In order to provide money to meet the heavy expenses of the government caused by the Civil War, a high import duty was placed on all luxuries, including silk. The duty was made 30 per cent on manufactured silk on 2 March 1861 and in August of the same year was raised to 40 per cent. The tariff was again advanced on 30 June 1864 to 60 per cent, this time not only for revenue but for protection. Following this advance there was an immediate show of activity among those engaged in silk importing to consider the possibilities of manu facturing at home. Those already engaged in the manufacture of silk received a fresh stimulus. In 1872 The Silk Association of America was organized, in New York, to pro mote in all measures the common interest of silk-making in the United States. At the Cen tennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876 American-made silk favorably compared with that of foreign manufacture. Much of the The Manufacture of Silk.— The filament spun by the silkworm into a cocoon is so fine that several must be reeled together to produce a thread of sufficient size to handle. This is done in large factories, called Matures. Here the cocoons are placed in basins of hot water near the boiling temperature. Several filaments from as many cocoons as are required for the size of the raw-silk thread desired, are com bined, twisted and reeled into skeins. When the filament from one cocoon has become ex hausted it is replacect by another cocoon and the reeler adjusts the size of the :thread by controlling the number of fresh and partially exhausted cocoons which are forming the thread.. A single cocoon of good quality may furnish from 400 to 800 yards of reelable fila ment. Asiatic silks reeled by different filatures and different qualities from the same filature are designated by colorful labels called °chops.* Silk that has been reeled is known as raw silk The damaged cocoons and the parts of each cocoon which cannot be reeled are known as waste silk. Waste silks are combed and spun into spun silk or silk-schappe yarns.
Silk is imported from Europe and Asia, Japan supplying by far the greater portion. Japanese raw silk is prepared for shipment in books containing from 25 to 30 tightly-rolled skeins. These are packed in bales weighing from 125 to 140 pounds. Chinese silks are packed and shipped in a manner quite similar to Japanese silks. Italian silks are packed in large bales weighing from 200 pounds upward.
The silk used in the manufacture of silk fabrics may be divided into three general classi fications, as follows: (1) Silk threads as they come from the reeler where several of the cocoon threads have been united into one. (2) Silk known as organzine in which the original threads have been twisted and several of these twisted threads have been united together. (3) Silk known as tram in which threads coming from the reeling machine have been very lightly twisted together.
When silk threads are woven as they come from the reeler, without having been dyed, the natural gum which they contain gives them enough body to make them suitable for weaving. If the threads are dyed before weaving this gum is removed in the dyeing process, and to give the threads strength and cohesion, they are twisted before dyeing. This is the work of the throwster.
Throwing.—The throwing process divides silk into two broad classifications, organzine and tram. Organzine is generally used for the warp or length of the fabric and tram for the filling or width. Silk used for organzine is usually of better quality than silk used for tram as the organzine warp is subjected to more strain in the process of manufacturing.
In throwing organzine, the silk, after soaking, is first wound upon bobbins. It is then a single thread. Each single thread is twisted, usually 16 turns per inch. Two of these twisted threads are doubled together and the resulting thread is twisted in the opposite direction, usually 14 turns per Inch. The twisting operations are known as spinning, and unite the filaments into one strong even thread which is suitable for warping. In some cases more than two threads are com bined. In throwing tram, or the material with which the warp is filled, the silk goes through various operations similar to organzine, but because it is to be used as a filling and not subjected to the same continued strain as the warp, it is not as tightly twisted. The twist in tram is from two and one-half to five turns per inch. If the silk is to be dyed before weav ing it must he taken from the bobbins and re turned to skein form. Organzine is reeled into skeins of about 20,000 yards length and tram into skeins of shorter lengths according to the number of threads into which the silk has been doubled. After reeling, short ties or laces are inserted through the skeins at several places to keep them from tangling and knotting while passing through the dyeing and subsequent op erations prior to weaving. The skeins are finally inspected and put up in large bundles ready for the dyer. There are many variations to the throwing process the most important of -which is the making of crepe fabrics. To pre pare silk threads for crepes the twist is greatly increased and runs from 60 to 75 turns per inch. This fabric is woven before being dyed.
Dyeing.— The dyer boils the skeins in soap and water which removes the natural gum from them and leaves them soft and lustrous. They are then rinsed and passed on to the dye vat. After dyeing the skeins are dried and packed for shipment to the weaver.
Weaving.—The silk entering into a woven fabric is known in the manufacturing trade by several names. The silk threads running lengthwise are called the warp and those run ning crosswise which bind the warp to make the fabric are known as the filling or the shot. They are also spoken of as picks.
An ordinary warp may have from 1,000 to 20,000 ends of thread in a yard of width. The process of putting the above number of threads on a beam to be placed into the loom is com monly known as the warping process. The threads are warped in bands of from 300 to 600 at a time, each band running the entire length of the warp, which may vary from 300 to 1,200 yards. When the necessary number of bands have been placed side by side on the roller the warp is then transferred in its entirety of from 1,000 to 15,000 ends to another beam and is placed in the hack of the loom. Each indi vidual thread of this warp is passed through the harness in the loom preliminary to being manipulated into the fabric. This process is known as entering the thread. If the loom con tains an old warp which has already been entered in the harness the new warp is simply twisted on thread for thread to the old warp. In preparing filling for use in the loom the filling thread, generally tram, is wound on spools. These spools are placed in what is known as a quilling machine which transfers the silk from the spools to a long, thin cylinder called a quill. A quill when covered with silk is placed into the shuttle. Formerly the quill of a feather was used for this purpose and hence the name.