Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/50

 2 SILK contact while fresh from the bath. When a a cocoon gives put, afresh cocoon is su!.>titMt,-d; and as the inner hbres are always much finer than the outer, new co- ooons are added before the first lot have been unwound. These finer filaments, as also the immediate envelope of the chrysalis, constitute with the floss silk what is known as waste. The raw silk taken off from the reels is in China made up into bundles, called books, for expor- tation and elsewhere the hanks are simply twi<U'd so as to hold snugly together. They are then ready for the factory of the silk throw- sters, where are conducted the operations con- nected with the throwing, a term variously used to express the putting a twist into fibres. For bandanna handkerchiefs the only prepara tion of the silk is winding the hanks and clean- ing; bleaching is added for silk intended for gauze and similar fabrics. Winding, cleaning, and throwing prepare it, under the name of thrown singles, for ribbons and common silks. If simply doubled before throwing, it is known as tram, and is used for the woof or shoot of gros de Naples, velvets, and flowered silks. The twisting of each strand before doubling, as well as afterward, converts it into organzine, a strong thread suitable for warp. The wind- ing is done from light six-sided reels called swifts, upon which the hanks, first washed in soap and water, are extended, and rows of which are set upon long shafts in an iron frame and connected each with its own bobbin, upon the top of the frame. The revolution of the latter carries around the reel beneath, and the movement is properly checked and regulated by appliances to the reel. The next process is that of cleaning the threads, which is effected upon the cleaning, drawing, or picking ma- chine. The full bobbins are set horizontally upon plain spindles, from which each thread is conducted over an iron or glass guide rod, thence through an adjustable opening between two upright iron blades of an instrument called the cleaner, and then to the empty bobbins, which by their revolution wind it off from the full ones. Knots and other irregularities are stopped by the cleaner, and if not brushed off they stop the movement of the bobbin until they are removed by hand. The spinning or rather twisting process is conducted by means of machines similar to those used for the same purpose in cotton spinning. Doubling is the process of bringing two or more of the twisted threads into one and winding this. The bob- bins of doubled thread are next twisted at the spinning frames, which completes the prep- aration of silk thread whether for sewing or weaving purposes. The American machines for doubling and twisting are much superior to those used in England, but for winding the same are employed in both countries. The
 * <.r.-l l,y dyeing after the gum has

been removed from it by boiling for three or four hours in soap and water. It loses abou one quarter its weight by this operation, bu SILK SPIDER recovers nearly half the loss in the dye stuff it absorbs. Waste silk is prepared for spinning >y first hackling in the same manner as flax is lackled and with the same sort of hand instru- ment This is followed by machine hackling upon'the filling engine, which more effectually combs out the filaments and removes the im- purities. The sliver of parallel fibres is then chopped into lengths of about 1J in., which after scutching, as in the treatment of cotton, are converted into a sort of fine down. This is put nto bags and boiled, first with soap and water for an hour and a half, and afterward with jure water. It is then powerfully squeezed inder a Bramah press, dried by artificial heat, and again scutched. The succeeding opera- tions of carding, drawing, and roving by the 3y frames, and spinning by the spinning mill and throstle frames, are similar to those prac-
 * ised in the manufacture of cotton yarns. The

product is adapted for the manufacture of shawls, bandanna handkerchiefs, and similar fabrics. In the year ending Dec. 31, 1874, there were in the United States 180 silk man- ufactories, employing 14,479 operatives of both sexes, distributed as follows : Few Jersey 42, with 6,414 operatives; New York 70, with 3,378; Connecticut 21, with 2,651; Pennsyl- vania 23, with 1,541 ; Massachusetts 11, with 1,249; California 3, with 100; Ohio 3, with 40 ; Illinois 2, with 35 ; New Hampshire, Ma- ryland, Vermont, Missouri, and Kansas, each 1. The total capital invested was $14,708,184 ; total value of production, $20,082,482. Of this sum, thrown and spun silks amounted_ to $3,863,325; sewing silks and machine twist, $5,766,684; broad goods and ribbons, $6,154,- 313; laces, braids, and trimmings, $4,298,196. The importations of silk into the United States for the year ending June 30, 1875, were as fol- lows: raw silk, 1,101,681 Ibs., costing at the foreign port of shipment, $4,504,306; sewing silk, $30,389; silk, satins, crapes, pongees, plushes, ribbons, &c., $19,226,672; gloves and hosiery, $71,053; mixed goods, $3,482,369; total, $27,314,787. There were imported be- sides 398,012 Ibs. of cocoons. The silk crop of Europe in the year 1874-'5 was 9,000,000 Ibs., of which Italy supplied 6,300,000, France 1,600,000, and Spain about 310,000. The im- port from Asia amounted to 11,500,000 Ibs. SILK SPIDER (nephila plumipes, Koch), a geometric spider of the family epeirida, first brought to notice by Dr. B. G. Wilder in 1865 ; he discovered it on the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina. The female is I'l in. long, with a longitudinal spread of legs 2f in., and a lateral extent of 3f in. ; the cephalo-thorax is black above, mostly covered with silvery hairs ; abdomen olive brown, with yellow and white spots and stripes ; eye spots black and eight in number ; it received its specific name from the closely set stiff brushes of hairs on the legs. They are found in forests, building strong viscid webs, 3 to 4 ft. in diameter, and usually over 10 ft. from the ground. The web