People have been weaving silk into fabric for at least 5,000 years. The delicate material, made from the threads silkworms excrete to create their cocoons, has been used for everything from the robes of Byzantine emperors to the parachutes of World War II paratroopers. In ancient China, the birthplace of silk, it became luxury paper, a medium for paintings and even a form of currency; for centuries, laws forbade anyone except the emperor and other dignitaries from wearing it as clothing. Silk has been found in the tombs of Egyptian mummies, and in ancient Rome it was blamed for making young women promiscuous.
To historians, silk artifacts reflect the trade and social customs of past cultures. Researchers have long sought a surefire method that measures the age of silk for which there is no continuous historical record and uses just a tiny sample of the material. Now Mehdi Moini, a chemist at Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, has developed a technique to date silk based on its chemical composition. His technique serves as a kind of clock, and he is testing and calibrating it with silk of known vintage in the Institution’s collections. “Making a clock is easy,” he says. “Calibrating the clock is difficult.”
Silk proteins are made of amino acids, small molecules with a three-dimensional structure. Each amino acid has two possible variants, exact mirror images of each other: left-handed, known as “L” amino acids, and right-handed, referred to as “D.” The amino acids produced by most living things—like silkworms—are left-handed. The key to the dating process, Moini says, is that as silk proteins age, some of the amino acids rearrange themselves into the D variant. He can tell how old a silk thread is by looking at the ratio of D to L amino acids. At year zero, all will have the L structure; given enough time, there will eventually be equal parts of both. Researchers have been using this approach on various proteins for decades, but Moini is the first to apply it to very small samples of silk, says Darrell Kaufman, a geologist at Northern Arizona University.
Moini and his colleagues borrowed a Chinese textile more than 2,000 years old from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a flag from the Smithsonian that was used in 1846 in the Mexican War. Sumru Krody, senior curator at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., let him take samples from an ancient Egyptian tiraz, a ceremonial turban band with an inscription dating it precisely to A.D. 993. “It’s very hard to find textiles with an accurate date on them,” she says. “But sometimes you get lucky.”
Moini’s method uses a minuscule amount of material, something that appeals to curators of priceless fabrics. “If you go to a museum and say, ‘I want five milligrams of this precious silk,’ silk is very light, so five milligrams is a lot of compound,” Moini says. Previous techniques, such as carbon dating, consumed several milligrams of silk for each test; by contrast, he needs just one-hundredth that amount. “If there’s just one tiny speck of fabric,” he says, “it’s enough for us to do the analysis.”
To determine the ratio of D to L amino acids in each piece of silk, Moini and his team dissolve the fabric in hydrochloric acid, put the liquid in a thin glass tube and apply an electric field. Because amino acids have a slight electrical charge, they are pulled through the tube. The tube also contains a substance that chemically attracts the D amino acids. “Think of it like this: You have a bunch of hands, left and right hands, and then we fill the [tube] with only right gloves,” Moini says. “Only the right hand goes into the right glove and gets caught, and the left hand cannot fit into the right glove, so it goes through faster.”
After analyzing a variety of silk samples, Moini and his team determined that 50 percent of the amino acids change from L to D forms after 2,500 years.
The technique is more efficient and more precise than previous methods. It will soon be put to use to date artifacts of unknown age. “After this technique is fully developed, it’s then the fun part will start,” says Krody. She may use the dating method on items such as the Buyid silks, a group of artifacts that may have originated in Iran sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries.
The earliest evidence of silk dates back to more than 8,500 years ago and has been found at the early Neolithic Age tombs of Jiahu, China. Biomolecular evidence, reported from a study, showed the existence of prehistoric silk fibroin in the tombs.
Silk use in fabric was first developed in ancient China. The earliest evidence for silk is the presence of the silk protein fibroin in soil samples from two tombs at the neolithic site Jiahu in Henan, which date back about 8,500 years.
Silk is a natural fiber produced by silkworms. It is made from the cocoons spun by the larvae of the silk moth, known scientifically as Bombyx mori. The silk production process begins with the cultivation of silkworms and ends with the extraction of silk threads from the cocoons.
The process of silk production is known as sericulture. It was discovered by the Chinese 5,000 years ago. According to legend, the princess Xi Lingshi discovered that a cocoon could be unravelled to produce a thread when one dropped into her tea while sat under a mulberry tree.
On the morning of September 23, 1996, 35-year-old Silk was found dead at her apartment. She reportedly died by suicide. Vidya Balan starrer 'The Dirty Picture' was inspired by the life of Silk Smitha only.
Prehistoric biomolecular evidence of silk in the early Neolithic Age discovered in the tombs of Jiahu; indicates that silk was used more than 8,500 years ago though such burial objects were not ubiquitous.
Sericulture has long been known in ancient China. The earliest Silk discovered in China date to around 3630 BC, meaning they are from the Chinese Neolithic period. Silk was found throughout Henan Province which is widely considered the birthplace of the Chinese civilization.
To test if silk is real, do the burn test. Natural fibers like silk burn and smell like burnt hair. Synthetics melt instead, revealing their plastic/petroleum origin. The burn test works great for identifying real silk.
Spider silk is made of a blend of different proteins linked together into a chain, produced by special glands call spinnerets on the spider's rear end. All spiders produce silk (some spiders can produce several different kinds), but not necessarily as webs like those depicted in Halloween decorations.
The cost of Mulberry silk varies depending on the quality of the fabric and the country of origin. On average, it can cost anywhere from $30 to $100 per yard. This cost is due to the high demand for Mulberry silk and the intricate process of harvesting and producing it.
While there are now a huge variety of different types of insects used to produce silk, the most commonly used species is the larvae of 'Bombyx mori' – (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth).
Less in more - limited availability. The silk fabric is carefully derived from natural sources - cocoons of silkworms. This makes the production limited due to factors like - climate, availability of quality mulberry leaves, time required by silkworms to complete their lifecycle and contribute to the high price.
In commercial use, silk is almost entirely limited to filaments from the cocoons of domesticated silkworms (caterpillars of several moth species belonging to the genus Bombyx).
Silk is a natural fiber known for its luster, shine, strength, and durability, and it has a long trading history across the world. Silk is the epitome of luxury due to its high cost to produce, soft feel, and elegant appearance, and it is thus a popular textile in high-end and couture fashion design.
Sericulture has long been known in ancient China. The earliest Silk discovered in China date to around 3630 BC, meaning they are from the Chinese Neolithic period. Silk was found throughout Henan Province which is widely considered the birthplace of the Chinese civilization.
The Silk Road is neither an actual road nor a single route. The term instead refers to a network of routes used by traders for more than 1,500 years, from when the Han dynasty of China opened trade in 130 B.C.E. until 1453 C.E., when the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West.
Chinese silk production originated in the Neolithic Yangshao culture during the fourth millennium BCE. However, due to fragility and perishability, the earliest surviving Chinese silk textiles are from the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE).
Silk garments and other articles made from silk have about an 80–100 years life span if carefully used… longer if left preserved and undisturbed. But for practical use, silk “shatters” after about 60 years.
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