82 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



common use in families in New England for reel- 

 ing yarn from the spinning wheel), and the silk 

 fibres run off about as fast and with as little diffi- 

 culty 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 is then thrown into 

 the kettle ; the ends are collected and reeled in the 

 same way as before, and each separate piece is 

 tied by itself When the reel is full, the pieces 

 are all tied together, taken off, and immediately 

 dried." 



Temperature of the Water in which Co- 

 coons ARE IMMERSED FCR REELING. This is a 



point of much importance. If the water is made 

 to boil, it will soon destroy the cocoons ; and if it 

 be not sufficiently heated, it will not dissolve the 

 glutinous matter with which the silk of the cocoons 

 is combined. In the Manual of Mr Rush it is 

 observed that, " Instead of using a common stove 

 or furnace to heat water for the cocoons, steam 

 Las been proposed and used by Messrs Gensoul 

 and Aldini. Upon the plan of the first, the steam 

 is admitted directly into the water containing the 

 cocoons intended to be reeled ; but the last adopts 

 another mode, which, upon a large scale, is cer- 

 tainly to be preferred. A copper boiler, covered 

 and with a hollow bottom, has a vertical tube 

 adapted to the centre of the cover, with a cock 

 by means of which the water intended to furnish 

 the steam is admitted. This boiler will hold four 

 pints (French),* and at the beginning of the pro- 

 cess it is to be filled to nearly two thirds. The 

 vertical cylinder has a tube with a cock, through 

 which the steam is introduced into a wooden tub 

 placed on its side, to the external surface of a vase 

 above it, and gives out steam at its extremity 

 through a series of small holes, turned toward 

 the bottom of the vase; the holes are to avoid the 

 inconvenience arising from the too rapid escape 

 of the steam. This vase is of copper, and con- 

 tains six pints of water. The steam box is tinned 

 on the bottom inside, and a little inclined to the 

 side of the boiler, with which it communicates by 

 a tube, with a cock, conveying back the condensed 



* A French pint is a quart American meaptire. 



steam to the bottom of the boiler. Thus the wa- 

 ter into which the cocoons are put, is regularly 

 and permanently heated, without the injurious 

 ebullition of the water which takes place when 

 steam is introduced directly into it, and which 

 causes the rapid and irregular motion of the 

 cocoons in the basin." 



The Editor of this paper has invented an ap- 

 paratus for heating cocoons for reeling, of which 

 he hopes hereafter to give a definite description. 

 He will now merely state some of its objects, 

 principles and advantages. It is a boiler set in a 

 cylinder stove, and surmounted by a vessel for 

 heating by steam, inclosing another vessel holding 

 the water in which cocoons are immersed for 

 reeling. These vessels are both placed perpendic- 

 ularly over the cylinder and boiler ; and the whole 

 apparatus occujiies no more ground room, or space 

 on the floor on which it is placed, than a common 

 cylinder stove of a foot diameter. Its advantages 

 are that wood or any other fuel, including the 

 hardest anthracite, may be burnt, and the smoke 

 or gas carried off instead of being diffused in the 

 room, and inhaled by the reeler, as is the case 

 when clay furnaces are used. It will diffuse a 

 pleasant and healthful warmth in ihe room while 

 heating the cocoons, and that without near so 

 much fuel as would be necessary to produce the 

 same temperature by a common cylinder stove of 

 the same size not surmounted by the apparatus 

 for heating cocoons. 



The cocoons are placed in a situation tantamount 

 to wliat chemists call a water-bath, in which the 

 water can never be made to boil, so as to injure 

 or destroy the cocoons. 



The apparatus in which the cocoons are heated 

 may be made to answer for evaporating decoc- 

 tions, to obtain extracts in a thick, gummy or dry 

 state, without the possibility of burning or injuring 

 the substances by boiling or by too much heit . 

 and the cocoon heater may be easily removed, 

 and the boiler used for common culinary purposes. 



It has been thought by good judges (although 

 the experiment has never been tried) that this 

 apparatus, with or without some alterations, will 

 answer a valuable purpose for killing the chrysalis 

 or insect in the cocoons, and drying them for use. 

 But of this more in our n«xf. 



