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