lob [ 17o J 



ijiik is again spooled, taking two or three bobbins, according tothesize 

 of the intended thread. After being spun, it is reeled into skeins, each 

 of forty yards in length, or half a knot of the country reel, as required 

 by a law of the State. About twenty-five of these skeins are put to- 

 gether, like a skein of cotton or woollen yarn. They are then boiled, 

 adding a small quantity of soft soap, or ley of wood ashes, to cleanse 

 them from the gum. They are then ready for dying. 



" Silk twist is spun in the same manner, except that it is always of 

 three cords. The winding of twist is done on a machine imported from 

 England. 



" We have a small establishment for spinning by water, with a ma- 

 chine similar to a throstle frame of a cotton mill. The silk is first spool- 

 ed by hand, on bobbins, which are placed on the top of the frame; the 

 thread of raw silk passing from it under a wire, through a trough of 

 water, then through rollers to the spindle. A single frame may con- 

 tain from thirty to fifty spindles, and can be attended to by one per- 

 son. The doubling and twisting may be done on the same frame, at the 

 same time, by giving the bands to a part of the spindles a contrary di- 

 I'ection . As many threads are put to a spindle as are required to make 

 a thread of two or three cords. Silk spun in this way is far supe* 

 rior to that done by hand. The machine will spin from two to 

 three pounds in a day. A pound of silk, after being spun and cleansed, 

 will weigh about ten ounces, and form one hundred and seventy skeins; 

 the threads of sufficient size to sew woollens. If spun finer, it will make 

 more. It increases little or nothing in weight when died. Silk is sold 

 by the skein; one hundred of which will measure one-third more than 

 half a pound of Italian or English silk of the same sized threads. One 

 woman can make from twelve to fifteen pounds of raw silk, in a season 

 of six weeks." 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 

 Plate 1 — Figure 1. 



Silk Reel of Piedmont. — The frame is 6 feet 5 inches long, 4i by 

 3 inches thick. Distance of the upright posts A B, 4 feet Ah inches. 



C C. Length of the braces of the frame, 20 inches in the clear. 



D D. Legs of the frame, 2 feet 2h inches long. E, shaft with a 

 crown wheel at each end. The wheel F, 9 inches and -^^ in circum- 

 ference, has 22 teeth. The wheel G, 10 inches and 2^-^ in circum- 

 ference, has 25 teeth. This shaft has an iron pin at each end, 1 inch 

 long. The pin at the end G, plays in a hole in a shoulder near the top 

 of the post 0, so as to enable the teeth of the wheel to catch and work 

 in those of the pinion at the end of the axle of the reel, which axle, 

 by means of a pin at the end, also plays in a hole in the post 0. The 

 pin at the other end of the shaft, plays in a hole of the post K, and the 

 teeth of the wheel F work in the pinion H, fixed on the top of the posi 

 K, by means of a burr screwed on the pin projectinff from the post, 



