Cheney Stereoviews Collection (17 of
)
Silk Industry, So. Manchester, Conn., U.S.A.
This picture gives a good idea of the magnitude of the silk industry in the United States. The room here exhibited is part of the plant of Cheney Bros., South Manchester, Conn. The process illustrated is that of doubling, that is, the machinery is in the act of winding the thread so that as many ply may be combined and twisted as desired for the various uses. The bobbins of single strand silk, according to the number of ply wanted, are arranged on a creel on the doubling frame, and thence wound off on to the single bobbins seen lying horizontally along the top of the frame.
The single strands pass over a glass or rod through a reciprocating guide, and thence to the horizontal bobbin at the top on which they are wound. Each strand, also, passes through the eye of a faller, which drops and stops the machine as soon as a fibre breaks, and thus calls attention at once to the falling of a thread. From the bobbins thus filled with doubled and twisted strands, hanks of thread are reeled off into definite lengths for the market. The throwing processes result in silk for sewing, embroidery, or weaving purposes according to the ways in which these processes are varied.
