[ 175 ] 150 



be added, until the proper temperature be attained. They must not 

 be allowed to remain long in the water, and there should be only a few 

 of these cocoons put in at a time. The water for the dupions and cho- 

 quettes must be changed four times a day. 



Of disbanding the silk from the reel, and tying it in skeins: pre- 

 paration of the silk for use. 



One cannot consider attentively the manner in which the silk is 

 reeled from the cocoons, without observing that the single fibres of 

 which the thread is composed are liable to suffer very different de- 

 grees of stretching as they are wound from the cocoons. If the co- 

 coons are not well sorted, this different degree of extension will be the 

 greater; and, even when they are sorted, they must still be subject to 

 the same, because some arc a little longer in the water than others, and 

 therefore give their silk easier; and also the weak latter, ends of some 

 cocoons wind off with the strong first part of others. 



The fibres being thus stretched unequally, will occasion (when the 

 skein is taken from the reel too suddenly) those fibres which are most 

 stretched, to contract more than the others, by which their union will 

 be in some measure destroyed, and the thread composed of them ren- 

 dered less compact and firm, the fibres appearing in several places dis- 

 joined from one another. To remedy this, the skein should remain 

 there six or eight hours, until the unequal extension which it suffered 

 in winding, is, by the stretch which it undergoes on the reel, brought 

 nearer to an equality ; and, until the thread, by being well dried, has 

 its fibres firmly united. 



When the skein is finished, there should be a mark tied to the end 

 of the thread, otherwise it may be difficult to find it, if it mixes with 

 the threads of the skein. 



When the skein is quite dry, proceed to disband it from the reel. 

 First, squeeze it together all round, to loosen it upon the bars; then, 

 with a thread made of the refuse silk, tie it on that place where it bore 

 on the bars of the reel; then slide it off the reel, and make another 

 tie on the part opposite to the one first made; after which, double it, 

 and tie it near each extremity, and then lay it by for use or sale, in a 

 dry place. 



After the silk has been taken from the reel, it undergoes the follow- 

 ing operations, to prepare it for putting in the loom: 



1st. It is wound from the skein upon bobbins, in a winding machine, 

 (plate 3, fig. 1.) 2d. It is twisted on a mill, in the single thread — the 

 twist being in the direction of from inght to left, and very light. 3d. 

 Two or more threads, thus twisted, are doubled, or drawn together 

 through the fingers of a woman, who, at the same time, clears them, 

 by taking out the slubs which may have been left in the silk by the 

 negligence of the reeler. 4th. It is then thrown, or organzined; that 

 is, two or more threads are twisted together, either slack or hard, as 

 the intended manufacture may require; but the twist is in an opposite 

 direction to the first twist, and it is wound at the same time in skeins 



