Part 12

A century later royal orders were issued requiring mulberry trees to be planted in the Colony of Virginia, and a fine of twenty pounds of tobacco was imposed for neglect, and fifty pounds of tobacco was given as a bounty for every pound of reeled silk produced.

Silk culture spread rapidly in the other Colonies, and to-day the story of the ineffectual attempts to profitably rear the silkworm in this country is as voluminous as it is interesting. Suffice it to say, as a sop to our inherent Yankee pride, that silk culture was introduced into Connecticut as early as 1737, the first coat and stockings made from New England silk being worn by Governor Law in 1747, and the first silk dress by his daughter, in 1750. This State, for the eighty-four years following, led all the others in the amount of raw silk produced. In Connecticut also, was built the first silk mill to be erected on this continent for the special purpose of manufacturing silk goods. This building was constructed in 1810 by Rodney and Horatio Hanks, at Mansfield, and is still standing as an heirloom which has come to us from the infant days of the industry.

The silkworm has become domesticated, since, during the long centuries in which it has been cultivated, it has acquired many useful peculiarities. Man has striven to increase its silk producing power, and in this he has succeeded, for, by comparing the cocoon of the silkworm of to-day with its wild relations, the cocoon is found to be much larger, even in proportion to the size of the worm that makes it or the moth that issues from it. The moth’s loss of the power of flight and the white color of the species are probably the results of domestication.

[Illustration: JAPAN THE NATURAL HOME OF THE SILK WORM

GATHERING MULBERRY BRANCHES.[1]

This picture shows a grove of mulberry trees from which branches are being gathered as food for the worms. This is often done by the children.]

[Illustration: FEMALE MOTHS DEPOSITING EGGS.[1]

The moths are placed upon pieces of cardboard, upon which they deposit their eggs.

The cards with the eggs are kept in a cool place until the season for hatching arrives.]

[Illustration: PREPARING COCOONING BEDS.[1]

This picture shows two boys preparing a bed of twigs or branches upon which the worms may spin their cocoons.]

[1] Illustrations by courtesy The Brainerd & Armstrong Co.

[Illustration: HOW THE SILKWORMS ARE CARED FOR

HATCHING THE EGGS.

As the eggs hatch on the cards, the young worms are removed to other cards or trays, where they are fed and cared for.]

[Illustration: REMOVING SILKWORMS FROM CARDS WHERE THEY WERE HATCHED.

Every few days the young worms are changed to new and clean cards.]

[Illustration: METHOD OF REELING RAW SILK.

The cocoons are soaked in hot water in the basins shown in the front to loosen the gum. The silk threads then pass through the hands of the operators and are reeled on swifts in the cabinet shown in the rear.

A more modern appliance for reeling the silk is shown on one of the following pages.]

The foregoing pages and pictures by courtesy of Brainerd & Armstrong Silk Company, from their book entitled, “Silk, the Real versus the Imitation.”

[Illustration: FULL GROWN LARVA--SHOWING POSITION IN MOLTING.[2]]

[Illustration: MALE MOTH.[2]]

[Illustration: FEMALE MOTH.[2]]

[Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF CHRYSALIS.[2]]

[Illustration: BOTTOM VIEW OF CHRYSALIS.[2]]

[2] The cuts on this page and balance of cuts in the story of silk copyright by the Corticelli Silk Mills.

The silk moth exists in four states--egg, larva, chrysalis, and adult. The egg of the moth is nearly round, slightly flattened, and closely resembles a turnip seed. When first laid it is yellow, soon turning a gray or slate color if impregnated. It has a small spot on one end called the micropyle, and when the worm hatches, which in our climate is about the first of June, it gnaws a hole through this spot. Black in color, scarcely an eighth of an inch in length, covered with long hair, with a shiny nose, and sixteen small legs, the baby worm is born, leaving the shell of the egg white and transparent.

~THE SILKWORM—HOW HE DOES HIS WORK~

Small and tender leaves of the white mulberry or osage orange are fed the young worm which simply pierces them and sucks the sap. Soon the worm becomes large enough to eat the tender portions between the veins of the leaf. In eating they hold the leaves by the six forward feet, and then cut off semi-circular slices from the leaf’s edge by the sharp upper portion of the mouth. The jaws move sidewise, and several thousand worms eating make a noise like falling rain.

The worms are kept on trays made of matting, that are placed on racks for convenience in handling. The leaves are placed beside the worms, or upon a slatted or perforated tray placed above them, and those that crawl off are retained, while the weak ones are removed with the old leaves. The worms breathe through spiracles, small holes which look like black spots, one row of nine down each side of the body. They have no eyes, but are quite sensitive to a jar, and if you hit the rack they stop eating and throw their heads to one side. They are velvety, smooth, and cold to the touch, and the flesh is firm, almost hard. The pulsation of the blood may be traced on the back of the worm, running towards the head.

The worm has four molting seasons, at each of which it sheds its old skin for a new one, since in the very rapid growth of the worm the old skin cannot keep pace with the growth of the body. The periods between these different molts are called “ages,” there being five, the first extending from the time of hatching to the end of the first molt, and the last from the end of the fourth molt to the transformation of the insect into a chrysalis. The time between the four “molts” will be found to vary, depending upon the species of worm.

[Illustration: HOW THE SILKWORMS ARE REARED.[2]]

When the worm molts it ceases eating, grows slightly lighter in color, fastens itself firmly by the ten prolegs, and especially by the last two, to some object, and holding up its head and the fore part of its body remains in a torpid state for nearly two days.

By each successive molt the worm grows lighter, finally becoming a slate or cream white color, and the hair, which was long at first, gradually disappears. The gummy liquid which combines the two strands hardens immediately on exposure to the air.

The worm works incessantly, forcing the silk out by the contraction of its body. The thin, gauze-like network which soon surrounds it gradually thickens, until, twenty-four hours after beginning to spin, the worm is nearly hidden from view. However, the cocoon is not completed for about three days.

~SIXTY-FIVE MOTIONS OF HIS HEAD A MINUTE~

The cocoon is tough, strong, and compact, composed of a firm, continuous thread, which is, however, not wound in concentric circles, but irregularly in short figure eight loops, first in one place and then in another. In doing this the worm makes sixty-five elliptical motions of his head a minute or a total of 300,000 in an average cocoon. The motion of the worm’s head when starting the cocoon is very rapid, and nine to twelve inches of silk flow from the spinneret in a minute, but later the average would be about half this amount per minute.

[Illustration: SILKWORM EATING.[2]]

[Illustration: SILKWORM—ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST WORKERS

SILKWORM PREPARING TO FORM ITS COCOON.]

Having attained full growth, the worm is ready to spin its cocoon. It loses its appetite, shrinks nearly an inch in length, grows nearly transparent, often acquiring a pinkish hue, becomes restless, seeks a quiet place or corner, and moves its head from side to side in an effort to find objects on which to attach its guy lines within which to build its cocoon. The silk is elaborated in a semi-fluid condition in two long, convoluted vessels or glands between the prolegs and head, one upon each side of the alimentary canal. As these vessels approach the head they grow more slender, and finally unite within the spinneret, a small double orifice below the mouth, from which the silk issues in a glutinous state and apparently in a single thread.

[Illustration: COCOON BEGUN--SILKWORM CAN STILL BE SEEN.]

The color of the worm’s prolegs before spinning indicates the color the cocoon will be. This varies in different species, and may be a silvery white, cream, yellow, lemon, or green.

[Illustration: COMPLETED COCOON.]

~WHEN THE SILKWORM’S WORK IS DONE~

When the worm has finished spinning, it is one and a quarter inches long. Two days later, by a final molt, its dried-up skin breaks at the nose and is crowded back off the body, revealing the chrysalis, an oval cone one inch in length. It is a light yellow in color, and immediately after molting is soft to the touch. The ten prolegs of the worm have disappeared, the four wings of the future moth are folded over the breast, together with the six legs and two feelers, or antennæ. It soon turns brown, and the skin hardens into a tough shell. Nature provides the cocoon to protect the worm from the elements while it is being transformed into a chrysalis, and thence into the moth.

[Illustration: MOTHS EMERGING FROM COCOONS.]

With no jaws, and confined within the narrow space of the cocoon, the moth has some difficulty in escaping. After two or three weeks the shell of the chrysalis bursts, and the moth ejects against the end of the cocoon a strongly alkaline liquid which moistens and dissolves the hard, gummy lining. Pushing aside some of the silken threads and breaking others, with crimped and damp wings the moth emerges; and the exit once effected, the wings soon expand and dry.

[Illustration: COCOONS FROM WHICH THE MOTHS HAVE EMERGED.]

The escape of the moth, however, breaks so many threads that the cocoons are ruined for reeling, and consequently, when ten days old, all those not intended for seed are placed in a steam heater to stifle the chrysalis, and the silk may then be reeled at any future time.

The moths are cream white in color. They have no mouths, but do have eyes, which is just the reverse of the case of the worm. From the time it begins to spin until the moth dies, the insect takes no nourishment. The six forward legs of the worm become the legs of the moth. Soon after mating the eggs are laid.

The male has broader feelers than the female, is smaller in size, and quite active. The female lays half her eggs, rests a few hours, and then lays the remainder. Her two or three days’ life is spent within a space occupying less than six inches in diameter.

One moth lays from three to four hundred eggs, depositing them over an even surface. In some species a gummy liquid sticks the eggs to the object upon which they are laid. In the large cocoon varieties there are full thirty thousand eggs in a single ounce avoirdupois. It takes from twenty-five hundred to three thousand cocoons to make a pound of reeled silk. Do you wonder that, centuries ago, silk was valued at its weight in gold?

Growers of silk in the United States, by working early and late every day during the season, which lasts from six to eight weeks, could scarcely average fifteen cents for a day’s labor of ten hours. Silk, once regarded as a luxury, is now considered a necessity.

[Illustration: HOW THE COCOON IS UNWOUND

REELING THE SILK FROM COCOONS BY FOOT POWER, CALLED “RE-REEL” SILK.

The cocoons are first assorted, those of the same color being placed by themselves, and those of fine and coarse texture likewise. The outside loose silk is then removed, as this cannot be reeled, after which the cocoons are plunged into warm water to soften the “gum” which sticks the threads together. The operator brushes the cocoons with a small broom, to the straws of which their fibers become attached, and then carefully unwinds the loose silk until each cocoon shows but one thread. These three operations are called “soaking,” “brushing,” and “cleansing.”

Into one or two compartments in a basin of warm water below the reel are placed four or more cocoons, according to the size of the thread desired. The threads from the cocoons in each compartment are gathered together and, after passing through two separate perforated agates a few inches above the surface of the water, are brought together and twisted around each other several times, then separated and passed upward over the traverse guide-eyes to the reel. The traverse moves to and fro horizontally, distributing the thread in a broad band over the surface of the reel. The rapid crossing of the thread from side to side of the skein in reeling facilitates handling and unwinding without tangling, the natural gum of the silk sticking the threads to each other on the arms of the reel, thus securing the traverse. Silk reeled by hand or foot power is known as “Re-reel” silk, while silk reeled by power machinery is called “Filature.”]

[Illustration: A FILATURE--REELING THE SILK FROM COCOONS BY POWER MACHINERY.[2]]

[Illustration: DRYING SKEINS OF SILK.]

[Illustration: THE SILK IS WOUND ON SPOOLS

WINDING FRAMES--WINDING THE SILK ON BOBBINS.]

~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

WATER STRETCHER--MAKING THE SILK THREAD SMOOTH.]

The dyeing process is a very important one, and upon its success depends the permanency of the various colors.

Vast tubs, tanks, and kettles surround you on every side, and the hissing steam seems to spring from all quarters. The “gum” of the silk is first boiled out by immersion in strong soapsuds for about four hours. The attendants, standing in heavy “clogs” (big shoes with wooden soles two inches thick), turn the silk on the sticks at intervals until the gum is removed. After the silk is dyed it is put into a “steam finisher,” a device looking like a long, narrow box with a cover opening on the side, set upright on top of an iron cylinder. The hanks of silk are placed upon two pins in the steam chest, the cover fastened, and the live steam rushes in around the silk. This brightens the silk, giving it the lustrous, glossy appearance.

The editors are indebted to the Corticelli Silk Mills, Florence, Mass., for this story of how silk is made, as well as for permission to use their splendid life-like copyrighted photographs of the silkworm. Many teachers will be glad to know that they can obtain from the Corticelli Silk Mills, at slight expense, specimen cocoons and other helps for object lesson teaching.

What Animal Can Leap the Greatest Distance?

The galago, or flying lemur. This singular animal is a native of the Indian Archipelago. It is from 2 ft. to 3 ft. in length, and is furnished with a sort of membrane on each side of its body connecting its limbs with each other; this is extended and acts as a parachute while taking its long leaps, which measure about 300 ft. in an inclined plane. The kangaroo can leap with ease a distance of between 60 ft. and 70 ft. and can spring clean over a horse and take fences from 12 ft. to 14 ft. in height. The animals that can leap the greatest distance in proportion to their size are the flea and the grasshopper, the former being able to leap over an obstacle five hundred times its own height, while the grasshopper can leap for a distance measuring 200 times its own length. The springbok will clear from 30 ft. to 40 ft. at a single bound. The flying squirrel, in leaping from tree to tree often clears 50 ft. in a leap. This animal also has a broad fold of skin or membrane connecting its fore and hind legs. A steeplechase horse, called The Chandler, is reported to have covered 39 ft. in a single leap at Warwick some years ago. Some species of antelopes can make a leap 36 ft. in length and 10 ft. in height. A lion and a tiger each clear from 18 ft. to over 20 ft. at a bound while springing on their prey. A salmon often leaps 15 ft. out of the water in ascending the falls of rivers.

Why Do We Call Voting Balloting?

The term covers all forms of secret voting, as in early times such votes were determined by balls of different colors deposited in the same box, or balls of one color placed in various boxes. The Greeks used shells (ostrakon), whence we derive the term ostracism. In 139 B.C. the Romans voted by tickets. The ballot was first used in America in 1629, when the Salem Church thus chose a pastor. It was employed in the Netherlands in the same year, but was not established in England until 1872, although in Scotland it was used in cases of ostracism in the 17th century. In 1634 the governor of Massachusetts was elected by ballot, and the constitutions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and North Carolina adopted in 1776, made this method of voting obligatory. The ballot progressed slowly in the Southern States, Kentucky retaining the viva voce method until a comparatively recent date. In certain states, the constitutions stipulate that the legislature shall vote viva voce, i. e., cast their votes orally. Since 1875 all congressmen have been elected by ballot. In 1888 the Australian ballot system, which requires the names of all the candidates for the various offices to be placed on one large sheet of paper, commonly known as a “blanket” ticket, was adopted in Louisville, Ky., and some sections of Massachusetts. It is now in very general use in this country. The voter, in the privacy of an individual booth, indicates his preference by making a mark opposite a party emblem or a candidate’s name. This system originated in 1851 with Francis S. Dutton, of South Australia, and Henry George, in a pamphlet, “English Elections,” published in 1882, was the first to advocate it in the United States. The first bill enacting it into a law here was introduced in the Michigan legislature in 1887, but it did not pass until 1889.

Why Do We Call a Cab a Hansom?

The term is applied usually to a public vehicle, known in England as a “two-wheeler,” or “Hansom” (from the name of the inventor), and drawn by one horse. In a hansom cab, the passenger or hirer of the vehicle sits immediately in rear of the dashboard, the driver sitting on an elevated perch behind, the reins being passed over the top. The term cab is sometimes also applied to a four-seated, closed or open carriage, drawn by one or two horses, the driver sitting in front. The term is also applied to the covered part of a locomotive, in which the engineer and fireman have their stations. The word cab is derived from the cabriolet, a light one-horse carriage, with two seats and a calash top. In London, England, the cab or hansom was called the “gondola” of the British metropolis by Disraeli.

Where Did the Name Calico Come From?

A fabric of cotton cloth, the name being derived from the city of Calicut, in Madras, where it was first manufactured, and in 1631 brought to England by the East India Company. Calico-printing, an ancient Indian and Chinese art, has become a great industry in this country and in Britain, as well as in Holland.

Who Made the First Postage Stamp?

The stick on postage stamps so generally used today was invented by an Englishman James Chalmers in 1834. The English Government passed a bill calling for uniform postage of One Penny in 1840 and furnished envelopes bearing stamps printed on them. The people did not like them, however, and the adhesive stamp invented by Chalmers was substituted. The first stamps used in America were introduced in 1847. People have, it seems, always preferred to lick their postage stamps.

How Many Languages Are There?

It is said that there are more than 3,400 languages, including dialects, in the world. Most of them belong, of course, to savage or uncivilized people. There are said to be more than 900 languages used in Asia, almost 600 in Europe, 275 in Africa and more than 1,600 languages and dialects which are American.

What Is the Deepest Mine In the World?