Part 9 (1/2)
”The stirring frees the ends of the filas serves to collect theht in this way they are passed on to the reeler; but if after trying this irls find the ends do not free themselves they put such cocoons into a different temperature of water, or else toss them out entirely and leave them to the employees who handle the lots that require special treatment They cannot stop here to fuss with cocoons that fail to wind off readily; not only would such troublesome ones retard the work, but they would be likely to snarl the others
Frequently we find cocoons with uneven places in the thread, spots where the silkwor and stopped, afterward going on with its work anda lump or knob where the filament has been joined Such cocoons wind badly, as you can well ieneral lot”
”I notice those boys are taking the empty cocoons out of the tanks after the silk has been reeled from them Is it necessary?”
”Yes We never allow the discarded cocoons, or shells as we call the, because they not only spoil the sheen of the silk on the unreeled cocoons but discolor it,”
Henri replied ”Now let us watch the reeling Shall we?”
The boys turned toward the whirling machinery
”I had no idea they reeled so fast,” declared Pierre, speaking loudly so his co the flying threads pass over the glass rods
”The speed of the reels can be regulated, of course,” answered Henri
”It is not often, though, that the fila too fast When the thread does break it is ular motion of the machinery wears it until it parts
This cannot always be avoided All filatures count on soe in a lass rods to prevent the thread fro cocoons has been so carefully studied that now our French reelers can turn off silk of fifteen or twenty fibres and lose only one or two per cent of it by waste In Turkey the loss runs as high as six or eight per cent; in Syria it is fifteen or twenty per cent; and in other countries where the people have less her Successful silk reeling is a ood machinery, practice, and deftness An experienced reeler knows his business too well to wasteto ht the men just took the end of the thread and wound it off without any trouble”
Henri shook his head
”No, indeed I wish it were as easy as that A reeler needs judgment at every turn Not only must the floss be removed from the outside of the cocoon before it is reeled, but also the first part of the filament, which usually is weak and too fine for use,thread is reached You see, the caterpillar has to work a little while before it gets under way and does its best spinning All that poor filaets started must be broken off and saved for embroidery floss, since it is fit neither to be woven into broad goods or twisted into sewing silk
The reeler begins to here the end of the filah fibres of the sath to make a thread uniform in size And this is not so easy as it sounds, since there is great diversity in the coarseness and fineness of the filament on the cocoons He cannot always put the saether In addition to this fact he is often required to reel silk of various sizes The coarseness or fineness demanded all depends on the purpose for which the silk is to be used But always each kind hout”
”And how does he join the fresh cocoons to the others? By tying?”
”No He runs the cannot be detected
Every moment he must be on the watch to add new fila out As one cocoon takes the place of another its filament blends unnoticed in the thread You can see that it would never do to join a lot of new ones all in the saths, anyway, don't they?”
ventured Pierre ”Scarcely any of them would contain the same nuether”
”Precisely So the reeler keeps adding fresh fibres, being careful always that his thread is running uniform all the time If he uses fibres of fine quality there must be more of them; if coarser fibres not so many He can't turn out thread that is thick in one place and thin in another”
”That is what you or I would do,” laughed Pierre ”Or at least I should
I never could reel so fast, either”
”It winds better fast,” replied Henri ”It has not soright along If we can get cocoons soon enough so they can be wound off before thethe affects the silk Of course in most cases it is unavoidable, for it would require very quick work for our agents to buy up the products of outlying silk-raisers and get the a big chance of having our silk ruined, since one never can predict exactly how long it will be before thedifferent results It is a pity, however, that they have to be cured Still, the curing has one advantage--it decreases the weight of the cocoons about twenty-five per cent”
”I didn't realize that curing caused shrinkage”