According to Chinese legend, Lei-tzu, the wife of the emperor Huang Di, discovered silk when she picked some cocoons from a mulberry tree and accidentally dropped one into her tea. When she pulled it out, she found that it unwound into one long filament. True or not, we know that silk making dates back at least 6000 years in China.
The great mystery and magic of silk making lies in the painstaking nurturing of the moths and worms, in controlling temperatures and in preparing the diet of fresh, chopped mulberry leaves. It was a complex process, which the Chinese managed to keep secret for thousands of years. The source of silk is the blind, flightless moth, Bombyx mori, which lays 500 or more eggs and dies soon after. Although a hundred of the tiny eggs weigh only one gram, they produce about 30,000 worms. When it is time to build their cocoons, the worms produce a jelly-like substance in their silk glands, which hardens when it comes into contact with air.
After eight or nine days in a warm, dry place, the cocoons are ready to be unwound. First, they are steamed to kill the worms. Then they are dipped into hot water to loosen the tightly woven filaments. Each cocoon is made up of a filament between 600 and 900 metres long and between five and eight of these super-fine filaments are twisted together to make a single thread of silk.
The cloth made from silk is not only beautiful and lightweight, it is also warm in cool weather and cool in hot weather.
The secret of silk making first leaked out of China around AD 440, when a Chinese princess smuggled out silkworm eggs by hiding them in her hairpiece. Then around AD 550, two Nestorian monks appeared at the Byzantine Emperor Justinian's court with silkworm eggs hidden in their hollow bamboo staves. In the 13th century, Italy began silk production with the introduction of 2000 skilled silk weavers from Constantinople.
Silk, along with jade, spices and porcelain, provided the Chinese with trade goods coveted all over the world. Today, although nylon and other synthetic fibres have replaced silk in many applications, silk remains an important luxury material for clothing and home furnishings. More than 50% of the world's silk is still produced in China.
Learn more: Silk Discovery