History
Now It's Fabric from Milk
From The Needle's Eye – October 1942
Four years of experimenting with casein from cow’s milk have led to the development of a new fiber that has shown great potential in its preliminary tests.
Utilizing the billions of pounds of skim milk – the residue after butterfat has been extracted for butter, table cream, or other purposes – which normally does not have a commercial market, the new fiber “Aralac” gives promise of being widely adopted for the manufacture of many types of fabric.
Those persons responsible for the development of the fabric state that within a few months many dresses, blouses, slacks, and other apparel will be able to trace their origin back to the cow.
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Viscous casein is forced through the tiny holes of a spinneret under high pressure to form the fibers.
The processing of fiber from milk is not new. As far back as fifty years ago, scientists experimented with casein fiber. Previously, however, no milk fabric was found acceptable to the textile industry.
Chief among the present uses of “Aralac” is its application in felt hats in place of difficult-to-obtain imported rabbit fur. Among anticipated uses is its blending with rayon, wool, mohair, cotton, and fur to produce fine fabrics that differ in certain characteristics from the basic materials.
In cost “Aralac”, at present is somewhat more expensive than rayon and cotton, but less expensive than wool and fur.
Chief among the present uses of “Aralac” is its application in felt hats in place of difficult-to-obtain imported rabbit fur. Among anticipated uses is its blending with rayon, wool, mohair, cotton, and fur to produce fine fabrics that differ in certain characteristics from the basic materials.
In cost “Aralac”, at present is somewhat more expensive than rayon and cotton, but less expensive than wool and fur.
In these four tapes are thousands of strands of “Aralac” fibers. The foamy mass from which they are emerging contains four spinnerets.
