02 SEWING SILK AND TWIST. 



that foreign sewing silk is of two kinds one for sew- 

 ing silk stuffs, and the other for woolens, cottons, &c. 

 and that the foregoing remark applies to the second 

 kind, the first being made of the first quality of the 

 raw material. 



Though the Connecticut sewing silks, of domestic 

 manufacture, have affoHed the grower a fair com- 

 pensation for the labor bestowed upon them ; yet, 

 they have never been able to compete with foreign 

 manufacturers of the article so far from this the fact 

 has been, that foreign silk well reeled, has commanded 

 a higher price in its raw, than the Connecticut, in its 

 manufactured state. This shows the importance of 

 good reeling and wherein the superiority of foreign 

 silk consists. The silk from which the foreign article 

 is made, is reeled upon the Piedmontese reel, whose 

 lateral motion prevents the fibres of silk from be- 

 coming united by the gummy substance which they 

 contain, and which would otherwise be unavoidable. 

 We have now, not only the Piedmontese reel, but 

 several others, which are considered by all equal, 

 and by many preferable, so that the only difficulty in 

 the way of making sewing silk and twist equal to for- 

 eign, seems to be entirely removed. 



Sewing silk and twist is manufactured in three 

 different methods in silk factories, where various 

 kinds of machinery are used in families by the aid 

 of Brooks' Patent Silk Spinning Machine, and by 

 reeling on a common reel and spinning on a common 

 wheel. In factories the silk is first reeled on the 

 Piedmontese or some other approved reel, and then 

 wound upon bobbins by means of a piece of machin- 

 ery, called a winding frame. The machine is so con- 

 structed that the silk passes from swifts over glass 



