Scientific American 12, 2.12.1854
All the silk heretofore manufactured in England, either into cloth or spun yarn, has been from raw silk imported in the hank state, that is wound off the cocoons into hanks by the natives of those countries from which the silk was imported. It was supposed that the winding off from the cocoons could never be performed by machinery, and as hand labor was so much cheaper in China, India, and Italy than in England, it was held by the English manufacturers that the cheapest way for them to obtain it was in the state of raw silk yarn.
We learn by the London Artisan, that in all likelihood the English manufacturers will hereafter import all their silk in cocoons, and wind it oft themselves, at a great saving. This has been effected by the invention of a new machine invented by John Chadwick, a silk manufacturer in Manchester, and T. Dickens, a silk dyer. "The machine consists of an iron framework, about four feet wide, four feet high, and four yards long. On each side there is a row of thirty bobbins, arranged vertically, about eighteen inches from the floor. They are furnished with the ordinary flyers for encircling them with the thread as it is produced; and to each of the sixty bobbins there is a motion, by which each can be thrown out of gear independently of the others. Over the bobbins there are on either side 30 copper troughs or basins containing water at a temperature of about 120 degrees. In each of these troughs float six Syrian cocoons, and the silk reeled from these three hundred and sixty cocoons by means the least complex in their nature.
The continuous fiber does not lie in circles upon the cocoon, but describes a form very similar to the figure 8, placed on the surface in a longitudinal direction, thus ∞. As the filament is drawn off, the cocoons have a slight oscillating motion in the water; and to keep them from entangling one another, the basins are provided with brass wires, of proper shape, a little above the surface of the water. Nearly a foot above each basin there projects a wire, about three inches long, covered with some soft woolen or other substance; and over this material each set of six filaments are drawn, the effect being to cleanse them from superfluous moisture, and from any impurities which may adhere to the slender thread. To perform this object, the throwster (in a second stage) resorts to a special winding, the thread being drawn through a groove: since, however, it is then in a dry state, the slight impurities are not likely to be so easily removed rom the fragile fiber as when it is moist.
After descending from the cleansing part, the six filaments pass through a small curve made of glass, and are received by the flyer, and spun upon the revolving bobbins. By this treatment the winding into hanks, as performed by the silk growers abroad, the winding on bobbins from the hank, and also the cleaning process, as heretofore performed in England by the throwster, are entirely dispensed with; a perfect thread of silk, twisted or spun, being furnished at one operation. So that if the silk be intended for organzine or warp, it only requires the further process of doubling and throwing; but if for tram silk, one process is sufficient, as thread can be easily varied in thickness by simply increasing or decreasing the number of cocoons placed in the basin.
One young girl can easily superintend 30 troughs, and a continuous thread can be produced to fill a bobbin, free from knots or piercings; for as any single filament breaks, the new end has simply to be placed in contact with the other five, and becomes one with the thread; and, as the cocoons end at different places, the whole is produced in the same number of fibers. A bobbin of China silk was inspected of double the fineness of any China silk imported, equal to the finest French thrown silk and calculated to be worth more by 8s. or 10s. per pound than the same kind of silk would have been if reeled from the cocoons in China—a prior process of preparing cocoons for the reeling is carried on in the same room.
They are placed for a few minutes in a solution of soap and hot water. By means of a perforated ladle they are then removed to an adjoining trough of warm water, and here, with surprising facility, the principal end of the silk on each cocoon is found by the hand of the girl who discharges that duty. The water detaches the end, and she catches it from the floating surface, sometimes taking up half-a-dozen such ends of silk at a time.
A little is drawn off, and then these cocoons are placed in a basin, the ends hanging over the side. The two girls who superintend the reeling fetch them as they may be required, and place them in a trough at the end of the reeling frame, from which they remove them to the respective basins, to substitute the cocoons as they become exhausted of silk. The apparatus strips the silk very perfectly—in fact, down to the thin covering which encloses the chrysalis. It is stated that four pounds weight of cocoons abroad or in France (where reeling has been performed for a few years with an instrument nearly the size of this for two sets of cocoons) will produce 1 lb. of silk, but that by this process more than 1 lb. weight is obtained.
A new channel in the business will require to be opened—that of importing the cocoons. These have never been supplied, because they have never been demanded; but we suppose they would follow the usual law in this respect which rules other merchandise, and find their way to a good market.
The patent is drawn so as to secure to the patentees the entire ground of reeling or winding (either with spin or without,) direct from the cocoons, on bobbins or any other surface, so as to dispense with the loose skein of raw silk; and it is not improbable, now the ground is broken, that other machines, with the license of these patentees, may be applied to the same object. We understand that the principle of the invention originated with Mr. Chadwick, and that it has been patiently and perseveringly worked out to its present state of efficiency by Mr. Dickens.—We are persuaded that all who witness the machine in operation will feel convinced of its mechanical merits and commercial importance."
The silk made by this machine is stated by the Artisan to be twice the fineness of the China silk which is usually imported, and worth two dollars more per pound. and a greater quantity of good silk is obtained from the cocoons—there being less refuse—than by the hand process, or by another apparatus which has been in use for two years in France.
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