Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1919 — TO DETECT IMPURE MATERIAL [ARTICLE]

TO DETECT IMPURE MATERIAL

Silk, Linen, Leather, Among the Various Articles That Are Being Cleverly Counterfeited. The “beware of imitations” line so common in advertisements is really a piece of good advice, observes a correspondent. An almost limitless amount of ingenuity is devoted to producing cheap substitutes for popular "articles. In appearance they must rival the genuine, so it is well to know how their real quality must be tested. Nothing, for instance, is more satisfying to eye and touch than pure linen and most woman shoppers believe it has a distinctive “feel.” the next tablecloth you examine may be mercerized cotton, treated with magnesia so that It counterfeits this “feel.” An easy test is to hold the fabric up to the light. Along the

threads of good linen tiny knots will show. Cotton threads are smooth. An infallible method is to .soak a corner of the napkin in glycerin. If it becomes translucent it is pure linen; if it remains opaque it is cotton. ’ Short skirts make stockings a distinctly conspicuous feature of woman’s dress, so the demand was greatly increased for silk substitutes. Some are made of wood pulp, others of artificial silk. Cotton, of course, is mixed with good silk, and a poor quality product is given weight “by treating it with oxide of tin. Small particles of the metal are scattered through the fabric, which cut tiny holes or cause the garment to crack along a folded edge. - The sure test for silk is to burn a bit of it. If pure scarcely a trace will remain, but a poor quality will leave one-third to one-half its weight in ashes. Beware of silk that has a hard feeling, or if it has a transparent look when held to the light. This means it is a mesh, filled in and weighted with metal. Wool will disappear If boiled in a solution of caustic soda. If the fabric be mixed with cotton the latter will remain undissolved. This is a valuable test, for it is hard to tell what goes into-Some articles guaranteed as “all wool.” Blankets offer a good field for the imitator, sheep furnishing but little of the fiber in some of those labeled “half wool.” t Specimens of such have been found to contain but Id—per cent wool. These are made of a mesh cottoh, filled in by means of an air blast with scraps of Waste wool. The result is a soft, fluffy covering, but little of it will remain after a first or second washing. Shoe soles are made of ground leather scrap mixed with paper pulp and rubber. Cowhide is split into half a dozen layers and the Source of many an expensive alligator handbag or pigskin leggings once wore horns —perhaps was the pride of some dairy.