Silk: Queen of fibers

When Darius III surrendered to Alexander the Great, he was dressed in silk clothes so splendid that the victor required tons of precious silk as spoils of war.

Silk is considered the most fascinating and precious fiber par excellence, a symbol of elegance.

Its origins at least five thousand years ago. It is said that it was the Chinese Empress Xi Ling Shi, the fourteen-year-old wife of Emperor Huang-Ti, who discovered the potential of this textile fiber and invented the first tool for silk spinning. initially their silk robes were reserved for Chinese emperors, but the use extended to wider social strata to countries outside of China.

The Chinese established a very profitable trade with the West. It is known that at the court in ancient Persia Chinese silk was used, unmade and re-woven according to the typical Persian designs.

It is said that when Darius III surrendered to Alexander the Great, he was magnificently dressed in silk clothes to induce the winner of a war booty of very precious silk.

The caravans carried the silk on camel back from the heart of Asia to Damascus in Syria, the commercial meeting point between East and West.

Silk became a very popular kind of luxury also in Greece and then in Rome. Julius Caesar demanded by decree that the silk be destined exclusively for his personal use and for the robes of his officers; but, despite the peremptory order, the use of this precious fiber spread widely among the wealthy classes.

Silk clothing quickly became a coveted and relatively popular luxury item in all areas reached by Chinese merchants due to their lightness and beauty. Only in 550 AD, through the Byzantine Empire, silk was imported into Italy by monks sent by the Emperor Justinian to establish commercial contacts with the nations of the Far East.

It is said that they stole mulberry seeds and silkworm eggs hiding them in the bottom of some bamboo canes. Since then, the Chinese monopoly of this fabric came to an end. Thus began a particularly prolific period for Italian yarns. Only in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries did the breeding and processing of silk begin, which will reach its peak from 400 to 600 in Tuscany, Emilia, Veneto, and Lombardy.

In Lombardy, Duke Ludovico Sforza forced peasants to plant mulberry trees in their fields. This decision earned him the title of Ludovico il Moro, from the name of the mulberry plant, in Latin “Morus nigra” and in Como dialect “murun”.

Thus developing the cultivation and manufacture of silk, with the city of Como the undisputed capital. Nowadays, production in Italy has practically ceased, not for the processing that places Italy at the forefront, if not for the quantity, for the quality of its products. The largest producer of cocoons is China with 200,000 tons per year, followed by Japan, India, Korea and Brazil.

The silk is produced by a worm, the Bombix mori, a larva that has the ability to generate a particular drool inside its stomach necessary to make a cocoon within which it is enclosed for metamorphosis. The worm expels it from two openings located on the sides of the mouth, the seritteri.

This solidifies in contact with the air forming a thin but long filament and, guided with eight movements of the head, it is arranged in layers forming a silk cocoon, consisting of a single thread that can reach a length of 1.5 kilometers. . Once the cocoon necessary for the metamorphosis has been made, the chrysalis is suppressed by placing the cocoon in a stove at a temperature of 35 C (stewing).

Then we proceed to look for the beginning of the burr and wind the wire using a reel. The thread is microscopically formed of two proteins: two parallel fibroin threads coated with sericin.

Subsequently, to make the yarn suitable for weaving there are other passages among which the main one is the degumming. To use the burr for textile purposes, the sericin must be at least partially eliminated, this is achieved during the process called degumming, ie by washing the yarn with hot water. The removal of the sericin improves the hand, the luster and the flexibility of the fiber.

Based on how much sericin is removed, three types of silk are obtained.

Raw silk. The yarn (raw silk), before moving on to weaving, undergoes a twisting operation receiving a certain number of turns, so twisted it is collected on spools. The following type of silk is obtained according to the type of operations that are carried out.

Raw silk. Obtained from raw silk by gentle washing with water; it has a rough and shiny appearance, similar to raw silk.

Softened silk. Always obtained from raw silk with a partial washing of sericin; it is slightly shinier than raw silk but remains almost as rough as the latter.

Baked silk. Through a complete degumming of the raw silk by means of washing at a temperature of 90-95 C, yes presents very soft and shiny.

Loaded silk. The charge is carried out by adding vegetable substances (tannins), or minerals (stannic chloride, phosphate and sodium silicate) or together. With the filler, the silk undergoes an increase in weight, making it more resistant to washing and easier to dye.

The worked silk. By subjecting to different mechanical processes, three important yarns are produced.

The organzine: obtained with two silk filaments, first twisted on themselves in one direction, to increase their resistance, then together in the opposite direction. This type of yarn, being very resistant, is used for the warp.
The crepe: made with two silk threads, not twisted on themselves, but strongly twisted together using water vapor. Produces a wavy type fabric with a characteristic crepe.
Twisted by weft: made with more filaments but with a lighter twist
therefore less tenacious and resistant.
Waste: these are the usable residues from the processing of silk.
Schappe, a French term that indicates a worsted yarn.
Shantung, from China with a rough surface, with knots, very irregular due to the different characteristics of the burrs used.
Bourette, a French term that indicates a carded yarn with an irregular, rustic surface.

Silk is therefore a product of 100% natural animal origin that has excellent characteristics. It is in fact a poor conductor of heat and electricity, it can absorb water up to 30% of its weight, it has an elastic elongation of 15-25%. It is also a hypoallergenic and extremely resistant fiber. As the dynamometer tests show, to break a continuous silk thread it takes a steel wire three times thicker.

From the nobles of the past to the common people of today, people all over the world have been captivated by the elegance and refinement of silk. It is not for nothing that she is called the Queen of fibers.

Sergio Cairati

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