the surface is acted on by oxygen, transforming the external pellicle into the more soluble form of sericin. Silk is highly hygroscopic. If desiccated at 250° F. it will be found to lose from 10 to 15% of moisture according to the condition of the silk. It is a most perfect non-conductor of electricity, and in its dry state the fibres frequently get so electrically excited as to seriously interfere with their working, so that it becomes necessary to moisten them with glycerin or soapy solutions. Silk is readily distinguished from wool and other animal fibres by the action of an alkaline solution of oxide of lead, which darkens wool, &c., owing to the sulphur they contain, but does not affect silk, which is free from that body. Again, silk dissolves freely in common nitric acid, which is not the case with wool. From vegetable fibres silk is readily distinguished by the bright yellow colour it takes from a solution of picric acid, which does not adhere to vegetable substances. The rod-like appearance of silk and its absence of markings under the microscope are also easily recognizable features of the fibre.
Silk Manufacture.
Here we must distinguish between the reeled silk and the spun or waste silk manufactures. The former embraces a range of operations peculiar to silk, dealing as they do with continuous fibres of great length, whereas in the spun silk industry the raw materials are treated by methods analogous to those followed in the treatment of other fibres (see Weaving). It is only floss, injured and unreelable cocoons, the husks of reeled cocoons, and other waste from reeling, with certain wild silks, which are treated by the spun silk process, and the silk thereby produced loses much of the beauty, strength and brilliance which are characteristic of the manufactures from reeled silk.
Filature or Reeling.—When the cocoons have been gathered the chrysalides they contain are killed either by dry heat or by exposure to steam. All cocoons stained by the premature death of the chrysalides (chiques), pierced cocoons, and any from other causes rendered unreelable, are put aside for the spun-silk manufacture. Then the uninjured cocoons are by themselves sorted into classes hiving similar shades of colour, size and quality of fibre. This assortment is of great consequence for the success of the reeling operations, as uniformity of quality and evenness and regularity of fibre are the most valuable features in raw silk. The object of reeling is to bring together the filaments (bave) from two or more (generally four or five, but sometimes up to twenty) cocoons, and to form them into one continuous, uniform, and regular strand, which constitutes the “raw silk” of commerce. To do this, the natural gum of the cocoons which holds the filaments together must be softened, the ends of the filaments of the required number of cocoona must be caught, and means must be taken to unwind and lay these filaments together, so as to form a single uniform rounded strand of raw silk. As the reeling proceeds the reeler has to give the most careful attention to the thickness of the strand being produced, and to introduce new cocoons in place of any from which the reelable silk has become exhausted. In this way a continuous uniform fibre or strand of raw silk of indefinite length is produced. The apparatus used for these purposes in some localities is of a very primitive kind, and the reeling being uneven and lumpy the silk is of inferior quality and low value. With comparatively simple appliances, on the other hand, a skilled reeler, with trained eye and delicate touch, can produce raw silk of remarkably smooth and even quality. According to the method commonly adopted in North Italy and France the cocoons are for a few minutes immersed in water a little under the boiling point, to which a small quantity of alkali has been added. A girl with a small hand brush of twigs keeps stirring them in the water till the silk softens, and the outer loose fibres (floss) get entangled with the twigs and come off till the end of the main filament (maître brin) is found. These ends being secured, the cocoons are transferred to a basin or tray containing water heated to from 140° to 150° F., in which they float while the silk is being reeled off. If the water is too cold the gum does not soften enough and the cocoons rise out of the basin in reeling; if it is too hot the cocoons collapse and fall to the bottom. The ends of the requisite number of filaments being brought together, they are passed through an eyelet or guide, and similarly another equal set are passed through a corresponding guide. The two sets of filaments are then crossed or twisted around each other several turns as if to make one thread, after which they are separated and passed through separate guides to the reel round which they are separately wound. When a large number of cocoons are to be combined into one strand they may be reeled from the tray in four sets, which are first crossed in pairs, then combined into two, and those two then crossed and afterwards combined into a single strand. The object of crossing (croissage) is to round, smooth and condense the separate filaments of each set into one strand, and as the surface of the filaments is gummy and adhesive it is found on drying that they have agglutinated into a compact single fibre of raw silk. In the most approved modern filatures there is a separate cocoon boiler (cuiseuse), an oblong tank containing water boiled by steam heat. In these the cocoons are immersed in rectangular perforated boxes for about three minutes, when they are transferred to the beating machine (batteuse), an earthenware trough having a perforated false bottom through which steam keeps the water at a temperature of from 140 to 160°. In this water the cocoons are kept stirring by small brushes rotated by mechanical means, and as the silk softens the brushes gradually rise out of the water, bringing entangled with them the loose floss, and thereby revealing the main filament of each cocoon. The cocoons are next, in sufficient number, transferred to the reeler’s tray (bacinella), where the water is heated to about 140° to 150°. From the tray the filaments are carried through a series of porcelain and glass eyelets, so arranged that the strand returns on itself, two portions of the same strand being crossed or intertwisted for rounding and consolidation, instead of the croissage of two separate strands as in the old method. The reel to which the raw silk is led consists of a light six-armed frame, enclosed within a wooden casing having a glass frame in front, the enclosure being heated with steam-pipes. To keep the strands from directly overlaying each other and so adhering, the last guide through which the silk passes has a reciprocating motion whereby the fibre is distributed within certain limits over the reel. Fig. 12 presents a sectional view of a reeling apparatus as used in Italy, and shows the passage of the thread from the basin to the reel, the threads being twisted around by the tavelette to give roundness to the thread, but though the principle remains much the same, great improvements have been made on this model.
Throwing.—Raw silk, being still too fine and delicate for ordinary use, next undergoes a series of operations called throwing, the object of which is to twist and double it into more substantial yarn. The first operation of the silk throwster is winding. He receives the raw silk in hanks as it is taken from the reel of the filature, and putting it on a light reel of a similar construction, called the swifts,
Fig. 12.
he winds it on bobbins with a rapid reciprocating motion, so as to lay the fibre in diagonal lines. These bobbins are then in general taken to the first spinning frame, and there the single strands receive their first twist, which rounds them, and prevents the compound fibre from splitting up and separating when, by the subsequent scouring operations, the gum is removed which presently binds them into one. Next follows the operation of cleaning, in which the silk is simply reeled from one bobbin to another, but on its way it passes through a slit which is sufficiently wide to pass the filament but stops the motion when a thick lump or nib is presented. In the doubling, which is the next process, two or more filaments are wound together side by side on the same reel, preparatory to their being twisted or thrown into one yarn. Bobbins to the number of strands which are to be twisted into one are mounted in a creel on the doubling frame, and the strands are passed over smooth rods of glass or metal through a reciprocating guide to the bobbin on which they are wound. Each separate strand passes through the eye of a faller, which, should the fibre break, falls down and instantly stops the machine, thus effectually calling attention to the fact that a thread has failed. The spinning or throwing which follows is done on a frame with upright spindles and flyers, the yarn as it is twisted being drawn forward through guides and wound on revolving bobbins with a reciprocating motion. From these bobbins the silk is reeled into hanks of definite length for the market. Numerous attempts have been made to simplify the silk-throwing by combining two or more operations on one machine, but not as yet with much success.
According to the qualities of raw silk used and the throwing operations undergone the principal classes of thrown silk are—(1) “singles,” which consist of a single strand of twisted raw silk made up of the filaments of eight to ten cocoons; (2) tram or weft thread, consisting of two or three strands of raw silk not twisted before doubling and only lightly spun (this is soft, flossy and comparatively
