The following is a description of a method of making silk thread which is practised in a district near to Ichang, and which produces silk which is very strong in the fibre.
They place the cocoons in a Chinese kuo (a broad cooking pan), and boil them in water to which a small quantity of soda has been added, and the pulp-like substance is then carefully washed in many changes of clear water, and is afterwards dried in the sun for about a week. They then tease it out in bands till it is somewhat like cotter. wool, soft and very white; and it is then drawn out till the strands are about one foot in length. These they place on the ends of bamboos about 6-ft. long, covering the upper foot of the bamboo. They then take a small piece of wood like a pencil at one end of which is a hook, and strung en the other end are seven-holed cash pieces, but above the cash there is a broader piece of metal.
They hook on a small piece of the wool-like silk, and start the pencil revolving by a twist of the fingers, and then lead out the silk as the pencil falls by its own weight. The resulting thread is wound on the pencil as on a spool.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.