SILK. Under the head Silk-Worm , will be found an account of the first introduction of the insect, and the commencement of the manufacture in the western empire. From thence it spread into Sicily and Italy; and during the time that the French occupied Milan (1521 ), artizans were conveyed by Francis I. to Lyons, and under his protection, the manufacture of silk made great progress.'

When the Duke of Parma took and plundered the city of Antwerp in 1585, a great proportion of the merchants and artizans took refuge in England; these introduced the silk manufacture into this country, which was fostered and encouraged by the English government. Before this period the produce of the silk-worm had been little seen in England.

The climate of England has not been found favourable for the rearing of silk-worms; repeated attempts have been made from time to time to cultivate the breed, but they have always failed. It was supposed that the British settlements in America would prove more favourable for this purpose, and in several of them the experiment was made, but from some cause or other, these were not more successful than those of the mother country.

The manufacture of silk goods has been the object of solicitous care to the British government, and various enactments were made by successive monarchs, with the view of encouraging it in this country. It received a great stimulus in 1685, when the revocation of the edict of Nantes banished from France multitudes of her most industrious and skilful artificers, which greatly benefited the countries that sheltered the injured emigrante. About 70,000 took refuge in England and Ireland, and transplanted various branches of the useful arts to different districts of this country. A large body of silk weavers settled in Spittalfields, where descendants of many of them may still be found.

England was, however, entirely dependent on foreigners for organzine silk thread, till Mr. Lombe of Derby, in the year 1718, having gone to Italy in the disguise of a common workman, took drawings of the silk-throwing machinery in Piedmont, and, on his return, erected a large mill on the river Derwent at Derby. The extensive and powerful machinery of this mill contained 26,586 wheels, and 97,746 movements, which worked 73,726 yards of organzine silk thread, by every revolution of the water-wheel, which revolved three times in the minute, and thus produced 318,504,960 yards of organzine per day.

The silk manufacture continued to increase in England, though the workmen were constantly clamouring against the importation of foreign goods. With a view to encourage the manufacture, an act was passed (3 Geb. I. cap. 15) for granting bounties on the exportation of silk fabrics; this was, however, no more than a drawback of part of the duties paid on the importation of the raw' silk. In 1741, permission was given to the Russia Company to import the raw silk of Persia at the same rate of duty as from the Levant; and, in 1749, the same reduction was made on the duties on raw silk imported by the East India Company from China. In 1764, the fashion of the times running in favour of French silks, and the wages of the English weavers being low, and work scarce, the operatives assembled in great multitudes, and in atumultuous manner presented petitions to Parliament praying for the total prohibition of foreign wrought silks. By the representation which the operatives made of their sufferings, Parliament was induced to reduce the duties oh raw and thrown silk, and entirely to prohibit the importation of certain articles of manufactured silk goods. The operative weavers did not, however, derive those benefits from the prohibitions against importation, which they expected, and they had frequently recourse to combinations to force their masters to raise their wages. These disputés between the masters and workmen having led to violence and riot, an act was passed in 1773, and confirmed by two subsequent acts, empowering the aldermeri of London, and the magistrates of Middlesex to fix the wages of the Spittalfields weavers. But it is unnecessary to recapitulate the applications of the operatives and manufacturers for protection against foreign competition, and the attempts of the législature to encourage the manufacture by restrictive and prohibitory enactments from 1773 to 1824; the silk trade in England, from the futile attempts to bolster it up, was kept in an artificial and languishing state. The manufacturer, depending upon the protection of Parliamentary restrictions on foreign competion, rather than on his own skill and exertions, was not anxious to discover and introduce improvements into the manufacture. Since the change of system, the imports of the raw material, and the exports of the manufactured article have rapidly increased; at present the value of the manufacture is supposed to exceed L.10,000,000 annually, and considerable quantities of manufactured silk are exported to France itself.[7:20:342] The following Table shows the Quantities of Raw and Manufactured Silk, Imported, Exported, and retained for consumption, during the years 1836 and 1837, with the Rates of Duty.
[table]
[7:20:343]

Nothing more fully demonstrates the folly of attempting to encourage manufactures by prohibiting importation than the history of the silk trade. The greatest importation of raw and thrown silk which took place in any one year, previously to the repeal of the prohibitory system, was in 1833, when the quantity imported was 2,432,286 lbs.; while, by the foregoing table, it appears that 5,320,965 lbs. were imported in 1837, at the same time that the official value of our silk manufactures exported during the same period, was L. 140,520 during 1823, and L.503,673 during 1837; of which, the proportion exported to France was L.43,144.

Those who are best qualified to form an opinion, consider the duty of 30 per cent. on the importation of silk goods still too high, and that the duty should be reduced to 15 or 10 per cent.

In no country has the silk manufacture made more rapid advances of late years than in Prussia. In 1831, the number of looms was 8,956; in 1834, they had increased to 12,044; and in 1837, to 14,111.

The following table shows the excess of exports from Prussia over the amount of the imports :—
[table]

The duty on the importation of silk goods into Prussia, is 110 dollars per centner, or 2s. 9d. per lb., which is almost five per cent. on the value of the goods. The import duty on mixed silk goods is 55 dollars per centner, which is equal to 1s. 4 1 / 2 d. per lb., or almost nine per cent. ad valorem. Silk Manufacture. The processes of silk manufacture fall under two great divisions. The one, comprehending all those operations undergone by the silk in its preparation for textile or other purposes; and the other, those by which the prepared silk is formed into the various beautiful creations of the loom. The operations comprehended in the first division being for the most part peculiar to this manufacture, are those which will here occupy our attention; while those of the second division, being common to the various textile substances, will be found described under the general head Weaving.

In other textile substances, the manufacturer operates upon bundles of short fibres, which, by drawing out and twisting together, he forms into continuous threads; but in the case of silk, a very different treatment is for the most part required. Here the silk-worm is the spinner, and art is called in, not to join short filaments, but so to strengthen the delicate threads of the worm by combination, as to fit them to endure the manipulations to which they are afterwards subjected. We have said for the most part, for this reason, that, from the manner in which the worm labours, there arises a necessity for two modes of operating, one of the nature already described, the other analogous to that of the cotton-spinner; and that the reader may be prepared to understand the reason for this, and many other peculiarities arising from the same cause, we shall here present him with a sketch of the manner in which the worm produces the material to be operated upon; and this sketch needs to be but brief, as in the article Silk-Worm, immediately sequent, the fullest information will be found. When the silk-worm has arrived at that stage of its existence at which it begins to spin, it ceases to feed, grows restless, and moves about, seeking a place wherein to commence its labours. When it has found a comer or hollow fit for its purpose, it attaches long threads from side to side, to form supports for its work; these it does not dispose in any regular manner, but crosses and recrosses them in such a way, as to make its work as strong as the situation will admit of. In plying its labours, the little creature by degrees narrows their sphere, and when it has enclosed a space of about the size of a pigeon’s egg, its work assumes a more regular character, and shortly presents the appearance of a loose silken ball of an oval shape, with the worm labouring inside of it. In a little while, the increasing compactness of the ball renders the labours of the worm no longer evident to the eye, and that it continues to work can only be known by the noise within. When all sound has ceased, the formation of silk has also ceased. Although from the compactness of the ball, the worm labours unseen, we can yet tell by after dissection, and by the unwinding of the thread, that it does not lay its thread regularly round the inside of the ball, but to and fro from one spot to another, for many times, gradually shifting its position, until it has gone over the whole surface, and so gradually, that a great many yards of thread may be unwound without once turning the ball. The substance of which the thread of the silk-worm is composed, is secreted by the animal in the form of a fine yellow transparent gum, and exuded by two minute orifices beneath its jaw; hence the thread is a twin one, formed of two threads proceeding from these orifices, cemented together by a gummy substance, similar to that of which they are formed; and when the worm has finished its labour of spinning, it smears over the whole interior surface of its work with the same gum, doubtless for the purpose of protecting it in its chrysalis state from rain. If we examine the finished work of the worm, we shall find it to consist first of those filaments used as supports, and next of a ball of a loose texture and irregular construction, serving as an envelope for another ball, compact in its nature, and regular in its formation, within which the worm lies enshrouded. This compact ball is called a cocoon, and its soft envelope floss silk. The thread of the coc∞n, from the regularity of its deposition, can be unwound to the end, and the operations to which it is subjected are those of doubling, twisting, twining, and their accessories, classed under the name of silk throwing. The floss silk, with the additions afterwards to be noticed, is not unwound, but, under the name of waste has its filaments hackled, combed, and reduced to short lengths, and then carded and spun in a manner analogous to those of cotton.

When the spinning of the cocoons is accomplished, a selection of those that are to be kept for breeding is made, and the remainder are assorted according to their qualities. These are generally reckoned nine, and are as follows:

1st, Good cocoons; these are strong, firm, and nearly equally round at both ends, not very large, but free from spots.

2d, Calcined cocoons, in which the worm has died, and been reduced to powder by a disease which sometimes attacks them after having completed their work.

3d, Cocalons, larger and less compact than the good cocoons.

4th, Choquettes, cocoons in which the worm had died before it had finished spinning; the silk is fine, but apt to furze in winding.

5th, Dupion, or double cocoons, containing two or more larvae; these are difficult to unwind, and are often kept for seed.

6th, Soufflon, cocoons of so loose and soft a texture, as to be almost transparent; these cannot be unwound.

7th, Pointed cocoons. In these one end rises in a point, which breaks off after a little silk has been unwound, and so spoils the thread.

8th, Perforated cocoons, from which the moth has made its way out.

9th, Bad choquettes, in which the silk is spotted, rotten, and blackish in colour.

The first operation to be performed, preparatory to the unwinding of the silk from the cocoon, is to destroy the vi-[7:20:344] tality of the contained worm. The means used for this is heat, either natural or artificial; sometimes simple exposure to the solar rays will effect this object; but in climates where these have not power, some artificial heat must be employed, such as the heat of steam or of an oven, but more generally that of the latter. In this case, the heat should not be greater than what is usual in the oven after the bread has been withdrawn. Long shallow baskets are taken and filled nearly to their tops with cocoons, and are covered over, first with paper, and then with a cloth. In these baskets, the cocoons are exposed to the heat of the oven for nearly an hour, and on being withdrawn, several cocoons are chosen from the part of the basket least exposed to the heat, and the chrysalides in them stripped and pricked with a needle. If upon being pricked, they give no sign of animation, it may be fairly presumed that the destruction of the creatures has been accomplished. Before the silk of the cocoons can be reeled off, it is necessary to separate them from the floss in which they are enveloped; this is effected by opening the floss covering at one end, and protruding the cocoon. It is of the greatest importance in the reeling process, that all the cocoons reeled together be of one class.

The apparatus for reeling is sketched in fig. 1, and to avoid confusion, the working parts only are shewn: a a is a bath or vessel of water, which, when of the best construction, is heated by steam. Into this the cocoons are put, that the gum which retains the thread in its place may be so much softened as to permit the thread to be unwound; the bath is usually divided by three partitions into four divisions, each of which may contain about five coc∞ns; b bb are wires with eyelets at their ends, through which the filaments from the cocoons are put. In their upward progress towards the reel, the groups of filaments are made to cross and recross each other, before their final combination at the last eyelet, and by the friction thus produced, they are freed from adhering impurities; c is the reel driven by a belt from the pulley d, which is itself driven by the prime mover, whatever that may be ∙,f is a tumbler, whose end carries a pulley, which presses on the belt that drives the reel; by lifting up the long end of the tumbler, the belt is slackened, and the reel stops. The filaments, when combined at the upper eyelet, pass along the guide e e, and through eyelets at its ends; this guide has a pin projecting from its under side, working in a spiral groove cut round the barrel h; by this it receives a reciprocating motion, and so spreads the filaments equally over the reel.

The filaments, in their passage from the bath to the reel, must necessarily traverse a considerable space, to allow their softened gum to be again hardened by the air, that they may not afterwards adhere together.

In the place where the reeling of silk is performed, many of these machines are arranged along the building, and driven by the moving power through a shaft extending the whole length, carrying on it pullies at the proper intervals. In working the apparatus, the reeler, who is generally a woman, sits at the bath, and having taken a number of cocoons, immerses them in the water. When their gum is sufficiently softened to permit the thread to come off, the reeler takes a whisk formed of fine twigs bound together, and cut off evenly at the ends at about six inches long, and with it she gently presses and stirs the cocoons, and entangles their loose threads on its points; she then raises her whisk with the threads attached to it, disengages them from! it, and draws their ends through her fingers, to remove any adhering floss or impurity; this cleaning process is called battue. Having thus freed the ends of such a number of the filaments as she means to use, she passes them through the various eyelets in the manner previously mentioned, and attaches them to the reel; when this is accomplished, the reel is put in motion by dropping the end of the tumbler, and the filaments are drawn from the cocoons. It is the province of the reeler so to regulate the motion of the reel, and the heat of the water, that the silk may come off the cocoons regularly, not in lumps, which shows that the water is too hot; nor in such a manner as that the cocoon shall be tossed out of the bath, which shows that the silk is yielded with difficulty, from the water being too cold sufficiently to soften the gum.

From the threads of the cocoons being finer near their termination than at their commencement, it becomes necessary for the reeler to add other cocoons before the first set is quite exhausted; and it is her care to do so in such a manner, as that the requisite thickness of the compound thread may be kept up throughout. It is generally considered that the filaments of three fresh cocoons added to two half-wound ones, make a thread equal to that from four fresh cocoons.

The cocoons are not entirely wound off, but the husk, or bairré, in which the worm lies, is left, and used along with the floss silk, under the name of waste.

Every eleven or twelve pounds of cocoons generally yield one pound of reeled silk; and as it takes from 240 to 250 cocoons to weigh one pound, the number of cocoons necessary to produce one pound of silk, may be reckoned to be 2817½; some cocoons may yield about 625 yards of silk, but the average is stated to be 300 yards, consequently the pound of silk filament, as produced by the worm, would, if stretched out, reach the amazing length of 480 miles.

When a sufficient quantity of silk is reeled off, it is doubled into a hank for use or sale; and it is in this state that it generally comes to be operated upon by our manufacturers,—the hanks by the silk throwster, the waste by the silk spinner.

It is of the utmost importance in the succeeding manufacture, that this reeling process should be well performed. Sometimes from the temperature of the water used to soften the gum being too high during the reeling, the parts of the hank of silk that he on the spokes of the reel become very hard, and occasion the breaking of the thread in the after processes. Sometimes, too, when in the reel-ing process the threads happen to break, the ends are again only laid upon one another, and not connected by tying; the threads consequently come off the hanks in short lengths, and much trouble and loss of time is experienced in searching for the other end; and sometimes the reelers, either from inattention or design, reel off the whole of the thread of the cocoons, by which an exceedingly foul silk is produced. Not (infrequently, also, coarse and fine silks are reeled together in the same hank; and, what is of common occurrence, the hanks when reeled are twisted up so tight, that the untwisting of them greatly damages the silk. But the greatest injury to the manufacturer arises from dishonesty on the part of those who produce the reeled silk; and this remark applies especially to the coarser descriptions of the Brutia silk. To get rid of their waste the producers of this silk roll up the refuse of the cocoon into what are here technically called dollies, and insert these into the hanks in such a manner, that they cannot be discerned by the purchaser; they also have a method of mixing their waste with the good silk while it is being reeled, and as it cannot again be separated from it without great injury, this mode of vitiating the silk is more[7:20:345] objectionable than the other. But dishonest practices are unfortunately not confined to the description of silk above mentioned; it is too common in all hanks to find some coarse inferior quality of silk artfully prepared with a covering of a much liner kind, to enhance its value.

The loss of capital, which careless reeling, and the base practices we have alluded to, entail on the manufacturer, is immense; for if an establishment be formed, with machinery and workers sufficient to throw a given quantity of good silk; take, for example, the Italian silk, called Fos∙ sambrone, which, of all the raw silks, is the easiest manufactured, and if, in place of some of the Fossombrone, the machines and workers come to be employed on some silks vitiated as we have described, or reeled in a careless manner, then, from the foulness and unevenness of the thread, the number of workers will, in all probability, not be sufficient to attend to above one-third of the machines, one winder being able in a given time to wind five times as much of the Fossombrone as of some of the Bengalese silks.

From what we have said it may be inferred, that it is a matter of great difficulty for the manufacturer to determine the number of machines and workers in the various processes; and that, from the ever varying nature of the silk, he will seldom have the whole of his machinery employed.

If the preparation of the raw silk, as reeled silk is termed, were conducted by persons conversant with the processes of the silk filature, who would adapt their mode of working to suit the various purposes to which the article prepared by them was to be applied; or, if the whole of the operations were under the conduct of an instructed agent of the manufacturers, the evils on which we have animadverted would be removed, and a better and a cheaper article would be furnished to the consumer.

The operations which succeed the reeling are those of silk throwing, and are as follows:

1st, Winding the silk from the honks upon bobbins, to fit it for the further processes.

2d, Cleaning, consisting in the silk being unwound from the bobbins of the winding machine, and wound upon another set of bobbins; and, in its passage between, made to pass through an opening between two metal plates, by which any inequality, caused by knots or adhering substances, is removed.

3d, Spinning, consisting in twisting the cleaned thread.

4th, Doubling, consisting in laying together on one bobbin the threads of several bobbins, so that they may be afterwards combined by being twisted together.

5th, Throwing, the name by which the operation of twisting the doubled silk is known, and also the name by which the whole class of operations is distinguished.

It has been conjectured, that the name throwing is derived from the swinging and tossing of the threads and cocoons while reeling, but we need not travel out of the way for its derivation, as the operation of twisting is in many other arts called throwing. The ropemaker throws twist into his ropes; and the little instrument used in the farmyard for twisting straw ropes, is called a throw-crook.

6th, Heeling, consisting in forming into hanks suited for undergoing the processes of scouring, dyeing, and bleaching the silk which has undergone some or all of the previous o∣>erations.

7th, After the scouring, bleaching, or dyeing processes have been performed on the hanks, these have again to be wound on bobbins, for the use of the warper or weaver.

It is not to be understood, that silk in every case undergoes all the operations we have mentioned, but that, when it does so, these succeed each other in the order described.

It is sometimes merely wound and cleaned, and is in this state under the name of dumb singles, used for Bandana handkerchiefs, and, when bleached, for gauze, and similar fabrics.

It may be wound, cleaned, and thrown, and is then called thrown singles, and used for ribbons and common silks.

If wound, cleaned, doubled, and thrown, which twists it into one direction, it is called tram, and is used tor the woof or shute of Gros de Naples, velvets, and flowered silks.

If wound, cleaned, spun, doubled, and then thrown, so as to be of the nature of twine, or the strand of a rope, it is called organzine, which, from its strength, is used for warp.

Silk, in any of these states, before being subjected to the operation of scouring, is termed hard, but after it is by scouring deprived of its stiffening-gum, it is called soft.

The operations of the throwster are generally carried on in a building which admits of an apartment being allotted to each description of machines, and these apartments are generally in stories. All the machines used in the processes are each made up of a repetition of the same parts, each part being a distinct and separate apparatus, capable of performing its work independent of its fellows; and these are arranged in juxtaposition in the machine, in order that the moving power may be conveniently applied to a long series of them. The length of the machines is regulated by the extent of the building, and the manner of their arrangement. A manner of arranging them is here sketched (fig. 2.) The apartment is supposed to be about thirty-eight feet wide, and the machines are placed athwart the room, so as to afford a passage four feet in width along the centre, and at such a distance lengthways, as to give room for the workers to attend to their charge. Two shafts traverse each apartment in the direction of the dotted lines, and carry on them pullies, or toothed wheels, opposite to each machine; a belt from each pulley is carried over a corresponding pulley on the end of the main shaft of each machine, or the toothed wheels are connected by proper gearing with the shafts of the machines, and so motion is given to the whole.

The rooms are generally heated by steam, and the temperature of the apartments, when above the minimum of 50°, is regulated more by a regard to the health of the workers, than from any necessity for a particular temperature in the operations; but these cannot be performed with advantage when the temperature is allowed to fall below 50°.

The first machine or apparatus used is the winding-machine, or that by which the reeled hanks are wound on bobbins, to prepare them for the subsequent processes. A perspective sketch of this machine is shewn in fig. 3. Along[7:20:346] each side of the machine, at a a, directly under the line of bobbins b b, run two shafts, called frame shafts, or frame friction-shafts; on these shafts at each bobbin are fixed two friction pullies, of about 4 1 / 2 inches diameter; and on the axis of each bobbin are fixed two corresponding pullies, about 1 1 / 8 inch diameter. The friction-pullies of the bobbins rest upon those of the shaft, and receive motion from them. Opposite to each bobbin is a wire, with an eyelet at its end, fixed to a bar of wood c c, called the traverse bar. This bar, with the eyelets attached, has an alternating motion, right and left, through a space equal to the length of that part of a bobbin on which the silk is to be wound. In front of these eyelets are fixed the guide-rods, or friction rods, d d d d, over which the threads glide in their passage from the reel to the bobbins, and which are formed of polished iron, and in front of these the reels e e e e, are placed on their bearers ff At every seventh bobbin or so is placed a main frame, like g g, and between these stretch bars of wood, for the support of the bobbin and reel bearers. Motion is given to the bobbins, we have said, by the lying shafts bearing friction - pullies, and the threads being passed from the reels, over the friction-bars d d, through the eyelets, and attached to the bobbins, are, by the motion of the latter, wound up, and drag round the reel on which the hank is fixed. The bobbins are, with their friction-pullies, represented in figs. 4, 5, and 6. Fig. 4, a section; fig. 5, a front view, and fig. 6, a plan: a is the lying-shaft, with one of its friction-pullies b b, and on this rests the friction-pulley c , of one of the bobbins d; the axis of the bobbin is confined laterally by working in the groove e of the bearer, but has perfect freedom of motion up and down, so that its friction-pulley may remain in contact with that of the shaft. If, during the process, a thread happens to break, the bobbin is lifted out of its working-groove and placed in the higher groove f. by which its friction-pulley is kept from touching the friction-pulley of the shaft, and it consequently remains at rest; but when, after the damage has been repaired, it is lifted into its former position, its motion is immediately resumed. In front of the bobbin is seen the traverse bar g, carrying the wire h, with its eyelet tor the thread; this traverse bar is moved by an eccentric in such a manner, as not to spread the thread equally over the bobbins, but to heap it up more in the middle than at the ends.

The reels are called swifts, and are formed of twelve light spokes, about 16 1 / 2 inches long, inserted into a wooden nave in pairs, so as to form a six-sided reel; the nave has an iron axle, which turns freely on its bearings. The hanks not being all of one size, makes it necessary to have a reel, the diameter of which may be varied. Various means of adapting the reel to the size of the hank have been and still are used. Amongst others, one deserves notice; it is, where each spoke of the reel is made in two parts, the one fixed to the nave, formed of tube containing a spiral spring, the other formed of a light rod, nicely fitting the tube, the opposite pairs of rods being joined together by a cross bar, forming the periphery of the reel. When it is wished to put a hank on a reel of this kind, one of the pairs of spokes is pushed into the tubes, and the hank slipped on; the spiral springs now exert their force, and throw out the pressed-in spokes with such a force, as to keep the reel in a proper state of tension. But the method generally adopted, if not so elegant, is more simple. The spokes in this case are formed of lance-wood, and the outer extremity of each pair are rather farther asunder than the ends which are inserted into the nave, and are connected together by a band of small cord passed several times round them; on these bands the hank or skein of silk rests, and, by slipping the bands along the spokes nearer to or further from the centre, the diameter of the reel can be adapted to the size of the hank; and when the hank is stretched the bands can be moved in any way, so as to balance the hank, which, as will be afterwards seen, is a matter of considcrable importance. Each pair of spokes, it has been mentioned, slightly diverge as they proceed from the nave; and, as they are again slightly drawn towards each other by the bands, the tendency to return to their natural position effectually retains the band in any place to which it may be slipped. It has been said, that the reels turn freely on their supports, but it is necessary to create such a friction as will prevent them giving off the silk faster than it can be taken up by the bobbins; this is sometimes done by a spring being made to press upon the nave of the reel, but more commonly by hanging on its centre a wooden ring, to which weights may be hung, so as to create such a degree of friction on the reel, and, consequently, of tension upon the thread, between the reel and the bobbin, as may be desired. The subjoined sketch (figs. 7 and 8 ) shews the reel as it has been described: a is the nave, b b the lance-wood spokes, c c the bands of cords forming the periphery of the reel, d the friction-ring, with the weight hanging on it.

Referring again to fig. 3 it will be seen, that in front of the swifts are bars of wood, extending along both sides of the machine; their use is to support the bars which carry the swifts, and to prevent the persons of those who work the machines from coming in contact with the reels; from this last use they are termed knee-rails.

Previous to the hanks being put upon the swifts, they are washed in a solution of soap and water, which cleans the silk without depriving it of its gum. In putting the hanks on the reel care is taken to balance them, as, were one side heavier than another, it would be apt to fall suddenly, after having passed the highest point, in turning, and thereby injure the thread.

The winding-machines, under the general superintendence of a man called a steward, are tended by girls, who are termed denters and winders; the deniers put the hanks on the reel, and the winders, or piecers as they are also called, tie the ends of the threads and exchange the bobbins. When the bobbins are filled with thread they are conveyed from the winding-machine room to the warehouse, to be assorted or separated into finer or coarser qualities, which are kept apart throughout the remaining processes. To carry the bobbins, a board, called a doffing-board, is made use of; this consists of a piece of deal, about a foot wide, and rather more than two feet long, having a number of wires corresponding to the number of bobbins in one side of a frame, and about four inches long, inserted into its surface; on these wires the bobbins are put. When the separation of the qualities has been made,[7:20:347] the bobbins are carried to another machine-room, where the thread undergoes the operation of cleaning.^[1. The doffing board is an adoption from the cotton manufacture, and its use, as described above, is, we believe, peculiar to Scotland. Its chief advantage is, the check it affords against pilfering. When carried to the machine-room, the wires of the empty board are filled with empty bobbins, amd, as the bobbins of the machine become charged with silk, they are exchanged for the empty ones of the hoard. which is again carried to the warehouse, that the bobbins may be assorted according to the quality of the silk. The tilled bobbins are exchanged for empty ones, to be carried on the board to the winding machine room, and the same system is followed out in all the different stages of the operation. ]

The cleaning, drawing, or picking-machine, as it is variously called, is represented in fig. 9. In this, as in the last machine, motion is communicated to the bobbins by a friction shaft. The bobbins, a a, from the winding-frame are fixed on plain spindles, and placed in a horizontal position between their supports. The threads are carried from the bobbins over the iron or glass rod, b b, and each thread is passed through an adjustable opening, between the two iron blades of an instrument called the cleaner, c c, which is fixed to a bar of wood running along the machine, immediately behind the friction-rods. The cleaner is here represented on a larger scale, (figs. 10,11); a is the bar of wood to which the instrument is fastened; b, b, are the blades, which are held together at the bottom by the screw c∙, d is the opening through which the thread is made to pass, the width of this opening being adjusted by means of a screw e , the key of which is kept by the steward of the room. The tops of the blades are curved outwards, so as readily to guide the thread into the slit. The threads, after having been passed through the opening of the cleaner, are put through the eyelet d, of the traverse bar, which is, in every respect, like that of the former machine, and then attached to the bobbins e e. When the machine is put in motion, the bobbins e e drag the thread from the bobbins through the cleaner; and, as the cleaner is adjusted to a certain size, all impurities and irregularities are removed, and the thread thus rendered equal.

The process which succeeds that of cleaning is called spinning, although, as we have already observed, it is only twisting. The spinning-machine is represented in fig. 12. This, like the two former machines, consists of a series of frames placed at wide intervals, and connected by bars of wood, which serve as supports for the different parts of the machinery. The spinning machine contains sometimes two but generally three tiers of working apparatus in height. The bobbins on which the twisted silk is to be wound, are seen in the figure at a a a, placed horizontally along the machine; in this case they are not driven by friction-rollers, but by toothed wheels, fixed on the extremity of the axis of each bobbin, and corresponding ones on the shafts b, b, b. The bobbins are, as before, suspended by their axis in little grooves; each bobbin bearer contains two such grooves, one higher than the other, so that, on the bobbin being lifted from the lower to the higher groove, its toothed S wheel is thrown out of gear with the wheel of the shaft b, b, and it remains at rest. Under each bobbin is seen the twisting - apparatus. This consists of a bobbin c, fixed on an upright spindle d, to which motion is communicated by a belt from the drum f, fixed on a horizontal shaft g, passing over a pulley on the bobbin spindle.

The silk threads from these vertical bobbins are wound three or four times round a bent wire h, fixed to a bar, extending along the machine, passed through an eye in the end of each of these wires, carried through the eyes of the traverse-guides, and attached to the horizontal bobbins. On motion being given to the machinery, the vertical bobbins are made to revolve with a greater or less velocity, and the horizontal ones with a velocity so proportioned to the others, that they may only draw away the thread as it is twisted in the due degree, In figs. 13 and 14, we have represented, on a larger scale, a section and front view of these working parts: a , a is the bobbin from the cleaningmachine, b the fixed wireguide round which the thread iscarried, c the traverse-guide for spreading the thread over the bobbin, d the bobbin for receiving the twisted thread.

Motion is communicated to the different parts thus: On one end of the drum-shaft g, (fig.12,) is fixed a fast and loose pulley, not seen in the drawing, driven by a belt from the main shaft which traverses the apartment; belts from the drum on the drum-shaft pass over the pullies of the vertical spindles d, and so give motion to the bobbins c; on the hither end of the drum-shaft is fixed the pinion g, which, through the intermediate wheel e, drives the spur-wheel h; on the axis of this last wheel is fixed the bevel-wheel m , giving motion to the[7:20:348] bevel-wheel n, and thereby to the shaft o, which crosses the end of the machine; each end of this shaft carries a bevel-wheel p, which drives a bevel-wheel h, fixed on the end of the shaft, on which the little spur-wheels that drive the spur-wheels of the bobbins are fixed. On this last shaft is also fixed a pinion, to work the traverse guidebar; this it effects by giving motion to a small wheel, round which another pinion revolves, in the manner of the sun and planet-wheels, and, being connected by a short rod with the traverse-bar, the latter is consequently moved through a space equal to the added diameters of the wheels, In the usual mode of constructing this machine, there is a want of a mean of lessening the velocity of the drawingbobbin, as its diameter increases by the accumulation of silk. In consequence of this want, the thread is very unequally twisted; for although at the commencement of the process the drawing or upper bobbin may, by appropriate toothed-wheels, be made to turn with the velocity requisite to allow of the thread receiving, say twelve twists in the inch, yet, after a very short time, the silk will have accumulated on it, and increased its diameter so much, that for every revolution which it now makes, it will take up and draw away a much greater length of thread from the revolving bobbin, whose speed remains constant, so that the number of twists are constantly on the decrease, and, at the end of the operation, may be no more than eight in the inch. A very ingenious mode of equalizing the draw of the bobbin has been put in practice In place of driving the drawing-bobbins by toothed-wheels, they are here driven by friction-rollers; the part of the bobbin on which the silk is wound rests on the roller, and receives motion from it; and, as the diameter of this part increases by the accumulation of silk, its velocity, of course, diminishes in precisely the same ratio; thus, the surface on which the silk is wound has a uniform rate of motion from the beginning to the end of the process, insuring, what has ever been a desideratum, perfect equality in the twist of the thread.

The next operation is doubling. Fig. 15 is an end view of the doubling-machine. In this machine the bobbins a a a, containing the spun silk, are arranged along the lower platform ft, in little brackets capable of each containing three bobbins; from these the threads are carried over the guide-rods d, of which there are two on each side of the machine, and, after being passed through the eyes of an apparatus called the falling-wires, and the traverse-guides e e, are then attached to the bobbins ff to which motion is given by friction-pullies, as in the first machines, and on them the threads are thus wound up in combination.

In all formerly described machines the breaking of the thread causes no in jury, but, in the doubling process, were one of the three threads to break, and the upper bobbin to continue to revolve, the other two threads would be wound up separately, and so spoil the work; to prevent this is the use of the falling-wires described above, which, on the breaking of the thread, stop the bobbin until the damage is repaired. The subjoined sketch (figs. 16, 17), shews a side view and plan of this apparatus: a a are the two guide-rods, with the threads passing over them; between the rods are seen the eyelets of three bent wires, whose other extremities are hinged to a piece of brass at c . The threads are passed through these eyelets, and support the wires in the horizontal position shewn in the sketch. Hinged to the same supports as the wires is a brass lever, bb, bent at right angles horizontally under the wires; the straight end or tail of the lever is a little heavier than the bent end, and it consequently lies in the oblique position of our drawing. On the end of the bobbin is fixed a little ratchet-wheel, moving as indicated by the arrow. Now, when one of the threads sustaining the bent wires happens to break, the wire falls down on the bent part of the lever, which, by this additional weight, is depressed, and its opposite end consequently rises into the position shewn by the dotted line, and acts as a paul to the ratchet-wheel, effectually stopping the bobbin until the attendant has leisure to lift it out of its working-groove, repair the damaged thread, and again set it in motion.

When the lighter kinds of silk have to be doubled, they would be injured by being made to drag round the heavy bobbins; therefore, for such kinds a modification of the apparatus is required. In place of the bobbins being placed horizontally in bearers, they are placed vertically on spindles, as shewn in figs. 12, 13, 14; the spindles project beyond the upper end of the boobins, and carry a little wheel of hard wood, which is made to turn freely; this wheel has two flyers with eyelets at their extremities; the thread being put through these, and drawn by the upper bobbins, causes the light flyers to revolve round the vertical bobbin, and unwind the thread without straining it.

The next is the throwing machine. As this machine closely resembles the spinning-machine shewn in fig. 12, we here only sketch such a portion of it as will shew wherein they do not agree. Fig. 18 is an end view, and fig. 19 is a side view of one of the working parts: a a is a vertical bobbin with its loose flyer bb; the bobbin being driven by a band acting on the spindle pulley as in the spinning-machine; c is a traverse guide wire, through the eye of which the thread is passed; d a reel on which, in this case, the thread is wound into hanks as it is twisted by the revolution of the vertical bobbins.

The traverse guide bars have, in this machine, a very short range of lateral motion, so as to confine each hank within a very narrow limit on the reel’s surface. The motion of the reel can be so regulated in relation to that of the twisting bobbin, as in any way to modify the amount of twisting received by the thread.

In the case of the heavier silk threads used for sewing, fringing, and the like, the doubling and throwing processes are both performed by one machine, called a throstle frame, which is similar to the machine of the same name used in the cotton and linen thread manufacture. The[7:20:349] throstle, however, does not contain apparatus for reeling the silk, so, for this purpose, a subsidiary reel has to be used. This machine is automatic, in respect of stopping when a predetermined quantity of silk has been wound. One end of the axis of the reel is supported by a lever, whose fulcrum is at the centre of the machine; the other end of the axis has a fixed bearing. Motion is given to the reels by a pinion fixed on the end of its axis, being driven by a spur wheel on the main shaft; by raising the lever, which carries one end of the axis, the pinion would be withdrawn from the spur wheel, and the reel would necessarily cease to revolve. The machine is rendered automatic from the raising of the lever being effected by proper machinery at the very instant that the reel shall have wound up the length of silk predetermined, and by a de tent locking it out of gear until the attendant shall have time to shift the apparatus which guides the silk to a new space on the reel.

We are sorry that we cannot present our readers with a more minute description of this machine, from the number of drawings which would be required to illustrate it.

Whether the hanks of silk have been reeled in the throwing-machine or on the automatic reel, they are afterwards treated in precisely the same manner. When the reels are filled with hanks, they are placed in a steam box, and subjected for a time to the action of the steam, to give the twisting of the thread a set, as it is termed; each skein or hank is then tied up separately in two places while yet on the reel, which is then carried to the proper apartment, and the hanks removed from it and bundled up.

The silk may be used without being deprived of its gum, and is termed hard, or it may be acted on by soap and water to deprive it of its gum, and reduce it to the soft state. In either of these states it may be put into the hands of the dyer, whose operations succeed those we have described. When the hanks come from the dyer they are again transferred to bobbins; the hard silk by a winding machine, similar to the one already described, the soft silk by the machine represented in fig. 20.^[2. In England, throwsters rarely if ever wind the soft silk, this duty devolving upon the manufacturer; but in Scotland, manufacturers being seldom provided with the requisite machinery, soft-silk winding is usually a part of the business of the throwster. ] ’ In this machine, in place of the swifts arc substituted the small reels A A, the upper one fixed in position but turning freely on its axis, the lower one also turning freely on its axis, which is attached to a lever b , whose short end carries an adjustable weight, by means of which the hank of silk can be kept between the reels with the degree of tension suited to the strength of the thread. The operation of this machine will be understood from the winding machine already described, the only difference being, that the traverse guide has an equal and not an eccentric motion, so as to lay the silk regularly from end to end of the bobbin, and not heaped up in the centre as before. The transferring the silk to the bobbins finishes the operation of the silk throwster, from whose hands the silk passes into those of the warper, to prepare it for weaving.

The drawings of the machinery, by which we have illustrated our description of the throwing process, were, for the most part, made from machines constructed by Mr. Joseph Lomas of Glasgow, an engineer who has devoted much of his attention to the machinery used in this particular branch of manufacture.

Having thus traced the silk of the cocoons from its developement to the perfection of the filature, and its adaptation for the loom, we will briefly describe the means used for preparing the waste silk for the weaver, in so far as they are peculiar to the silk manufacture.

Silk Spinning.

Under this term are included those operations by which floss silk, and the refuse of the throwing process, are, under the name of waste, worked into yarns for coarser uses, such as the manufacture of shawls, Bandana handkerchiefs, and similar textures.

When received by the silk spinner, the waste is in the form of small balls of entangled filaments. These, as a preparatory step, he assorts in parcels according to their quality, and these different qualities are of course kept separate throughout the processes; after being assorted, the waste is hackled on a hand hackle, to disentangle the filaments, the instrument and manner of operating being the same as in flax-dressing. When, by the hackling process, the filaments of a quantity of the waste have, to a certain extent, been disentangled, they are ready for the filling engine, which is a kind of hackling machine, whose effect is, in a greater degree, to disentangle the filaments, and in some measure to lay them parallel.

The essential parts of this machine are sketched in fig. 21: a a is a feeding board, over the surface of which a travelling belt moves in the direction of the arrows, and carries forward to the feeding rollers bb, the hackled waste, which is laid on it. These rollers are fluted and move very slowly; between them the filaments from the feeding board enter, and are held fast, and at the same time drawn forward into the machine As the ends of the filaments come to the other side of the rollers, they are acted upon by a series of iron teeth c c, fixed to an endless belt which revolves with a very quick motion in the direction of the arrows, and the teeth are consequently made to pass many times through the same portion of the filaments, clearing and disentangling them as they are slowly yielded by the feeding rollers; and as the ends of the successive portions of filaments cease to be held by the rollers, they are caught up by the teeth and carried round with them. Beneath the combs, as the travelling teeth are termed, a board d is fixed, having at intervals, along its surface, sets of teeth similar to the combs. When the filaments carried round by the travelling combs happen to fall off, they are caught on the fixed combs of the boards, and the regularity of their arrangement is not disturbed. When the combs, by repeated gleanings from the rollers, have become filled, the workman, with a pair of boards called clutches, removes from them, and from the teeth of the horizontal boards, their accumulation of filaments; these he carries to the next machine, called the dressing frame, which, like the filling engine, operates on the principle of combing. In this, however, the filaments are not gradually brought for[7:20:350] ward by rollers and yielded to the comb, but they are held firmly in their place by one end, while the combs travel over their surface, dragging away all impurities and all fibres which are shorter than the average length of the mass. Fig. 22 is a side view of the machine: a a is a fixed framing, at each end of the frame is a roller b b'; over these rollers the endless web c c moves. Motion is communicated to the roller b' by the spur wheel d , on its axle being driven by a pinion on the axle of the pulley e , to which motion is given by a belt from a pulley of the mainpower shaft. The distance between the rollers b b' can be increased or diminished by a screw Connected with Z», so as to tighten or relax the endless web which travels round them. The endless web carries the combs f f which, in this machine, are composed of a great number of short inclined teeth. Immediately below the top bar of the machine is seen the side of an iron frame g g, in which the silk to be operated on is fastened. Along the frame is seen the ends of a series of boards, whose lower edges are hinged together; between these boards, when opened like a book, the ends of the silk filaments from the filling engine are inserted, and the boards closed and put into their place in the iron frame, and between every pair of these boards is put a piece of solid wood. The pinching screws h h, at tire ends of the iron frames, are now turned, and the silk is thus held tightly between the boards. The iron frame, it will be seen, rests upon two supports jj, which, by means of a rack and pinion worked by the wheel k , can be moved up or down, and thus the frame can be raised or lowered; when lowered to its utmost extent it rests on the wheeled carriage l , which runs on the floor on a railroad placed at right angles to the machine. The operation of the machine is as follows: The frame which contains the silk is lowered until it rests on the carriage, which is then drawn out at the side of the machine. The boards containing the silk are then put into their places and firmly compressed by the pinching screws; the carriage is now returned to its place under the combs, and by means of the wheel, the frame is adjusted so that the combs may act on the silk. The machine is then put in motion, and the combs, by repeatedly passing over the silk, disentangle and lay parallel the filaments and remove impurities. When the combing of one side of the filaments has been effected, the frame is again lowered, and the carriage withdrawn. The workman with a skewer turns over the silk so as to expose the uncombed side, wheels round the frame on its centre pivot m, and again runs the carriage into its placé; again he raises the frame until within the scope of the combs, which constantly move in the same direction; and thus both sides of the material come to be thoroughly operated upon. The gleanings of the silk gathered by the combs, when accumulated, are screwed between the boards, and again subjected to the action of the machine; what is carried aWay by the combs in this operation is unfit for spinning, and is used, like the refuse of flax, for stuffing cushions and similar purposes.

When the filaments are by the dressing machine cleaned and laid parallel to each other, they are cut into lengths of about an inch and a quarter by the cutting engine, which operates upon the principle of chopping, and resembles the agricultural chaff machine. It is then operated upon by the scutcher, which is a modification of a similar machine used in the cotton manufacture. When it leaves the scutcher it resembles fine down, and is put into bags of a convenient size, and boiled for an hour and a half or so in soap and water, to deprive it of its gum; it is afterwards washed in pure soft water and again boiled, but not now for so long a period, this boiling being merely for the purpose of getting rid of impurities. It is then subjected to the action of a Bramah press, and when taken from the press, dried by means of a stove, after which it is cooled, and a second time passed through the scutching machine to fit it for carding. The carding is followed, as in the cotton manufacture, by the drawing and fly frames to produce a rove, and these, by the spinning mill and the throstle, after which reehng and bundling complete the operations and fit the thread for the market.

Messrs. William Casey and Company, of Castle Mills, Edinburgh, have it in contemplation to introduce such alterations in the spinning of silk waste as will supersede the cutting, carding, and scutching processes. This improvement they mean to effect by adopting the principles of flax spinning, in place of treating the waste in the manner of cotton, the uncut filaments being in this case drawn into a sliver by a modification of the flax gill.

The art of silk waste spinning, we may observe, is still in its infancy, but is advancing rapidly to greater maturity. In 1814, the quantity of waste imported by Great Britain amounted to 28,996 lbs., and in 1836 it had reached to the amount of 1,509,334 lbs.

In closing this brief sketch of what is now an important branch of our manufacture, we beg to express our grateful acknowledgments to Messrs. Harvey, Brand, and Company, of Glasgow, whose beautiful silk-throwing factory of Blackhall, Paisley, was with the utmost liberality opened to our inspection; and it is our duty also to record our acknowledgments to Messrs. William Casey and Company, of Edinburgh, of whose contemplated improvements in silk waste spinning, we have before spoken; it is only through such liberality as these gentlemen have displayed, that knowledge of the arts can be disseminated, and the energies of many minds be brought to bear upon them to their improvement. (b s.) Silk-Worm . Although the article now known to ourselves under the name of silk, is “familiar as household words,” yet its nature and origin were but obscurely, if at all ascertained in ancient times. Pliny, whose judgment and discrimination as a compiler are not greatly to be relied upon, reports that the bombyx (or silk worm) is a native of Kos, an island of the Mediterranean archipelago. It is known that silk was manufactured there at a very early period, but Aristotle had previously explained that bombykia, or the stuff produced from the bombyx, was respun and re-woven by the women of that island. The inventress of this process was Pamphilia. “She unwove the precious material to recompose it in her loom into fabrics of a more extended texture; thus converting the substantial silks of the Seres into thin transparent gauze, obtaining in measure what was lost in substance. Attempts have been made to rob the inventress of all the merit belonging to this process, by identifying the bombykia with the raw material, which it is said Pamphilia and her nymphs procured from Seres, and spun or wove into sericum or silk. But the fact of the reweaving rests upon too good authority to be doubted.”^[3. Cabinet Cyclopaedia, xxii. 5 ]

Had Pliny been right in supposing that silk was a natural product of the island in question, it is by no means probable that so laborious a process as that of converting foreign wrought articles into threads for reweaving, would have been resorted to. Indeed, the Byzantine historians inform us, that prior to silk worms being imported into Constantinople in the sixth century, no one in that capital knew that silk was the produce of a caterpillar. Although Aristotle gives[7:20:351] an account of the silk-worm, which he describes as a homed caterpillar, he does not indicate its native country. Assyria is named by Pliny as the original region of the bombyx, and he adds the extraordinary statement, that the stuff which the women of Rome unravelled and wove anew, was made from a woollen substance combed by the Seres from the leaves of trees, and that draperies formed from it were imported from the country of the Seres. These ancient people, we need scarcely remark, are generally believed to be the same with those we now name Chinese. Silk, in their language, is called sβ or ser, the latter term corresponding with that used by the Greeks, who, we cannot doubt, derived both the material itself, and the name by which it was designated, from the Chinese nation. According to Latreille, the city of Turfan, in Little Bucharia, was for a long time the rendezvous of the western caravans, and the chief entrepôt of the Chinese silks. It was the metropolis of the Seres of Upper Asia, or of the Serica of Ptolemy, situate, according to that author, between the Ganges and the Eastern Ocean. Hence the Serica vestis of the Romans, and the word Sericum, their name for silk.

This substance was but slightly known in Europe before the time of Augustus, and in the days of Aurelian was valued at its weight in gold. This was probably owing to the mode in which it was procured by the merchants of Alexandria, who had no direct intercourse with China, the chief, if not the only country in which the silk-worm was then reared. Though so highly lauded both by Greek and Roman writers, it was in frequent use for many centuries before any certain knowledge was obtained either of the country from which the material was derived, or of the means by which it was produced. By some it was supposed to be a fine down adhering to the leaves of trees and flowers; by others it was regarded as a delicate kind of wool or cotton,^[4. Sec Robertson’s Historical Description concerning Ancient India. ] and even those who had some idea of its insect origin, were incorrectly informed of the mode of its formation.^[5. Edinburgh Cabinet Library, viii. 152. ] The court of the Greek emperors, which surpassed even that of the Asiatic sovereigns in splendour and magnificence, became profuse in its display of this lustrous ornament; but as the Persians, from the advantages which their local situation gave them over the merchants from the Arabian Gulph, were enabled to supplant them in all those marts of lndia to which silk was brought by sea from the East, and had it in their power to cut off the caravans which travelled over land to China through their northern provinces, Constantinople thus became dependent on a rival power for an article now deemed essential to the enjoyment of civilized life. The Persians, with the rapacity inseparable from the power of monopolists, exorbitantly raised its price, and many attempts were made by Justinian to free his subjects from their exactions. An accidental circumstance is said to have accomplished what the wisdom of the great legislator was unable to achieve. Two Persian monks, who had been employed as missionaries in one of the Christian churches established in India, had penetrated to the country of the Seres, that is, to China, where they observed the operations of the silkworm, and acquired a knowledge of the art of man in working up its produce into so many rich and costly fabrics. The love of lucre, mingled, it is said, (though perhaps a single motive may suffice,) with a feeling of indignation that so valuable a branch of commerce should be enjoyed by unbelieving nations, induced them to repair to Constantinople, where they explained to the emperor the true origin of silk, and the various modes by which it was prepared and manufactured. Encouraged by the most liberal promises, they undertook to transport a sufficient supply of these extraordinary worms to Constantinople, which they effected by conveying the eggs of the parent moth in the interior of a hollow cane. They were hatched, it is alleged, by the heat of a dunghill, and the larvae were fed with the leaves of wild mulberry. They worked, underwent their accustomed metamorphoses, and multiplied their kind according to use and wont, and in the course of time have become almost universally cultivated throughout the southern countries of Europe, thus effecting an important change in the commercial relations which had so long existed between our conti-tinent and the east.^[6. See Procopius De Bello Gothico Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (Reign of Justinian); Edin. Cab. Library, already cited; and thia Encyc. Art. Entimology, ix. 247. ]

The cultivation of the silk-worm spread, at the period of the first crusades, from the Morea into Sicily, the kingdom of Naples, and several centuries afterwards, more especially under the administration of Sully, into France, to which kingdom it is well known to he now a source of great wealth. It is indeed curious to consider how the breeding of a few millions of small caterpillars should occasion such a disparity in the circumstances, or at least in the outward shew, of different tribes of the human race. When the wife and empress of Aurelian was refused a garment of silk on account of its extreme costliness, the most ordinary classes of the Chinese were, we doubt not, clad in that material from top to toe; and although, among ourselves, weekday and holiday are now alike profaned by uncouth forms, whose vast circumference is clothed in silk attire, yet our James the Sixth was forced to borrow a pair of silken hose from the Earl of Mar, that his state and bearing might be more effective in the presence of the ambassador of England, “for ye would not,” said the uncouth pedant, “that your king should appear as a scrub before strangers.” Queen Elizabeth, in the third year of her reign (1560), was highly gratified by receiving from her silk-woman, Mrs. Montague, a pair of knit black-silk stockings, with which she is said to have been so delighted, as never afterwards to have worn those of cloth. Even Henry the Eighth, notwithstanding his expensive magnificence, could not indulge himself as did his daughter, but wore cloth hose, except on gala days, when he sometimes contrived to obtain a pair or two of silken ones from Spain.

The silk-worm cultivated in Europe is the same as that which produces the greater proportion of the Chinese manufacture. It is the larva of the Bombyx mori, a pale coloured moth, with two or three obscure and transverse streaks, and a lunate spot on the superior wings. The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the mulberry, and before assuming the chrysalis form, it spins a protecting covering in the shape of an oval cocoon, of a close tissue of the finest silk, usually of a yellow colour, but sometimes white. The filament does not form regular concentric circles round the interior surface of the cocoon, but is spun as it were in spots, going backwards and forwards with a wavy motion. This apparently irregular manner of proceeding is plainly perceptible when the silk is wound off the ball, which does not make more than one or two entire revolutions, while ten or twelve yards of silk are being transferred to the reel.^[7. Cabinet Cyclopaedia, xxii. 112. . ] The caterpillar casts and renews its skin several times before it commences to spin, and when full grown, it measures from two and a half to three inches. The principal points to be attended to in its cultivation, are regular feeding three or four times a-day, good ventilation, and a rather high temperature, especially at the period of spinning, say 70° Fahrenheit. It lives and spins though fed only on lettuce leaves, but their true and natural food is the mulberry, especially the white kind, called by botanists Morus alba.

The important tree just named, is a native of China, from whence it is believed to have been transferred to lndia, Persia, and Asia Minor. It was introduced at Constantinople during the sixth century, in the reign of Justinian, in connection, no doubt, with the importation of the worms themselves. It was afterwards introduced into Greece, and the name Morea, by which the Peloponnesus is now distinguished,[7:20:352] is ascribed by many authors to the vast quantity of mulberry trees there cultivated In 1130, Roger, king of Sicily, having conquered many portions of the Morea, transported the white mulberry into his own kingdom, along with a supply of silk worms, and of artizans who understood their cultivation, and the manufacture of their natural product. About the year 1493, in the reign of Charles the Eighth, some nobles who had accompanied that Prince into Italy, brought the mulberry from Naples, and planted it in the environs of Montélimart. Not many years have gone by since those parent trees, the source of so rich a branch of commercial industry to France, were exhibited with an almost religious veneration. The mulberry was cultivated not only in the south of France, but Henry the Fourth brought a great many to Paris, which he planted in the gardens of the Tuilleries, where an establishment was founded for the rearing of the worms, and the preparation of their silk. No vestige of this plantation now remains.

It was long supposed that the cultivation of the white mulberry required a high temperature, but the contrary is proved by the fact of its thriving well in so many northern provinces of Germany. Even in Russia it is reared with considerable success. In France, however, it is not raised in large quantities with a view to the feeding of silk-worms, except in the central and southern provinces, as far north as the environs of Lyons. Government does not seem to have held out any encouragement to its extension, otherwise we doubt not that both the tree and caterpillar might be more extensively and abundantly spread over the more northern departments. The white mulberry is by no means nice in regard to the constituent character of its soil, and it is known to flourish in a great variety of situations. At the same time, the nature both of soil and situation seems to exercise considerable influence over the produce of the caterpillars which feed upon its leaves; the silk being finer, ampler, and more resistant, in proportion as the plant is successfully cultivated in a dry and rather elevated position. In the south of France it is customary to cut off all the medium-sized branches every year, with a view to facilitate the production of a greater number of young shoots, these bearing the largest and most numerous leaves. The leaves of the black mulberry (Mortis nigra), and in general those of all the other species of the genus, are adapted to the nourishment of the silk-worm. But not only are they apparently less grateful to their taste, but they actually produce a silk much inferior both in quantity and quality.

We have said that the silk-worm cultivated in Europe is the same as that which produces the greater proportion of the Chinese manufacture. But in Bengal and other parts of India, valuable silk is procured from the cocoons of other species of moth. The first of these is described by Dr. Roxburgh under the title of Phalaena paphia, and occurs in such abundance over many parts of Bengal, and the adjoining provinces, as to have afforded to the natives, from time immemorial, an abundant supply of a very durable, though coarse, and dark-coloured silk, called Tussch, much used by the Brahmins, and other sects of Hindoos. This species, however, cannot be domesticated; so the hill people go into the jungles, and when they perceive the dung of the caterpillars under a tree, they immediately search for them among the branches, and carry off w hat they require. These they distribute on the Asseen trees (Terminalia alata glabra of Roxb.), and as long as they continue in the caterpillar state, the Pariahs guard them from birds by day, and from bats by night. The natural food of this species is the Byer tree of the Hindoos, called Rhamnus jujuba by botanists. The Jaroo cocoons are produced from a rare variety of the kind just mentioned. This tussch silk-worm moth appears to be synonymous with Bombyx mylitta of Fabricius,and is figured by Drury.^[8. Illustrations of Natural History, ii. tab. 5. ] The Arrindy silk-worms, however, belong to an entirely different species, Phalaena cynthia of the last named author.^[9. Ibid. tab. 6. ] It seems to be peculiar to two districts in the interior of Bengal, viz. Runpore and Dinagepore, where it is reared in a domestic state. The food of this kind of silk-worm consists entirely of the leaves of the common Ricinus, or Palma Christi, which the natives call Arrindy, and hence the name by which the insect is itself distinguished. The cocoons in general are about a couple of inches in length, three inches in circumference, and pointed at both ends. They are of a white or yellowish colour, and their texture is extremely soft and delicate. The filament, indeed, is so extremely fine, that the silk cannot be wound off, but must be spun like cotton. The yarn is wove into a kind of coarse white cloth, of a seemingly loose texture, but of such extreme durability, that the file of one person seldom suffices to wear out a garment of it; so that the same piece frequently descends from parent to child. It must always be washed in cold water.^[10. See Account of the Tussch and Arrindy silk worms of Bengal, by William Roxburgh, M.D. Linn-Trans, viii. 33; and British India (in Edin. Cab. Library), iii. 154. ]

The only other species with which we are acquainted is that alluded to by Mr. Arthur Young, in an extract of a letter published in the Annals of Agriculture, It has been introduced into our Eastern possessions for a considerable number of years. “We have obtained,” says the writer of the letter, “a monthly silk-worm from China, which I have reared with my own hands, and in twenty-five days have had the cocoons in my basins, and by the twenty-ninth or thirty-first day, a new progeny feeding in my trays. This makes it a mine to whoever would undertake the cultivation of it.”

The practice of rearing silk worms in this country is usually followed rather as an amusing occupation than for purposes of gain. The female moth is induced to lay her eggs upon sheets of paper, to which they adhere by a natural viscosity. The period of hatching may be hastened or retarded by a higher or lower temperature, and the chief point for the breeder to bear in mind is, that the worms should not make their appearance till an abundance of natural food is near at hand. The eggs are at first of a very pale hue, but such as are to produce worms speedily become of a bluish grey colour; the unproductive ones continuing of a pale yellow. As there are tricks in all trades, the foreign dealers often favour their old useless eggs with a wash in dark-coloured muddy wine, which gives them for a time a deceptive healthy aspect. A stove-room, or other apartment, with a temperature of 64° will suffice for the hatching of eggs, and the heat may afterwards be raised with advantage a few degrees every other day, for about ten days, but not so as to exceed about 80°. They will, however, thrive well enough in summer in any comfortably kept apartment, though a continuous warmth by night as well as by day is of great advantage. Whatever broods are hatched at the same period, should be kept together, and those of different ages ought never to be fed in the same trays.

The best and simplest apparatus for keeping silk worms is that p∣oposed by Mr. Swayne. It consists of an open quadrangular wooden frame, about four feet two inches high, provided with eight uncovered slides or drawers a few inches apart from each other, and which, moving in a groove or ledge, can easily be shifted out or in. The upper slide is made of paper, and is devoted to the reception of the newly hatched worms, which it is desirable to feed at first with young and delicate leaves, chopped into small pieces. The flooring of the second and third slides is made of catgut, the reticulations being about the tenth part of an inch asunder. In these the worms are placed during what may be called the second and third stages. The five remaining slides are made of wicker-work or netting, and in them the insects are distributed “fewer and far between,” as they increase in size. Beneath every drawer except the uppermost,[7:20:353] which is itself made of paper, additional paper slides should be placed to receive the dung, and the worms must not be kept any longer in the second and third drawers, so soon as the litter alluded to becomes so large as to stick in the catgut meshes, without falling through upon the paper slides beneath. By means of these additional slides, this litter may be removed any time the worms are fed, without the necessity of handling the latter. When the fresh food is placed in the drawers they will speedily creep upon it, and any remnants of old leaves can be picked up by a pair of small pincers.

Silk worms ought to be fed with regularity at least four times a-day; additional or intermediate meals being given when any extraordinary appetite is manifested. The duration of the lives of these animals depends, to a certain extent, upon temperature and locality; warmth, well kept quarters, and abundance of food, being found to hasten the spinning process. All these things should be very sedulously attended to by those who rear silk worms in large quantities with a view to profit, time being so important an element in all commercial undertakings.

When the silk worm makes its first appearance, it is of a dark colour, and measures only one or two lines in length; after the lapse of eight days, it is attacked by a lethargic sickness, which will cause the heart of the young or inexperienced breeder to despond, but he need fear no evil, for this is only an unavoidable symptom of the ordinary ongoings of nature. The creature is about to cast its skin, and for about three days it remains motionless, refusing food. On the termination of this period the old skin opens at the anterior end, the fore-legs are disengaged, and the new and delicately attired worm escapes forth, to enjoy itself once more on pastures green, It had previously exuded a peculiar fluid, and had also, by means of a few silken strings (how provident is benign nature !) fastened down its old and useless coat, that it might not be dragged after it when the hour of delivery has arrived. This coating is so complete, that even the skin which covers the eyes and teeth is thrown away. Immediately after this renewal, the body of the worm appears pale and somewhat wrinkled, the new coat being made full size to admit of future growth; but the latter attribute speedily disappears. It feeds freely for five additional days, during which it grows to about half an inch in length, and is then seized by its second sickness, and again casts its skin. Then succeed other five days of feasting, in the course of which it increases to three quarters of an inch, when it sickens a third time, and acquires in a similar manner a third suit of clothes. Again five days of feeding; again a removal of the outer garment, or a fourth casting of the skin. The caterpillar now measures from an inch and a half to two inches long, and for a continuous period of about ten days it eats voraciously, and increases greatly both in length and thickness. On the expiry of this last-mentioned period, it has attained the full stature of a silk-worm, being from two and a half to three inches long. Its desire for food abates, it nibbles and wastes its leaves, then ceases to eat, and becomes restless and uneasy, moving circularly from side to side, owing to some instinctive feeling of desire to secure a quiet haven in which to spin its silken shroud. Its colour is now of a palish green, with a mingling of a deeper hue. In the course of about twenty-four hours from the time of its having ceased to feed, the silky texture becomes abundantly supplied to its interior reservoirs; the green colour disappears, the body becomes glossy, and somewhat transparent towards the neck. Previous to spinning, the general dimensions rather decrease than otherwise, but greater firmness of substance is acquired.

When the desire to spin is thus unequivocally manifested, art must come in aid of nature. Our own method formerly was (we worked, however, in this department on a narrow scale,) to supply our caterpillars with small twisted paper bags, open at one end, such as any old woman may use on a Saturday night to carry from the grocer’s her solitary ounce of tea. Into each of these would creep a single caterpillar, and weave his golden woof incessantly, till the loved work was done. But those who rear extensively, supply their completed caterpillars with small twigs or branches of broom, heath, or any other brushwood, which happens to unite tenderness and tenacity.

Great attention must now be paid in regard to keeping up a warm temperature. The observations of a writer in the fifth volume of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, amply illustrate this important point. He had successfully reared thirty thousand silk-worms, when in the beginning of July, just as they were about to spin, there came a chilly north-east wind, and many assumed the chrysalis state, without making any attempt to form a protecting covering. On examining these individuals, it was apparent that their silken reservoirs had been congealed by cold, so that the insects were unable to draw out the filaments in their usual slender state, their own capacity of movement and exertion being no doubt at the same time chilled. Even when they have commenced to spin, or have made some progress in their labours, they will cease if exposed to cold, and if the surrounding web is still of sufficient transparency, they may be seen lying idle and inactive in the interior of their cocoons. But if the temperature is raised, they will immediately resume their work. A heat as high as 70° is thought advisable at this time.

These beautiful silken coverings, or coc∞as as they arc called, are generally completed in three or four days. They are commenced by the formation (among the twigs or in paper bags, as the case may be) of a loose decomposed structure of an oval form, made of what is denominated floss silk. Within this, in the course of the ensuing days, the firmer cocoons are completed. These are rounded somewhat oval balls, varying in tint, but usually more or less of a golden hue, though sometimes white. Those of a bright yellow hue yield the greater weight of reeled silk, but as the finer colouring substance is contained chiefly in the gum which is boiled out before weaving, less advantage is reaped by the grower. Raw silk, of a pale colour, is moreover preferred, on account of its better reception of certain dyes. The included worm, having finished its labour, casts its skin once more, but never appears again as a caterpillar, as it now assumes that rounded shapeless form termed chrysalis. The cocoons may be selected for reeling in about a week, and then comes the ungrateful and ungracious task of destroying the peaceful tenants of the tomb. This is variously accomplished, either by exposure (in sunny climates,) for some hours to unclouded solar light and heat; by steam; or by placing the cocoons in a temperature corresponding to that of an oven from which loaves have just been withdrawn after being baked.

If not killed, the chrysalis remains in its naturally dormant state for a longer or shorter time, in accordance with the clime in which it has had its birth. In eastern countries this is not more than eleven days; in the most southern parts of Europe from eighteen to twenty; in France about three weeks; in England, if unaided by artificial means, about a month. After these respective periods, according to climate, whether natural or acquired, the perfect moth emerges, and the reason for destroying the chrysalis is this, that in emerging she (the moth) destroys the silk, under the impression probably, that she may do what she likes with her own. A few, however, are of course spared for the sake of a future progeny, sound coc∞ns being selected, and in equal numbers as to sex, those containing the males being sharper or more pointed at the ends.

Such as have been killed for reeling are, before the commencement of that process, placed in warm water, so that[7:20:354] their gummy nature may be partly softened, but not dissolved. The length of silken thread which may be unwound from a single cocoon, although it has been ridiculously exaggerated by Isnard and other writers, is in truth astonishing. Count Dandolo found it occasionally to exceed 600 yards; Miss Rhodes of Yorkshire mentions that one of her largest cocoons yielded 404 measured yards; and Pullein considers the average length to be about 300 yards. From data given by the first named author it was found, that to obtain one pound of reeled silk, twelve pounds of cocoons are required; that 2800 worms would be necessary to produce that amount of cocoons; and that to feed these caterpillars, 152 pounds of mulberry leaves must be collected.

As we write this brief notice rather for the amateur than the artizan, the mention of the above named tree reminds us of the propriety of stating, that as mulberry leaves cannot be easily obtained in Britain in required abundance, the best substitute is lettuce.