ORGANZINE, in commerce, a de scription of silk usually imported from Italy into this country. It is of the ut most importance to the manufacturer, as none of the principal articles could be fabricated without it ; and the Italians aware of this, long kept the art of throw ing it a most profound secret. It was in troduced into this country by the enter prize and skill of Messrs. Thomas and John Lombe, the latter having at the risk of his life, and with wonderful inge nuity, taken a plan of one of these complicated machines, in the King of Sardinia's dominions, from which; on his return, they established a similar set of mills in the town of Derby ; and in con sideration of the great hazard and ex pense attending the undertaking, a pa tent was granted to Sir Thomas Lombe, in 1718, for securing to him the exclu sive privilege of working organzine for the term of 14. years ; but the construc tion of buildings and engines, and the instruction of the workmen, took up so much time, that the 14 years were near ly expired before he could derive any advantage from it, in consequence of which he petitioned parliament, in 1731, to grant him a further term ; but parlia ment considering it an object of national importance, granted him the sum of 14,000/. on condition that he should al low a perfect model of the machinery to be taken, and deposited in the Tower of London, for public inspection. Similar mills were, in consequence, set up in dif ferent parts of the country ; but owing to the difficulties that were experienced in procuring raw silk of the proper size for organzine, the exportation of which from Italy was prohibited, and to the mills hav ing subsequently found employment for other purposes, the quantities worked into organzine, for many years, bore scarcely any proportion to the imports from Italy ; it has, however, been since revived and improved, in consequence of which it is now carried to a very consi derable extent.
The process which the silk undergoes to bring it into this state, consists of six different operations : 1. The silk is wound from the skein upon bobbins. 2. It is then sorted. 3. It is spun, or twisted, on a mill in a single thread. 4. Two threads thus spun are doubled, or drawn to gether through the fingers of a woman, who at the same time cleans them, by taking out the slubs which may have been left in the silk by the negligence of the foreign reeler. 5. It is then thrown by a mill, that is, the two threads are twisted together either slack or hard, as the manufacture may require ; and it is wound at the same time in skeins upon a reel. 6. The skeins are sorted, according to their different de Frees of fineness, and then the process is complete.
Organzine was for many years made only from Italian silk, but when consi derable improvements were made in the culture of silk in India, it suggest ed the possibility of throwing some of the finer silks of Bengal into organzine. The experiments of individuals were not very satisfactory, but in the beginning of 1794, the East India Company took up the subject, with the view of increas ing the annual consumption of Bengal silk in this country ; and having it in their power to select from their total im port the silks most proper for this pur pose, they have been enabled, at each subsequent sale, to put up from 80 to 100 bales of good Bengal organzine. It has been adopted successively in several branches of the manufacture; and in the year 1808, when the prohibition of ex portation from Italy produced a scarcity of the silks of that country, attempts were made to substitute Bengal organzine for all the purposes to which Italian organ zine was applied ; the result, however, appeared to be that, for some particular articles, Italian organzine possesses pecu liar properties not to be found in any other kind of silk.