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 owes its modern renown[1] to its use in cloth woven for thetubular-steel chairs designed byMarcel Breuer while he was a teacher at theBauhaus design school.
The yarn is also known asGlanzgarn ('gloss' or 'glazed' yarn).[2]
Despite the name, there is no iron inEisengarn. The name refers to its strength and metallic shine. It is made by soaking cotton threads in a starch andparaffin wax 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.[3][4]
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TheEisengarn manufacturing process was invented in the mid-19th century in a factory inBarmen, now part of the city ofWuppertal, east of the riverRhine.[3]
It was used as a sewing thread and for making lace, shoe laces, hat strings, ribbons, lining materials and in the cable industry.[3]
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 inEisengarn production.[3]
In 1927 the weaver and textile designerMargaretha Reichardt (1907–1984), then a student at the Bauhaus design school, experimented and improved the quality of the thread and developed cloth and strapping material made fromEisengarn for use on Marcel Breuer's tubular steel chairs, such as theWassily Chair.[1][5] According to the Bauhaus Kooperation, the material "owes its renown" to this use.[1]
Light-weight tubular steel seating was also used in aircraft seating in the 1930s and Reichardt's improved version ofEisengarn was used as a covering for the seats.[6][7]
A more prosaic use for the strongEisengarn was, and still is, for making colourfulstring shopping bags, which were popular in the formerEast Germany, and are now anOstalgie item.[8] When the bag is not in use, the nature of theEisengarn enables it to be compressed so that it takes up very little space.[9]