Georgia Cayvan in her glass dress 1893






  GLASS GARMENTS.



THE spinning stuffs most generally in use are but few wool, cotton, flax, hemp and silk; yet there are numerous other spinning materials which have been used with more or less success; straw, leaves, bark, and it is said that even blossoms and fruit, have been spun, and afterward woven into stuffs for garments. Most of these are from the vegetable kingdom.

The animal kingdom, also, furnishes excellent spinning material, as is afforded by the goat of Tibet, Persia, and South America, the llama and camel, the horse and cow, the dog, seal, and rabbit, besides the silk-worm.

Even the mineral kingdom is not far behind the others. "Next to asbestos, have gold and silver been drawn into threads of extra fineness and woven into costly stuffs. 

But few could be found to wear them; the asbestos has too little to recommend it, and the gold and silver too much."

But the most beautiful spinning material is glass, which, when woven, "eclipses the finest web of silk, and even throws gold and silver tissue into the shade." In Paris, Venice, and some other places in Europe, manufactories sprung up for the spinning and weaving of glass; and ''more than thirty years ago, in Paris, glass bonnets, hoods, mantles, etc., were worn; glass carpets, too, were woven, more beautiful than any cloth of gold, and also variously colored materials for garments." But owing to the brittleness of these fabrics, the manufacturers were not successful.

Recently, a process of toughening glass threads has been discovered, so that the weaving of glass has again begun. The San Francisco Chronicle says that Prof. Theodore Greiner, the celebrated artist in glass work, is 'now manufacturing’ in that city the glass fabric for a lady's dress. 

The threads are finer than the finest floss silk, and the process of weaving very slow, only about ten inches being done in a day. This, when completed, will no doubt be the most wonderful garment ever manufactured by man; but, shining and beautiful as it may be, it will appear worthless when compared with the white robes waiting for those who get the victory over sin. 

Probably none of us could afford glass garments if we desired them, but all who will may come and have their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. Do "white robes wait for you," dear reader?

 




M. J. C.