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METHOD OF REELING COCOONS AND MANUFACTURING 

 SILK IN CONNECTICUT. 



Tn the first place the cocoons are stripped of their 

 floss and sorted according to their quality. Then a large 

 kettle set in a furnace or in an arch is filled with water, 

 and fire is kept under it ; and when it is about to boil a 

 quart of cocoons is thrown into it. They are immedi- 

 ately stirred perpendicularly in the water by a bunch of 

 broom-corn tied close together as large as a person's 

 arm, and cut square at the end, or by a corn broom, or 

 something similar. In this way the ends are collected 

 and attached to the bushy extremity. They are then 

 drawn up by shaking the broom or whatever they are 

 collected with, up and down in order to keep the co- 

 coons in the water, otherwise they would rise. If 

 enough for a thread is not collected the first time, those 

 ends that are drawn up are taken off the bush with the 

 hand and drawn to one side of the kettle. The process 

 is then repeated until a sufficient number is collected to 

 form a thread of the size required, which is usually from 

 eighty to one hundred and fifty cocoons. 



Reeling is then commenced on a common hand reel, 

 (such as is in common use in families in New England for 

 reeling yarn from the spinning wheel), and the silk fibres 

 run off about as fast and with as little difficulty as yarn 

 from a spindle. Some of the cocoons run off before 

 others ; and when on this account the thread becomes 

 too small, all, the fibres are broken off, and what 

 is reeled is tied by itself on the reel and another 

 quart of cocoons is thrown into the kettle ; the ends are 

 collected and reeled in the same way as before, and each 



