184 



RAW-SILK. 



(L ) After a very particular inspection of these new 



B^rd ofT?I!de works whcn in operation, our senior Member satis- 

 29 July 1831 ; f^^^ himsclf that Mr. Becher had fully succeeded 

 in effecting the above desirable objects, and he 

 deserves, we think, great credit for the ingenuity 

 and economy his invention displays. There are, 

 however, further points for consideration (inde- 

 pendently of instituting a comparison between Mr. 

 Becher's and Mr. Shakespear's plans, after one of 

 the Members of our Board shall have visited the 

 Gonatea Residency for that purpose), before we 

 propose to introduce generally at the silk filatures 

 these or any other alterations involving expense. 



These points are the manner in which economy 

 and improvement in the manufacture of the silk can 

 best be combined ; for the attainment of the one 

 at any sacrifice of the other, might not only neu- 

 tralize all advantage, but prove a positive loss in 

 the end. Thus we entertain some doubts, whether 

 the use of copper basins, such as those introduced 

 by Mr. Becher, might not tend to injure the colour 

 of the silk of the white cocoons ; and whether 

 doubling the number of skeins wound off on one 

 reel, may not cause confusion* to the spinners 



when 



* By Mr. Becher's method, four spinners work at one long 

 basin (called a quadruple). Each spinner forms two threads, or 

 skeins ; therefore there being only two reels to the basin, each 

 reel must carry the work of two spinners, or four skeins, whence 

 the liability to the hindrance and confusion adverted to. 



