Our next stop was the silk factory, where we were able to see up close what was involved in producing silk from silkworms. After boiling the unopened cocoons to kill the pupa and soften the "glue" that holds it together, they begin to unroll the the silk in one long strand of about 3000 feet. If the pupa has begun to eat through the cocoon, it is not good for filament silk, but is used for the filling of silk comforters, or mixed to make inferior quality silk fabric. The third picture shows the process of stretching the defective cocoon to be used for comforters.
The final picture shows the
weaving of silk brocade. These machines use punch cards with the pattern punched out to program the looms for weaving. You can see the stream of cards at the top of the picture. 
No comments:
Post a Comment