Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1894 — Weighing Silk. [ARTICLE]

Weighing Silk.

New York Sun. One of the methods used for weighing silks is by an ingenious use of tin salts. In carrying out this process the bichloride is reduced by water to 30 degrees Baume, this being the strongest solution of the kind that can be employed with safety, stronger being likely to injure the fiber. At 34 degrees the silk becomes rough and valueless and at 40 the fiber is dissolved. The silk is well worked in the solution until* perfectly saturated, left to hang two hours in the liquor, taken out and washed. One dip in this way adds about 8 per-eent. to its weight,*and three treatments give an increase ol some 25 per cent. The silk is washed in a thorough manner 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 to the skin.