We shall first describe the usual practice of reeling, which is as follows:  The cocoons are put into a basin of boiling water, on the surface of which they float.  They are stirred about so as to be as uniformly acted upon as possible.  The hot water softens the gum, and allows the floss to become partially detached.  This process is called “cooking” the cocoons.  When the cocoons are sufficiently cooked, they are subjected to a process called “beating,” or brushing, the object of which is to remove the floss.

As heretofore carried on, this brushing is a most rudimentary and wasteful operation.  It consists of passing a brush of heather or broom twigs over the floating cocoons in such manner that the ends of the brush come in contact with the softened cocoons, catch the floss, and drag it off.  In practice it happens that the brush catches the sound filaments on the surface of the cocoon as well as the floss, and, as a consequence, the sound filament is broken, dragged off, and wasted.  In treating some kinds of cocoons as much as a third of the silk is wasted in this manner, and even in the best reeling, as at present practiced, there is an excessive loss from this cause.  At the present low price of cocoons this waste is not as important as it was some time ago, when cocoons were much dearer; but even at present it amounts to between fifteen and twenty millions of francs per annum in the silk districts of France and Italy alone.  In France the cooking and brushing are usually done by the same women who reel, and in the same basins.  In Italy the brushing is usually done by girls, and often with the aid of mechanically rotated brushes, an apparatus which is of doubtful utility, as, in imitating the movement of hand brushing, the same waste is occasioned.

After the cocoons are brushed they are, in the ordinary process, cleaned by hand, which is another tedious and wasteful operation performed by the reeler, and concerning which we shall have more to say further on.  Whatever may be the preparatory operations, they result in furnishing the reeler with a quantity of cocoons, each having its floss removed, and the end of the filament ready to be unwound.  Each reeler is provided with a basin containing water, which may be heated either by a furnace or by steam, and a reel, upon which the silk is wound when put in motion by hand or by power.  In civilized countries heating by steam and the use of motive power is nearly universal.  The reeler is ordinarily seated before the reel and the basin.  The reeler begins operations by assembling the cocoons in the basin, and attaching all the ends to a peg at its side.  She then introduces the ends of the filaments from several cocoons into small dies of agate or porcelain, which are held over the basin by a support.