Steel Thistle silk - uses

Android autocorrect is worse than useless, I swear

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:If it's thin, they could layer it and impregnate it with resin for fiberglass, or they could test its efficacy at sipping bullets....

Natural Kevlar? Isn't Kevlar protective material woven? Anyone know?

Randomiser wrote:

chrisd wrote:Good ideas, yes.

BUT

Steel thistle is a natural product so the supply will be limited and it is a b*****d to produce, even with the industrial machines hat Merlin passed on.

So, the old "supply and demand" will rule its adoption.

There's this thing called 'farming' ... ? In other words, yes, it's a natural product, but if there are important uses for it that bring in lots of Marks, i.e. if the demand is there, the supply will rocket. I didn't get the impression that it was impossibly hard to manufacture cloth from it with machines. Harder than cotton-silk, certainly, but not so much so. Seems that the only really hard bit is getting the seeds or burrs out. Way back in book one or two, the cloth manufacturer's eyes sure lit up when he thought of using the cotton gin on steel thistle.

Demand produces more supply, but lower costs increase demand. At present (2015) I'm not investing in petroleum producers, but a little has gone into petroleum transporters.

Always, thought should go into delay time. I wonder how long it takes to grow more ST plants?

If you want tomatoes - a few months: Chinese Chestnuts, a few years: Walnuts, a decade or more: Black walnut lumber in the larger sizes, decades.

This applies also to time needed to ramp up mass production of a given product - you either need to allow for time, or substitute something with a lower time constraint.

The delay times are why some industries are cyclical. Any time a system has enough delay to produce in phase results and also has amplification, it WILL cycle, to whatever extent will reach other limiting factors.

The cotton gin clearly does not violate the proscriptions--even Clyntan couldn't say that it does. It's only a matter of time, and probably not much time, until other nations are using it. Soon after, steel silk will be produced elsewhere in some quantities. Not sufficient for sail and the like, as it still has to be woven, but I can see people producing it at prices that undercut Harchong significantly. That will do Harching no good; they must make LOTS of money from the sale of steel silk. Luxuries are major revenue produces.

DDHvi wrote:

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:If it's thin, they could layer it and impregnate it with resin for fiberglass, or they could test its efficacy at sipping bullets....

Natural Kevlar? Isn't Kevlar protective material woven? Anyone know?

Its dissolved in sulfuric acid and pulled through spinnerets into a water bath. (A side effect of this is Kevlar looses 60% of its strength when first wet due to residual acid and gets stronger with repeated washing). Structurally its very similar to cellulose (but cellulose is actually stronger - natural cellulose has more structural defects).

So -

With the new oil industry coming on line - I see nylon and polyester suddenly becoming available..

... Suddenly a 50% Steel Silk 50% Polyester Blend begins to sound plausible...

That would sure stretch the supply for clothes.. Boots, Web Gear ect...

shaeun wrote:So -

With the new oil industry coming on line - I see nylon and polyester suddenly becoming available..

... Suddenly a 50% Steel Silk 50% Polyester Blend begins to sound plausible...

That would sure stretch the supply for clothes.. Boots, Web Gear ect...

Less wrinkling!

DDHvi wrote:

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:If it's thin, they could layer it and impregnate it with resin for fiberglass, or they could test its efficacy at sipping bullets....

Natural Kevlar? Isn't Kevlar protective material woven? Anyone know?

Yes it is, It is also dependent on the tightness of the weave and the alternating patterns.

I seem to recall the Harchong economy being totally backward. It wouldn't need mutch for the empire's employee to apply a "normal" tax fee of 200, 300% to charisian products. That, if the so called "heretical" product is allowed to enter the "rightfull" empire. No "rightfull son of God" would imagine bying something as vile from Shanwey's servants.

A.K.A : A new great inquisitor ban on steelsilk products made from outside the temple or the empire lands.

Blackmarket attack

Does someone know if the "Rightfull Sons of God" operating the empire are corrupts ? As rulers appointed by God and his Inquisition, surelly not...



What consequences would this situation bring ?

Only God...
Oops, strike that, only RFC knows.

NHBL wrote:The cotton gin clearly does not violate the proscriptions--even Clyntan couldn't say that it does. It's only a matter of time, and probably not much time, until other nations are using it. Soon after, steel silk will be produced elsewhere in some quantities. Not sufficient for sail and the like, as it still has to be woven, but I can see people producing it at prices that undercut Harchong significantly. That will do Harching no good; they must make LOTS of money from the sale of steel silk. Luxuries are major revenue produces.

It will be a while before every ship is ironclad. Some kind of inner lining to reduce splintering would be a useful safety measure in a wooden ship.