Silk - its production and manufacture - PDF by Luther Hooper

Silk, its production and manufacture 

important and interesting subject to be dealt with in the present volume of the Commodities of Commerce series is a very wide one, so that it will only be possible, within the limits at disposal, to give the reader a general idea of the several matters opened up, and refer the student, who may be desirous of following them out in greater detail, to the various authorities he may consult with advantage. 

The textile industries, both of the past and present, loom very large amongst the necessary arts of life; and it may be affirmed with truth that the richest, most ingenious and beautiful, as well as the most commercially valuable, branches of the weaver's and embroiderer's crafts, are those in which is manipulated the smooth, tenacious, and lustrous thread, called by the ancients Sera or serum, and by us to-day, silk. It will be seen, as the subject is developed, that silk well deserves the esteem in which it has been held for at least three or four thousand years.

 Because of its fineness, strength and lustre, as well as its affinity for rich and delicate dyes, it has enabled the weaver and embroiderer to produce, by the intersection of its threads in various combinations, the most beautiful and elaborate ornamental designs, and to colour them with the tints of the rainbow. In the third century, the monk Dionysius Perigates wrote of the Chinese, or Seres, as they were then called:

 " The Seres make precious figured garments resembling in colour the flowers of the field, and rivalling in fineness the work of spiders."

Contents:

Contents:

I. THE VALUE OF SILK AND SOURCE OF SUPPLY ...... 1

II. THE SILKWORM ..... 5

III. VARIETIES OF SILK-PRODUCING MOTHS. 12

V. HISTORY OF SILK AND SERICULTURE. .17

V. THE PRACTICED OF SERICULTURE . . 25

VI. REELING FROM THE COCOONS . . .33

VII. SILK THROWING AND WINDING . . 37

VIII. SILK DYEING . . '. . -. . . 48

IX. VARIETIES OF SILK THREAD . . ;'. . 59

X. ANCIENT SILK WEAVING . . ; . 62

XI. THE ORNAMENTAL SILK WEBS OF CHINA. 73

XII. THE SIMPLE AND COMPOUND DRAW-LOOM

FOR SILK WEAVING . . . .79

SATIN DAMASK WEAVING . . .94

SILK WEAVING IN THE EAST V J*} A.D. 1200 99
XV. * THE INTRODUCTION OF SILK WEAVING INTO EUROPE. 102

XVI. DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN SILK WEAVING,

THIRTEENTH TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 107
ENGLISH SILK WEAVING TO ABOUT 1800. Ill
MODERN SILK WEAVING . . . .114

JNDEX . . . . . . -, 123

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