thread, it is so arranged as to twist round either itself or another
similar thread during its passage from the basin to the reel. This
process is called "croisure," and is facilitated by guides or small
pulleys. Having made the croisure, which consists of about two hundred
turns, the operator attaches the end of a thread to the reel,
previously passing it through a guide fixed in a bar, which moves
backward and forward, so as to distribute the thread on the reel,
forming a hank about three inches wide.

The reel is now put into movement, and winds the thread formed by the
union of the filaments. It is at this moment that the real
difficulties of the reeler begin. She has now to maintain the size and
regularity of the thread as nearly as possible by adding new filaments
at the proper moment. The operation of adding an end of a filament
consists of throwing it in a peculiar manner on the other filaments
already being reeled, so that it sticks to them, and is carried up
with them. We may mention here that this process of silk reeling can
be seen in operation at the Manchester exhibition.

It is only after a long apprenticeship that a reeler succeeds in
throwing the end properly. The thread produced by the several
filaments is itself so fine that its size cannot readily be judged by
the eye, and the speed with which it is being wound renders this even
more difficult. But, in order to have an idea of the size, the reeler
watches the cocoons as they unwind, counts them, and, on the
hypothesis that the filament of one cocoon is of the same diameter as
that of another, gets an approximate idea of the size of the thread
that she is reeling. But this hypothesis is not exact, and the
filament being largest at the end which is first unwound, and tapering
throughout its whole length, the result is that the reeler has not