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Hi Guys!
Welcome to Hatch Of Knowledge!
So guys, you must have seen that white colored
creepy creature called 'Silkworm' which gives
us Silk and from which Silk Sarees are made
which women love to wear!
But, have you ever wondered?
How is this Silk formed?
How do we rear Silkworms to give us that shiny
looking Silk?
How was Sericulture Founded?
Well, all these questions will be answered
in this video... we will talk about it's history
in the next Part.
So now let's open the door and the reveal
the secret!
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation
of silkworms to produce silk.
Although there are several commercial species
of silkworms, Bombyx mori (the caterpillar
of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely
used and intensively studied silkworm.
Silk was believed to have first been produced
in China as early as the Neolithic Period.
Sericulture has become an important cottage
industry in countries such as Brazil, China,
France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Russia.
Today, China and India are the two main producers,
with more than 60% of the world's annual production.
The silkworms are fed with mulberry leaves,
and after the fourth moult, they climb a twig
placed near them and spin their silken cocoons.
The silk is a continuous filament comprising
fibroin protein, secreted from two salivary
glands in the head of each worm, and a gum
called sericin, which cements the filaments.
The sericin is removed by placing the cocoons
in hot water, which frees the silk filaments
and readies them for reeling.
This is known as the degumming process.
The immersion in hot water also kills the
silkmoth pupa.
Single filaments are combined to form thread,
which is drawn under tension through several
guides and wound onto reels.
The threads may be plied to form yarn.
After drying, the raw silk is packed according
to quality.
Stages of production
The stages of production are as follows:
The female silkmoth lays 300 to 500 eggs.
The silkmoth eggs hatch to form larvae or
caterpillars, known as silkworms.
The larvae feed on mulberry leaves.
Having grown and moulted several times, the
silkworm extrudes a silk fibre and forms a
net to hold itself.
It swings itself from side to side in a figure
'8', distributing the saliva that will form
silk.
The silk solidifies when it contacts the air.
The silkworm spins approximately one mile
of filament and completely encloses itself
in a cocoon in about two or three days.
The amount of usable quality silk in each
cocoon is small.
As a result, about 2,500 silkworms are required
to produce a pound of raw silk.
The intact cocoons are boiled, killing the
silkworm pupa.
The silk is obtained by brushing the undamaged
cocoon to find the outside end 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.
One thread comprises up to 48 individual silk
filaments.
Mahatma Gandhi was critical of silk production
based on the Ahimsa philosophy "not to hurt
any living thing".
He also promoted "Ahimsa silk", made without
boiling the pupa to procure the silk and wild
silk made from the cocoons of wild and semiwild
silkmoths.
The Human League also criticised sericulture
in their early single "Being Boiled".
In the early 21st century, the organisation
PETA has also campaigned against silk.
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