BEAMING, OR PREPARING THE WARP EOR THE LOOM IN SILK WEAVING 



This is composed of the threads that run lengthwise of the goods. It is put on the loom where 

 the shuttles carry the woof threads back and forth and complete the weaving process. 



serious shrinkage. It happens that silk 

 has a particular affinity for tin dissolved 

 in hydrochloric acid. So the silk manu- 

 facturer proceeds to treat his degummed 

 silk to a hath of liquid tin. It absorbs 

 several ounces to the pound of silk. Then 

 he washes it in a phosphate-of-soda prep- 

 aration which increases its power of ab- 

 sorbing tin, and gives it another bath. 

 He may repeat the process until his 

 pound of raw silk, which had shrunk to 

 thirteen ounces by the degumming opera- 

 tion, takes on enough tin to make it weigh 

 at least twenty and perhaps forty or even 

 sixty ounces. 



This weighting is of advantage to the 

 wearers. An ordinary 19-inch taffeta, 

 that retails at, say, $1.50 a yard, is com- 

 posed, probably, of five-eighths silk and 

 three-eighths tin. Yet it is satisfactory 

 in its luster and will ordinarily wear for 

 two seasons, which is alleged to be the 

 longest any woman would want a silk 

 dress or waist to last. If that taffeta 

 were made from untinned silk it would 



cost $2.20 a yard and serve milady no 

 better. 



During the last year or two, under the 

 stress of raw silk prices of unprecedented 

 heights, weighting came to be done in the 

 woven goods as well as in the tram and 

 organzine, so that the women of the 

 country often wear as much tin as silk, 

 and frequently more. 



CIVILIZATION'S PROGRESS MEASURED IN 

 GLASS 



To say that civilization's advancement is 

 based on glass seems a gross exaggeration 

 at first blush ; and yet, when one reflects 

 how many sciences and how much human 

 knowledge came to the race through that 

 commodity, the accuracy of the statement 

 is apparent. The science of preventive 

 medicine was born of the microscope. 

 But for the telescope and the spectro- 

 scope the world would know about as 

 much of astronomy as was known by the 

 shepherds on the plains of Persia. One 

 may read the whole list of technological 

 industries without discovering lines of 



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