2-979-557 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Silk Culture in China: preparing raw silk, 1857. 'When the worms have cast their several skins...they are removed...preparatory to their spinning. In the course of a week after the commencement of spinning the silken cocoons are complete, and it now becomes necessary to take them in hand before the pupae turn into moths...the pupae...are killed by being placed in jars under layers of salt and leaves, with a complete exclusion of air. They are subsequently placed in moderately warm water, which dissolves the glutinous substance that binds the silk together, and the filament is wound off upon reels. This is put up in bundles of a certain size and weight, and either becomes an article of merchandise under the name of "raw silk," or is subjected to the loom, and manufactured into various stuffs for home or for foreign consumption'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.