The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-04
WOMEN WHO WASH SILK.
1t Requires n Lifetime to Learn the
Business

| Business.
The most important laundry workers in
| the world are the women employed in the
silk conditioning houses. They wash. boil.
bleach. rinse, and dry, just as the women
| who work in the most ordinary laundries,
| but, instead of ironing. they weigh and
| reweigh their pieces with the most mi
| mute exactness, and the values compre-
| hended in each separate operation amount
| TO thousands of dollars.
| The doer-up of linen, dinity. and cot
ton pieces may become an expert in her
line after couple of years practice and
| no particular education. but it takes the
silk "boiler-off'' treble that time to at
tain mastery OF her profession. The con-
! ditioners deal only with the raw silk as it
| comes from the cocoon, filmy, deceptive
| substance TO work with.
How long did 1t take me to learn this
| business2" said a woman assayer as she
stirred her bubbling bags. "A lifetime.
It's thirteen years since 1 started in bust
ness, and I've been conditioning all that
time.
81 took up silk conditioning because it
pays better than stenography and l had
the right feel of the fingers said another
boiler-off. mo matter how intelligent
girl is, if the silk sticks to her fingers
she's failure, but l found. out quite acct
dentally, after had settled on being sec
rotary, that / was a born silkworker.
Women having the right knack with silk
can always make good money. and the silk
industry is one line of work in which
women are absolutely Indispensable Fer
instance. only women are employed in the
warproom of any silk mandatory. and this
preparing of the lengthwise thread for the
loom is most important and a depart
ment enabling the industrious worker to
make SIS week. Men are excellent weav
ers, good foremen and weighers, but when
it comes to direct handling of the raw
flaments they yield the palm. You may
have seen very smart, intelligent people
try to make the slip knot in tatting and
fail, and some such inexpIicable sleight-of
hand is requisite for the worker in raw
silk
Now, in silk conditioning or assaying,
not only this proper feel of the fingers is
needed but the proper judgment and nicely
Of calculation. If / let my drying silk
scorch, for instance, or If | don't boil the
gum out of it thoroughly. and if err even
SO much as deneir or 4 gram in comput-
ing my weights. there's a peck of trouble.
The value of the whole bale of silk is reck-
oned from the conditioned sample Chat
sample composed of three parts drawn at
random from the bale), and the raw silk
or Japan is worth something"
A professor who never graduated from
any college is in charge of the raw silk
conditioning where the women work-a man
who knows every sort of adulterant or
cheatery ever practiced by silkgrowers
since time was, and to whom manufac-
turers and importers appeal with their |
perpIexities. But this director leaves the |
actual work of discovering these admix- |
l., fr1tx, 81
their reliability. Before the hanks of yell |
low and white raw silk are pumped into |
the boilers to be boiled off, they are sub |
jected to the desiccating apparatus to de- |
termine the exact percentage OF moisture |
absorbed by the silk since the worms |
spun it. Silk, like al, 'extile fibres, con- |
tains a certain degree of moisture, but a |
bale OF silk is capable of holding from Is |
to % per cent of water without showing |
sign of it.
The Oriental silk farmers always start |
to reel their silk from the cocoons in the |
beginning of the rainy season The i'm
porters and ma iufacturers do not relish |
paying for water at raw silk rates, |
hence the conditioning houses. After the |
moisture has been thoroughly expressed |
from the hanks of silk, they are put into
little white bags and boiled twice in
bath of boiling soap suds. rinsed, dried by
hot air again. and then put through the I
other tests. The scene is quite domestic
as the women manipulate the dozens of
samples, weighing them with the accuracy
that apothecaries use in weighing out criti-
cal drugs and managing every operation
with extreme neatness because Of the cost
~ nature of the goods
The coeoons are put in water preparatory |
to Keeling the silk OFF. A brush something
like a whisk. or sink broom, is used to
catch the end of the thread for the reeiing. |
This Keeling is ordinarily done in the
household of the silk farmer and anything
gummy that he can put in the water for
the cocoons to soak up means that much
gain for his pocket and that much damage
to the purity of the silk Rice water is ad-
mirable for this purpose, that being cheap
in Japan and easy TO get at. Dissolved tin
is a good thing also, and there are tin
mines in plenty in the mountain districts
of China; soap. sugar. any kind of grease
or oily vegetable matter Will answer. and
the Orientals are versed in variety Of ex-