NEW ENCJL.AND FARMER, 



AND GAR DENE R'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED RY GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



vol,. XIV, 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING,' JUNE 22, 1836. 



NO. 50. 



sass. <s^a^^5Si^a 



On the qualities and preparations of Rate Silk, 

 chiefly compiled from the Essays of Mr D'Hoii- 



ERGUE. 



Silk directly from the reel is called raw silk, on 

 account of its being in an unmanufactured state. 



There are three qualities of raw silk, graduated 

 according to their different degrees of fineness. 

 While in that shape and until they have undergone 

 the operations that are to fit them for the looju, 

 they are called first, second, and third, beginning 

 with the finest. They assume other names as 

 soon as they have been prepared and made fit to 

 be used by the manufacturer. Then they have 

 ceased to be called single, organzine, and tram 

 silk, according to their different degrees of firm- 

 ness and the manner in which they have been 

 passed through a certain machine called a mill. 



Singles, or as it is termed in French, /e poil, that 

 is to say hair silk, are made of the first quality of 

 raw silk, consequently the finest, as the name suf- 

 ficiently implies. They are made of a single 

 thread or fibre. 



Organzine is the next in firmness; it is employ, 

 ed in weaving to make the warp of those stuffs 

 that are made entirely of silk. 



Tram silk is the coarest of the three, and is 

 used for the wool (filling) of silk stuffs. 



Of the three qualities of raw silk, of which 

 those different threads are made, the second, that 

 which makes organzine, is the most in demand. 

 The silk I have extracted (says Mr D'Horaergue,) 

 from American cocoons, is of that quality. In 

 performing those operations, I have, for the first 

 timo discovered the superior linenesss of the Amer- 

 ican silk, by finding, to my great astonishment, 

 that it required a much greater quantity of threads 

 to produce the different qualities of raw silk above 

 mentioned, than the cocoons of Europe. Singles 

 or hair silk, made of the same number of threads, 

 or fibres, as in Italy or France, would be almost 

 impalpable and entirely unfit for use. This su- 

 pFemacy will give to the American raw silk a great 

 advantage over all others. 



Raw silk (continues the same writer,) is an ar- 

 ticle of commerce of great value to the countries 

 that produce it. Great Britain in>ports it for the 

 use of her manufactures from Bengal, China, Tur- 

 key and Italy, to the amount of one million eight 

 hundred thousand pounds sterling, or §7,772,000 

 annually, and France imports it to the amount of 

 100,000,000 francs, or .$18,750,000, and makes it 

 herself to the amount of between three and four 

 millions of dollars more. 



Mr Coinstock, in his practical treatise on the 

 culture of silk, (a work which I would earnestly 

 recommend to the perusal of every adventurer in 

 the silk business) concludes his article on raw 

 silk thus : 



There are, then, six different kinds of silk ex- 

 tracted from the cocoons by processes of various 



kinds, or which differ more or less from each 

 other in the manner of using them ; and all of 

 which require not only skill and dexterity, but 

 knowledges acquired by long [tractice. I sliall re- 

 capitulate them in their order, according to their 

 degrees of fineness. 



1. Silk of the finest quality, or singles. 



2. Silk of the second quality, or organzine. 



3. Silk of the third quality, or tram silk. 



4. Sewing silk of the first and second quality. 



5. Cordonnet, or twist of do. 



6. Feloselle, or floss silk. 



The following articles, on the preparation of 

 silk from the above mentioned " Treatise," by 

 Mr Comstock, arj adapted to proceedings upon a 

 largo scale ; but they may be easily reduced to 

 such small proportions as may be required in do- 

 mestic operations. 



CLEANSING SILK. 



Though cleansing silk comes more appropriatrv 

 ly within the province of the manufacturer than 

 the culturist, yet, as the manufiicture of sewing 

 silk and twist may be profitably connected with 

 the growing, we subjoin the method by which it is 

 cleansed and prepared for dyeing. 



Silk, as left by the worm, contains certain iui- 

 purities which must be separated from it, espe- 

 cially when it is intended for particular kinds of 

 fabrics. Yellow silk contains gum, coloring mat- 

 ter, wa,x, and an oil similar to the essential oils of 

 many vegetables. White silk also contains gum, 

 wax, and an oil slightly tinged with coloring mat- 

 ter, resembling the liquid in the chrysalis of the 

 worm. By chemical experiments it has been as- 

 certained that the amount of gum is from 23 to 24 

 per cent. It is dry, friable, and, when pulverized, 

 of a yellowish red color — soluble in water. The 

 coloring matter is resinous, but exists in a very 

 small proportion — supposed to be from l-.58th to 

 l-60th per cent. The wax ^s hard, but brittle, and 

 slightly colored. Its proportion is one half per 

 cent. These substances affect the whiteness and 

 flexibility of silk, and the luocess by which they 

 are extracted is called "cleansing silk." It is also 

 varied according to the nature and kind of ihs as- 

 ticlc for which it is designed. 



These processes are called " ungumming," " sul- 

 phuring," and "alumin^." Silk also intended to 

 remain white, is boiled and gummed, while that 

 intended for dyeing is boiled, but left ungiimmed, 

 on the siijiposition that the gum has some affinity 

 for the coloring matter with which it is to be in- 

 corporated. 



UNGUMMIiNG SILK. 



The silk, i i ended for white, is made up into 

 hanks by rimning a thread around each hank, con- 

 taining a nundier of skeins tied together. The 

 hanks aie then untied, and several of them bound 

 together in a bundle of convenient size. This is 

 done that the silk may be handled without becom- 

 ing entangled. The silk is then prepared for un- 

 gumming, which is done by putting it in strong 



soapsuds. For every hundred pounds of silk fake 

 thirty pounds of soap and dissolve it in water. 

 Cutting it into sm!\ll slices will facilitate its solu- 

 tion. Some dyers consider fifteen pounds of soap 

 siifiicient, and think more injures the lustre of the 

 silk. 



After the soap is dissolved the kettle is filled up 

 with (resh water, and placed over a moderate fire 

 u;itil it rises to the highest possible degree short of 

 boiling heat — for should it boil it would injure 

 the silk by making it flossy. When the bath, or 

 suds, is ready, the hanks of silk are immersed in 

 it, or such parts of them as the capacity of the ket- 

 tle will admit, and suffered to remain until it is 

 freed from the gum, which is determined by the 

 whiteness and flexibility of the silk. This opera- 

 tion is repeated until all the parts of the hank have 

 been immersed. ACti-v the hanks have been un- 

 gummed, the soa]) and water is wrung out of them, 

 and they are next to im ergo a process which is 

 called bagging. 



BAGGI.NG SILK. 



To bag silk, b.igs of strong coarse linen are pre- 

 pared. They are about fifteen inches wide, and 

 four or five feet long, and closed at the ends, with 

 one side left 0])en. These bags are filled with 

 hanks of silk, laid in lengthwise, and sewed up 

 with strong thread. Tliese bags are put into a 

 bath, or suds, prepared in the same niannie, and 

 with the same proportions as the former, and boil- 

 ed for fifteen or twenty minutes. When the suds 

 begins to boil over it must be checked by throw- 

 ing in a little cold water. While it is boiling it 

 must be stirred often to bring up to the surface 

 such bags as are at the bottom of the kettle, or it 

 will be liable to be burned. It will also produce 

 more uniformity in boiling. This operation, it 

 will be remembered, is to be performed when the 

 siLk is to be left white. 



Silk intended for dyeing is boiled in the same 

 manner, with this difl'erence: the silk is continued 

 toiling three or four hours, and the kettle occa- 

 sionally filled up with water. For coniai on col- 

 ors, twenty, instead of thirty pounds ar^ used in- 

 making the suds ; but if intended '.o be dyed: 

 blue, iron gray, or other colors, thirty pounds is 

 used. 



After the silk is supposed to be thoroughly boil- 

 ed, the bags are carefully taken out of the kettle, 

 opened, and the silk examined. If any part re- 

 mains unboiled, it must be put in and boiledi aggjn. 

 This is ascertained by the yellow, aud a certain 

 kind of slime on such parts as have not been 

 boiled. 



A more simple method of ungumming silk, has 

 long been practised in Connecticut, and it will 

 doubtless answer every purpose, provided meas- 

 ures are t.oken to prevent its becoming entan- 

 gled. This oiethod is to merely boil the silk in 

 water saturated with a small quantity of soft soap, 

 or tl e lie of couudou wood ashes. 



SULPHURING SILK. 



When it is desirable to give silk a peculiar 



