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182
The Silkworm and its Products,
: CHAPTER 1,
, (Continued from page 84.) :
_ By the time the worms haye attained their full
maturity and growth, they have generally denuded
of their foliage the whole plantation. of. mulberry
trees, and the attendants therefore look anxiously
for the time when they shall cease eating ; this they
do suddenly, and, again fall into a’state of stupor,
which lasts about two days. On again awaking to
activity, the silkworm, for the first time since it
came to life, shows signs of restlessness, and crawls
hastily about in search :of a‘retreat.: As soon as
this restlessness is perceived, the attendants carry
in a quantity of dried twigs and branches, and care-
fully scatter them over the worms, who take to them
with such avidity that in the course of an hour or
two not one will be found who has not selected for
himself a spot whereon to weave a silken bed. | As
soon as the caterpillar has fixed upon a place for
the formation of its cocoon, it attaches long threads
of glutinous matter or silk, from side to side, to form
a support for itself, and thus continues to work
until it has woven around itself a hollow envelope
of light tissue-like texture. As it does not move or
change the position of the hinder part of its body,
but continues moving its head from side to side,
attaching and drawing the thread from point to
point, it follows naturally that, after a time, its body
becomes enclosed by the network thus produced.
The work is then continued from one thread to an-
other, the caterpillar moving its head and spinning
in a zigzag manner, bending the forepart of its body
back so as to spin in all directions within reach;
and the position of the body is only, changed for the
purpose of covering the part which was beneath it
with silk. As the web is thus spun by bending the
forepart of the body back, it follows that the silk-
worm very soon encloses itself in a cocoon very
much shorter than its own body, and the work is
thus continued with the worm in a bent position.
Thus the worm, by pure instinct, forms a cocoon
which is of just suilicient size for its purposes in
the chrysalis stage, and not guided by its present
proportions. During the time of spinning, the silk-
worm decreases considerably in Jength, and by the
time that it has completed its cocoon, has diminish-
ed its size by one-half. The cocoon consists of
three distinct layers of silk; the first loose and
flossy, the second of a closer texture, and the inner
coating finer, and glued or gummed closely together
and forming a compact surface. After building the
cocoon, the silkworm divests itself of its caterpillar
garment, and is at once transformed into a chrysalis.
in the chrysalis state the animal remains for about
a fortnight, during which period the delicate and
beautiful limbs of the moth are being formed. .:
At the end of this period a slight swelling of the
chrysalis indicates that a new life is about bursting
forth ; a rupture down the back succeeds ; and, by
degrees, the snowy moth emerges from her horny
shell into the holiow silken chamber of the cocoon.
There, after fluttering for a few minutes, it emits a
fluid which has the power of softening the silk at
the pointed end of the cocoon, through which the
moth soon afterwards bursts into life and activity.
The cocoon takes about five days’ incessant and
unceasing labor in its formation, and when finished
is egg-shaped, and about an inch and a half in
length.
It must be borne in mind that the silk composing
the cocoon is spun out by the animal in one continu-
ous thread, from the first commencement to the
completion of the fine lining; the length of this
thread of course varies in some small degree; but
generally, the continuous, unbroken thread produced
and spun by each worm is about one thousand fect.
Of course, as the value and use of the silk depends
upon its perfect length being preserved, it would be
very prejudicial to allow the moth to be formed in
those cocoons which are intended for use. A suili-
cient quantity having been set aside for producing
eggs for the next season, the rest are either exposed
to the broiling sun, or placed in a furnace until the
poor little animal is stifcd in the very beautiful
edifice which his ingenuity has formed, and which
is so soon converted into a tomb. This done, the
grower opens the soft external covering of floss-silk
and removes the harder cocoon.: This floss-silk is
» afterwards brought to a manufactured state by spin-
ning, as we shall subsequently see. The grower
then separates the cocoons into different scales of
quality, previous to selling them. These qualities
other; and “ souffions,” which are imperfect, each !
of which varieties has its relative and proportionate |
value. .
When the cocoons have been thus selected and
sold, the winder or reeler prepares to form them
into hanks ready for use by the manufacturer. For
this purpose, smail furnaces are raised, adapted to
the purpose, on the top of which is placed a vessel
of water, Into this water a number of the cocoons
are thrown, and the heat of the water soon softens
the gum or glue, and renders the separation and
proper winding the delicate threads a matter of easy
accomplisament.. The reeler is provided with a
whisk of fine twigs, bound together, and cut off
evenly at the ends, and with this she gently stirs and
presses the cocoons in the water till the loose threads
become entangled on its points., She then raises
the whisk, with the threads attached, removes them
from it, and draws their ends through her. fingers.
The operator collects ten, fifteen, or twenty threads
together, and passes them through small loops or
eyes in areeling machine. This apparatus is very
simple—consisting only of a hollow wheel, upon
which she attaches the ends of the threads, while
another female turns the handle. By this means
fifteen or twenty cocoons are unwound at one time,
and as each is drawn off another is substituted, and
thus a continuous thread, composed of many cocoons,
is produced. ~ . :
It is thus the hanks or skeins, as imported into
this country, are produccd ; and it must be borne in
are denominated “ good cocoons,” which are the
-most perfect, ‘pointed cocoons,” which are not
good winders; ‘cocalons,” which are not compact;
mind, that the fine thread, as bought. by our silk-
throwsters, is not the thread-as produced by the
silkworm in its original condition and thickness ;
but it is the combined production of a large number
of those insects. Thus, one thousand yards in
length of silk as imported in the hank, would be
the united produce of nearly four good sized co-
coons.
To give a clear insight into the wonderful capacity
of the silkworm for the operations it has to perform,
we will place before the reader engravings of the
animal and its transformations. In the ‘annexed
. illustrations we have—A, the
female silkworm moth ; B, the
male moth; C, the eggs; D,
the pupa, removed from the
cocoon; E, the caterprillar;
F, position of the silk bags
'_ and spinaret in the worm, and
_G, the cocoon.
Having, by the aid of these
- illustrations, and the explana-
tions already given, prepared
the reader for a minute com-
prehension of the production
of silk, we will now glance
briefly at the history of man-
ufactured silk from the earliest periods.
Silk was first used in China, the country which
produced it being called by the Macedonian Greeks,
Serica—the country of the Seres. The natives are
“dupions,” which have the threads mixed with cach said to have discovered the uses of silk 2700 years
"FRANK LESLIE'S NEW YORK JOURNAL.
B. c., when the Empress first observed the labors of
the worm on the wild mulberry leaves, and applied
itto use. From China the art passed. to: Persia,
India, Arabia, and Asia in general. ‘Alexander’s
expedition first introduced the knowledge of silk to
the Grecians 350 years B.c.; then it passed to
Rome, the Emperor Heliogabalus appearing to have
been one of ‘the first Emperors whose! robes were
entirely composed of silk. Nothing seems to have
been known of the mode of production of the silk
out of China, and many curious conjectures with
regard to its origin are to be found in the early
writers. Thus Virgil supposed that it was produced
from leaves; and Dionysius Periegetes (who lived
about a. p. 300) says:— 5 Pe
“*Nor flocks, nor herds the distant Seres tend ;
But from the flow’rs that in the desert bloom, :
Tinctured with every varying hue, they cull ;
The glossy down, and card it for the loom.”
: an . 1 rn
It was not until the sixth century that the mys-
tery of its origin began to be removed. At this
period silk was an article of general consumption
in the Roman Empire, the supply of the raw mate-
tial being confined to the Persians, by whom the’
trade was mostly jealously guarded. Two Nesto-
rian monks of Persia, who had travelled to China,
made the Emperor Justinian acquainted with the
process observed in the production of silk, and un-
dertook, at his instigation, to return and bring with
them some eggs of the silkworm. Their project
was successful, and they arrived at Constantinoplo
with the eggs concealed in their hollow pilgrims
staves. They were soon hatched by artificial heat,
and the monks, being thoroughly acquainted with
the process of manufacturing the silk, soon succeed-
ed in their great undertaking.
In the twelfth century, the art was transferred to
Sicily, and subsequently into Italy, Spain, and
France, and in the fifteenth century it was intro-
duced into England. oy
James I. displayed considerable interest in the
promotion of the breeding and rearing of silkworms,
and in 1608 issued recommendations for their cul-
ture in the different counties, and offered to supply,
gratuitously, packets of mulberry seeds to all who
would undertake their. growth. : He also caused
: plantations of mulberry trees to be formed, and silk-
worm houses to be erected, in the hope of perma-
nently establishing their culture in his kingdom.
The mulberry trees often found adjoining old man-
sions, in various parts of the kingdom are to be
traced to this period. « James’s experiments were,
however, unsuccessful—ihe' English climate not
being suitable to the insect. More recent attempts
have zlso been made, with equally unsatisfactory
results, for the growth of the silkworm in England
and Ireland. © yee
* In 1715 John Lombe resolved upon visiting Italy,
_{and acquiring, at any risk, a knowledge of the pro-
cess adopted in that country. Know ing that an ex-
amination of the machinery and process of silk-
throwing was strictiy prohibited, he gained by
bribery the object he sought. Having made several
secret visits to the works, and carefully noted and
sketched the various modes of operation, his plot
was at length discovered, and he was compelled to
fly with the utmost precipitation, on board a ship,
to save himself from assassination, but not until he
had acquired a full knowledge of the trade. He
was accompanied by the two natives whom he had
bribed, and who had risked their lives in his cause.
» In 1718 he procured a patent for eighteen years,
and, with the aid of the Italians*who had accompa-
nied him to England, transacted business on an en-
terprising and extensive scale. Soon afterwards,
however, John Lombe died, at the early age of 29.
from the effects, it is said, of poison. “He had
not pursued this lucrative commerce more than three
or four years, when the Italians, who. felt the effects
of the ‘theft, from their want of trade, determined
his destruction, and hoped that of his works would
follow. An artful woman came over, in the charac-
ter of a friend, associated with the parties, and’as-
sisted in the business. She attempted to gain both
the Italians, and succeeded with one. By these,
slow poison was supposed, and perhaps justly, to
have been administered to John Lombe, who linyer-
ed two or three years in agony. en,
: '0 be continued.
ZZ
“T cannot imagine,” said an alderman, “ why m:
whiskers turn grey so much sooner than the hait -
on my head.”
“Because,” observed a wag, “you have worked
so much harder with your jaws than you have with
your brains,” °