SILK 



455 



before tlw others. These matters are carefully 

 watched, aud, as often as a thread breaks or a 

 cocoon runs out, another thread is joined on and 

 is made to adhere to the compound thread on the 

 reel by its natural gumminess. Each cocoon gener- 

 ally yields about 300 yards of thread, so that it 

 takes 1200, 1-500, or 1800 yards to make 300 yards 

 of the filament of .raw silk, by which name the 

 reeled silk is always known. The raw silk is 

 made up into hanks of various sizes. That from 

 China and Japan is tied in packages of six hanks 

 each, technically called books, and sometimes the 

 ends of these books are covered with silken caps 

 very curiously formed out of unreeled cocoons 

 macerated ana felted into a thin material, so man- 

 aged as to form a filmy cap sufficiently large to 

 cover a man's head. Formerly all raw silK required 

 to be made into compound and twisted threads was 

 termed thrown silk, but at the present time much 

 is woven in the raw state and afterwards dyed in 

 the piece. The raw silk is used for the warp, and 

 spun silk and cotton for the weft, of the cheaper 

 kinds of silks,' such as foulards and some satins, 

 made in large quantities in Lyons. 



When the silk has to be thrown into organzine 

 or tram, the raw silk is pat into warm soap and 



water to soften 

 the gum, so as 

 to make the 

 hanks wind 

 more easily. 

 The hanks are 

 placed on large 

 skeleton reels 

 called swifts 

 (A, B, fig. 2), so 

 adjusted that 

 they will hold 

 the hanks 

 tightly. B, the 

 edge view, shows that the spokes, a, a, are in 

 pairs. They are made of thin pieces of lance- 

 wood, and each pair are rather nearer together 

 at the axle than at the circumference, where they 

 are connected together by a small band of cord, 

 6, 6. These bands are so tied that they will slip 

 ilown easily to admit of the hanks being placed ; 

 then, by pushing the cords upwards, the hank can 

 be stretched to its fullest extent. 

 This is necessary to compensate for 

 the varying lengths of the hanks 

 received from the different countries. 

 When the swifts are set in motion 

 the silk is carried from the hanks to 

 linliliins, upon which it is wound for 

 the convenience of further operations. 

 The bobbins are then taken from the 

 winding to the cleaning machine, 

 when they are placed on fixed spindles, 

 so that they will turn with the 

 slightest pull ; and the thread is 

 passed through a small apparatus 

 attached to the machine, which is specially called 

 the cleaner, and consists essentially of two polished 

 smooth-edged blades of metal (a, a, fig. 3) attached 

 to a part of the frame of the machine, 6. They are 

 held together by the screw, c, and are slightly 

 opened or closed hy the other screw, rf, so that the 

 thread can he put "between them down to the small 

 orifice, e, and then, by tightening the screw, pre- 

 venting its return after passing through this small 

 hole, which is the gauge of the thread, and which 

 removes any irregularities or adherent uirt. The 

 silk next passes over a glass or metal rod, and then 

 through another small hole, much larger than that 

 of tlie cleaner, and usually made of glass, on to 

 the bobbin, upon which it is wound by the action 

 of the machine. The next process is twisting the 



Fig. 2. 



cleaned thread, by which it becomes better adapted 

 for being combined with other threads. Doubling 

 is the next process, and this consists in running off 

 a number of bobbins of twisted silk on to one 

 bobbin of a larger size, which is put into the throw- 

 ing machine, when the ends of the doubled silk are 

 passed through a smooth hole on to a large reel, 

 which reel winds it into hanks, but twisting the 

 threads into a fine cord as it goes from the bobbins 

 to the reel. After this the hanks have to be again 

 wound on reels and bobbins for the weaver, ths 

 former for the warp and the latter for the weft. If 

 it has been wound, cleaned, and thrown it is called 

 thrown-singles ; if wound, cleaned, doubled, and 

 thrown, it is called tram, and is used for the richer 

 silks and velvets, but only for the weft or shute; 

 and if wound, cleaned, spun, doubled, and thrown, 

 it is called organzine, and is used for the warps of 

 fabrics. Before winding the cocoons a flossy por- 

 tion has to be removed ; and after all has been 

 wound off another portion remains like a compact 

 bag ; these are collected and sold under the name 

 of waste-silk, and to these are added the fragments 

 of broken threads, which accumulate in consider- 

 able quantities during the reeling and throwing 

 operations. Formerly very little use was luade of 

 waste-silk ; not a little of it was employed by 

 engineers and others for mere cleaning purposes ; 

 although as early as 1671 a proposition was made 

 by a manufacturer named Edmond Blood to make 

 it available by carding it with teasels or roving- 

 cards. He took out a patent for this invention, 

 but apparently did not bring it into use. 



It has been left to the 19th century to perfect 

 the spinning into yarn of waste-silk. Mr Lister 

 of Bradford (in 1891 created Lord Masham) in 1857 

 discovered a successful method of spinning native 

 Chassuin, or Indian silk-waste, there being then a 

 very considerable quantity warehoused in London, 

 for which, however, no use had been found. Since 

 that period many important improvements in dress- 

 ing and spinning waste-silk have been invented, 

 and a great trade has resulted in the manufac- 

 ture of fabrics made from these yarns in Yorkshire, 

 Alsace, Switzerland, and France. Another patent 

 was taken out by Mr Lister, which has done 

 wonders ; now the waste is all spun into yarn, 

 thereby greatly economising the use of silk, as 

 the quantity of silk-waste always greatly exceeds 

 the amount of good silk reeled off. The processes 

 employed in the production of silk-yarn from the 

 waste differ little from those of spinning, especially 

 for cheap and common qualities of cotton and wool. 



The following silk centres represent the present 

 and past localities of British silk manufacture : 

 London (Spitalfields), Derby, Coventry, Sherborne 

 (Dorsetshire), Sudbury, Glemsford and Haverhill 

 (Suffolk), Braintree, Yarmouth, Bungay, Leicester, 

 Nottingham, Norwich, Macclesfield, Leek, Congle- 

 ton, city and district of Manchester, Rochdale, 

 Bradford, Halifax, city and district of Glasgow, city 

 and district of Dublin, Tideswell (Derbyshire). 

 Leek is justlycelebrated forits manufactures of sew- 

 ing and embroidery silks, a branch greatly increased, 

 since the introduction of the sewing-machine, which 

 necessitated lonjj and evenly-made lengths of silk 

 thread of many sizes and colours. Leek has become 

 the largest centre of dyeing silk in England ; it is 

 noted tor the production of a special ' raven black,' 

 nowhere else produced, and so called from its resem- 

 blance to the bluish-black plumage of a raven's 

 wing. It is said that this shade is partly owing to 

 the peculiar quality of the water used in dyeing. 

 Silk is also dyed in London, Glasgow, Macclesfield, 

 Coventry, Middleton, and other places, but to a 

 much diminished extent. 



Statistics. About 100 Ib. of cocoons are raised 

 from 1 1 1/.. of eggs, and 12 to 14 Ib. of cocoons 



