The silkworm; its history and product by Winsted silk co. Chicago

Author:Winsted silk co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Sericulture. [from old catalog]
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Winsted silk co.
Published: 1915-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

A Section of the Mammoth -Plant of Mitsui Company at Maebashi, Japan Boiling the Cocoons and Reeling Silk

COPYRIGHT, 19 16, BY KEYSTONE VIEW CO

head from side to side gradually begins the construction of the cocoon about itself. The threads are wound loosely at first, forming a shell, but as the worm encloses its body by building toward itself they become more regular and closely set. The worm, however, does not spin all the threads round and round its body. Yards and yards of a cocoon can be unreeled without the cocoon turning over.

It has been estimated that a silkworm makes about sixty-five motions with its head every minute, and in that time about four to six inches of the filament flow from the spinneret. The gummy substance, which, by the way, forms a large proportion of the thread or filament, causes the filaments to adhere closely and when completed the cocoon forms a solid mass.

The time of spinning a cocoon takes all the way from two to five days, but the latter number is the usual average.

Cocoons are white, yellow and green, but the green do not make as fine a quality of silk, and are harder to bleach. They vary in size and form, but the usual shape is oval, somewhat resembling a peanut. The size averages 1 to V/?. inches in length and from % inch to 1 inch in thickness.

About three days after the cocoon is completed the worm passes into the chrysalis form. This is the most phenomenal change known in nature. The worm lies dormant or "sleeping". During this time it again sheds its skin, and in from fifteen to twenty days it awakens a new creature. All the organs of the body, both internal and external, undergo a complete change.

With the shedding of the skin it loses ten of its sixteen legs. The mouth opening disappears, while two large compound eyes, four scaly wings, and two feathery antennae or "feelers" grow. Having no jaws with which to cut its way out, the moth is provided with a liquid secretion, strongly alkaline in its composition. With this it moistens the threads at one end of the cocoon, dissolving the gummy substance, and then forces its way out.

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