Production of silk

Welcome back guys . Today i am going to tell you how silk is made through a scientific method 

Let me know you that silk is a kind of fibre which is used to make clothes.

Silk is obtained from the cocoon of silkworms which fed on the mulberry leaves.

They live for a very short time, only about two months.

The cultivation and production of silk is known as sericulture. During this period, they pass through four stages of development.

1- egg

2- worm

3- chrysalis {cocoon}

4- moth

This period is called life cycle of a silk moth

It is the scientific way of obtaining silkworm to obtain better quality of silk fibre.

Production of silk

An adult female silk moth lays about 500 eggs, and then promptly dies. The eggs are kept in cold storage for approximately six weeks.

After this these are bathed in warm water and dried in the air. The eggs are then placed in incubators. They remain under it until all are hatched. Then they are placed on bamboo trays covered with straw mats on which selected mulberry leaves are laid. At the end of about thirty days the worm ceases to eat, attaches itself to a piece of straw and begins to spin its cocoon.

fine gum like fluid called sericin excludes from the opening under the worm's mouth. The fluid becomes hard when exposed to air. Sericin allows fibres to adhere to one other. The worm covers itself with filaments, and when the cocoon  is formed, in about three days, it sleeps for fifteen to twenty days. One manufacturer estimates that 2500 to 3000 cocoons are necessary to make one yard of silk fabric.

The silkworm spends about five days producing silk and spinning its cocoon of a single, long thread. Then the cocoons are boiled in hot water to kill the larvae within because if the larvae are allowed to grow they break the cocoon thereby reducing the length of the only naturally occurring filament fibre. Filaments from several cocoons are grouped together and threaded in the reeling frame and then are twisted with several fibers.

Filament adhere together because of the natural gum secreted by the silkworm.

 Twisting increase the strength of the yarn. These yarns are wound on spools, ready for the weavers. The silk thread is cleaned,  dyed and woven into fabric. Long fibres make more lustrous yarn than short fibres.