REELING SILK. 83 



wards carded and spun on the spinning wheel, takes 

 the name in French of bourre de soie or filoselle. 

 Boyer, in his dictionary, translates the word filoselle 

 into English by ferret silk or fiurt silk. This last 

 name is evidently a corruption, or an English pronun- 

 ciation of the French word fleuret, floss silk. 



" This floss, ferret or flurt silk, by whatever name 

 it may be called, is employed in making silk stockings, 

 mittens, gloves, suspenders, night caps, and, in gen- 

 eral, all kinds of silk hosiery. I have heard that the 

 women of Connecticut knit silk stockings and mittens 

 out of the silk which they extract from the cocoons. 

 I shall speak of these also in their proper place. 



" Thus nothing is lost or wasted of the precious 

 material produced by the silk worm. I mean by 

 those who understand the art of employing it. Oth- 

 erwise, all experiments by those who are unskilled in 

 the business cannot but be attended with considerable 

 loss. 



"There are then, six different kinds of silk, extract- 

 ed from the cocoons by processes of various kinds, or 

 which vary more or less from each other in the man- 

 ner of using them, and all of which require not only 

 skill and dexterity, but knowledge, acquired by long 

 practice. I shall recapitulate them in their order, ac- 

 cording to their different degrees of fineness. 



1. 8 ilk of the first 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 ditto. 



6. Filoselle, or floss silk. 



