42 [Senate 



No. 338. Specimens of bonnet wire exhibited by Peter Gruet of 

 Orange, N. J.^ best exhibited, and deserving a premium. 

 No. 1,180. Specimens of bonnet wire, inferior to No. 338. 

 No. 473. Twelve pieces printed handkerchiefs, worthy of notice 

 as a specimen of madder printing on India pongee. 



No. 909. One pair silk stockings exhibited by a ladyj deserving of 

 notice; are reeled and twisted from American silk, and grown and 

 knit by the same lady. 



All which is respectfully submitted. 



JOHN C. HENDERSON, ) 

 G. M. HAYWOOD, } Judges. 



W. A. WOODWARD, ) 

 Jfew-Yorlc, October, 1842. 



Report of the Judges on Silk Machinery. 



The judges appointed by the Managers of the Fifteenth Annual 

 Fair of the American Institute, to examine, investigate and report 

 upon silk machinery, submit their opinion, as follows; 



The articles appear to be few in number, and the committee 

 have found it difficult to meet the owners or agents, to obtain from 

 them an explanation of the merits of the several machines exhibited, 

 and from their not being in operation, it is difficult, if not impossible 

 for the committee to give such an opinion as will aid the Mana- 

 gers in deciding whether they are entitled to the approbation and re- 

 wards of the Institute. The committee are howeA^er enabled to 

 give an opinion of the following articles: 



No. 44, a model for feeding silk worms; this to the uninitiated 

 would appear to possess some merit; but the committee are impressed 

 with the belief that nothing is so valuable for that purpose as simple 

 shelves or tables constructed of boards, jackplaned, and covered, if 

 necessary, with paper. Simplicity is necessary to the success of the 

 silk business; and the committee advise that the Institute recommend 

 no complex machinery whatever for the feeding; for no plan hereto- 

 fore proposed, has superceded the one above named, which has for 

 its great recommendation, that it is precisely adapted to the purpose, 

 and costs nothing for the materials, as they are worth as much after as 

 before; and as there is no patent for it, the whole community are free 

 to use it. 



The silk business must, and will ultimately become, a great and 

 important branch of productive industry, in this country; and the 

 whole matter is as simple as rearing chickens, and requires no ex- 

 pensive fixtures. Feed on shelves; use proper hurdles; give them 

 straw or branches to spin in; reel on the Piedmontese reel, which 

 although in use upwards of 100 years, has not been excelled; and it 

 has given the Italian silk a character above all others, as well as 

 advanced the price 150 per cent above that from Bengal. Then let 

 us encourage American artists to produce machinery for winding, 

 throwing, spinning and weaving; and from what American ingenuity 

 has done, we can easily imagine what it will do. It will give us fa- 



