The fascinating, versatile fabric: fiber glass

Title

Identifier

Wonder of Chemistry

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XIII (No.7) July 1961

Year

1961

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Wonder of Chemistry The Fascinating, Versatile Fabric: FIBER GLASS IN THE basement of the FiLberglas center on Fifth Avenue in New York city, a young woman was complete ly swept away by what she saw. Before her were glass fabrics that never need dry cleaning or ironing; r o tproof, shrink-proof, stretch proof fabrics! Each dazzling display flashed to her mind countless ways in which bright new color and life could be brought into her home. “I expected to see just a very limited selection,” she confessed modestly. “But look at this. It’s fabulous!” Her eyes flashed from row to row of fabrics in colors, designs and textures of unbelievable variety. Elegant prints, sheer boucles and marquisettes, nubby weaves and airy case ments, bright suntoned solids —more than 5,000 styles to choose from! She was in a shopper’s paradise! Not far away stood another woman deep in thought, as she weighed the matter of taste and pocketbook. “We have just bought ourselves a new house,” she said, “and, of course, the problem of de corating it comes up. That’s why I’m here. I figure that the window space in our new home will take at least thirty yards of material just for the drapes. Between $2 and $7 a yard—that’s not considering what it will cost to make them. You can see that it will run into a considerable sum, even at that.” But she was pleased with the material’s practicability. Both of these women, along with thousands of others, ad mired the amazing flexibility of an exciting, relatively new fabric—one possessing pro perties and possibilities far beyond the reach of its pred ecessors. Already the new comer has inspired more mag nificent designs and treat ments than many fabrics have in their history! Besides, its July 1961 63 fiber is as light as a feather and almost as soft as silk. You can light a match to it and it will not burn. You can soak it in water and it will not shrink. Tug on it and it will not stretch. Hang it up in a wet, dingy basement and it will not rot. Expose it even to the brightest sunlight and it will not deteriorate—all this because the fiber is 100 per cent glass. No one really knows who discovered glass, but it is al most certain that the first man could not have been aware of its vast versatility. Today men take batches of sand, lime stone and other mineral in gredients and melt them in a furnace. The molten glass that comes out is formed into various items, such as win dows, bottles, glasses, mar bles, and so forth. Experience has taught us that ordinary window glass shatters quite easily when struck with a stone. But melt the broken pieces down and draw it out into several hun dred miles of fiber. The threads become almost invisi ble to the eye. You can wrap them around your finger and weave them into a window screen. Now throw a stone at the screen and see what hap pens. Aha! This time the glass does not break' A water glass is easy to shatter, but try to pull one apart. It is the ability of glass to withstand tremendous pull that largely accounts for its turning up in unexpected pla ces as fiber. Just as your windows or drinking glasses will not stretch or shrink, rust, rot or wrinkle, so neither will material or fibers made of glass. While glass fibers are mere infants in the family of fibers —hardly thirty years old— still the job performed by them to date has been man size. Commenting on its ma ny uses, one report states : “Inside attractively sonofaced ‘tiles’ for ceilings, glass fibers sound-condition rooms by ab sorbing useless reverberated noises, making the sounds we want to hear clearer and more pleasant. Also unseen in walls and roofs, glass fibers insu late homes and other build ings against heat and cold, sharply cutting costs of heat ing and air conditioning. Al most all home wiring, from the fuse box to the wall out let is glass fiber-insulated.” This is hardly a beginning to the fiber’s versatility. Per haps one of its most dramatic displays of strength is in the field of plastics. Chairs, for example, made, only of plastic are as brittle as window glass. But add glass fibers in the 64 Panorama plastic and the chair becomes stronger than steel, pound for pound. Some 629 New York city buses now are equipped with plastic seat? reinforced with glass fibers. The aircraft industry soars ahead of others in the use of glass - reinforced plastics. Glass and plastics practically surround passengers in the new commercial jets. The nose radome, the pilot’s foot warmer, the control cables, tables, door latches, passen ger seats, cabin ceilings, and a host of other items are all glass reinforced. Today, glass fibers go into battery separa tor plates, protective under ground and above-ground pipe wrap. They are used in disposable air filters and in sect screening, as reinforce ment for structural plastic products, industrial papers, and in what have you. The Fiberglas people say that a few years ago it would have been difficult to imagine boats with completely main tenance-free hulls, molded in one piece; or colored, trans lucent panels that could be sawed and nailed like wood to make patio roofs, decora tive interior partitions or sky lights that absorb infrared light; but they are realities to day because of glass. Today we have glass fishing rods, sleds, skis, crash helmets for jet pilots, bullet-proof vests, auto bodies, airplane parts and many other products. “Put glass fibers in paper, and a few strands of paper tape, %-inch wide, can lift a 3,000pound automobile. Reinforced paper is used instead of steel bands on cartons, as durable tarpaulins, freight car cover ings and heavy-duty packag ing.” Now these powerful fi bers are being turned into yarn for beautifying the in side of the home. Each year about 100,000,000 tiny crystal balls, approxi mately three-fourths of an inch in diameter are remelted into molten glass. In these pale-green marbles that re semble the marbles children have played with for centu ries. men have found cloth, believe it or not. The molten glass is driven through tiny holes at speeds up to three miles a minute. This stretches the glass liquid into long, thin fibers. The fi bers are about one three-hun dredths of the thickness of hu man hair! Out of one small marble alone comes ninetyfive miles of filament. The filaments are twisted or plied together and the glass yarn is ready for weaving. The weav ers receive the yarn and han dle it like any other. The fabric is often so soft that it is hard to believe that Tuly 1961 65 it is glass. Some of the yarns are shot through with jet streams of air to blow up or fluff the yarn and give it its buik. The fabric is put through a special heat treat ment at 1,200 degrees Fahren heit, a process known as “Coronizing.” This treatment softens the woven fabric and gives it its fluffiness and makes it feel like cloth. This same heat treatment makes the fabric permanently wrin kle-proof and does away with the backbreaking job of iron ing. At this point the cloth can be dyed or printed with a wide range of designs, styles and co lors. Finally the material is baked at 320 degrees Fahren heit to set the color and give buyers cloth with almost per fect washability. Since each fiber is made from glass, dirt cannot possibly penetrate it, so the material is as washable as a glass or a dish and just about as durable. Glass fiber draperies and curtains have proved especial ly practical. They transmit sunlight like a stained-glass window and, at the same time, are soft to touch and delicate in appearance. They are also easy to maintain. For exam ple, when the time comes to take the curtains or drapes down to clean, simply dip them in mild soapy water and squeeze the material to free the dirt particles. Since the dirt remains on the surface of the fabric, a mild detergent is all that is necessary to loosen the dirt, without the aid of hot water or rubbing. Then merely rinse the material in clear water and hang it up to dry, or roll the curtain up in a towel first to remove excess moisture, then hang it over a shower-curtain rod or clothe esline to dry. Fiber-glass drapes are ea sier to clean than blinds. Ac cording to a Los Angeles newspaper, the supervisors of a new $24,000,000 courthouse figure that the maintenance cost of fiber-glass drapery installations is only one tenth that of blinds. There is no need to dry-clean fiber-glass drapes. However, if you insist on having glass draperies cleaned commercially, then ask to have them “wet-wash ed” or “wet-cleaned.” Request that they be treated in the same manner as a fine wool en blanket. The danger of sending glass fabrics out to commercial cleaners is that the solvents used in the com mercial process can be harm ful to dyes in the fabric. And, too, the tumbling action of the cleaning process can be abrasive in nature. For the same reason, it is not recom mended that glass fabrics be 66 Panorama washed in a washing machine. When hanging glass drape ries, be sure the fabric clears the floor, ceiling or any pro jection, such as window sills and radiators. The movement on a traverse rod will not da mage the material. Since glass fabrics do not sunrot and are highly fade-resistant, there is no need to have them lined. However, if you choose to line the cloth, then make sure the lining is preshrunk and wash able. While it is not necessa ry to use weights to improve the appearance of glass drapes, yet if weights are used, see that they are rela tively light and are covered with cotton or similar mater ial. While glass fabrics are ideal for draperies, they are not recommended for bed spreads, tablecloths or uphols tery because of the possibility of abrasion. Of course, the fabric can be sewed. But first cut off a practice piece and run it into the sewing machine several times, until you -find the pro per pressure adjustment. Then sew with ordinary cotton thread, but with a sharp nee dle and with slightly looser tensions than usual. * * * DEGREES IN DEGRADATION Phil May, the artist, when once down on his luck in Australia, took a job as waiter in a very low-class restaurant. An acquaintance came into the place to dine, and was aghast when he dis covered the artist in his waiter. ‘'My God!” he whispered. “To find you in such a place as this.” Phil May smiled, as he retorted: “Oh, but, you see, I don’t eat here.” July 1961 67

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63+

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