Vol. b State College of Washington No . 23 J,,y '), 7J1 w 7 h HOME ECO N O M ICS NEWS SERVICE Cl' .3 EXT ENS ION SERV ICE U. S. D. A. COLLEGE OF HOME ECONOMICS ************************************* *********************************************** For Release Not Before Friday, May 19, 1939 WOOL SYNTHEI'ICS FROM SKIM MILK State College Lola Pickles Co llege of Home Economics of Washiagt-no Washington State College Libr: A f ew we eks ago, I told you about the new a.11 chemical fiber which r eceived I its pa.tent la.st fall (1938 ). It is ma.de from coal, air, a.nd water, and the fiber coming from t his comb:ina.tion is more elastic than silk a.nd ha.s greater strength. Today, I run going to tell you about a fiber which is not a.s new as Nylon, but is just ..as interesting. It i s La.nite.l , a. wool-like fiber, ma.de from skim milk. Some twenty years ago, a German chemist made a weak wool-like cloth from casein and t his probably started the Italian scientists to experiment a.long the same line. The Italians were successful in their research work and developed a fiber ( which would make up into cloth quite satisfactorily. They made ·bheir army unifonns for the Ethiopian Vya.r from La.nital. The United States is n6t to be outdone. Du ring Deorunber of last year, two chemists of the United States Bureau of the Da iry Industry were granted a patent which covered a new method of making textile fibers from casein. The method of fiber production is similar to that of Lanital, invented in Itnly and covered by Italian patents. The patent has tremendaous importance to the textile industry and may con• I stitute the beginning of a new era of chemical fibers , both filament and staple fibers, Just to what extent it can be adopted to practical use and how far reaching its ef fects will be oannot be estimated at the present time, The reason for the United States Government patenting methods to mo.ke wool from skim milk is to put wool goods within easier reach of the poor, The chemists give us the followings "This oountry will be able to produce twice its present con­ sumption of wo ol from the 40 1 000,000,000 pounds of skim milk, The economics of the t extile situo.tion will largely determine how far we go with casein (skim milk) fiber , 11 (MORE) ;,. 2 ... Add Wo ol Synthetics from Skim Milk. 1.'his artificial fiber, they explain, is very similar to wo ol because it belongs to t he same class of chemical compounds • . 'I' he first step in turning skim milk into woo l is s ouring. The soured mass i s dried, then dissolved :in alka li cont a i ning metals and f atty acids . This mass is f orced t hrough tiny holes i n a platinum di sk, The strings that em erge a re the future artificial wool fibers. They pass into a bath of a cid, f ormaldehyde and either salts or sugars, which toughens them. Afte rward t hey are treated with oils and other substances t o mnke them flexiblo and to add further strength. The present result, they state, is a woolly f iber which has t he poor tensile strength that rayon had thirty years ago when first made. The milk wool is weak when wet, Lanit al burns with the same characteristic odor as wool. l b is readily dyed and i s moth-proof. It does not shrink as readily as wool. The cost should be ver y close to thos e of rayon. Ther e i s a quest i on as to whet her or not rdlk wool of ei ther 50··.: or l OO% can withstand the biol ogical a gencies pr ovided by Nature in t he form of organisms abl e to assimilate and mi neral i ze protei n substances of the cl ass t o whioh casein belongs . "Nearly all casein- splitting micr o-organisms , isol ated f r om soil or manure, or gather ed by infeot :lon f r om the ordinary atmospher e are abl e to attack the woo l." These organisms belon g to a ll cl asses J bo. oteria, mo ulds , and so fort h, many of whioh show a strong dissolving a ction on t he mil k woo l fiber s . A hole · results i n a short time f r om suoh aotions. In reply t o t he above accusations , t he manufaoture~s and inven·bors of La.ni tal say that dur i ng the years that t heir product has been in oommeroial us e, no s uoh oase of att ack by micr o-organisms has come to their notioe. We , of America, as well as those of other lands will be awaiting with eagerness to see just how this produot will progress and improve~ .