Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1894 — Tricks in the Silk Trade. [ARTICLE]

Tricks in the Silk Trade.

One of the methods now resorted to for weighing siiKs is by an ingenious use of tin salts. In carrying out this procesi the bichloride is reduced by water to 30 degrees, Baumo, tnis being the strongest solution of the kind that can be employed with safotr, stronger being likely to injure tbe fiber; at 31 degrees the s:lk becomes rough and valuele-s, and at 40 degrees the fiber is dissolved. The silk is well worked in the solution until perfectly saturated, left two hours in tho liquor, taken out and washed. One dip in this way adds about 8 per cent, to the weight, and three treatments give an increase of some 25 per cent. The silk is washed in a thorough mannor before it is soaped, as any of the tin solution left remaining would decompose the soap. Bare hands are of course not used in working the goods in bichloride of tin at 30 degrees Baume, its acidity acting injuriously on the skim