Document YjyqbKg57v407DJzYVMwB4mpV

* >. .'n C\- 34, Dover Street, London, ~K 1. 1st April, 1938. The Secretary, Messrs. Rockbestos Securities Co. 100, Broadway, New York, ff.S. A. Dear Sir, I an sending you herewith a copy of the R2AD3RS DI02ST, April-1938, and would draw your particular attention, and also that of your Directors, to the article on Page 106, entitled "Weaving the Sands of the Sea". It would appear that it will be necessary for you to consider how this might affect our business, and I should be glad to know if you are experiencing any competition from this direction. I am, Yours faithfully, RBB 00869 ' -'if' Glass t'abrics that art soft as cotton, sheer as silk or tough as canvas Weaving the Sands of the Sea Condensed from Nation's Business Ed'xard Brecber and Philip Dunaxay " all things may be woven," small glass marbles, exactly like !\ wrote Dante, "even the those you played with as a boy. -j\. sands of the sea." Today These are fed, one at a time, into a glass-makers are weaving cons of trim electric furnace no bigger than sand -- sand made into almost in a kitchen stove. High-pressure steam visible threads of glass from which blowers force the molten glass through are spun lustrous yarns for fire-re- 102 tiny holes in a plate that forms sistanc textiles and electrical insu part of the furnace fioor, producing lation. They are producing fabrics foot-long, cottonlike glass fibers which soft as cotton, sheer as silk, tough are gathered bv mechanical nneers as canvas. This new fibrous glass and twisted into varn. Wound on mav be cut, sewn, woven or knitted spindles, the yarn is processed into -- it is industry's newest basic ma cloth by regular textile machinery. terial. The same kind ot furnace also As early as 1S92 an American produces continuous fibers, with a glass company tailored a dress of iCjOCC-miie unbroken strand no nov silk fabric interwoven with strands elty. It is hard to believe that each of glass thread, and exhibited it at quarter-ounce marble will yield nearly the Columbian Exposition. Since a miie of thread of 102 filaments. then giass-dress stories have popped To do this no blowers are needed; up from Paris, Hollywood, and points the attendant simply grasps the between. But today glass fiber has filaments as thev worm their way become a staple of commerce. through the perforated plate, fas Even a 14th-century Venetian tens them to a revolving drum which could produce glass fiber, but he pulls them out -- drawing some 60 couldn't draw it one-twentieth as miles of fiber a minute. A single fine as a human hair, nor could he rwist makes a soft strand; half a manufacture enough of it daily, as dozen a strong, tough thread. Though Corning Glass Works does, to reach glass fabric won't take a dve, tinted the sun, and enough more, as does glass marbles may be used in the Owens-Illinois, to reach back. furnace to produce yarns of differ The modern process begins with ent colors. <g Tie Chamber t/ Commerce si tie United States, /6/j H S;., .V. -V , ^tshinrton, D. C. lc6 (.VaijsnV Business, March, 'ji)  - wm-V.y.- v-ijia -'X-;'- . vV '-V.v?.:;':"' ;: :;&k r --- ^.*~ WEAVING THE SANDS Oh THE SEA f-'.-rCs-'T r: ^ -f--S^ rf.-'.V.^S 5^'-s..-< With the textile held at present highly competitive, glass fibers thus far are mostly used for two special purposes --as chemical filters and as electrical insulation. .As the former, glass resists most acids and with stands temperatures even four times as high as can ordinary cloth. Also, glass cloth filters last weeks instead ofda ys, and are used in places where no filter has ever served before. Even more startling is glass fiber's success in electrical insulation. It not only insulates but is fire-resist ant, vermin-proof and highly fiexible. There is no reason why all electrical wires should not be wrapped in glass. Then, too, glass can be used in lavers so thin that a five-* horsepower electric motor, glass in sulated, takes up no more space than present motors of half that power. Indeed, glass may become as universal an insulator as copper is a conductor. Glass men are not ready to push the idea of glass clothing, but they do see possibilities of dining off glass tablecloths and living among glass curtains and awnings. You'll see them first on ships and in theaters, where fire means catastrophe; iater, in public dining rooms where there will be no more cigarette holes :n table "linen." Architects envision thin, almost filmy nets of closewoven giass applied over colorful wallpaper, reflecting light into dark est corners and permitting color from the paper underneath to shine through in pastel patterns. Unprocessed giass fiber--produced in huge furnaces -- is being used in carload lots as "glass wool " for in sulating buildings, railroad cars, auto mobiles, refrigerators and all types of furnaces. Germany is using it ex tensively as heat insulation in her new process of extracting gasoline from coal on a large scale. Previ ously she had imported asbestos for this purpose. But shortly, using American machinery in her glasswool factories, she will be freed of the need of importing asbestos and possibly certain other raw materials. Even the poorest of have-not na tions has sand. J'lac'.Qlames 0f(SL racier -II- Sugar, Idaho Ga'lanc, Alabama Hominy, Oklahoma Spry, Ctah Toast, North Carolina Alert, Indiana ;.?. . Tomato, .Arkansas Erect, North Carolina Cucumber, West Virginia Gay, Michigan Tea, South Dakota Chic, Tennessee Codec, California Beauty, Kentucky Cocoa, Florida Handsom, Virginia Pie, West Vireinia Slick, Oklahoma g7xu.*.-"S? ABB 00976