{"id":466,"date":"2013-11-03T23:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T23:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/03\/vacaton-destination-china-part-2-2\/"},"modified":"2013-11-03T23:06:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T23:06:00","slug":"vacaton-destination-china-part-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/vacaton-destination-china-part-2-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Vacaton Destination – China Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nVacation China \u2013 Silk, Part 2- Production<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\nSilk is a filament secreted by  the silkworm when spinning its cocoon, and the name for the
\nthreads, yarns and fabrics named from the filament.  Most commercial silk is produced by the cultivated silkworm,
\nBombyx mori.  <\/div>\n
\n   <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSilk<\/div>\n
\nIts Origin, Culture and Manufacture<\/div>\n
\nThe Nonotuck Silk Company<\/div>\n
\nFlorence Massachusetts<\/div>\n
\n1895<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe secret of silk production was a closely guarded Chinese
\nsecret.  The penalty of revealing this
\nsecret was punishment by death. Inevitably, the secret was too valuable and
\nthere are several versions in folklore, which describe the lengths smugglers
\nwould go to steal the secret from China to sell it to the West  One tells of monks hiding cocoons in their
\nwalking sticks!!<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBombyx mori feeds exclusively on the leaves of various
\nmulberry trees and spins a thin, white filament.  There are several varities of wild silkworms which feed on oak,
\ncherry and mulberry leaves, but their filament is brown and coarse and 3 times
\nthe thickness of the cultivated.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Teaching sample of trays used for feeding.  In factories the worms are raised on huge trays fitted with a wire bottom for cleaning of the larvae waste.  The wire is then covered with fresh mulberry leaves<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nCarefully selected moths lay 500-700 eggs apiece.  One ounce of silkworms requires nine tons of
\nmulberry leaves to reach maturity, their cocoons will produce 12  pounds of silk.<\/div>\n
\nEggs take 14 days to mature into larvae.  The larvae are raised on trays kept in a
\ntemperature-controlled, clean 
\nenvironment and are fed every 2-3 hours. Fully grown in approximately 5
\nweeks, they are 70 times their original size. 
\nTheir rear silk glands produce an animal protein called fibron which is
\nactivated and sent to silk producing glands. 
\nThe silkworms are placed on a bed and enter the pupa stage, enclosing
\nthemselves in a silk filament in an endless series of figure-eights (300,000
\ntimes) 1 \u00bd miles in length.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\nEight to nine days the silkworm changes into a moth and must
\nemerge from the cocoon.  To do so it
\nproduces an enzyme to soften the cocoon and produce a hole, from which it
\nemerges.  Since the enzyme is
\ndestructive to silk fibers , the fibers break down from their mile-long
\nfilament into shorter  segments of
\nrandom length, ruining the silk threads. 
\n(These waste cocoons are used to spin noil, to make various products but
\nare not suitable for fine silk thread production.)  To prevent this, at the factory the cocoons are gassed, boiled or
\nsteamed, killing the silkworm.  Of
\ncourse, enough moths are allowed to hatch so that egg-laying can continue,<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Moths emerging from cocoons
Note the damage to cocoons<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIntact cocoons.  Dead pupa taken from cocoons prior to reeling.  Fear not, these are an excellent source of protein and are use in the cosmetic industry. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAfter drying the cocoon are inspected and graded and sent to
\na filature (factory) for reeling..Today, automated reeling machines are
\nequipped with sensors, allowing for immediate replacement of empty cocoons or
\nbroken filaments. The silk filament is made stronger for weaving by plying,
\ncalled throwing,  increasing the
\ntwist or adding more strands together.  \n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Moi inspecting a n automated reeling and plying machine at the factory.  The cocoons are stored in the blue containers at the bottom of the reeler.  The plied silk thread is on the spools at the top<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nSkeins of silk are formed into bundles (29) and
\ncollected into bales (132#), the amount raw silk is traded for export.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nVintage photo of silk traders examining skeins of silk<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacation China \u2013 Silk, Part 2- Production Silk is a filament secreted by  the silkworm when spinning its cocoon, and the name for the threads, yarns and fabrics named from the filament.  Most commercial silk is produced by the cultivated silkworm, Bombyx mori.      Silk Its Origin, Culture and Manufacture The Nonotuck Silk Company…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-silk-production"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}