GOLDLACE, a fabric formed by weaving silken threads that have been previously gilded. The peculiarity of this manufacture consists in the gilding of the silk in such a manner that it shall retain sufficient flexibility for weaving. A deep yellow or orange colored silk is used for the purpose. The usual method of doing this. is by what is called "fiber plating." A rod of silver is is hy simply pressing and bur nishing leaves of gold upon it. This gilded silver s then drawn into very fine wire, so tine that one ounce of metal can be extended to the length of more than a mile. It is then flattened between polished steel rollers, and further extended so that a mile and a quarter weighs only one ounce; for the last drawing, the wire is passed through ruby sties. The film of gold upon this flattened wire is much thinner than beaten gold-leaf, and has frequently been quoted as an example of the divisibility of matter, as one inch of the highly gilded wire contains but the eighty-millionth part of an ounce of gold, or of an inch, which is a visible quantity exhibiting the color and luster of gold, con tains but wriy of an ounce, or one ounce of gold covers more than 100 miles of wire. This flattened gilded wire isAlien wound over, the silk, so as to inclose it com
pletely, end produce an apparently golden thread.
Other means of directly gilding the thread have been tried, and for some purposes are successful, but none have vet been discovered which give the thread the same degree of luster as the above, which was first practiced in a ruder manner by the Hindus.
Mr. Hock's method of fiber gilding is to pass the silk through a mucilaginous solution and then receive it on a brass cylinder, over which it is closely rolled. Gold leaf is then laid upon this coil of gummed silk and thus one side is coated. The other side is gilded by rolling it from the first on to a second cylinder in the opposite direction; thus the plain side falls.outermost, and is then coated with gold-leaf as before. This is rather cheaper than the fiber-plated silk, and Om flexible, but not so brilliant