REELING
1. HISTORY OF THE FILATURE
[Sidenote: _Early Reeling and Twisting_]
[Sidenote: _Vaucanson’s Filature_]
[Sidenote: _Silk Manufacture in Europe_]
The next step in the production of silk is called reeling, and for
this purpose the modern filature has been developed. The actual
existence of reeling machines is by no means modern, however, for it
is a well-known fact that the Chinese knew how to use raw silk as
far back as 5000 years ago. Old prints dating back 3000 years show
that the hand “reelers” then in use differed little in principle from
the highly developed filatures of today. Although China knew how to
reel and twist silk for several thousand years, it was only in the
third, fourth, and fifth centuries A. D. that other countries, such
as Japan and Eastern Europe, took it up. The first filatures were,
of course, extremely simple, operated entirely by hand, and produced
a very coarse thread. Although a little progress was made during
the Middle Ages, the turning point came in 1750 when Vaucanson, a
French engineer, invented the first real filature—which combined
several reelers, giving the whole process more speed and turning out
a product of considerably better quality. This marked the beginning
of Europe’s interest in what had so long been an exclusively
Oriental industry, and from then on the French, Italians and Spanish
in particular took up the study of sericulture and the reeling and
manufacturing process. The result was to put the industry on a
scientific basis which it had never reached in the East.
[Illustration: _The Reeling Basins_]
2. PREPARING TO REEL
[Sidenote: “_Stoving_”]
The reeling process is the first step in which machinery plays
an important part. When the cocoons are ready they must first be
submitted to the “stoving” process, or stifling, in which they are
exposed to heat sufficient to kill the chrysalis inside. This is
followed by further drying, after which the cocoons are shipped in
bags to the filatures and may be kept indefinitely without injuring
the filament.
[Sidenote: “_Beating_”]
[Sidenote: _Waste Material_]
As a preliminary to reeling, the cocoons are immersed in boiling
water to soften the gum that holds the fibre together. While in
the water they are brushed with a coarse brush to remove the heavy
outer strands of the cocoon—a process called “beating.” These outer
strands are usually too harsh and broken to be reeled, but are
afterwards utilized as so-called waste which is used for spun-silk
manufacture.[4] This applies also to the innermost layers of the
cocoon. About one-half of the thread on a cocoon actually finds its
way into thrown silk. The remainder is “waste.” When, by brushing,
the true threads are reached it is possible to start reeling, and
barring occasional breaks these threads are continuous all the way
down to the chrysalis.
[4] See Chapter IV. 2.
3. MODERN REELING METHODS
[Sidenote: _Reeling Basins_]
While being reeled the cocoons are floated in basins of very hot
water, each basin feeding a reeling machine. A single cocoon strand
is too fine to use commercially, so several are taken at a time,
varying from three to seven or eight according to the size of thread
desired. The size used in this country most extensively is known as
13/15 deniers and is reeled from six or seven cocoons. During the
reeling the water is kept at about 60° C., but if the cocoons are
very dry a higher temperature is required. A heavy smoke issues from
the basins and not only humidifies the room but also penetrates the
silk, rendering it very gummy and hard. This is overcome by the use
of steam-heated tubes running over and around the machines.
Each reeling machine and basin is in charge of a girl who is
responsible for its operation and for the reeling of thread of
correct size. She must keep careful watch that the filament comes off
the cocoons steadily and that all breaks are immediately taken care
of, exhausted cocoons being replaced by new ones at the proper time.
In many filatures each girl is charged with so many cocoons and must
turn in a proportionate amount of reeled silk at the end of the day.
[Sidenote: _Twisting_]
[Sidenote: _Human Element_]
The twisting operation is an important part of the reeling process,
for the raw silk threads, being composed of parallel cocoon
filaments, cohering only by their natural gum, would, unless twisted,
mat up and become unworkable. Various methods are used to obtain
this torque, the general idea in each case being to run the separate
cocoon threads through small rings or eyes and then unite them in one
thread large enough to reel. In spite of the many mechanical devices
and improvements brought out in the last few years, the success
of the reeling operation still is dependent on the reeling girl’s
ability and care. It is particularly important that she be able to
judge the number of cocoons of a certain size and texture needed to
make a thread of the required denier.
[Illustration: _Rereeling Room_]
[Sidenote: _Testing the Skeins_]
[Sidenote: _Color of Raw Silk_]
The raw silk is reeled on travellers in hanks known as skeins and
varying from 50 to 100 grams in weight, which are taken off by the
reeling girl and the ends of the thread tied up to facilitate the
work at the mill. Before leaving the filature it is also subjected
to critical tests and examinations for size, winding, cleanliness,
irregularities, etc. The color of raw silk as it comes off the
cocoon and is reeled into skeins is either white or yellow, though
some sorts have a brownish or greenish tinge. Tussah silks have a
brownish-yellow color. The coloring matter in the cultivated silks is
only in the gum and boils out with it, but the color in the tussah is
in the fibre, rendering it very difficult to bleach.
[Illustration: _“Books” of Raw Silk Skeins_]
[Sidenote: _Reeling Wild Silk_]
[Sidenote: _Waste Silk_]
Tussah, or wild silk, is not generally reeled by the wet reel
process, as the cocoons are apt to be closed up at each end by gum.
In China this gum is softened by burying the cocoons in manure
instead of immersing them in hot water. This is known as dry
reeling. It very often happens that the tussah cocoons are unfit for
reeling, due to being pierced or tangled. Silk from these imperfect
cocoons is again classed as “waste,” along with the frisons, or
outside and inmost layers of the cultivated cocoons, which, as has
been stated, are used to make spun silk. In this country waste silk
is often called schappe, although strictly speaking this name should
only be applied to waste silk degummed by the French process of
fermentation.
[Sidenote: _Baling_]
[Sidenote: _Picul Bale_]
The raw silk, having been reeled and twisted into skeins, is next
marked and tied together in bundles of skeins known as “books” each
bearing the mark or “chop” of its grade. These are packed in bales
for shipment, the weight of the bales varying in different countries.
In Japan and China they are called picul bales and weigh 133⅓ pounds.
Italian silks, on the other hand, are packed in shipping bales of
about 200 pounds.
4. SOURCES OF RAW SILK
Of the countries producing raw silk, Japan and China occupy the
leading positions by a large margin, the former contributing roughly
one half of the world’s supply, and the latter about one third. Italy
ranks a poor third with about one tenth, and France, the Near East,
India, Spain and the Balkans contribute the balance.
[Sidenote: _Japan_]
Although the greater part of the raw silk produced in the various
countries is exported for manufacture abroad, a certain percentage is
retained for home spinning and weaving. It is estimated that about
65 per cent of the Japanese output is exported, approximately 90 per
cent. of which goes to the United States.
[Sidenote: _China_]
In China over one half of the output is held for domestic
consumption, the remainder being divided about equally between Europe
and America.
[Sidenote: _Italy_]
The Italian raw silk—a very high quality product—finds its largest
market in France, principally in the city of Lyons, the silk center
of Europe.