History of silk

An excursion into the history of silk

Silk is one of the oldest materials known to man. It was discovered in China more than 5,000 years ago. The history of silk production is long and fascinating, it is shrouded in a huge number of legends and mystery.

The Legend of Silk

According to Chinese legend, the discoverer of silk is considered to be the wife of the Yellow Emperor Huang Di, who reigned around 3000 BC, Xi Lingshi. Legend has it that she was sitting in the garden under a mulberry tree during a tea ritual when a silkworm cocoon fell into her tea cup. She noticed that in the hot liquid the cocoon began to disintegrate into a long, thin, shiny thread. She was so amazed by its beauty, tenderness and strength that she decided to create an outfit for the emperor from it. For a long time, only the imperial family had the right to wear silk clothes.

silk fabrics

Thus, a silk cocoon, accidentally falling into a tea cup, gave silk to the world, and the emperor’s wife received high honours for such a valuable gift. It doesn’t matter how much truth there is in this story, but it is known for certain that it was the Chinese who developed the culture of producing silk to a very high level, and already in 1400 BC. various silk fabrics were one of the most valuable Chinese goods.

silk way to Europe

Of course, the art and technology of silk making were kept secret. Anyone who even said a word about this faced the death penalty. Chinese rulers managed to keep this secret for 3,000 years. Europeans became acquainted with the technology of silk production only in 550, when silk began to be produced in Byzantium, where Christian missionaries brought silkworms, necessary for silk production, along with mulberry seeds. Thanks to the value of silk, the Silk Way was created, which provided close trade links. The trade route originated in China, and it connected the largest empires of antiquity - China, India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Roman Empire.

silk mining

Extraction of silk fiber is a very long process requiring great care, precision and attention, that's why silk is one of the most expensive fibers. Silk is obtained from the cocoons of silkworm caterpillars. To produce high-quality silk, two conditions must be taken into account: it is necessary to accurately determine the time when the pupa is ready and it is time to collect the silk fiber, and it is also necessary to observe correct, regular feeding throughout the development of the silkworm.

silkworms

There are many species of silkworms. One of the high-quality species of silkworm is Bombyx mori, which produces the highest quality silk - Mulberry. These are not wild silkworms, these are specially raised butterflies, blind and unable to fly, whose main and only task is to lay new larvae, i.e. produce silk. This silkworm can lay up to 500 larvae within 5-6 days, then it dies. The larvae are very small, all 500 of them weigh approximately 5 grams or even less. Silkworm larvae hatch into larvae after 10–12 days. They are also called silkworms. To produce 1 kg of silk, 6,000 silkworms are needed.
The larvae are very voracious; they continuously feed on mulberry leaves throughout the day. 6,000 silkworms eat approximately 200 kg of mulberry leaves, which are organically pure and carefully grown.

lavral cycle

The larval development cycle lasts almost a month. 40% of the larva's weight is the transformed salivary gland, in which the silk mass for the cocoon is formed, therefore this gland is called the silk gland. The silk mass formed in the silk gland is shiny, white-yellow in color and consists of fibrillar protein and sericin, as well as 18 amino acids.

final transformation

Before pupation, the larva stops eating and begins to weave a strong thread, wrapping itself in it. The formation of the cocoon lasts three days. The formed pupa of the silkworm larva is a twisted single thread 1000–1500 m long, being strong, soft, thin and shiny, and the length of the straightened thread is 600–900 m, since the upper and lower layers do not unwind. The formed cocoons are collected, treated with hot steam, moistened, washed and unwound using special equipment, winding several threads together, since they are very thin. How many threads to weave together is chosen depending on what type of fabric is intended to be produced. This is how raw silk is obtained. By the way, the larvae that die under the influence of steam are not a wasted murder - they are later eaten, since silkworms are a favorite delicacy in Chinese cuisine!

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