Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/210

* SILK. 168 SILK. Spun Silk. Before winding the cocoons a flossy portion has to be removed. (See Floss Silk.) After the lilauient lias been wound off another re- mains like a compact bag. These, together with the silk from jxTloratcd and double cocoons, and the fragments of broken thread which accumulate during the process of throwing, are collected and sold under the name of icaste silk. This waste is thoroughly cleaned by washing, boiling, and drying, and is then carded and spun like cotton, the yarn jjroduced by this process being known as spun silk or flurt silk. This greatly econ- omizes the use of silk, as the quantity of silk- waste always greatly exceeds the amount of good silk reeled off. The processes employed in the production of silk-yarn or floss silk, from the waste, difl'er little from those for spinning other materials. Four million pounds of floss silk are annually consumed in France alone. Wild Silk. Many silk-producing moths exist besides the Bomhyx mori, or cultivated moth, from which the ordinary commercial silk is de- rived. The one at present attracting the most attention is that from which Tussah silk is manu- factured, much used in connection with ordinary silk and in the manufacture of plush. Tussah silk is the product of the moth Anthercea mylitfa, found in India. Other wild silks aie the Eria silk of India, the Fagara silk of China, and the Yaiiia-iiiai silk of Japan. See Silkworm. Othee Silk. A certain amount of silk is spun by many insects. The bombycid and Saturnian moths spin the largest quantity. There is a but- terfly (Euclieira socialis), however, whose eater- pillars live in an enormous silken nest. Insects of other orders, also, have smaller silk glands and secrete some silk. In the Arachnida a num- ber of groups produce silk, the greatest amount being spun by the spiders, and many experiments have been made to place the production of spider- silk upon a commercial basis. Baw Silk Phodoctigij op the World for Yeah 1899 [From United States Consular Reports, March, 1901] COUNTRY Kilograms Pounds Western Europe ; 660,000 3.363,000 78,000 276,000 1,2.34,576 Italy 6,814,070 171,959 608,470 Total 4.277,000 8,829,075 Levant and Central Asia : 486,000 466,000 210,000 42,000 34,000 310,000 246,000 1,071,436 1,005,298 462,966 92,693 74,966 683.426 Persia and Turkestan (exports 542,332 Total 1,784,000 3,933,007 Far East: 5,456,000 2,250.000 3,642,000 350,000 12 026,093 4,960,350 '* Japan. Yokohama India, Calcutta 7,808,693 771,610 Total 11.597,000 25.566,746 Grand total 17,658,000 38,328,828 Silk Fabrics. The process of weiving silk does not differ from that of weaving other fabrics, except that in Europe for the finer grades the hand-loom is still largely employed. (See Weav- ing.) In 1889, 17,294 hand-looms were in use iu Lyons, France; in 1899 the number had fallen to 8037. The four principal silk woven textures are sarcenet, taffeta, satin, and velvet. Statistics. The accompanying table on the silk production of the world was compiled by Consul Hughes, of Coburg, from statistics issued by the Merchants' Union Silk Syndicate of Lyons. According to the Twelfth United States Census there were in the country at the close of 1900 483 silk factories, with a combined capital of $81,082,201, which used 9,760,770 pounds of raw silk. The rapid growth of the industry dur- ing the last half of the nineteenth century is shown by the fact that in 1850 there were only sixty-seven silk factories, having a capital of .$078,300 and a product of $1,809,476. Silk and Mandfactdbes op Silk Imported into the United States [From the .Statistical Abstract of the United States for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1900] cnmandfactuhed— Cnooona free ' Pounds 30,004 Loooons tree I j^u^rs 18,235 Raw, or as reeled from the co- i pounds 11,269,310 coons free ( dollars 44,649,672 Waste free | S"!!!.'!' ^'J^*;*"* I dollars.. Total manufactured dollars 45,329,760 MANUFACTnUES OF— Clothing, read.v - made, and other weariii;? apparel dut.... dollars 1,657,641 Dress and piece goods dut.... dollars 15,425.997 Laces and embroideries dut.. ..dollars 3,206,857 Ribbons dut.. ..dollars 1,811,044 Spun silk, in skeins, caps, warps, or ( pounds 2.430,552 on beams dut. I dollars 3,723.348 Velvets, plushes, and other pile i pounds 708,354 fabrics dut. ) dollars 2,316,115 All other dut.. ..dollars 2.752.771 Total manufactures dollars.. 0,894.373 In 1900 there was a total of 44,430 silk looms in the United States, of which 20, .572 were in New .Jersey, 12,949 in Pennsylvania, 5203 in New York, 2975 in Connecticut, and 1040 in Massachusetts. During the year forty-three silk mills were built, and one-third of the silk prod- uct of the world was consumed in the United States. Returns for the year 1901 for the State of New Jersey gave the total number of silk establishments" in that State as 152; average number of men an<l women employed therein, 26,046; wages paid, $10,544,948; gross value of product, .$41,199,395. Bibliography. Most of the recent literature on silk manufacture is in French or German. Sadtler, Industrial Organic Chemistry (Pliila- delphia, 1900), contains a brief but thorough dis- cussion of the physical processes involved, while Posselt, Structure of Fibres, Yarns, and Fabrics (Philadelphia, 1890), contains a concise account, of the methods and machinery employed in the modern silk factory. Silk-weaving from the historical side is treated in Coles. Ornament in European Silks (London, 1899). See, also, bibli- ography under Silkworm. See Silkworm ; Spinnikg; Textile Manufacturing; Weaving. SILK, Artificial. Artificial silk has been the aim of experimenters for many years. The Comte de Chardonnet, at the Paris Exposition of 1889, exhibited a most ingenious process of producing from cellulose an artificial fibre resembling in all its characteristics and uses the true silk of Bomhyx mori. The cellulose experimented with was principally of cotton and the pulp of soft