REELING AND MANUFACTURING SILK. 91 



tent ; which burrs, as they pass the guide-wires, will endanger 

 the breaking o( the thread, filling it also with lumps and inequal- 

 ities. On the other hand, if the water be of the proper tempe- 

 rature for the soft cocoon, so as not to occasion the above 

 inconvenience, it will then not be hot enough for the hard co- 

 coon, so that its thread will not be given oft', without some 

 stretch and violence, which endangers its breaking, and giving 

 the trouble of adding a fresh cocoon ; and, in both cases, the 

 single fibres of the cocoons being unequally stretched in reeling, 

 wiir make the combined thread the weaker, and less even and 

 glossy; since the single fibre of that cocoon which was most 

 stretched by the reel, will, upon disbanding, contract itself more 

 than the other, and be separated from it in some places. On 

 these accounts, having first separated the double cocoons, and 

 also those which contain nothing but floss, with any others, 

 which, being imperfectly formed, cannot be reeled, sort the per- 

 fect cocoons into three kinds, according to their different degrees 

 of hardness, which can be readily perceived, and throw thetn 

 into three different baskets. * 



" The cocoons may be divided into two general heads, or 

 classes ; the white and the yellow. In the yellow, we meet 

 with all the shades from a bright yellow, diminishing, at last, to 

 white ; some few are a pale green. We may reckon nine differ- 

 ent qualities of cocoons, which are met with, more or less, in all 

 filatures or reeling establishments. 



" 1. The good cocoons are those which are brought to per- 

 fection, and are strong, hard, of a fine grain, and little or not at 

 all spotted. 



" 2. The pointed cocoons are those, of which one of the 

 extremities rises up in a point. After having aftbrded a little 

 silk, the point which is the weakest part, breaks, or tears, and it 

 is impossible to continue to wind them any longer ; because, 

 when the thread comes round to the hole, it is, of consequence, 

 broken, and the whole contains nothing but ends. 



" 3. The cocalons are a little larger than the others ; yet 

 they do not contain more silk, because their texture is not so 

 strong. 



