This process is radically different from that employed to make a thread of raw silk, which consists of filaments, each several thousand feet long, laid side by side, almost without twist, and glued together into a solid thread by means of the “gum” or glue with which each filament is naturally coated.  If this radical difference be borne in mind, but very little mechanical knowledge is required to make it evident that the principle of spinning machinery in general is utterly unsuited to the making up of the threads of raw silk.  Since spinning machinery, as usually constructed for other fibers, could not be employed in the manufacture of raw silk, and as the countries where silk is produced are, generally speaking, not the seat of great mechanical industries, where the need of special machinery would be quickly recognized and supplied, silk reeling (the making of raw silk) has been passed by, and has never become an industrial art.  It remained one of the few manual handicrafts, while yet serving as the base of a great and staple industry of worldwide importance.

There is every reason to suppose that we are about to witness a transformation in the art of silk reeling, a change similar to that which has already been brought about in the spinning of other threads, and of which the consequences will be of the highest importance.  For some years past work has been done in France in developing an automatic silk-reeling machine, and incomplete notes concerning it have from time to time been published.  That the accounts which were allowed to reach the outer world were incomplete will cause no surprise to those who know what experimental work is—­how easily and often an inventor or pioneer finds himself hampered by premature publication.  The process in question has now, however, emerged from the experimental state, and is practically complete.  By the courtesy of the inventor we are in a position to lay before our readers an exact analysis of the principles, essential parts, and method of operation of the new silk-reeling machine.  As silk reeling is not widely known in England, it will, however, be well to preface our remarks by some details concerning the cocoon and the manner in which it is at present manufactured into raw silk, promising that if these seem tedious, the labor of reading them will be amply repaid by the clearer understanding of the new mechanical process which will be the result.

The silkworm, when ready to make its cocoon, seeks a suitable support.  This is usually found among the twigs of brush placed for the purpose over the trays in which the worms have been grown.  At first the worm proceeds by stretching filaments backward and forward from one twig to another in such manner as to include a space large enough for the future cocoon.  When sufficient support has thus been obtained, the worm incloses itself in a layer of filaments adhering to the support and following the shape of the new cocoon, of which it forms the outermost stratum.