CHAP. I.
Of the SILK-WORM.

Sect. 1. THE person who purposes rai­sing a quantity of Silk-worms, & preserving good eggs or seed, must begin a year before hand. He must choose a certain number of good cocons, or silk cods, the superficies of which he pierces slightly with a needle and thread, and in this manner strings a convenient number of them, which done, [Page 4] he hangs them up in a proper room, as chil­dren do birds' eggs. After the moths or butterflies have eaten their way through their natural in closure, ^† (which is generally about four days after the cocon is finished) you must place them on sheets of paper de­posited in a box or drawer safe from harm, where they couple and are joined together, during 24 hours; this over, the female lays her eggs on the paper, which stick to it by means of a gummy substance they are co­vered with; after which, she dies, as does the male. Thus their second life, if I may so call it, is only 24 hours in all.

When you have thus received your eggs laid on your paper, you must keep them till the next spring, in a cool damp place; on the arrival of the spring, you must observe when the mulberry-tree begins to shoot out its leaves, and then you are to expose your eggs in a very warm place, that they may all hatch at the same time, otherwise they would only hatch by little and little, and in proportion as each individual should be on the point of his natural maturity. To hatch your eggs more effectually, you may carry them about you nine or ten days, in your bosom, or other parts of your body, in a pa­per, [Page 5] and in the night you may put them be­tween the mattress of your bed; you may likewise hatch them by the heat of an oven, but this method is dangerous, because you may easily burn them.

Sect. 2. The worm is quite black after its birth; as long as an ant, he is rolled up in the egg, which otherwise could not con­tain him; he preserves this black colour 8 or 9 days. After your worms are hatch­ed you must put them on wicker or oak­board shelves, which are covered first with papers, and afterwards with a bed of the tenderest mulberry leaves. You may place several ranges of them in the same chamber: but you must observe that there be at least one foot and a half distance between each range, and that your scaffolds are in the middle of the room, so that you may go round them, and lastly, that your wicker shelves be not too broad, but just so as to reach conveniently from each side to the middle. By degrees as the worm grows, he requires more room; it must be your care to thin them, and keep those of the same size as near together as you can; for which rea­son you must always leave some shelves va­cant for that purpose.

The worm continues to eat during eight days after his birth, at which time he is three lines in length, or the ¼ part of an inch. [Page 6] He is then attacked with his first sickness, which consists in a kind of lethargic sleep, for three days, ^‡ during which space, he changes his skin, still retaining the same vo­lume. This sleep being over, he begins to eat again, during five days, at which time he is increased to seven lines in length; af­ter which follows a second sickness; in eve­ry respect like the former, as well as the succeeding; after wards he feeds during oth­er five days, and is then about ten lines in length, when he is seized with his third sick­ness, which over, he continues to eat again five days more, which are followed by his fourth sickness; at which time he is at his full growth, which is about fourteen lines in length, and two in diameter. He then eats during five days with great voracity; after which he leaves his food, becomes transparent, a little on the yellowish cast; he leaves his silky tracy on the leaves as he passes. These symptoms denote that he is ready to begin his cocon. You must then furnish him with little bushes of heath broom, or other like twigs, which you stick upright betwixt your shelves, forcing them a little, that they may not fall. He remains still two days climbing up the twigs, and settling himself in a good place; after which time he begins to lay the foundation of his [Page 7] lodge, and is five days in spinning his co­con. Thus from his birth, to the construc­tion of the cocon, he lives the space of for­ty-seven days.

Sect. 3. You must keep your worms in a dry place, sheltered from all cold winds, and the doors and windows always shut, provided it be not too hot. If the weather be cold, you may make a small fire. Those who are accustomed to this business, have no need of a rule; but to give you a just notion of the degree of heat, you may place a thermometer in the room (according to the construction of Mr. Reaumer) and keep up as equal as possible to the 19th degree, which is 19/80 hotter than the point of frost, and 61/80 colder than boiling water. I re­commend this thermometer to explain the degree of heat, because the dimensions of it do not signify, provided it be on the princi­ple of Mr. Reaumer, in which every line is the 1000th part of the liquor contained in the ball.

You must give them the leaves, taking care that they be dry, strewing them lightly over them, and you must mind to take away their dung, which is under them, as often as you find a certain quantity. When the worms are ready to mount, in order to spin, if the weather be stifling hot, attended with thunder, you will see them in a languishing [Page 8] condition. Your care must then be to re­vive them, which is thus effected: take a handful of wormwood, and dip it in vinegar, brush your shelves therewith. It is surpri­sing to see how this smell revives them, it excites those who have not done feeding to eat, and makes the others who are ready to spin, climb up the twigs. These little crea­tures require a great deal of care in the management; one or other must attend them night and day. You must be very nice and gentle in handling them, and I may say the whole success depends on the pains you take. The worm cannot sustain strong smells, such as tobacco, or the like; for which reason you must keep all such smells out of the room.

In many parts of Italy, amongst others, Romagna, and the Marche of Ancona, they have two silk harvests or recoltos in the year; after the first is over, having kept part of their eggs, in very cool places, when the mulberry tree begins to sprout again, (for during the first recolto it is stripped of its leaves for food for the worms) they ex­pose their eggs to be hatched. Sometimes they give the leaves of the rose-bush to the young worms, for the want of young mul­berry leaves. The cocons of this second recolto are rather inferior to those of the first. The silk-worm is generally 14 lines in length, 2 in diameter, and 6 2/7 in circum­ference. [Page 9] He is either of a pearl colour, or blackish; the latter sort is the best. His body is divided into seven rings, to each of which, are joined too very short feet; he has a short point like the thorn, above the anus; the substance which forms the silk, is in their stomach, which is very long wound upon two distaffs, as it were, and surround­ed with a gum commonly yellow, sometimes white, and others greenish. When the worm spins his cocon, he winds off a thread from each of the distaffs, and joins them af­terwards by means of two hooks he has in his mouth, so that the cocon is composed of a double thread. Having opened a silk­worm, you may take out these distaffs, which are folded up in three plaits; you may af­terwards extend them to near two ells in length. If you then scrape the thread so stretched out, you will scrape off the gum, (which is very much like bees-wax, and which serves the same purpose for the silk it covers, as the gold leaf does to the in got of silver on which it is applied by the wire­drawer) the silk then remains of a pearl colour. This thread, which is about the thickness of a very fine hair, is extremely strong and even. Three things remarkable in this infect are, 1st. He describes a semi­circle in eating; 2d. His excrement has perfectly the shape of a mulberry; 3d, They have no sex before their metamorphosis.

CHAP. II.
Of the COCONS.

Sect. 1. It is almost a general rule to wait six or seven days after all the cocons seem to be formed, before they take them off the bushes or boughs, in order to give the worm time to bring his work to perfec­tion. It is proper from that time to give some air to the room, that you keep them in to dissipate a considerable dampness which the worm sex exhale on their mounting (when they have not been well fed and kept, for when they have been properly nursed, this dampness does not shew itself) and which is of great detriment to the cocons, either by rotting them, rendering them soft, or covering them with spots.

The Cocons may be divided into, or un­der two general heads or classes—the white and the yellow. In the yellow you meet with all the shades, from a bright yellow, diminishing at last to white. Some few are of a pale green. We may reckon nine dif­ferent sorts of Cocons, which are met with in all filatures, more or less.

The good Cocons, are those which are brought to their perfection strong, and little or not at all spotted.

2. The pointed Cocons, are those, one of whose extremities rises up in a point; after having afforded a little silk, the point which [Page 11] is the weakest part, breaks or tears, and it is impossible to continue to wind that cocon any longer, because, when the thread comes round to the hole, it is of consequence, broke, and the whole contains nothing but ends.

3. The Cocalons are a little bigger than the others; yet they do not contain more silk, because their contexture is not so strong; in winding they are to be sepera­ted from the rest, because they require to be wound in cooler water, otherwise they furze out in the winding.

4. The Doubions, or Double Cocons, are so called, because they contain two and sometimes three worms, who join together to form one single cocon; they interlace their threads, for which reason they are to be kept asunder from the rest; they make the silk we call Doubion.

5. The Soufflons, are cocons very imper­fect, whose contexture is loose, sometimes to that degree that they are transparent, and bear the same proportion to a good cocon, as a gauze to a sattin; these cannot be wound.

6. The perforated Cocons, are so called, because they have a hole at one end, for which reason they cannot be wound.

7. The calcin'd Cocons, are those whose worm after the formation of the cocon, is attacked with a sickness, which sometimes petrifies him, and other times reduces him [Page 12] to a fine white powder, without in the least damaging the silk: on the contrary, these cocons produce more silk than the others, because the worm is lighter. They are to be distinguished by the noise the petrified worm makes when you shake the cocon. In Piedmont, they sell for half as much again as the others. It is very scarce to see a par­cel of 25lb. of them at a time; 6lb. 3 of these cocons, have produced 1lb. 1 fine silk, of 5 and 6 cocons.

8. The good Choquette, consists in those cocons whose worm dies before he has bro't it to perfection; they are to be known by the worm's sticking to one side of the cocon, which is easily to be perceived, when on shaking it, you do not hear the chrysalis rat­tle. These cocons are of as fine a silk as the others, but they are to be wound sepa­rately, because they are subject to furze out, and the silk has not so bright a colour, nor is it so strong and nervous.

9. The bad Choquette, is composed of defective cocons, sported or rotten. They wind many of these cocons together. It makes a very soul, bad, qualified silk, of a blackish colour.

Sect. 2. To judge whether a cocon be good, you must observe if it be firm and found, if it has a fine grain, and the two ends round and strong. The cocons of a [Page 13] bright yellow, yield more silk than the oth­ers, because they have more gum; but this advantage accounts to the winder only, be­cause all the gum is lost in the dying, for this reason the pale silk is preferred, because having less gum, they loose less in winding, and take a better white, or pale blue.—Amongst the cocons you buy, there ought not to be either soufflons or perforated co­cons; because the seller in justice is obliged to keep them apart, not with standing which, you may always reckon 1 ½ per cent. of these two sorts amongst your other cocons, and if to these you add douboins and choquetts, you may calculate at 10 per cent. waste.—The cocons of the mountains are better than those of the plain; there is a greater quan­tity of white amongst them; it is true, they are not so large as those of the plain, but the worm is likewise less in proportion: the reason of which is, the air of the mountains being lighter, the worm labours with greater vigor. They succeed better likewise in the dry plains, than in damp low grounds, be­cause the leaf is more nourishing.

Five or six days after the cocons have been detached from the branches, it is your busi­ness to prevent the birth of the worm, who would otherwise pierce his way through the shell, and thereby render your cocon useless; to obviate which, you must put your cocons in flat long baskets, and fill them within an [Page 14] inch of the top; you then cover them with paper, and a wrapper over that: these bas­kets are to be disposed in an oven, whose heat must be as near as possible to that of an oven, from which the bread is just drawn out after being baked. After your cocons have remained therein near an hour, you must draw them out, and if you would know whether all your worms be dead, draw out a doubion from the middle of your baskets, and open it, if your worm be dead, you may conclude all the rest are so, because this contexture of the doubion being stronger than that of the other cocons, it is conse­quently less easy to be penetrated by the heat: you must mind and take it from the middle of the basket, because in that part the heat is the least perceptible. After you have drawn your basket out of the oven, you must cover them with a thick woollen cloth, leaving the wrapper as it was; you then pile them one on the other. If your baking has succeeded, you will see the woollen cloth covered over with drops of water, the thick­ness of your little finger; if there be less, it is a sign your cocons have been baked too much or too little; if they are too much baked, the worm cannot transpire a humour he no longer contains, and your cocon is then burnt; if they are not enough baked, the worm has not been sufficiently penetrated by the heat, to distil the liquor it contains, your [Page 15] worm in that case is not dead: you must let your basket stand thus covered five or six hours, if possible, in order to keep in the heat, which makes an end of stifling those worms which might have resisted the first impressions of the fire: you must take great care to let your cocons stand in the oven, the time that is necessary; for if they do not stand long enough, your worm is only stun­ned for a while, and afterwards comes to life. If on the other hand you leave them too long in the oven, you burn them; instances of these two ways are frequently met with, therefore you cannot take too much care to avoid each extreme. It is a good sign when you see some of the butterflies spring up from among the cocons which you baked, because you may be content, or certain the rest are not burnt; for if you would pretend to kill the very last worm, you might burn many of the cocons, which might be more exposed to the heat than that very particular worm.

Sect. 3. When you put your cocons into the oven, you must be very careful in pick­ing out all the spotted ones, otherwise they will communicate those spots to the next, by the great perspiration the heat occasions in them. If you have a parcel of strong cocons, and a number of weak ones, and the time will not admit you to wind them off fresh, (that is, without baking) give the preference [Page 16] to your weak cocons for winding, and bake your strong ones, because these latter, con­taining more gum, supports the baking much better, and suffers less than the weak ones.

As fast as the cocons you buy are brought in, put them in baskets, and set them in the fun (if it shines) in case your oven be full, in order to stun at least the worm, and pre­vent him from working to pieces the cocon during that time. It is very proper likewise for your cocons to be a little in the air before you put them in the oven, because the coun­try people bring them in panniers, heaped one on the other, which heats them, and ren­ders them extremely soft, but the air brings them to their proper tone again. Sometimes the country people sell you the cocons rea­dy baked, when they have been obliged to keep them some time; it is easy to know them, because the worm when baked, being dry, rattles louder in the shell than when it is fresh. When your cocons are thorough­ly baked, you must spread them half a foot thick on large offer shelves, which are to be distributed into as many stories as the heighth of your chamber will permit, two or three feet distance, one above another, taking care to turn your cocons every day, and to change their place, for otherwise there would many inconveniences arise from the neglect of so doing, they would become mouldy and the moths would eat them; [Page 17] besides, this is absolutely necessary, to sepe­rate the spotted cocons, or the bad cho­quette, which would spread to all the cocons that are near them; these must be wound im­mediately, to prevent their growing worse. The building where you spread the cocons, is called the coconiere, and consists of one or more large rooms, through which are dis­tributed as many ranges of shelves as you can conveniently place, taking care that the supporter does not touch the roof or wall, (I can represent nothing nearer to give you a notion of these ranges, than a bottle rack, several of which may be placed in a room, so as to go round them) because of the rats who otherwise come down by the poles, and destroy your cocons, they being very greedy of the worm contained in them. If you perceive any rats in the room, use your ut­most endeavour to destroy them.

A midling cocon, has about 13 lines in its greatest diameter, by 8 lines in the lesser diameter, some are larger, some less, but this is the general size. The doubion has generally 15 lines great diameter, by 9 the less diameter. The cocon is composed of se­veral strata or surfaces, applied one on the other, not withstanding which, they all com­municate, otherwise it would be impossible to wind them off. It is an easy matter to take off one or more of these surfaces, the uppermost of which are coarser, less gum­ed, [Page 18] and higher coloured than the undermost. These surfaces are composed of a fine sort of saliva, whose texture something resembles the thin skin you find joined to the inside of the egg-shell of a hen. The cocon produ­ces a thread of very unequal lengths, you may find from 200 to 1200 ells in length in some of them; upon an average you may calculate the product of a cocon from 5 to 600 ells in length.

Sect. 4. The worm or crysalis as inclo­sed in his cocon, is shrunk up into himself, so that he is but half as long as before, but twice as thick; he is of a cinnamon colour, and full of a liquor rather clearer, which composes the seed in the males, and the eggs in the females. Altho' he seems insensible in that state, yet you may perceive he is not wholly so, for on pricking him slightly with a pin, you will see him give signs of life; and this experience is made use of to know whether they have been killed in the oven. The worm drys the older it grows, so that the same quantity or number of cocons de­crease daily in weight. The cocons which inclose the male butterfly, have more silk at the extremities than those which contain the female butterflies, but it is very difficult to perceive the difference, the most skilful per­son will mistake at least 20 in an 100, that is, amongst an 100 he shall have set aside as males, you will find at least 20 females.

[Page 19] When the worm wants to break his way through, he pierces the cocon, first wetting it a little, in order to gnaw it more easily; he strips off his upper coat, under which he has another quite white, with wings, when he comes out; his wings, which at first ap­pear very small, open and display themselves by little and little, and are entirely at liberty in an hour or two. The male as soon as born, seeks a female, and one would imagine he is born again merely to propagate his species, for he expires in a very little time after he has performed his function.

CHAP. III.
Of ROYAL COCONS, PERFORATED COCONS, and SOUFFLONS.

THE Royal Cocons are those you have kept for eggs. The worm makes a hole in them for his passage, so that they cannot be wound, being in the same class with the per­forated cocons; neither can the soufflons be wound, because their thread being the produce of a weak sick worm, has not the gum it ought to have; besides, they cannot be wound off, their thread being interlaced and entangled, you may reap advantage from them as follows:

Sect. 1. The Soufflons. You must let them [Page 20] boil half an hour in common water, after which you must dry them, when they are quite dry, you must thresh them on the floor with a flail, to bring out the worm, which is reduced to powder by the fire and the air. Afterwards you must put them on a distaff, and spin them, to effect which, you must take the soufflon by the two ends, and open it by stretching it out at arms length, you may then fasten it on your distaff.

Sect. 2. The Perforated Cocons. You must observe the same method as for the soufflons, excepting that you must let them boil three quarters of an hour, instead of half an hour, because they contain a greater quan­tity of gum.

Sect. 3. The Royal Cocons. As it is na­tural to suppose that you keep the cream and flour of your cocons for seed, they are fuller of gum than the others, for which rea­son you must let them boil an hour, after which you must not thresh them as the two former, because they do not contain a worm, neither is it necessary to stay till they be quite dry before you spin them, because they open more easily when damp.

The produce of these three sorts of cocons makes what we call Flewrett. After you have boiled these cocons, and threshed them well, to shake out the worm they contain, [Page 21] you may card them instead of opening them as above, you will make a much more beau­tiful flewrett and of a brighter colour, but it will be much dearer because of the waste in carding. A good spinstress if she can spin an ounce of flewrett in a day has done a very reasonable day's work.

To sum up the whole, and to indicate the value of these three sorts of cocons, you may calculate as follows:

• If the good cocons, are worth 100
• The perforated are worth 33 1/3
• The Soufflons, 25
• And the Royal Cocons, 250

But if your Royal Cocons are not picked out of the best for eggs, they are worth but 200. The best flewrett is that which is made with Royal Cocons, afterwards that of per­forated Cocons, unchosen, and the most in­ferior is that of the Soufflons.

CHAP. IV.
Of the Filature, or winding from the worm.

ALTHO' the fresh cocons (that is to say) those that have not been baked in the oven, yield a brighter silk than those that are baked, and at the same time produce better weight, by reason of their containing a greater part of their gum, which they have not as the others lost by the fire; yet, not withstanding, most people prefer those that are baked, in [Page 22] order to have a silk more even in colour, un­less they could have a considerable quantity of fresh cocons, and time to wind them; for otherwise it is undeniable that the fresh would be much more advantageous, not only for the reasons above-mentioned, but also because they are easier to wind when they have not been dryed in the oven.—Be­fore you begin to wind, you must prepare your cocons,

1. In stripping them of their outward coat, or that waste silk that surrounds them, and which serves to fasten them to the twigs. This burr or tow is proper to stuff quilts with, or other such uses; you may likewise spin it to make stockings, but they will be very coarse and ordinary.

2. You must sort your cocons into differ­ent classes, in order to wind them separate. These classes are the good white cocons, the good cocons of all the other colours, the doubions, the cocalons, among which are included the weak cocons, and lastly, the good choquette, and the bad choquette.

In sorting the cocons, you will always find some perforated amongst them, whose worm is already born; these you must set by for flewrett, as I have described above. You will likewise find some soufflons, but very few, for which reason you may put them among the bad choquetts, and they run up into waste or knittings. The good cocons, [Page 23] as well white as yellow, are the easiest to wind; the cocons which require the greatest pains, are the cocalons; you must wind them in cooler water than the others, and if you take care to give them to a good windster, you will have as good silk from them as the rest. You must likewise choose good windsters for the doubions and cho­quetts; these two articles require hotter wa­ter than the common cocons.

The good cocons are to be wound in the following manner: you must choose an o­pen and convenient place for your filature, the longer the better, if you propose to have many coppers. This building should be high and open on one side (to prevent the smoak and steam from being troublesome and spoiling the colours of your silk) and walled on the other to screen from the cold and wind, so as to enjoy at the same time the sun and air.

Your coppers should if possible be dis­posed in a row on each side your building, being most convenient in that manner, be­cause on walking up and down, you see what all your windsters are about. These basons or coppers are two and two together, with a funnel or chimney, numbered from one to fifty, sixty, or an hundred, according to the number of your coppers, by which means you may always know which wind­ster is in fault, or to be commended, because [Page 24] on taking the silk off each reel, you tie a little note of the number and windster's name.

Having prepared your reels, (mark well every copper requires its reel, windster and turner, or the person that turns the reel must be very careful) and your fire being lighted under your coppers, your windster must stay till the water is as hot as it can be, without boiling: when your water is ready, you throw into your coppers two or three handfuls of cocons, which you gently brush over with a whisk or bunch of mulberty twigs, of about six inches long, which is cut stumpy like a brush, by this means the threads of the cocons stick to the whisk, you must then loosen them, and purge them by drawing these ends thro' your fingers, till they come off entirely clean: the operation is called the battice. When the threads of your cocons are entirely clean, you pass four of them, if you would wind fine silk, thro' each of the two holes, in a thin iron-bar that is placed horizontally at the edge of your copper; afterwards you twist these two ends (which consists of four cocons each) round each other, twenty or twenty five times, that the four ends of each thread may the better join together, crossing one an­other that your silk may be plump which would otherwise be flat; thus you wind two seperate skeins on the same reel at the same [Page 25] time. Your windster must always have a bowl of cold water by her, to dip her fingers in, and to sprinkle very often the iron-bar thro' which the two threads pass, otherwise its heat would burn the thread.

Your threads being thus crossed, or twist­ed, go up two iron hooks, called rampins, which are placed higher, and from thence they go upon the reel. Now at the end of the reel is a cogg-wheel, which moves the rampin from right to left, so back again, and the two threads that are on it of consequence; so that the silk crosses on the reel, and your two threads form two hanks of about four fingers broad.

The mechanism of these reels is so very simple, that any one that has seen a filature, may explain them to you. You shall like­wise have a few of my rude sketches of the principal parts.

As often as the cocons you wind are fi­nished, or break, or diminish only, you must join fresh ones, to keep up the number re­quisite, or the proportion, I say the propor­tion, because as the cocon winds off, the thread being finer, you must join two cocons half wound, to replace a new one; thus you may wind three new ones, and two half­wound, or four new ones, and your silk is then from four to five cocons.

To join fresh threads, you must take one end on your finger, which you throw lightly [Page 26] on the other threads that are winding, and it joins in with them immediately, and runs up with the rest. You must not wind off your cocons too bare, or to the last, because when they are near at an end, they bouvre, as we call it, that is, the husk joins in with the other threads, and makes your silk foul and gouty.

When you have finished your first parcel, you must clean your copper, taking out all the stripped worms, as well as the cocons on which there is a little silk, which you first open and take out the worm, and throw it in a basket by you, into which you likewise cast the silk that comes off in making bat­tice; you then proceed as before, with oth­er two or three handfuls of cocons, you make a new battice, you purge them, and continue to wind the same number of co­cons, or the proportion, and so to the end. As I said above, your windster must always have a bowl of cold water by her to sprinkle the bar, to cool her fingers every time she dips them in the hot water, and to pour in­to her copper when it is necessary, that is, when her water begins to boil. You must be careful to cross or twist your threads a sufficient number of times, about twenty­five, otherwise your silk remains flat instead of being round and full, besides, when the silk is not well crossed, it never can be clean, because a gout or knob that comes from a [Page 27] cocon will pass thro a small number of these twists, tho' a greater will stop it, and your thread then breaks, and you pass what foul­ness there may be in the middle of your reel, between the two hanks, which serves for a head-band to tie them.

You must mind that your water be just of a proper degree of heat; when it is too hot, the thread is dead, and has no body, and when it is too cold, the ends which form the thread do not join well, and form a harsh silk.

You must change the water in your cop­per, four times a day for your doubions and choquetts, and twice only for your good cocons, when you wind fine silk, but three or four times when you wind coarse, for if you were not to change your water, the silk would not be so bright and glossy, because the worms which are in the cocons, soul the water very considerably. You must endeavour as much as possible to wind with clear water, for if there be too many cocons in it, your silk is covered with a kind of dust which attracts a moth which destroys your silk. You may wind your silk of what size you please, that is, from one cocon to an hundred; but it is difficult to wind more than thirty cocons in a thread, tolerably even. The nicety, and that in which consists the greatest difficulty, is to wind even, because as the cocon winds off [Page 28] the end is finer, and you must then join oth­er cocons to preserve the proportion. This difficulty of keeping the silk even is so great that (excepting a thread of two cocons) we do not say a silk of 3, of 4, or of 6 cocons, but a silk of 3 and 4, of 4 and 5, of 6 to 7, and if you proceed to a coarser silk, you do not calculate so nicely, as one cocon more or less, we say, for example, from 12 to 15, from 15 to 20 cocons. It is easy to con­ceive that it is more difficult to wind a coarse silk even, than a fine silk, because it is harder to keep a great number of cocons always equal, than a small one. Four hun­dred ells of the thread of a cocon, supposed to be always of the same size, weighs three grains, and as this thread is doubled when thrown in organzine, you must calculate six grains per cocon. Thus a silk of five to six cocons, will make an organzine of thirty­three deniers, taking the middle term of five and six, which is five and half. This is a general rule, almost without exception. Thus a silk of ten to twelve cocons, will make an organzine of sixty-six.

The doubions which you design for Ron­delette, or ordinary sewing silk, are to be wound from fifty to twenty cocons. The rest you may wind as coarse as possible, that is, from forty to fifty cocons. These serve to cover and fill up in coarse stuffs, and are likewise used for sewing silk.

[Page 29] The good choquette is to be wound ac­cording to the uses you intend to put it to, however, not finer than from seven to eight. The bad choquette, you may wind from fifteen to twenty.

In winding the good cocons, you will al­ways find some defective amongst them, which will not wind off, or are full of gouts and knobs, these you must take out of your copper and keep by themselves: they are called Bassinats, and are to be wound apart as coarse as you can; they make a foul dirty silk.

To have a good silk you must wind in fine weather; if the wind be high, it shakes, your silk and prevents it from laying smooth on the reel and forms strings of threads which render it very difficult to wind on bobbins; if the weather be rainy, the silk is damp and has not that lustre it ought to have, or which it has when it dries as it goes up on to the reel. You must likewise take care not to hank it when damp, but let it dry on the reel, otherwise it will be furzy.

The motion of the rampins which places the thread zigzag on the reel, is very essen­tial, because if your silk was to be wound in parallel lines on the reel, it is very cer­tain the undermost threads would be much shorter than the uppermost, and render it very difficult to wind; whereas by the mo­tion [Page 30] of the part rampin your hank is much broader, and your thread is in a different position every instant, yet the motion being always the same, your hank is as regular in in its breadth as if the thread went directly on the reel in a straight line, of a quarter of an inch broad. I have now only to speak of the waste that comes from the battice, and the cocons that have still some silk up­on them, which as I said before you throw into your basket, which are what we call Moresques; these you tharsh and afterwards card or spin them to make flewrett, the uses of which I have already explained; but as it is merchandize you have no idea of in England, I refer you to those who are acquainted with it. You thus see in be­ginning a filature, how necessary it is to know how to make the most use of the very refuse of your cocons, and that you must establish a manufacture of stuffs made of your flewrett and other waste. After all, in Piedmont, which is a very cheap country, where the greatest economy is practised in the filature, and where neither theory or practice are wanting to render the enter­prize successful, yet how many ruin them­selves, tho it be the only staple commodity of the country; judge then, of the many ha­zards you [...] beginning such a project; besides, if you consider, that sometimes a minute more or less in the ovens, renders [Page 31] your cocons useless, and that all the theory in the world is not sufficient without a long practice to screen you from such acci­dents; again, the pains you must take to instruct your windsters, which requires ex­perienced persons, and the uncertainly of success: I think you will hardly conceive an affair of this importance feasible, unless conducted by persons of great experience, and large capitals. It would be impossible for me to enumerate the fourth part of the many little circumstances that may casually happen: I believe, what I have already said, will shew a part at least of the danger that attends this undertaking. Since I am thus far advanced, I shall proceed however, till I have carried your silks from the wind­sters' to the throwsters' hands, and from thence into the merchants.

One hundred and fifty ounces of good cocons, yield about eleven ounces of silk from five to six cocons; if you wind coarser, they will yield something more. You may wind about twelve ounces of silk from five and six cocons, in fourteen hours.

The silk which is made of the bassinats and bad choquette, serves to make stock­ings and coarse heavy stuffs, such as da­masks, &c.

CHAP. V.
Of the working or throwing of Silk.

BEFORE you can work your silk, you must wind it off on bobbins: in London, (and till lately, all over England, except at Derby) silk is wound by hand; but at pre­sent, many new mills in the country have the convenience of winding by water. In Piedmont, all the good silks are wound by engines which go by water, and the bad only by hand.

Before you begin to wind your silk, you must prepare it for the wheel, breaking the gum at the four corners, which lay upon the reel, on winding from the worm; this you effect, by rubbing the silk in those places, between your fingers, till the threads are entirely separated. You then open and spread it out upon the wheel, and you must mind to cut short all the stragling ends that appear, except the right one. If there be any gouts, clear them away. Your silk be­ing wound, you apply it to the different uses; and,

CHAP. VI.
Of the Essay or Proof of Organzine.

ORGANZINE is the only silk, whose title is fixed by a determined standard.—The new method of making these essays, has been invented and introduced but a few years only at Turin. Formerly the silk merchants did not give themselves the trou­ble of making a trial of it, but contented themselves with judging it on a careful in­spection; after which, the weaver, who is sometimes the dupe of the affair, took an­other method of finding out the precise and just size and weight of the organzine, he work'd by one length of a warp, of a whole piece, having agreed amongst them­selves to keep always to the small length, which is sixty ells French.

At least, the silk merchants, in order to act with a greater certainty in buying or selling organzines, endeavoured to ascer­tain a just and exact measure or standard for their true title.

The length of the warp of a silk stuff con­sists of 160 threads, each of which, as I said before, are 60 ells long, (after the piece is wove, or 63 in the warp) which make in all 9600 ells. If they had been obliged to measure and weigh these 9600 ells, the ope­ration would be something tedious; to a­void which, it was agreed to take the 24th part of 9600, equal to 400 ells; and the [Page 38] 24th part of a penny weight or denier, equal to one grain. To make the essay of your organzine; you measure then 400 ells, by means of one or more reels, whose circum­ference is just an ell, which you turn 400 times. These turns are measured by a kind of dial plate, which contain 200 degrees, with an index, like that of a clock: so that when your index has gone twice round, your essay is finished, you then weigh this or these essays, and instead of fixing its weight in grains, as in fact they are, you say so many deniers or penny weights, because you have weighed the 24th part only of 9600 ells, equal to 400, which would con­sequently weigh 24 times as much, and by the same reason, the weight you find in grains, is in deniers.

Thus I have finished the task you set me, and if it can ever be of any advantage, I shall estimate my time in writing it as valu­ably and usefully spent.