''Eisengarn'', meaning "iron yarn" in English, is a light-reflecting, strong, waxed-cotton thread. It was invented and manufactured in Germany in the mid-19th century, but is now best known for its use in cloth woven for the tubular-steel chairs designed by

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most im ...

while he was a teacher at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

design school. The yarn is also known as ''Glanzgarn'' ('gloss' or 'glazed' yarn).

Manufacture

Despite the name, there is no iron in ''Eisengarn''. The name refers to its strength and metallic shine. It is made by soaking cotton threads in a starch and

paraffin wax Paraffin wax (or petroleum wax) is a soft colorless solid derived from petroleum, coal, or oil shale that consists of a mixture of hydrocarbon molecules containing between 20 and 40 carbon atoms. It is solid at room temperature and begins to m ...

solution. The threads are dried and then stretched and polished by steel rollers and brushes. The end result of the process is a lustrous, tear-resistant yarn which is extremely hardwearing.''Industriegeschichte aus dem Bergischen land''
. Retrieved 27 November 2016WDR digit project. ''Eisengarnfabrikation in Barmen''.
(Video - 16 min.) Retrieved 27 November 2016

History

The ''Eisengarn'' manufacturing process was invented in the mid-19th century in a factory in

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

, now part of the city of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

, east of the river

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

. It was used as a sewing thread and for making lace, shoe laces, hat strings, ribbons, lining materials and in the cable industry. The manufacture of the yarn gave a considerable boost to the textile industry of Barmen and the surrounding region. By 1875, the Wuppertal company Barthels & Feldhoff employed more than 300 people in ''Eisengarn'' production. In 1927 the weaver and textile designer

Margaretha Reichardt Margaretha Reichardt (6 March 1907 – 25 May 1984), also known as Grete Reichardt, was a textile artist, Weaving, weaver, and graphic designer from Erfurt, Germany.Wassily Chair The Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 chair, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925–1926 while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus, in Dessau, Germany. Despite popular belief, the chair was not designed spec ...

. Light-weight tubular steel seating was also used in aircraft seating in the 1930s and Reichardt's improved version of ''Eisengarn'' was used as a covering for the seats. A more prosaic use for the strong ''Eisengarn'' was, and still is, for making colourful string shopping bags, which were popular in the former

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, and are now an

Ostalgie In German culture, ''Ostalgie'' () is nostalgia for aspects of life in Communist East Germany. It is a portmanteau of the German words '' Ost'' (east) and ''Nostalgie'' (nostalgia). Its anglicised equivalent, ostalgia (rhyming with "nostalgia" ...

item.Wiebrecht V., Skuppin, R. (2005) in Tagesspiegel. ''Aus der Mode, aus dem Sinn Das Einkaufsnetz''
Retrieved 4 December 2016 When the bag is not in use, the nature of the ''Eisengarn'' enables it to be compressed so that it takes up very little space.''Klassik Lust. Eine wiederentdeckte Waren-Transportmöglichkeit''
(in German, with photo). Retrieved 27 November 2016

References

External links

The B5 Chair , Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Vitra Design Museum. B35 Chair Marcel Breuer

WDR digit project. ''Eisengarnfabrikation in Barmen''.
(Video - 16 min). In German, but video shows eisengarn manufacturing process. {{DEFAULTSORT:Eisengarn Fibers Yarn Woven fabrics Bauhaus Textile industry of Germany Textile engineering