Class 7 Chemistry Fibre to Fabric | Processing of cocoon to silk |
Processing of cocoon to silk
Step I: The first step towards obtaining silk is rearing of silkworms done when mulberry trees bear a fresh crop of leaves.
Step II: The second step towards obtaining silk is the processing of silk. The pile of cocoons used to obtain silk fibres are kept under the sun or boiled or else exposed to steam to separate the silk fibres. This process is known as reeling the silk and is done using machines which unwinds the threads or fibres of silk from the cocoon which are then spun into silk threads, and are woven into silk cloth by weavers.
Fig. Boiling cocoon (left) and reeling of silk (right)
.