Silk is a very fine fiber obtained from the cocoons of silkworms. The fabrics are renowned for their luster, drape, and handle.
The origin of silk production and weaving is ancient and clouded in legend. The industry undoubtedly began in China, where, according to native record, it existed from sometime before the middle of the 3rd millennium.
According to legend, Silk's textile origins date back to 2640 BC in ancient China. Hsi Ling Shi, the wife of the Yellow Emperor, Xi Ling-Shi, went for a walk among damaged mulberry trees and noticed glistening threads attached to worms eating the plant's leaves.
There are differing accounts about how long it took before Xi Ling-Shi and his wife realized the silkworms cocoons could be harvested into silk, but one version recounts the Empress dropping a cocoon into her tea and watching it unravel into silken threads.
According to tradition, Hsi Ling Shi invented the loom and applied it to the production of highly prized silk fabrics. She is a popular object of worship in modern China, with the title of 'Silkworm Mother' (Can Nainai).
The earliest known silk from bombyx mori was found in a bamboo basket unearthed by archaeologists in China. Other pieces in the same basket were from wild silkworms. The fragments date from between 2850 and 2650 BC.
The dyeing of silk using natural dyestuffs was practiced by the Chinese as far back as 2600 BC. A Chinese text from that date lists natural dye recipes for silks..
Picture below shows Woven silk textile from tomb no 1. at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan province, China, from the Western Han Dynasty, 2nd century BC.
The rearing of silkworms (sericulture) originated in China before 1100 BC. It was the Shang people of the Far East who learned to cultivate the silkworm. They wove its fragile filaments into very delicate fabrics. The silks were cut and sewn into flowing garments with long, loose sleeves.
The Emperors of China strove to keep knowledge of sericulture secret to maintain the Chinese monopoly. Because poor people could not afford real silk, they tried to make other cloth look silky. Women would beat on cotton with sticks to soften the fibers. Then they rubbed it against a big stone to make it shiny. The shiny cotton was called "chintz." Because chintz was a cheaper copy of silk, calling something "chintzy" means it is cheap and not of good quality.
After Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, trade with the Far East by way of Susa developed and figured silks from China found their way into the homes of wealthy Greeks. The silk trade became so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia came to be known as the Silk Road.
Sericulture reached Korea with technological aid from China around 200 BC and India by AD 140.
The Japanese discovered the secret of how to make silk from silkworm cocoons in about AD 300 that a secret mission from Japan succeeded in penetrating China. The members of the mission obtained silkworms and brought four Chinese girls back to Japan to teach the Japanese the art of sericulture and the uses of silk.
In AD 552 two Persian monks sent to China by the emperor Justinian I succeeded in bringing back to Constantinople a small supply of silkworm eggs concealed in hollow canes. Constantinople became the center of the silk trade and retained that position until the 11th century.
The Ancient Mongol warriors were said to have worn silk vests, as an arrow hitting it does not break the silk but ends up embedding the arrow in the flesh wrapped in silk, allowing the arrow to be removed by gently teasing the silk open.
Italy was the most important producer of silk during the Medieval age. The first center to introduce silk production to Italy was the city of Catanzaro during the 11th century in the region of Calabria. The industry gathered momentum in the 12th and 13th centuries after Roger II of Sicily attacked Greek cities in 1146 and brought captive silk weavers back to Palermo.
King Louis XI brought silkworms, looms for silk weaving, and expert weavers from Italy to France during his reign from 1461 to 1483. The French monarch ordered mulberry trees, for the propagation of silk worms, to be planted round Paris, Tours and Orléans.
Silk was introduced to the New World in 1519 when Hernando Cortés brought silkworm eggs and mulberry trees to Mexico from Spain.
Thousands of French weavers left France in 1685, when Louis XIV outlawed Protestantism by revoking the Edict of Nantes. They fled to England, Switzerland, and Germany and helped to develop silk manufacturing in those countries.
By the mid-1860s, the silk industry in France was being ruined by disease attacking the silk worms. The chemist Louis Pasteur was asked to help and he worked on this problem for six years. His solution on locating a tiny parasite that was infesting silkworms and the mulberry leaves that were fed to them was drastic: Destroy all infected worms and infected food. This was done and the silk industry was saved.
Silk that is made by the silk worm is made up of two main proteins, sericin and fibroin. Fibroin is the structural center of the silk and serecin is the sticky material surrounding it. Fibroin is made up of the amino acids Gly-Ser-Gly-Ala-Gly-Ala and forms beta pleated sheets. Hydrogen bonds form between chains, and side chains form above and below the plane of the hydrogen bond network.
The high proportion (50%) of glycine (which is a small amino acid) allows tight packing. Tight packing makes the fibers strong and resistant to breaking. The tensile strength is due to the many interseeded hydrogen bonds. When silk is stretched, the force is applied to these many bonds, and they do not break.
The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors.
Silk is produced by several insects, like silk worms but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing.
In the first month of its life, a silkworm puts on 10,000 times its birth weight.
Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, but some insects such as webspinners and raspy crickets produce silk throughout their lives.
An inch-thick rope of spider's silk can withstand up to 140,000 pounds of pressure.
The "silk" of a spider is stronger than steel threads of the same diameter.
During World War II, the silk of black widows was used to make crosshairs in guns used by the U.S. Army, due to its durability and strength.
An average spider will spin more than four miles of silk in a lifetime.
A strand of spider silk long enough to encircle the whole Earth would weigh just over a pound.
Sea silk is a highly prized unique material made from the highly endangered Noble Pen Shell clam. The only person who knows the ancient craft is an elderly Italian woman, Chiara Vigo..
Sources Compton's Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, History World
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| Bed covered with silver By Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Opal_Art_Seekers_4" |
HISTORY
The origin of silk production and weaving is ancient and clouded in legend. The industry undoubtedly began in China, where, according to native record, it existed from sometime before the middle of the 3rd millennium.
According to legend, Silk's textile origins date back to 2640 BC in ancient China. Hsi Ling Shi, the wife of the Yellow Emperor, Xi Ling-Shi, went for a walk among damaged mulberry trees and noticed glistening threads attached to worms eating the plant's leaves.
There are differing accounts about how long it took before Xi Ling-Shi and his wife realized the silkworms cocoons could be harvested into silk, but one version recounts the Empress dropping a cocoon into her tea and watching it unravel into silken threads.
According to tradition, Hsi Ling Shi invented the loom and applied it to the production of highly prized silk fabrics. She is a popular object of worship in modern China, with the title of 'Silkworm Mother' (Can Nainai).
 |
| Loom Pixiebay |
The earliest known silk from bombyx mori was found in a bamboo basket unearthed by archaeologists in China. Other pieces in the same basket were from wild silkworms. The fragments date from between 2850 and 2650 BC.
The dyeing of silk using natural dyestuffs was practiced by the Chinese as far back as 2600 BC. A Chinese text from that date lists natural dye recipes for silks..
Picture below shows Woven silk textile from tomb no 1. at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan province, China, from the Western Han Dynasty, 2nd century BC.
 |
| By drs2biz - DSC02641, Wikipedia |
The rearing of silkworms (sericulture) originated in China before 1100 BC. It was the Shang people of the Far East who learned to cultivate the silkworm. They wove its fragile filaments into very delicate fabrics. The silks were cut and sewn into flowing garments with long, loose sleeves.
The Emperors of China strove to keep knowledge of sericulture secret to maintain the Chinese monopoly. Because poor people could not afford real silk, they tried to make other cloth look silky. Women would beat on cotton with sticks to soften the fibers. Then they rubbed it against a big stone to make it shiny. The shiny cotton was called "chintz." Because chintz was a cheaper copy of silk, calling something "chintzy" means it is cheap and not of good quality.
After Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, trade with the Far East by way of Susa developed and figured silks from China found their way into the homes of wealthy Greeks. The silk trade became so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia came to be known as the Silk Road.
Sericulture reached Korea with technological aid from China around 200 BC and India by AD 140.
The Japanese discovered the secret of how to make silk from silkworm cocoons in about AD 300 that a secret mission from Japan succeeded in penetrating China. The members of the mission obtained silkworms and brought four Chinese girls back to Japan to teach the Japanese the art of sericulture and the uses of silk.
 |
| Silkworm Pixiebay |
In AD 552 two Persian monks sent to China by the emperor Justinian I succeeded in bringing back to Constantinople a small supply of silkworm eggs concealed in hollow canes. Constantinople became the center of the silk trade and retained that position until the 11th century.
The Ancient Mongol warriors were said to have worn silk vests, as an arrow hitting it does not break the silk but ends up embedding the arrow in the flesh wrapped in silk, allowing the arrow to be removed by gently teasing the silk open.
Italy was the most important producer of silk during the Medieval age. The first center to introduce silk production to Italy was the city of Catanzaro during the 11th century in the region of Calabria. The industry gathered momentum in the 12th and 13th centuries after Roger II of Sicily attacked Greek cities in 1146 and brought captive silk weavers back to Palermo.
King Louis XI brought silkworms, looms for silk weaving, and expert weavers from Italy to France during his reign from 1461 to 1483. The French monarch ordered mulberry trees, for the propagation of silk worms, to be planted round Paris, Tours and Orléans.
Silk was introduced to the New World in 1519 when Hernando Cortés brought silkworm eggs and mulberry trees to Mexico from Spain.
Thousands of French weavers left France in 1685, when Louis XIV outlawed Protestantism by revoking the Edict of Nantes. They fled to England, Switzerland, and Germany and helped to develop silk manufacturing in those countries.
By the mid-1860s, the silk industry in France was being ruined by disease attacking the silk worms. The chemist Louis Pasteur was asked to help and he worked on this problem for six years. His solution on locating a tiny parasite that was infesting silkworms and the mulberry leaves that were fed to them was drastic: Destroy all infected worms and infected food. This was done and the silk industry was saved.
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
Silk that is made by the silk worm is made up of two main proteins, sericin and fibroin. Fibroin is the structural center of the silk and serecin is the sticky material surrounding it. Fibroin is made up of the amino acids Gly-Ser-Gly-Ala-Gly-Ala and forms beta pleated sheets. Hydrogen bonds form between chains, and side chains form above and below the plane of the hydrogen bond network.
 |
| Raw silk of domesticated silk worms, showing its natural shine. By Armin Kübelbeck |
The high proportion (50%) of glycine (which is a small amino acid) allows tight packing. Tight packing makes the fibers strong and resistant to breaking. The tensile strength is due to the many interseeded hydrogen bonds. When silk is stretched, the force is applied to these many bonds, and they do not break.
The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors.
FUN SILK FACTS
Silk is produced by several insects, like silk worms but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing.
In the first month of its life, a silkworm puts on 10,000 times its birth weight.
Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, but some insects such as webspinners and raspy crickets produce silk throughout their lives.
An inch-thick rope of spider's silk can withstand up to 140,000 pounds of pressure.
The "silk" of a spider is stronger than steel threads of the same diameter.
During World War II, the silk of black widows was used to make crosshairs in guns used by the U.S. Army, due to its durability and strength.
An average spider will spin more than four miles of silk in a lifetime.
A strand of spider silk long enough to encircle the whole Earth would weigh just over a pound.
 |
| Pixiebay |
Sea silk is a highly prized unique material made from the highly endangered Noble Pen Shell clam. The only person who knows the ancient craft is an elderly Italian woman, Chiara Vigo..
Sources Compton's Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, History World
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