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Shattered silk is a sad part of dealing with antique garments. Some pieces are just cracking along the folds, others nearly shredded, and some have only the tiniest scraps left as evidence. But what causes this damage? And WHY did they process silk this way?

The simple answer is weighting. Weighting silks was a way to gain back the literal weight lost in degumming the fibers unspun from the cocoon. It could add lustre, weight, crisp hand, and even scroop. But weighting was often done with iron salts or other metals, meaning a delicate fiber was now covered in minute sharp particles. So within months, it could begin to degrade and fall apart. And sometimes the chemicals themselves would start to interact, breaking down the textile more or even making it flammable!

Numerous accounts of spontaneous combustion of silk warehouses or transports appeared in the 1870s as well. The chemical compounds, when heat and oxygen levels were right, could catch fire on their own! Steamships even had to ban carrying weighted silks for a time as most were produced in France and Germany, then shipped across the water to England or America. Enough documented cases (and some scientific experimentation) support the veracity of these stories meaning that for once, it's not just another deadly Victorian myth! There really was danger in silk. Not so much for the average person, but occasional stories of clothing stuffed in a trunk catching light do exist as well.

Microscope: https://cool.culturalheritage.org/jai...
Cocoons: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Shattered Repair: https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/putti...

00:00 Introduction
02:52 Weighting Process
04:41 History
08:12 Flammability
10:08 Fraud
13:28 Sinking Ships & Burning Bustles
17:23 Moderation
19:47 Fast Fashion
24:18 Regulations
28:33 Changing Styles

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Music via Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com)