the plies the transverse tensile test was run by placing the sample under tension along this longitudinal axis the shear strength was tested by spanning the sample across two spaced apart support points and loading the sample from the opposite side the following examples of treatments in accordance with the invention include the temperature and stretch conditions of subset d above but all show substantially superior composite results the precursor was again enka 4400 denier rayon and in each instance the graphitic fibers had modulus values of 40 u00d7 10 6 psi __________________________________________________________________________ proc temp stretch u00b0 c amps tvt psi shear psi reagent treatment__________________________________________________________________________examplei z sub 1 1830 8 3 20 5200 5400 11 700 13 500 15 aqueous solution of z sub 2 2732 8 3 15 potassium carbonateexampleii z sub 1 1830 8 3 20 5100 5200 13 300 14 900 15 aqueous solution of z sub 2 2732 8 3 15 cobalt sulfateexampleiii z sub 1 1830 8 3 20 5500 5900 12 200 12 900 15 each nickel nitrate z sub 2 2732 8 3 15 amp sodium hypo chloriteexampleiv z sub 1 1830 8 3 20 4600 5400 11 700 12 900 30 aqueous solution of z sub 2.