CHAPTER VIII. 
SILK-REELING. 
Spun, reeled, and thrown Silk.—From the cocoon the silk is by different 
processes transformed into spun or reeled silk. The former is generally 
made from pierced cocoons or silk waste, and serves in the manufacture 
of inferior classes of tissues. The method of manufacture consists in 
cleaning and macerating the raw material, after which it is carded and 
made into thread somewhat after the manner of cotton. The process 
of producing reeled silk, which will be hereafter treated at length, con- 
sists, in general, of softening the gluten of the cocoons in hot water and 
then taking the ends of the constituent threads of several of them to- 
gether and winding these threads from the cocoons upon a reel. 
By virtue of the next process of manufacture to which this material 
is submitted it becomes thrown silk. Thrown silk is classified as organ- 
zine and tram. It is made either from spun or reeled silk. Tram con- 
sists of two or three threads of reeled (or spun) silk twisted together at 
about 75 to 100 turns per running meter (67.5 to 90 per yard). It is 
used in making the warp in weaving. Organzine, used in the woof, is 
produced by twisting two threads together at about 500 to 600 turns 
per running meter, and then taking two of the threads thus made and 
twisting them together in the opposite direction at about 400 to 500 
turns. It is, in the language of the trade expression, ‘ cable laid.” 
It is the object of this work to deal only with one of these classes; 
that is to say, reeled, or, as it is commonly called, raw silk. Although 
the former name indicates more exactly than the latter the processes to 
which the raw material has been previously submitted, yet the term 
“raw silk” has acquired a special meaning by trade usage and applies 
only to reeled silk. 
The process of Silk-reeling.—The cocoons should have been roughly 
sorted before they were spread out in the cocoonery, the double and 
feeble specimens having been laid aside. They should now be sorted 
so that cocoons of the same color and shade may be reeled together, for 
the use even of cocoons of the same color but of different shades will 
give astreaked skein of silk. They should, too, be sorted as to their text- 
ure. Those of fine texture, among ordinary cocoons, are considered 
first choice and are used to produce the finest qualities of raw silk. 
They are more easily unwound than those of coarser texture which are 
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