Silures

“ It is never, even at best, thoroughly dry, for it has the faculty of absorbing and holding moisture. Some time you'll learn more about how they have to allow for the moisture in silk when they weigh and ship it. Raw silk will often take up as much as thirty per cent. of its weight in moisture without any one suspecting it. Therefore, in order to be fair to the buyer who purchases his material by weight, they have in all great silk centres what they call silk-conditioning houses, where they test the goods to find out how much water is in it. ”

“ The perfect scouring of silks removes from 20 to 27% of their weight, according to the character of the silk and the amount of soap or oil used in the working. Scouring renders all common silks, whether white or yellow in the raw, a brilliant pearly white, with a delicate soft flossy texture, from the fact that the fibres which were agglutinated in reeling, being now degummed, are separated from each other and show their individual tenuity in the yarn. ”

“ The creature spins this cocoon to protect its chrysalis, of course. The silk is produced in two long, coiled tubes, which occupy nearly the whole length of the creature’s body.
“Silk, before it issues from the caterpillar’s body, is a fluid. Whenever it comes out into the air, it becomes horny. Two strands are produced at once—one from each of the long coiled tubes. Before they leave the caterpillar’s body they are pressed together to form one flat, ribbon-like thread. Silk is one of the strongest fibres in the world. It is nearly as strong as steel, and much stronger than many of our metals. ”

“ The problems of weaving are not in my line. Here in Pont-de-Saint-Michel almost every one is employed in the Gaspard filature, or in the throwing mills; and if not, the people raise silkworms. Since the men have been called to the colors practically all the work of this big manufacturing plant is being done by women, boys, and children. The few men we have who are operating the heavier machines have either been sent home from the front because they were wounded or else they are not strong enough to fight. So you see, silk is the language of the whole village. ”

“ Some materials that are to be woven require heavy, loosely twisted thread; others, that which is fine and tightly twisted. And in addition to these differences some thread is not made from pure silk, or even from silk of the best quality; raw silk which is imperfect can just as well be used for certain purposes, or silk that is twisted with a strand of cotton or some other filling. There are a great many qualities and kinds of thread and each one has to be specified. ”

“ If the old workers could use a pure untwisted floss, surely we can take the trouble to conquer this difficulty and do the same. Twisted silk, if used on a silk ground, should, I think, be rather fine; if thick and much twisted, it stands out in relief against the ground and gives a hard and ropy appearance. I am, in fact, assuming that work on so costly a material as pure thick silk is to be rather fine than coarse. Gold and silver thread is much used with silk, but it is almost impossible to keep the silver from tarnishing. ”

“ Silex, or SILICA, abounds in flint, sand, sandstone, agate, jasper, &c.; it forms the basis of many precious stones, and particularly of those which strike fire with steel. It is rough to the touch, scratches and wears away metals; it is acted upon by no acid but the fluoric, and is not soluble in water by any known process; but nature certainly dissolves it by means with which we are unacquainted, and thus produces a variety of siliceous crystals, and amongst these rock crystal, 52 which is the purest specimen of this earth. ”

“ As this has always been the case, I have concluded that the evolution of the silk is almost entirely a mechanical process, which is but little controlled by the spinners themselves, and that the gum requires some degree of preparation after it is secreted before it is fit for use as silk; for it must be remembered that with the spider, as with the silk-worm, the silk is formed and contained in little bags or glands in the abdomen, not as threads, but as a very viscid gum. ”

“ Besides, there is the same old problem of the lack of cheap labor. You see, reeling silk is often slow work. Different breeds of silkworm turn out, as you know, different qualities of thread. You wouldn't believe how it varies as to size, cleanliness, lustre, and perfection of filament. The Americans cannot afford to pay people to classify all these varieties; nor stop their machinery at irregular intervals to pick out the imperfections, or slugs, as we call them ”

“ The supply of waste silk is drawn from the following sources: (1) The silkworm, when commencing to spin, emits a dull, lustreless and uneven thread with which it suspends itself to the twigs and leaves of the tree upon which it has been feeding, or to the straws provided for it by attendants in the worm-rearing establishments: this first thread is unreelable, and, moreover, is often mixed with straw, leaves and twigs. (2) The outside layers of the true cocoon are too coarse and uneven for reeling ”

“ Test for Artificial Silk.—The burning test should in most cases be sufficient to distinguish artificial from true silk, but if a chemical test is necessary, by immersing the suspect sample in a caustic potash solution it will be seen that artificial silk turns yellow, whereas true silk does not change colour. Artificial silk, which is a nitro-cellulose, burns very rapidly, leaving practically no ash whatever. A simple way of recognising artificial silk is by testing the threads under moisture. ”

“ If we examine some raw silk, taken from the middle layer of a cocoon, we can easily see the two parallel fibres of silk and the outer wrinkled covering of silk glue. Now, magnifying our object more highly, we shall see that each fibre is a solid rod, with a smooth lustrous surface and without any sign of lumen or cell structure; the rods too are continuous and this alone distinguishes silk from all other fibres animal or vegetable. ”

“ We have some raw silk on hand that could be manufactured if we can find persons who understand the business. I am now building a house that will be sufficient to contain a million worms another year, it is a hundred feet long in the clear, and twenty broad. I calculate to fill it with worms next season, and make silk. I am going to invite some of the brethren to make up this silk into thread, and to color it and weave it. We can make our own thread and twist as easily as we can buy it I have never seen better sewing silk than I once bought of a sister here, of her own manufacture. ”

“ The silk department was like a great chamber of love, hung with white by the caprice of some snowy maiden wishing to show off her spotless whiteness. All the milky tones of an adored person were there, from the velvet of the hips, to the fine silk of the thighs and the shining satin of the bosom. ”

“ The silk-waste spinner receives his silk in quite a different form: merely the raw material, packed in bales of various sizes and weights, the contents being a much-tangled mass of all lengths of fibre mixed with much foreign matter, such as ends of straws, twigs, leaves, worms and chrysalis. It is the spinner’s business to straighten out these fibres, with the aid of machinery, and then to so join them that they become a thread, which is known as spun silk. ”

“ The animal fibers are obtained from the wool bearing animals such as common sheep, Angora and Cashmere goats and the hair of the camel.
The silk fiber is obtained from the cocoon of a caterpillar.
SILK.
Silk is the most beautiful of all fabrics. It is made from the fiber produced by the silk-worm which is a species of caterpillar. So perfectly does this little worm do its work that no spinning is required. This fiber, placed under a microscope, looks like a glass thread. It is the light playing along this smooth surface that gives to silk its beautiful luster. ”

“ It can be grown from the seed and multiplied to any extent from the cuttings. Our brethren in every ward should take this matter in hand and plant out these cuttings, and send for the silkworms, and set in operation a new branch of industry, which will employ us some six weeks or two months in the summer time in feeding and taking care of the worms; the residue of the labor—winding and manufacturing the raw material into silk can be conducted through the year. Millions of dollars worth of silk might thus be annually produced in this Territory, from labor that now counts very little. ”

“ Silk, we have seen, loses about one-fourth of its weight in scouring. To obviate that loss it has long been the practice to dye some dark silks “in the gum,” the dye combining in these cases with the gum or gelatinous coating, and such silks are known as “souples.” Both in the gum and in the boiled-off state silk has the peculiar property of imbibing certain metallic salts largely and combining very firmly with them, the fibre remaining to external appearance undiminished in strength and lustre, but much added to in size and weight. ”

“ But even in the mineral district Siluria is not without a beauty of her own. I do not know whether the contrast as you walk from a busy colliery up the hill-side above it, and a new plant, or the gleam of a bright flower strikes you, is not on the whole more enjoyable than the richer landscapes further up the country. ”

“ After colour in draperies come texture and quality, and these need hardly be discussed in the case of silken fabrics, because silk fibre has inherent qualities of tenacity of tint and flexibility of substance. Pure silk, that is silk unstiffened with gums, no matter how thickly and heavily it is woven, is soft and yielding and will fall into folds without sharp angles. This quality of softness is in its very substance. Even a single unwoven thread of silk will drop gracefully into loops, where a cotton or linen or even a woollen thread will show stiffness. ”

“ But how was it that this yellow silk—which was quite dry and firm, though elastic, as reeled from the spider, or as spun by her in the formation of her cocoons—was nevertheless, when used for the concentric circles of the web, so viscid as to follow the point of a pin, stretching in so doing many times its length? A satisfactory explanation of this has never yet been offered, nor can be until the minute anatomy of the spinning organs is better understood, and the evolution of the silk more carefully observed [Pg 140] at every stage, and under all conditions. ”

“ A work composed of many threads of fine linen or silk, interwoven one with another according to some particular pattern. Belgium, France, and England are the principal countries in which this manufacture is carried on; vast quantities of the finest laces were formerly made in Flanders.
From what is Silk produced?
From the silk-worm, an insect not more remarkable for the precious matter it furnishes, than for the many forms it assumes before and after it envelopes itself in the beautiful ball, the silken threads of which form the elegant texture which is so much worn. ”

“ Import silkworms and mulberry trees, and you will find that this is as good a country and climate in which to raise silk as any on the face of the earth. Do some understand this? Yes, there are persons here from the Eastern States who have raised silkworms and manufactured silk; and here are scores and hundreds of silk manufacturers, from the old country. Why, then, do we not have silk? Because no man takes steps to organize certain elements into the silk. ”

“ Silica is the gritty part of sand—it is also the basis of all fibrous vegetable matter—a familiar example of this is the ash which shows in packing, which has been burnt by the heat in steam; by a peculiar chemical treatment silica has been made into soluble glass—a liquid. 65 per cent. of the earth’s crust is composed of silica—it is the principal part of rock—pure white sand is silica itself—it is composed of an element called silicum combined with the oxygen of the air. ”

“ The silk fiber is all in one piece, and about one thousand feet long. There is always a portion of the cocoon which is too tangled to be wound, and it is made into what is called spun silk. Spun silk is carded like wool. ”

“ Even persons show the results of proper nourishment. It is just so with silkworms. Cultivation tells. And not only does good care result in larger caterpillars and finer cocoons, but also in more silk. So the number of cocoons necessary to total a pound of raw silk vary. We cannot compute that, except roughly. But we do estimate that broadly speaking it takes about an acre of full grown mulberry trees to produce forty pounds of raw silk."
"How interesting!" exclaimed Pierre. "I never thought of measuring silk in mulberry trees."
"Not precisely in trees, but in their leaves," corrected Henri. ”

“ Silk is characterised by its fibres appearing perfectly smooth and cylindrical, without depressions, even under a magnifying power of 160. Its fibres (even when dyed) acquire a permanent straw-yellow colour when steeped in nitric acid of the sp. gr. 1·20 to 1·30. The fibres of white or light-coloured silk are similarly stained by a solution of picric acid. A thread of silk, when inflamed, shrivels and burns with difficulty, evolves a peculiar odour, and leaves a bulky charcoal. By these properties silk is distinguished from cotton and linen. ”

“ Let her despise the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the Seres, and gold beaten into threads. Let her prepare such garments as may dispel cold, not expose the body naked, even when it is clothed. Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred books, &c.
Because we do not use garments of silk, we are reckoned monks; because we are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter, we are called restrained and sad: if our tunic is not white, we immediately hear the proverb, He is an impostor and a Greek.—Epist. ”