Show Glass Fibers Are Being Developed for Many MallY Uses Neckties Dresses Drapes and Awnings By y WATSON VATSON DAVIS C LASS LASSIs is familiar as bottles or tumblers window windowpanes windowpanes windowpanes panes and more recently as translucent bt building blocks It is proverbially breakable and fragile At first thought glass would not be judged a n serious competitor to the ordinary textiles Yet one of the themos mos most promising new uses for glass is as a fiber Dresses neckties and other novelties novelties novelties novel novel- ties can be made of glass fiber But th the early large scale practical usage of glass textiles is foreseen in drapes for use In theaters hotels tapestries awnings that can not be hurt by carelessly flung cigarettes and other su such li h applications where real non- non inflammability is necessary Just now glass fibers are finding widest application as insulating material material material ma ma- both against heat and on electric wires and as a filtering mate material iaL Amat mat of glass fibers such as used in house walls or refrigerators refrigerators weighs a mere hundredth of the volume of solid glass 1 Instead instead in it- stead of pounds per cubic foot Can Be Tied in Knots If It drawn sufficiently fine glass becomes becomes becomes be be- comes comes flexible and can even be tied in knots And the strength needed to pull glass apart part increases as the fiber diameter is reduced so that while typical l strength of glass rods is pounds per square inch commercially produced fibers have gone as high as Fibers as fine as inch in diameter have been produced Continuous filaments fil flu aments have been drawn without a break for miles Color The natural white suffices for most purposes now but soon glass textiles competing with cotton cotton cotton cot cot- ton wool and rayon will emerge in all rainbow shades with more mor permanency permanency permanency per per- than we expect from other textiles For several centuries glass has been made into fiber for special purposes The Germans made glass fiber commercially during the World war when blockades cut of off supplies of of- asbestos The The- modern American method dates date from 1931 and now two large concerns are pushing research research research re re- re- re search on this stuff that tha t a window windowpane windowpane windowpane pane would not recognize as a first cousin |