SILK. 179 



First, by means of the common reel and spinning 

 wheel. Second, in families, by the aid of Brooks' 

 Spinning Machine. Third, in factories with many 

 complicated machines. The process in factories is 

 as follows : The silk is first reeled on one of the 

 reels in use, and afterwards wound off on bobbins, 

 by, a machine called a winding frame. It is useless 

 to describe the machine, as no one can have an ade- 

 quate idea of it without seeing it. The silk, howev- 

 er, runs from swifts over rods made of glass, and is 

 run upon bobbins by a transverse motion. The ine- 

 qualities are taken from the silk by a machine of such 

 a structure as to admit the silk through holes in 

 plates of iron, and from them it passes over a rod of 

 glass to other bobbins. Then the silk is spun on a 

 spinning frame, the spindles of which are said to turn 

 eighteen hundred times every minute. This machine 

 can give any number of twists to the inch. 



After this, the doubling of the silk commences; 

 sometimes called tramming. There is a machine in 

 use on which the thread may be doubled any number 

 of times, according to the size of the thread intend- 

 ed. The next process is twisting, OP technically 

 called throwsted. A machine is used for twisting, 

 and the twist is afterwards set by means of steam. 

 It is steamed as it comes from the twisting machine. 

 After it is steamed it is boiled in soap suds, and is 

 now ready to be dyed. 



As the manufacture of silk does not properly be- 

 long to an essay on the culture of silk, I shall say 



