Harnessing the Power of the Tiny Silkworm

Behind this soft, sleek fabric – synonymous with elegance and luxury – is a blind, flightless moth named Bombyx mori.

During a life span of around nine to 10 days, this moth lays about 500 eggs. The eggs, the size of a pinpoint, will hatch around 30,000 worms, which are capable of producing 12 pounds of silk.

Once hatched, silkworms feed on mulberry leaves night and day until they are very fat. It is not unusual for the silkworm to eat 10,000 times its weight - and do it in less than a month. They eat so voraciously in order to store up the energy they'll need to enter the cocoon stage, the beginning of silk production.

To produce the cocoons, silkworms use their salivary or silk glands. The silk glands secrete a clear, jelly-like fluid that is forced through openings, called spinnerets. The fluid hardens as it comes into contact with air and the thickness of the thread it determined by the diameter of the spinneret.

Thousands of years ago, the Chinese developed a technique for cultivating silk that continues today. After roughly nine days the silk worm is killed and the tightly wound fiber is loosened and unraveled by dipping the cocoon in water. The single strand, 1,000 to 3,000 feet in length, is spooled and then combined with five or six other fibers to make one thread.

So, how did the Chinese make the connection between the silkworm and the silk? That's a mystery, but legend has it that around 5,000 years ago, the wife of a mythical emperor was in her garden when a cocoon fell into her cup of tea, and she watched as the strong, white thread began to unravel. Recent archeological finds suggest silk was produced in China in as early as 6,000 to 7,000 years ago.

By the 15th century, China had a thriving silk industry. The Silk Road, which spanned from Japan to Italy in 100 B.C. was named for the most significant product traded along its route. Despite all the trade, the Chinese never traded the secret of silk with the Romans.

Today, there are many different uses for silk including clothing, balloons, paper and surgical sutures. In this way, the Silk Road has been extended, winding all the way around the world and back, in and out of multiple industries and uses to truly become part of the fabric of modern life.

Factoids:

Feeling as hungry as a Bombyx mori? To match this moth-sized appetite, a 90-lb. person would have to eat 3.6 million quarter-pound hamburgers in one month!

Silk production is also known as "sericulture"

In 552 A.D. two monks, at the request of the Roman Emperor Justinian, went to Asia and smuggled silkworm eggs in their walking sticks, beginning the spread of silk production in Asia Minor and Greece

Still Curious?

Travel China
www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/silk.htm
Legends and facts about the history, lore and lure of silk

Silk Road
www.silk-road.com/artl/silkhistory.shtml
A history of silk, details and photos of silk production

Insects.org
A look at silk production from the moth’s perspective

www.silk.org.uk/history.htm
Historical facts and trivia on the origin and spread of silk production