Handbook of the collection illustrative of the wild silks of India : in the Indian section of the South Kensington Museum, with a catalogue of the collection and numerous illustrations / by Thomas Wardle.

  • Wardle, Thomas, Sir, 1831-1909.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of the collection illustrative of the wild silks of India : in the Indian section of the South Kensington Museum, with a catalogue of the collection and numerous illustrations / by Thomas Wardle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    105/186 (page 89)
    80 coarse ends (called satines) require much more killing. To produce good silk, these require, 1st, less drying; 2nd, less heating. If care is not taken in sorting, there would be fine and very coarse ends in the same basin, and some cocoons more dried than others. It would be, as we have already stated, more difficult to reel evenly (or with a regular thread), and in addition to this the silk would be irregular in strength, which would be fatal to one of the chief properties of silk. The threshing (“ battage ”) of the cocoons is done by means of the “ escoubette ” or besom by moving this over the cocoons already prepared until their outer covering sticks to it. (This outer covering is termed “frisons.”) The thread or end then becomes fine and clear, and constitutes good quality raw. According to the “ titre ” required, the ends coming from 4, 5, or 6 cocoons are run together. The temperature of the water in the basin should be from 85 to 90 degrees centigrade. Winding too cold causes the silk to lack tenacity. The cocoons being sorted, put them into the basin (the water should be boiling) to prepare them; an operation which lasts some minutes, and of which the duration varies accord- ing to the nature of the cocoons. The cocoons being prepared and cleared,—that is, threshed with the besoms in such a manner that the fibre of the cocoons remains attached to it,—all the ends from the cocoons are attached together to the frisons-hook, which is found in front of the platetage ; you then detach 8 or 10 cocoons and join the threads together by fours or fives, and pass each of these united threads ([i.e., four or five ends put together) into the two ends of the drawplate, or of the drawplate carrier, to the hinge F, placed at the back of the basin. You then lay these two threads across together by means of the “ croiseur” H, attaching the two ends of the fork of the said “ croiseur.’' The two ends are then separated in coming from the “ croiseur,” and are each passed to one of the end carriers G, passing them on each side of the guider placed at the regie E, so that they may be only twisted one half turn in front of the guider, so that if one of the threads should break, the other remaining comes out of the blade of the “ asple ” to go winding itself up on the shaft. This operation accomplished, the “ asple ” is turned until a break-down occurs, in which case the winder stops the “ asple ” or “ tour ” (wheel) by means of the throw-off D. This “ ddbarquage ” D may be worked by the foot.