98 REELING AND MANUFACTURING SILK. 



difficulty of keeping the thread even is so great, owing to the 

 increased fineness of the fibre inside, that we do not say a silk 

 of three or of four or of six cocoons, but a silk of three to four, 

 of four to five, and of six to seven. 



" In coarser silk we do not calculate so nicely as one cocoon 

 more or less ; we say for example from twelve to fifteen, from 

 fifteen to twenty cocoons. In beginning a thread of ten cocoons, 

 from sixteen to twenty will sometimes be required to preserve a 

 uniform thread, after a portion of the first layer has been wound 

 off. The quantity of silk which can be reeled in any given time, 

 is in proportion to the quickness with which the spinner can add 

 fresh cocoons. Thus, if we suppose that every cocoon at a me- 

 dium, will either break or be wound off at the end of every five 

 hundred feet, then, if five such pods are reeled together, one will 

 be wanted to every hundred feet that are reeled ; if ten are reel- 

 ed together, one will be wanted at every fifty feet ; if sixteen to- 

 gether, then at thirty-one feet, and so on. The seldomer co- 

 coons end, or break, the greater number of them can one spinner 

 attend, which shows the advantage of sound cocoons and of ex- 

 pert management in reeling. 



" The cocoons which wind off in part only and the shells must 

 not be permitted to remain in the water, as they will obscure and 

 thicken the water, and injure the color and lustre of the silk, 

 which can then be used only for dark colors. The shells should 

 be buried to prevent their being offensive ; as a general rule, the 

 water should be changed as soon as it becomes discolored. 



" When the spent cocoons leap up and adhere to the guide 

 wires, they must be immediately taken away, else by choking 

 the passage they will endanger the breaking of the thread. 



" When the reel has remained any time idle, the thread be- 

 tween the basin and the wires may be wet, to cause the thread 

 to run easily. 



" In winding off the best cocoons some defective ones will be 

 found amongst them which will not wind off or are full of knobs ; 

 these should be taken out of the basin immediately in order to 

 be wound by themselves. 



"The breaking of the fibres is principally owing either to bad 



