Silk Waste - Sources

Sources

The supply of waste silk is drawn from the following sources:

• The silkworm, when commencing to spin, emits a dull, lustreless and uneven thread with which it suspends itself from the twigs and leaves of the tree upon which it has been feeding, or the straws provided for it by attendants in the worm-rearing establishments: this first thread is unreelable, and, moreover, is often mixed with straw, leaves and twigs.
• The outside layers of the true cocoon are too coarse and uneven for reeling; and as the worm completes its task of spinning, the thread becomes finer and weaker, so both the extreme outside and inside layers are put aside as waste.
• Pierced cocoons, that is, those from which the moth of the silkworm has emerged-and damaged cocoons.
• During the process of reeling from the cocoon the silk often breaks; and both in finding a true and reliable thread, and in joining the ends, there is unavoidable waste.
• Raw silk skeins are often re-reeled; and in this process part has to be discarded: this being known to the trade as gum-waste. The same term — gum-waste — is applied to "waste" made in the various processes of silk throwing; but manufacturers using threads known technically as organzines and trams call the surplus "manufacturer's waste."