A case in point will illustrate this. While Dr. Dyrenforth was chief of
the chemical division of the U.S. Patent Office, a person applied for a
patent on what he called "cottonized silk," inclosing specimens. He
claimed that he had discovered a mode of covering cotton fiber with a
solution of silk which could be woven into goods of various kinds; in
order to satisfy the public of the reality of his invention, he placed on
exhibition, in various localities, specimens of silk-like goods in the
form of ribbons in the web and skeins of thread, representing them to be
"cottonized silk."
Dr. Dyrenforth was not satisfied that the so-called discovery was an
accomplished fact, and he forwarded a few fibers of the material to the
division of which I have charge for investigation. I subjected them to my
usual tests, and found them to consist of pure silk, and I so reported to
Dr. Dyrenforth, who rejected the application for a patent. The microscope
was thus usefully employed to protect capitalists from imposition.