Silk fibre is the most beautiful natural fibre to be found by the human civilization. Well speaking of the history of this special fibre, all credit goes to the Chinese Empress three millennia before when she thought of doing some good for her people. Her act of doing well for the Chinese has blessed the world with such a wonderful fibre. Silk Yarns and apparels are in good demand all through out the year producing good textile business. China is the largest producer and exporter of silk globally. The silk produced in china is popular by the name ‘China Silk’ prefixes to all products.
Now let’s look at the traditional production process of the cultivated silk fibre. The natural habitat for a silk worm is the mulberry tree which id cultivated in large numbers for the breeding of the silk worm. The production of cultivated silk is known as sericulture.
1. Hatching of Eggs: The silk moth lays eggs. When the eggs hatch the caterpillars are fed mulberry leaves. When the silkworms are about 35 days old they are 10,000 times heavier than when they hatched. They are now ready to spin a silk cocoon.
2. Silk production by worm: The silk is produced in two glands in the silkworm’s head and the forced out in liquid form through openings called spinnerets. The silk solidifies when it comes in contact with the air. The silkworm spins approximately 1 mile of filament and completely encloses itself in a cocoon in about 2 or three days.
3. Transition of the worm: The silkworm then goes through stages and changes into a moth; however, the silkworm is usually killed with heat before it reaches this stage. The silkworms are killed because once they reach the moth stage; the moth secretes a fluid to dissolve the silk so it can emerge from the cocoon. This damages the cocoon and the silk and the silk then becomes a lower quality. Some silkworms are allowed to live to be used for breeding.
4. Raw Fibre Obtained: The silk is obtained from the undamaged cocoons by brushing the cocoon to find the outside ends of the filament. The silk filaments are then wound on a reel. One cocoon contains approximately 1,000 yards of silk filament. The silk at this stage is known as raw silk. A yarn can now be formed by combining several filaments of silk.