SILK 



133 



the body as do cotton and wool materials. The larger fibers are 

 used in the manufacture of fine materials ; the shorter ones are 

 used for coarser cheaper materials. When flax fibers are washed, 

 bleached, and woven they make fabrics of snowy whiteness, 

 silky luster, and excellent wearing qualities. But flax plants 

 grow less abundantly than cotton plants, and linen materials 

 are more costly to manufacture than cotton materials, hence 

 linen is more expensive than cotton and less universally used. 



Linen is stifFer and harsher than cotton and does not make 

 as soft undergarments ; its chief use is for tablecloths and nap- 

 kins, towels, sheets, pillow cases, bedspreads, and window shades. 

 But many linen fabrics, such as fine cambric and Irish linen, 

 are used for dress fabrics, shirts, collars and cuffs, and for linen 

 suits which are popular in summer. Linen is easy to launder, 

 because like cotton it can be washed in boiling water without 

 injury and can be ironed 

 rapidly with a hot iron. 

 But because of the stiffness 

 of its fibers, linen wrinkles 

 and musses readily and gar- 

 ments made of it need fre- 

 quent pressings. 



Silk. Silk fibers are the 

 most beautiful of all and 

 make the most attractive 

 but least durable fabrics. 

 The silkworm builds around itself a silk cocoon in which to 

 live during its transformation into a moth. Before the moth 

 breaks its way out, the cocoons (Fig. 56) are gathered and placed 

 in an oven hot enough to kill the animals but not hot enough to 

 inj ure the silk. Then the cocoons are soaked in hot water, until the 

 closely wrapped silk fibers are loosened. The delicate fibers are 

 then easily unwound without breaking. Only one fiber is gotten 



FIG. 56. A cocoon. 



