Silk throwing

Silk throwing is the industrial process where silk that has been reeled into skeins, is cleaned, receives a twist and is wound onto bobbins. The yarn is now twisted together with threads, in a process known as doubling. Colloquially silk throwing can be used to refer to the whole process: reeling, throwing and doubling. Silk had to be thrown to make it strong enough to be used as organizine for the warp in a loom, or tram for weft.

Silk weaving is known to have been carried out in Sicily in the tenth century, and in 1474 there were 15,000 employed in the industry in Milan. There is an illustration of a circular handpowered throwing machine drawn in 1487 with 32 spindles. The Italians called the throwing machine, a filatoio, and the doubler, a torcitoio. The first evidence of an externally powered filatoio comes from the thirteenth century, and the earliest illustration from around 1500. Bologna became the most technological advanced silk throwing town, with filatoio driven by overhead shafts that were powered by water.

In 1704, Thomas Cotchett set up a waterpowered silk throwing mill to produce organizine in Derby. It failed due to the use of the wrong type of machinery. In 1717, John Lombe, visited Piedmont and returned to England with details of the Italian machines, and some Italian craftsmen. He was granted a fourteen-year patent, and built Lombe's Mill in Derby. The King of Sardinia retaliated by prohibiting the export of raw silk. Nevertheless, in 1732 John Guardivaglio set up a silk throwing enterprise at in , and in 1744, The Button Mill was erected in Macclesfield and in 1753 Old Mill was built in Congleton. These three towns remained the centre of the English Silk Throwing Industry.

The skeins were placed into bales and taken to the mill for processing. Three sorts of yarn were commonly produced: no-twist which was suitable for weft, tram that had received a slight twist making it easier to handle, and organizine which had a greater twist and was suitable for use as warp.Reeling is the process where the silk that has been wound into skeins, is cleaned, receives a twist and is wound onto bobbins. Silk throwing is the process where the filament from the bobbins is given its full twist. The process where filaments or threads from three or more bobbins are wound together is called doubling. The last two processes can occur more than once and in any order. Tram was wound, thrown and doubled, organzine was wound, doubled then thrown and doubled again. Sewing silk could receive further doubling and throwing. No-twist was often three single filaments doubled together. Many other combinations were possible. Colloquially silk throwing can be used to refer to the whole process: reeling, throwing and doubling, and silk throwsters would speak of throwing as twisting or spinning.

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