SILK

The cultivation of the worm ~ |} and the manufacture of silk from the fine »e | thread of which its cocoon is formed was »d |} practised in China for many centuries ry |} before the Christian Era. Daring the ¢.| reign of Just in i an (550 4.D.) two Persian 2¢ | monks brought from China to Constant i- "y | nople a number of eggs secreted in a hollow "y | cane. | had watched the operations.s | of silk making in the Bast, and were able * |to euperintend the first eslik weaving is industry in Coaster and so to elintroduce it into the West. The silk- 1¢ | worm thrives best on the leaves of the iy | white mulberry, a tree which does not in | suffer to any pre at extent from the lo of »¢ | its leaves. These are plucked and placed rej in boxes for the worms. After some of: ” | ing, the vesh ato ailghity Pane to destroy ing, the rest are y xe | the worm. a washed, 11 | the ends of the of several cocoons 1g | are picked up by 8 brush and twisted into raw silk. The thread is joined ap to other -t | lengths, the natural gummine providing >, | a sufficient ae and then wound on |a circular frame. the See fe pee g | through fine apertures to clean it and,- | make it uniform in thickne . It is now y |ready for use, but its stoutne is often d\increased at this stage by — | There is nece arily m waste silk, ir this fe now utilised to form ail yarn and 10 | fancy threads. geod gh of the d whl supply, of raw comes from p | China, Bec 80 per a from Italy, France 6 greatest manufacturing ~ country, but the industry is carried on b ——. in the English Midlands. it | Leek, Staifordsbire, is famous for its silk », | dyeing, and beam J for its peculiarly ¢ | glo y. black d ‘ [s. 279]