MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 89 



weight of cocoons abroad or in Prance (where reeling lias been performed 

 for a few years with an instrument nearly the size of this for two sets of 

 cocoons) will produce one pound of silk, but that by this process more 

 than one pound weight is obtained. A new channel in the business will 

 require to be opened that of importing the cocoons. These have never 

 been supplied, because they have never been demanded ; but we suppose 

 they would follow the usual law in this respect which rules other mer- 

 chandise, and find their way to a good market. 



The patent is draAvn so as to secure to the patentees the entire ground of 

 reeling or winding (either with spin or without) direct from the cocoons, 

 on bobbins or any other surface, so as to dispense with the loose skein of 

 raw r silk ; and it is not improbable, now the ground is broken, that 

 other machines, with the license of these patentees, may be applied to the 

 same object. 



The silk made by this machine is stated by the Artisan to be twice the 

 fineness of the China silk which is usually imported, and worth two 

 dollars more per pound, and a greater quantity of good silk is obtained 

 from the cocoons there being less refuse than by the hand process, or 

 by another apparatus which has been in use for two years in France. 

 Scientific American. 



GILDING SILK, COTTON, OR WOOLLEN THREAD. 



The following is an abstract of a patent granted to Albert Hock, of 

 Paris, for gilding silk, cotton, or woollen thread. Some things not men- 

 tioned in the patent are here given, in order to impart a complete under- 

 standing of the w T hole process. 



Description. Take a roller of wood, of about 3^ inches in diameter, or 

 of such thickness that the metal leaf intended to be used will pass around 

 it, to avoid waste of leaf. The length of this roller must depend on the 

 quantity of silk or other thread to be wound thereon. The silk or thread, 

 before it is placed on this roller for gilding, must be run upon one long 

 reel, and run through a box containing some gilder's size, made of parch- 

 ment cuttings, or a weak solution of gum, on to another reel, passing 

 through a slit in a piece of cloth, after leaving the box, to wipe off the 

 superfluous size. The thread must be run upon the second reel in such a 

 manner that one thread shall not lie on the top of another, but be laid 

 along spirally, from end to end. It is there suffered to dry, and is then fit 

 to be run on the roller, on which the metal leaf is laid. It is run upon 

 this roller also, spirally, -with a space between each thread of its thickness, 

 to allow the leaf to be pressed down and between each. When the thread 

 is run on the metal-leaf roller, the whole is subjected, for a few seconds, 

 to the vapor of soap-suds ; then metal leaf is laid upon the thread, and 

 pressed firmly do\vii with a pad of dry cotton, when the metal leaf is found 

 to adhere to the thread, which may then be run off on a spool, passing to 

 the same, between glass or bright metal surfaces, to burnish it. 



