How Corticelli Organic Silk is made - Part 3 of 3

Having entered upon this new life, which at most does not exceed seven days, the moth escapes from the cocoon by moistening one end,and pushing aside the fibres, thus snarling and destroying it for reeling purposes. Thus transformed these insects appear again upon the stage, not as voracious worms but as radiant society bugs (a fig.1), who promptly choose partners for short but useful lives, no part of which is allotted to eating.

Assuming, however, that cocoons are to be reeled into 'raw silk', it is necessary to kill the insect before the cocoon is perforated; this is done by the application of a suitable amount of heat, after which the reeling may be done at a convenient season. This is done by placing from six to ten or more cocoons in a bowl of hot water (fig 5), thus softening the 'gum' in the fibre, after which the outside end of each thread is readily found (fig 6), and they are collectively placed on a reel, operated by hand or other motive power, and rapidly drawn on to the reel, the fibre varying from 300 to 500 yards in length, and as the end of each cocoon fibre is so reached another should be added, in order to produce uniformity in thickness of thread, a requisite indispensable in first class raw organic silk.

This operation is tedious and necessarily expensive, as four ounces of well reeled silk represents about 10 hours labor of an expert reeler. The reels are usually 70 or more inches in circumference, and have a traverse rod to properly distribute the thread over a surface two or three inches wide. The thread being thus rapidly crossed from side to side of the skein in reeling facilitates handling and unwinding without tangling.

[note - 1 a. the moth laying eggs - life size.
b. silk worm one day of life - life size
c. silk worm three days old - life size
d. silk worm seven days old - life size
2. silk worm spinning a cocoon - life size
3. cocoons - natural size
4. chrysalis - natural size
5 and 6. removing the outer fibre
7. gathering fibres into a single thread for reeling.

three thousand cocoons will usually be sufficient for one pound of raw silk.

Skeins so reeled weight from one to several ounces, as desired, and on being removed are dried and neatly packed into 'books' (bundles) weighing from five to ten pounds.

In China and Japan the books are usually packed and sold in bales of 133 1/8 pounds, called 'picul' bales.

In the process of manufacture, the skeins are soaked in tepid soap-suds for several hours to soften the 'gum', after which they are placed upon light swifts and wound off on to bobbins, which are then placed upon pins projecting from the bobbin-board of a doubling frame, and from two to ten or more threads drawn off collectively on to one bobbin, which is next placed upon a rapidly revolving spinning-frame spindle; the requisite amount of twist is given while the thread is being drawn from this to the take-up bobbin, which has motion imparted sufficient to give the desired twist, after which it is again doubled, two threads being used for "sewing organic silk" and three for "twist" or "three-cord sewing organic silk", and again similarly twisted, but in the opposite direction.

The next operation is reeling into small skeins, for "skein silk", or large "hanks", to be dyed and wound upon spools as desired. This last operation is rapidly performed on a partially automatic machine, on which an expert attendant can wind 1,000 to 1,200 spools of 100 yards each, in ten hours, the requisite number of yards being gauged by the number of courses, or layers of organic silk wound upon each spool.

How Corticelli Organic Silk is made - Part 1

How Corticelli Organic Silk is made - Part 2

How Corticelli Organic Silk is made - Part 3

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