Show How to Detect Shoddy Goods SILK GOODS I Get a sample of ot silk sUk at a store Take it home and burn bum It in a a. dish or pan pail saving the tile ash as it forms after the blaze dies away If the ash is soft and only a small quantity left the silk is pure If It the ash is harsh and gritty It has been adulterated with metals Taffeta dresses heavily weighted with metals cut out after a a. few weeks of wear Silk umbrellas adulterated with metals go to pieces quickly Dress goods will tear apart from weight of metals even when hanging banging In a closet LINENS A drop of glycerin on pure linen will 1 make the cloth transparent If It the material is adulterated with cotton the transparent effect will not result from the glycerin test Real linen wrinkles easily It should feel teel soft heavy smooth and leathery I Cotton Imitation in linen is cleverly done and hard to detect Starch is also freely used to give the tile shoddy goods weight This mixing of ot starch can be detected by rubbing the goods together briskly Holes HoTes filled with starch will be revealed WOOLENS Pure wool burns bums slowly with an animal animal ani ani- mal smell and leaves a gummy ash Shoddy substitutes for tor wool are com com- mon Scraps of wool in goods that have been used are collected by man manufacturers and woven Into new mate mate- rial The supply of ot fresh wool is not great enough to supply the demand The use of ot old wool is hard to detect except by the rough feel of ot the ma ma- |