HIGHWAY TO THE HORIZON 



Nylon is now supplemented with plastics, Saran and 

 Vinylite, in filaments and narrow strips. Metal thread, 

 aluminum and zinc, are being used. Crinkles and crimps 

 and crepes are being permanently woven into goods 

 for novel effects. The combinations and permutations 

 are infinite. With growing knowledge of the compli- 

 cated chemistry of fibers, plastics, and synthetic rub- 

 bers, it is going to be possible to combine the molecules 

 to give to cloth entirely new properties. Southern tex- 

 tile research is dipping eager fingers into a regular Jack 

 Horner pie and is pulling out some luscious plums. 



The epidemic of research that is sweeping the coun- 

 try and which has so virulently attacked the Southern 

 textile men disturbs some of the best friends of applied 

 science. They mistrust our American fondness for fads 

 and are fearful of a new type of racket. They snort 

 scornfully at the "research departments" set up by ad- 

 vertising agencies, organized charities, and a myriad of 

 Government bureaus. They are disdainful of research 

 over the air and in the annual report of many a corpora- 

 tion. To count the diaper pins sold in the dime stores of 

 Seattle and call it "research," they point out, is stretch- 

 ing a good word into a catch phrase. Averaging pounds 

 of Swiss cheese per person, correlating the popularity of 

 cocker spaniels and boxers, and all such interesting, 

 sometimes enlightening fact-findings are not research at 

 all, and the scientist is quite right to protest this mis- 

 appropriation of a term that implies not only the dis- 



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