~WHERE MAN’S WORK ON THE SILK BEGINS~
The raw silk is first assorted, according to the size of the fiber, as
fine, medium, and coarse. The skeins are put into canvas bags and then
soaked over night in warm soapsuds. This is necessary to soften the
natural gum in the silk, which had stuck the threads together on the
arms of the reel. Following the soaking, the skeins are straightened
out and hung across poles in a steam-heated room, as shown in the
accompanying photograph. When the skeins are dry, they are ready for
the first process of manufacturing. The room we now step into is filled
with “winding frames,” each containing two long rows of “swifts,”
from which the silk is wound on to bobbins. The bobbins are large
spools about three inches long. The bobbins filled with silk, as wound
from the skeins, are next placed on pins of the “doubling frames”;
the thread from several bobbins, according to the size of the silk
desired, is passed upward through drop wires on to another bobbin.
Should one of the threads break, the “drop wire” falls, which action
stops the bobbin. By this ingenious device absolute uniformity in the
size of silk is secured. The “doubling frame” is shown in one of the
photographs herewith.
[Illustration: DOUBLING FRAMES--THE SILK THREAD IS MADE UNIFORM.]
The bobbins taken from the “doubling frame” are next placed on a
“spinner.” Driven by an endless belt at the rate of over six thousand
turns a minute, the bobbins revolve, the silk from them being drawn
upward on to another bobbin. This spins the several strands brought
together by the “doubling process” into one thread, the number of turns
depending on the kind of silk--Filo silk being spun quite slack, and
Machine Twist just the reverse.
[Illustration: SPINNING SILK.[2]]
[Illustration: TWISTING SILK.[2]]
A transferring machine combines two or three of these strands; two for
sewing silk and three for machine twist; and the bobbin next goes on
to the “twisting machine”--a machine that is similar to a “spinner,”
but the silk is twisted in the opposite direction from the spinning. To
stand before these machines and watch how rapidly and how accurately
they do the work assigned them is a revelation. No one realizes how
nicely the parts are adjusted. If but one tiny strand breaks that
part of the machinery is stopped by an automatic device which works
instantaneously. After twisting, the silk is stretched by an ingenious
machine called a “water-stretcher.” This smooths and consolidates the
constituent fibers, giving an evenness to the silk not to be obtained
by any other known process. The bobbins are placed in water and the
silk is wound on to the lower of the two copper rolls. From the lower
roll it passes upward to the upper roll, which turns faster than the
lower one, thereby stretching the silk. From the upper roll it passes
again on to a bobbin.
[Illustration: SILK THREADS READY FOR THE WEAVER