig. 2A shows a sample of all-wool cloth, of the class of worsteds which cost seventy-five cents a yard. Fig. 2B shows a sample of cloth of the same price, called by the clerk, all-wool, but which on examination was found to have only four threads of wool to every twelve threads of cotton. Fig. 2C shows this same cloth with the wool removed by strong alkali, caustic potash, leaving the cotton. Fig. 2D shows the wool left when the cotton has been ravelled out, or has been removed by a strong acid solution.

Fig. 3 shows a sample of mohair in which the wool has been partly removed, and the cotton warp is left. In this case the price is not high, and because of the character of the cloth the mixture is a good one, light, smooth, and clean. This cloth is not sold for all-wool, so is not considered adulterated.

SHODDY]

As has been said before, the demand for woolen goods is so much greater than the supply that it is necessary to resort to various measures to increase the supply of cloth. One method is to use the wool over and over again. Rags are bought up by the rag man, sold to the larger dealer, again to the “shoddy” manufacturer who cleans them, sorts them, tears them to pieces, using the best all-wool rags to produce fibers, which are respun and again woven either separately, if of very good quality, or mixed with new wool or cotton. Such a material is warm, looks well for a time and has its place, but must not be bought for new wool, or demand the price of good woolen cloth. This industry is enormous and shoddy is often found in expensive novelty materials as well as in cheap “all-wool” cloth. Because of the shortness of the fibers it may be detected readily, when used alone, but in combination with good wool it is more difficult.

One class of shoddy consists of very short fibers, clippings from the mills, which are worked into the surface of a felted cloth after it is woven. These short fibers after a time work out, and are found in the bottoms of coats, inside the linings, etc., leaving the surface of the cloth threadbare.

Fig. 4 shows a piece of shoddy cloth, sold for all wool at fifty cents a yard. This cloth would be warm, but does not look as well as more expensive cloth, and will not wear as long as new wool. There is some cotton mixed with the wool before spinning, therefore it is difficult to detect.

SILK

Silk is frequently known as the fiber of luxury. It is the most expensive to cultivate, the most beautiful and the strongest fiber. Since it is the most expensive fiber to buy, and the demand for it is so great, the temptations to adulterate are also naturally very great. The long, strong, lustrous silk fiber which bleaches and dyes beautifully and is fine as a spider’s web, is not to be duplicated. The best grade or “reeled silk” is taken from the cocoon in one continuous thread which may be several hundred yards long. In manufacturing reeled silk many defective cocoons are found in which the fibers are not perfect, or are broken. The silk from these cocoons may be treated like a short fiber and spun into threads varying in strength according to the length of the fibers. This so-called “spun” silk has not the high luster nor strength of “reeled” silk, but is often used as warp with reeled silk filling, or in imitation pongee, and back of satins, velvets and in many other ways.

In olden times the price of silk was much greater than now, but the material was much more durable. Silks which have been laid away for a hundred years are still in fairly good condition. Now our silks are much cheaper, but the result is that when they are put away, even for a few months they may fall into bits, and their wearing quality can not be compared with the good old silks of long ago. The reason for this change is not hard to find. The cost of raw silk is about thirty times that of raw cotton and the waste at least five times that of cotton. The manufacturer must make up in some way if he is to sell silk at the prices demanded by the public.

Silk has a very great ability to absorb dyes and metallic salts without apparently changing the quality of the material, and since dyes and metallic salts are much cheaper than pure silk, the manufacturer makes great use of these materials. Loading is the common name for this process of treating silk and it is common practice to add thirty percent of foreign material, just the percent lost by the silk when the gum is removed, while it is possible to add two hundred fifty or even three hundred percent.

When we buy novelties and do not care how short their life is to be, these heavily weighted silks answer the purpose very well, but when we wish for durability and the silk begins to crack and split or to become shiny after a few wearings we realize the disadvantage of our modern methods. Practically no silk can be found on the market entirely free from loading, but there is a great difference in the amount present.

Burning is the simplest test for good silk; a thread of pure silk will burn slowly leaving as it burns a very small amount of crisp ash in a ball at the end of the thread. Heavily weighted silk burns and leaves the ash in the form of the original thread; this ash of course drops to pieces readily. Fig. 5A shows a piece of taffeta sold for one dollar a yard. Fig. 5B shows the result of burning the silk. This ash, left in the shape of the original sample, is made up of metallic salts, dyestuffs, etc. A very small percent of ash would be left from the silk itself.

Another method of adulterating silk is with cotton. The fibers are not spun together here as the cotton and wool, but the threads of the two materials are woven together. In satins, velvets and brocades the cotton is entirely covered by the silk threads on the surface, and appears as the back of the cloth. In cheap silks a fine cotton thread sometimes forms either warp or filling.

Pongee is a material made from the cocoon of the uncultivated silk worm; rajah, tussah and other uneven, coarse materials are from the same source. These silks are very strong, but do not have a high luster. Mercerized cotton looks quite silky and is sometimes mixed with these silks, or a material of mercerized cotton and spun silk may be sold for pongee, or even a material entirely of mercerized cotton.