F A R JVl E R S ' REGISTER. 



15 



threads wound around each other in that manner 

 cannot pass freely — they must break with a very 

 slight turn of the reel." He at last ventured 1o 

 touch the crank gently — the thread passed freely, 

 and he was encouraged to turn a little faster, when 

 it passed ofi' still more freely. Thus encouraged, 

 he turned the reel faster and faster, increasing by 

 gentle degrees, till he put it upon lull speed ; and 

 the faster he turned, the more freely the thread pas- 

 sed, and the more easily the cocoons unwound. He 

 was so delighted with his experiment, that he cal- 

 led in his family to witness his success — for he had 

 made the experiment in private, that he might not 

 be exposed to the laughter of observers, in case of 

 failure. He then proceeded, with the aid of one 

 of his familj'', and reeled a skein of raw silk 

 according to directions, and sent it to a neigh- 

 boring city, where there was a person, a foreigner, 

 who was considered a good judge of raw silk. 

 The silk was shown to him, and he pronounced it 

 Italian raw silk of excellent quality, and insisted 

 that the skein exhibited, was reeled in Italy, and 

 could not have been reeled in this country. Af- 

 ter, however, he was assured that it had been pro- 

 duced here, and he was requested to point out any 

 fault it might exhibit, he discovered that the 

 thread was occasionally loose. That is, there were 

 spots occasionally, in which the fibres remained un- 

 connected by the adhesion of the gum. No sooner 

 was this fault pointed out than the cause flashed 

 upon the old gentleman's mind instantly. It was 

 this. During the process the reel had been stopped 

 occasionally for the purpose of replacing exhaus- 

 ted cocoons, &c. and when it was recommenced, 

 he had omitted to wet the fibres below their junc- 

 tion at the crossing. The fibres at the point had 

 of course not been brought into perfect contact, and 

 had become dry ; therelbre, when they passed up 

 and through the crossing, they of course did not 

 remain adherent, and hence the thread in the 

 skein presented those spots of loose or inadherent 

 fibres — the perfection of raw silk requiring the 

 several fibres to be closely united by their gum in- 

 to a cylindrical thread. It was a valuable lesson to 

 the old gentleman, although the trifling imperfec- 

 tion his silk presented in this respect, would scarcely 

 have been noticed by the manufacturer; lor there 

 is not one skein of the best Italian silk in a hundred 

 that is entirely free from that fault. 



This anecdote, wliich is literally true, ought to 

 encourage others to reel silk. The old gentle- 

 man is not a mechanic, and yet made the reel 

 with his own hands. This shows how simple the 

 Piedmonte^e reel is, and how easily it may be made 

 by persons at a distance from places where they 

 are kept for sale. 



Another gentleman, who had obtained one of 

 the iron Piedmontese reels that are made in this 

 city, informs us that he is now using it, and that 

 he is surprised at the facility with which the reel- 

 ers, who never before saw a reel, nor tlie operation 

 of reeling, perform with it. 



Another gentleman, in Pennsylvania, has made 

 a reel himself, of wood, though he is a worker in 

 metal, of a construction diflerent li-om the Pied- 

 montese, but which produces similar results ; with 

 which he is also reelinir his cocoons, and lias pro- 

 duced some beautiful silk. 



We could go on and fill our Journal with simi- 

 lar anecdotes and instances of success in reeling 

 eilk, by persons who had never before seen the op- 



eration performed. But we deem the above suffi- 

 cient. We could give our own experience, but this 

 has been done an hundred times. VVlien we learnt 

 to reel, we had not the lights of the present time to 

 guide us. Nearly all the pufjlicaiions on the sub- 

 ject were in French and Italian, which we did not 

 read. But we found in Rees' Cyclopedia, a descrip- 

 tion—a very imperfect one, of the Piedomtese reel. 

 We employed a mechanic to make one with vari- 

 ations of our own suggestion. With this reel we 

 began, encountering all the difficulties without any 

 guide by which we could avoid them ; and yet in 

 one week we were able to reel with the utmost fa- 

 cility, and produced as good an article as we hav6 

 since seen liom any country. When the Conoress 

 Manual was published, we examined its directions 

 for reeling— compiled, as is well known, from the 

 best European authorities— and we were able to 

 make many important corrections in our own prac- 

 tice—principally relating,however, to speed in reel- 

 ing. We therelbre, have our own experience aa 

 well as that of others for authority for saying, that 

 any person of ordinary capacity and applTcation 

 can learn to reel in one week's time, so as to pro- 

 duce a perfect article. It will of course require prac- 

 tice to enable them to reel fast, so as to be able to 

 reel as much silk in a day as an experienced reeler 

 can ; biitit does not require as much even of this as 

 it does for the performance of many kinds of every 

 day work. For example. A young woman can 

 learn to perform a lull day's work at reeling eilk 

 in half the time it would require to learn to" do a 

 lull day's work at spinning cotton or flax. 



It is a common remark by persons who are wq- 

 ing to raise silk, that they intend to sell their co- 

 coons ; and one of the most common questions 

 asked of us is— "will there be a market for cocoons 

 next season ?" Nearly every body contemplate 

 selling their cocoons. Now this is wrong. The 

 producer of cocoons should also reel them for 

 many cogent reasons— ^rs<, that he may obtain the 

 profits of reeling, which he will find are nearly or 

 quite equal to those of producing the cocoons. 

 The highest price of a bushel of the best cocoons 

 is %5. This bushel of cocoons if properly reeled, 

 will produce a pound and a half of raw silk of best 

 quality, worth ^6 to ^8 per pound. But suppose 

 it only worth ^5 a pound, there will be ^2 50 for 

 reeling the bushel of cocoons. The reeling will 

 ILirnish excellent employment for the females of 

 his family, slave or fl-ee ; or if he have none, or 

 does not choose to employ them thus, for some 

 neighboring female less fortunately situated than 

 himself. Secondly, the reduction of the cost of 

 transportaiion. Cocoons are very bulky, 25 to 30 

 pounds filling a barrel. If they are to be trans- 

 ported to any distance, the expense will be very 

 great. They are also liable to accidents in trans- 

 portation, such as indentation, which ruins ihem 

 !br reeling ; putreliiction fi-om confinement in close 

 barrels, boxes, &c. While the expense of trans- 

 porting the raw silk is comparatively nothing. A 

 barrel of cocoons will be reduced, in weight, to 

 three and three-lbiirihs of a pound ; and in bulk 

 to the size of a half gallon measure, or even less ■ 

 so that the raw silk of a hundred and fifty barrels 

 of cocoons may be packed in a single flour barrel. 

 These are reasons which we should suppose 

 would induce all persons to reel their own cocoons. 



But, say many persons indeed, the reeling of 

 silk is too nice and diflicult an operation for our 



