The mechanical details by which Mr. Serrell carries out this process vary somewhat according to the nature of the different cocoons to be treated.  In one type of machine the water is caused to surge in and out of a metal vessel with perforated sides; in another a vertical brush is rapidly raised and lowered, agitating the water in a basin, without, however, actually touching the cocoons.  After a certain number of strokes the brush is automatically raised, when the ends of the filaments are found to adhere to it, having been swept against it by the scouring action of the water.  The cleaning of the cocoons is performed by means of a mechanism also entirely new.  In the brushing machinery the floss is loosened and partially detached from the cocoon.  The object of the cleaning machine is to thoroughly complete the operation.  To this end the cocoons are floated under a plate, and the floss passed up through a slot in the latter.  A rapid to and fro horizontal movement is given to the plate, and those cocoons from which the floss has been entirely removed easily give off a few inches of their filament, and allow themselves to be pushed on one side, which is accomplished by the cocoons which still have some floss adhering to them; because these latter, not being free to pay off, are drawn up to the slot in the plate, and by its motion are rapidly washed backward and forward in the water.  This washing soon causes all the cocoons to be freed from the last vestiges of floss without breaking the filament, and after about twenty seconds of movement they are all free and clean, ready for reeling.

We have now to explain the operation of the machine by which the thread is formed from the prepared cocoon.  At the risk of some repetition, however, it seems necessary to call attention to the character of the work itself.  In each prepared cocoon are about a thousand yards of filament ready to pay off, but this filament is nearly as fine as a cobweb and is tapering.  The object is to form a thread by laying these filaments side by side in sufficient number to obtain the desired size.  For the threads of raw silk used in commerce, the sizes vary, so that while some require but an average of three filaments, the coarsest sizes require twenty-five or thirty.  It being necessary keep the thread at as near the same size as possible, the work required is, in effect, to add an additional cocoon filament to the thread which is being wound whenever this latter has tapered down to a given size, or whenever one of the filaments going to form it has become detached.  Those familiar with cotton spinning will understand what is meant when it is said that the reeling is effectively a “doubling” operation, but performed with a variable number of ends, so as to compensate for the taper of the filaments.  In reeling by hand, as has been said, the size of the silk is judged, as nearly as possible, by a complex mental operation, taking into account the number, size, and state of