i; 175 ] 156 



not be reeled off. It may be taken off by opening it on one of the 

 ends of the cocoons, and then thrusting out the hard part of them, 

 clearing- off, at the same time, the loose silk adhering close to them, 

 and mixing this part with the flos, to make ordinary cheap silk. Then 

 sort the cocoons according to their different degrees of hardness. If 

 the strong, the tender, and the double ones are mixed, the trouble is 

 not only greatly increased, but, in reeling, the threads frequently 

 break, and the value of the silk is thereby lessened. For the proof of 

 this, -let us suppose only two cocoons, one compact and hard, and the 

 other of a loose and soft substance, thrown together into the hot water, 

 in order to be reeled oil together, and to make one thread. If, now, 

 the water be sufficiently hot to let the hardest of the two cocoons 

 wind off with ease, by dissolving its gumminess, then that water will 

 be too hot for the other, the substance of which is loose, so that it 

 will run off in burrs; that is, flakes of the silk will come off without 

 beino- drawn to their extent; which burrs, as they pass the guide-wires, 

 will endanger the breaking of the thread, filling it also with lumps and 

 inequalities. On the other hand, if the water be of the proper tem- 

 perature for the soft cocoon, so as not to occasion the above incon- 

 venience, it will then not be hot enough for the hard cocoon, so that 

 its thread will not be given off, without some stretch and violence, 

 which endangers its breaking, and giving the trouble of adding a fresh 

 cocoon; and, in both cases, the single fibres of the cocoons being une- 

 qually stretched in reeling, will make the combined thread the weaker, 

 and less even and gloss}'^; since the single fibre of that cocoon which 

 was most stretched by the reel, will, upon disbanding, contract itself 

 more than the other, and be separated from it in some places. On 

 these accounts, having first separated the double cocoons, and also 

 those which contain nothing but flos, with any others, which, being 

 imperfectly formed, cannot be reeled, sort the perfect cocoons into 

 three kinds, according to their different degrees of hardness, which can 

 be readily perceived, and throw them into three different baskets.* 



The cocoons may be divided into two general heads, or classes; the 

 white and the yellow. In the yellow, we meet with all the shades 

 from a bright yellow, diminishing, at last, to v/hite; some few are a 

 pale green. We may reckon nine diticrent qualities of cocoons, which 

 are met v/ith, more or less, in all filatures or reeling establishments. 



1. The good cocoons are those which are brought to perfection, and 

 are strong, hard, of a fine grain, and little or not at all spotted. 



2. Tho pointed cocoons are those, of which one of the extremities 

 rises up in a point. After having afforded a little silk, the point which 

 is the weakest part, breaks, or tears, and it is impossible to continue 

 to wind them any longer; because, when the thread comes round to 

 the hole, it is, of consequence, broken, and the whole contains nothing 

 but ends. 



?j. The cocalons arc a little larger than the others; yet they do not 

 co.ntain more silk, because their texture is not so strong. 



* Pirilein on the aiUiire of silJr, p. 251. 



