Silk raising. 
The most convenient way to heat the wa¬ 
ter is by steam. Make the basin double, one 
within the other, leaving a space of an inch 
for the steam to pass in at one end and out 
at the other. With a stop-cock in the pipe, 
you may have full command of the heat and 
regulate it at pleasure. A small boiler heat¬ 
ed by a lamp, would answer every purpose 
for domestic use ; it is certainly to be pre¬ 
ferred to a furnace of charcoal.” 
Reeling is an important operation, and must 
be well and evenly done, if a fair price is ex¬ 
pected for it in market; but it is as easy to 
do it well as ill, and there is no difficulty in 
it with proper care and attention. Mr. 
Deane, in a communication to Mr. Smith, 
says : 
“ From motives of shere curiosity I at¬ 
tached the fibre of a cocoon to the bars of a 
common reel, and with a gentle move¬ 
ment began to turn. It ran off, and I turned 
faster and faster until the revolutions drew 
out a thread nearly one mile in length. The 
discovery unfolded by this simple manoeuvre 
determined me to follow up the subject, and 
having no means of procuring a suitable reel, 
I constructed one after my own fashion. I 
arranged all things for a fair start, and to my 
astonishment I soon disengaged a couple of 
skeins of surpassing beauty. The experi¬ 
ment satisfied me that there were no com¬ 
plex principles to overcome, but that by the 
observance of a few plain directions, all im¬ 
pediments to success speedily vanish. I was 
surprised to witness the facility with which 
cocoons are unwound, but I was surprised by 
the novelty merely. To produce a perfect 
filament from wool or cotton, requires the 
perfection of machinery and skill, but here 
we have formed to our hands a thread which 
no art can approximate, and all we have to 
accomplish is the union of a certain number 
of these ready made threads by a process 
easily comprehended and attained by any in¬ 
telligent mind. 
I continued my operations until I com¬ 
pleted two pounds of silk, one part of which 
I sent to the Fair of the Massachusetts Char¬ 
itable Mechanics’ Association, and the other 
part to the Fair of the American Institute, 
and from each of these noble institutions I 
was honored with their silver medal. I men¬ 
tion these things as a voucher for the quality 
of my first production in this delicate art. 
What I have thus accomplished without ever 
witnessing the method, it is in the power of 
all, particularly the young women, for by the 
delicacy of their fingers, their patience and 
perseverance, they may easily acquire per¬ 
fection in the beautiful art that should en¬ 
gage their especial attention.” 
Another description is given by Mr. Smith 
of an old gentleman who had never seen the 
operation performed. 
“He had constructed a Piedmontese reel, 
from the drawing and description in the 
Silk Journal, and placed it in a back room 
for the purpose of giving it a fair trial. He 
had carefully studied all the directions for 
the operation, and prepared himself to carry 
them out literally. After some difficulty, he 
had caught the fibres of as many cocoons as 
he wished to combine in a thread, had got 
the two threads passed through the eyes of 
the plate, and even passed them around each 
other twenty times, as directed, before pass¬ 
ing them through the guides of the travers¬ 
ing bar on to the bars of the reel. At last all 
was ready. He looked at the cocoons, at 
the threads, wound around each ether , and at 
the reel, with doubt and hesitation. ‘It will 
not do,’ said he, ‘ surely those threads wound 
round each other in that manner cannot pass 
freely—they must break with a slight turn of 
the reel.’ He at last ventured to touch the 
crank gently—the thread passed freely, and 
he was encouraged to turn a little faster, 
when it passed off still more freely. Thus 
encouraged, he turned the reel faster and 
faster, increasing by gentle degrees, till he 
put it into full speed ; and the faster he 
turned the more freely the thread passed, 
and the more easily the cocoons unwound. 
He was so delighted with his experiment, 
that he called in his family to witness his 
success—for he had made the experiment in 
private, that he might not be exposed to the 
laughter of observers, in case of failure. He 
then proceeded, with the aid of one of his 
family, and reeled a skein of raw silk accord¬ 
ing to directions, and sent it to a neighbor¬ 
ing city, where there was a person, a for¬ 
eigner, who was considered a good judge of 
raw silk. The silk was shewn to him, and 
he pronounced it Italian raw silk of excellent 
quality, and insisted that the skein exhibited 
was reeled in Italy, and could not have been 
reeled in this country. After, however, he 
was assured that it had been produced here, 
and he was requested to point out any fault 
it might exhibit, he discovered that the thread 
was occasionally loose. That is, there were 
spots occasionally, in which the fibres re¬ 
mained unconnected by the adhesion of the 
gum. No sooner was this fault pointed out 
than the cause flashed upon the old gentle¬ 
man’s mind instantly. It was this. During 
the process the reel had been stopped occa 
