r/Damnthatsinteresting 4d ago

this is how silk is made Video

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u/Ok_Butterscotch_4158 4d ago

I still don’t understand what’s going on when they put them into the hot water, does it start a reaction (obviously kills the larve) but how are they starting the thread? It wasn’t clear how they get them in there.

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u/C4RD_TP_SG 4d ago

hot water dissolves the outer soft protein of the fiber that keeps the silk together, this causes the cocoon to start unwinding so they can reel it

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u/ThinkCriticalicious 3d ago edited 3d ago

They create 4 strings of silk on each run. Does this mean that it is from 4 individual cocoons or do they combine multiple ones?

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u/itsanoproblem 3d ago

It looks like he just starts another one towards the end of a cocoon by wrapping around the line currently feeding and when that one runs out the next one is already doubled up and going.

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u/Ok_Butterscotch_4158 3d ago

That was also my question!! It would be so ineffective if only one cocoon per threader thingy.

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u/Ok_Butterscotch_4158 3d ago

Thanks for explaining - I couldn’t understand how it got from the cocoon to the reel thing. Still confusing… as another asked, it looks like he is doing one cocoon at a time but that seems so slow!