GOLD-THREAD is largely used in the em broidery of India. There should not be any alloy whatever in the gold or gilt silver thread used. This alone can preserve it from tarnish ; and as gold thread enters very largely into the patt,erns of most native cloths, it would be impossible to make any of high value acceptable without it. In its manufacture, a small bar, inch diameter and about 6 inches long, of the purest silver, is trebly or quadruply gilt by the highest touch gold ; there is no alloy whatever used in the highest kinds, but the value of the thread depends upon the number of times the silver has been gilt with pure gold. The gilt bar is beaten out to a thick wire with carefully polished flat hammers, on a polished anvil, and afterwards drawn through a succession of holes in a plate, until the requisite fineness is obtained, which is hardly more, pro bably, than a fine hair. The wire is wound round upon reels, and is flattened by a delicate and peculiar manual operation as follows :—Three reels of wire are placed npright on the further side of a steel plate, perforated, through which the wire is drawn ; the workman draws these wires towards him over a highly polished steel anvil, placed on a small stool, and as they pass strikes them sharply with a somewhat heavy hammer, the face of which is also perfectly flat and highly polished. The operation is very rapid,
and must require great skill so as to ensure uniform flatness and perfection in the wire thus prepared for use. To make it into thread it is twisted upon silk thread of various degrees of fineness, as required, by a simple process as follows. The thread passes over a ring or hook a few feet above the operator, and is wound upon a spindle with a long shank which hangs near the ground. A rapid twist is given to it by the workman, by rolling it sharply on his thigh, and as it spins the gold thread is directed carefully along, so as to cover the whole exactly as high as the man can reach. The spindle is then stopped, the covered thread wound upon it, and the operation resumed. It is doubtful, perhaps, whether any mechanical means would ensure such perfection as is attained by these simple manual processes, or whether they could ever be imitated by artisans unused to them.—Exhib. of 1851.