Interesting Facts About SILK

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fiber, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors. Here are some interesting facts about Silk :-

1. This material, a natural product is simply the secretion from the mouth of a moth caterpillar.

2. Silk was discovered by accident. A silk cocoon had accidentally fallen into a cup of hot tea. A Chinese Empress Hsi-Ling-Shih pulled the threads and discovered silk.

3. You can get at-most two kilometers of silk thread from just one silk cocoon. !!!! But on an average you can get 600 and 900 meters.

4. Silk is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It’s a naturally self adjusting fabric.


5. A silkworm multiplies it weight 10,000 times from time it is hatched until about 1 month later when it has enough energy stored to start spinning its cocoon.

6. Sleeping on a silk pillowcase is said to cause a delay in a person getting wrinkles because of the essential amino acids in silk bedding.

7. If you visited a silkworm producing facility and entered a room where the silkworms were being raised, it would sound like there was heavy rain falling on the roof. But it is really the sound of silkworms munching on those chopped mulberry leaves.

8. The official term for silk production is “sericulture”.

9. The methods of twisting, reeling and weaving of the silk have hardly changed since the earliest times.

10. The “burn test” will indicate whether not a piece of fabric is silk. Silk will curl away from the flame and leaves a brittle and crushable black bead after burning. It will almost always extinguish itself when the flame is removed from it.

Silkworm With Cocoon

11. The finest silk comes from the silkworms produced by the Bombyx mori moth. The moth cannot fly nor can it see. Its only job is to lay eggs. One moth will lay approximately 500 eggs over a 4-6 day period. Soon after that the moth dies.

12. Four to eight of the silk filaments are twisted together to obtain one strand of silk thread. No wonder silk is so expensive!

13. At one point in history, the Chinese authorities were so adamant about protecting their secret about silk that anyone giving the secrets away or smuggling out silkworms or their cocoons was punished by being put to death.

14. Legend has it that the secret of silk escaped China when a Chinese princess smuggled cocoons out of the country with her when she married a foreign prince by hiding them in her elaborate hairdo.

15. Silk obtained from wild silkworms, although still good quality, is not of as high a quality as silkworms who are pampered and fed an exclusive diet of mulberry leaves.