Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
ducts are “in store for the future” and this was just a “foretaste”. As
science continued to widen “its circle of achievement and usefulness”, it
would weave fabrics with longevity - “rot-proof”, “moisture-proof”, and
“fire-proof”. Even rayon's “future as a fiber” was not “exhausted” be-
cause chemists were devising new uses for it.
Although the series did not refrain from anthropomorphizing science
(see the photograph of 'Lanital Lady', a 'doll' made of synthetic mate-
rial, in Figure 4), its approach was more pragmatic than romantic. It
promoted a spiritual duality. Nature remained the best fabric producer;
scientists could only copy or improve on nature, not replace it. Science,
however, provided an advantage in that its processes, unlike nature,
could be controlled.
Figure 4. 'Lanital Lady', a photograph by Fremont Davis which was supplied with Sci-
ence Service 'Fabrics for the Future' newspaper series, 1939. The caption explained that
“various steps in the production of lanital - the synthetic 'wool' - have been used to cre-
ate the lady.' The doll's head was 'wool' made from cow's milk; the hands held bottles
of raw casein and milk (SIA RU7091, Box 408, Folder 23). Courtesy of Smithsonian In-
stitution Archives.
These articles also included a substantial number of domestic analogies
and examples, as if the editors had made a conscious effort to appeal to
women readers (although no explicit evidence of this approach survives
