t 175 J 



138 



srivin" air to the fire, nine inches; width of the door to put in the char 

 coal, seven inches and a half; length of the oval copper basin built ou 

 the top of the stove to hold hot water, twenty inches and three quar- 

 ters; width of the basin, sixteen and a half inches; depth of basin, 

 three inches and three quarters; breadth of the rim of the basin, one 

 inch and a quarter. 



Instead of using a common stcve or furnace to heat water for the. 

 cocoons, steam has been proposed and used by Messrs. Gensoul and 

 Aldini. Upon the plan of the first, the steam is admitted directly 

 into the water containing cocoons intended to be reeled; but the last 

 adopts another mode, which, upon a large scale, is certainly to be pre- 

 ferred. A copper boiler covered, and with a hollow bottom, has a 

 vertical tube adapted to the centre of the cover, with acock, by means 

 of which, the water intended to furnish steam is admitted. This boiler 

 will hold four pints,* (French) and at the beginning of the process, it 

 is to be filled to nearly two-thirds. The vertical cylinder has a tube 

 with a cock, through which the steam is introduced into a wooden 

 tube, placed on its side, to the external surface of a vase above it, and 

 gives out steam at its extremity through a series of small holes turned 

 towards the bottom of the vase; the holes are to avoid the inconve- 

 nience arising from the too rapid escape of the steam. This vase is of 

 copper, and contains six pints of water. The steam-box is tinned on 

 the bottom inside, and a little inclined to the side of the boiler, with 

 which it communicates by a tube, with a cock, conveying back the 

 condensed steam to the bottom of the boiler. Thus the water in which 

 the cocoons are put, is regularly and permanently hetited, without any 

 loss of water, supplying the steam, and without the injurious ebulli- 

 tion of the water which takes place when steam is introduced directly 

 into it, and which causes the rapid and irregular motion of the cocooni; 

 in the basin, t 



The annexed cut will give an accurate idea of the construction of the 

 apparatus of Aldini: 



Upon a small scale, the common clay furnaces made in Philadelphia^ 

 answer very well to heat water in a copper basin placed upon them. 



The temperature of the water is to be regulated, 1st, by the nature 

 of the silk, resulting, in part, from the quality of the food upon which 

 the silk-caterpillars have been fed. This is exemplified in a striking 



• A French pint 13 about a quart American measure. 



•^ Recherches sur I'application exlerieure de la Vapeur pour e'chaufFer I'eou f!ar.? 

 Hfikturs de U scio; par IcChcvaJier Aldini. Paris, 181". 



