This is another one of my favorite stories from the history of systematic innovation. This article is an excerpt from ‘ADL Chronicles – A presentation of the products and inventions that came out of the laboratories of Arthur D. Little‘, written by Irving J. Arons.
In 1921, in order to obtain some favorable publicity for his fledgling company, Arthur Dehon Little, the founder of Arthur D. Little, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., decided to challenge his chemists and engineers to create ’silk’ from pork byproducts. The idea behind this surprising and not very practical experiment was to prove that something said to be impossible was, with sufficient effort and ingenuity, attainable. The old adage that said, “you can’t make a silk purse of a sow’s ear” had been used for years to discourage inventiveness and enterprise. As Arthur himself stated, “We resolved…to prove that it was false, and we have done so. We have made a silk purse of a sow’s ear.”
The chemists’ first step was to observe the production of silk by silkworms, analyzing both the process and the product. They found that the viscous liquid emitted from ducts in the worm’s head turned to silk after contact with air and that it was chemically akin to glue. Following this lead, the lab purchased one hundred pounds of sows’ ears (certified to be authentic by an affidavit from the supplier, Wilson & Company, meat packers in Chicago) and reduced it to ten pounds of glue, which was turned to gelatin by adding small amounts of chrome alum and acetone. After much trial and error the chemists hit upon a means of producing fine strands by filtering the gelatin under pressure and forcing the substance through a perforated spinneret. The resulting brittle strands, softened by bathing in a glycerin solution, were dried, dyed, and woven into cloth of ‘the desired soft, silky feel.’ From this cloth two ten-inch long ’silk’ purses were cut and stitched in imitation of a medieval design, used for holding silver coins in one end, and gold in the other.
The company freely acknowledged that the two ’silk’ purses, expensive to produce, had more value as conversation starters than as items intended for practical use. They were widely exhibited at trade shows and promotional events. “We frankly admit,” the company stated, “that it is not very strong or very good silk, and that there is no present industrial value in making it from glue.”
A report about the project (2) concluded: “Things that everybody thinks he knows only because he has learned the words that say it, are poisons to progress. The only way to get ahead is to dig in, to study, to find out, to reason out theories, to test them…
This making of silk purses of sows’ ears was merely a diversion of chemistry at play. When chemistry puts on overalls and gets down to business, things begin to happen that are of importance to industry and to commerce. New values appear. New and better paths are opened to reach the goals desired.”
A silk purse from a sow's ear
One of the purses was presented to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The other was proudly displayed in the Boardroom of the company, at 25 Acorn Park until the company declared bankruptcy in 2002, at which time it was put up for auction.
The silk purse was obtained by Kenan Sahin, the founder of TIAX, the successor company to the old Product Technology Section of ADL, and is now part of that company’s ADL memorabilia display.
To see the original article this story was taken from, go here.
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