1.1. INTRODUCTION Silkworms are reared for obtaining cocoons which form the raw material for producing raw silk. The technique of raw silk making was discovered several million years ago. The cocoons are softened using hot water and the silk filament is drawn continuously. This uniform thick and strong thread is used for the manufacturing of fine silk fabrics. Silk reeling is the final and purely commercial phase of sericulture. It is concerned with unwinding of the silk filaments of the cocoon. The term raw silk (Grege) in industry or commerce is commonly understood to denote mulberry raw silk. It is the compact untwisted and undegummed silk thread that is formed by combining the required number of silk filaments drawn from as many separate cocoons by a special tech- nique called Reeling. This includes a series of skilled operations to trans- form raw material (cocoons) into a fine, continuous silk filament of great length. Unlike other aspects of sericulture, reeling needs constant attention and care, since the process of reeling the cocoon filaments break continu- ally and reeler must properly attach fresh filaments to make a continuous filament. If not, the reeled silk results in the abrupt occurrence of thin lengths. The building in which cocoons are reeled for the production of raw silk is called a filature. It is carried with sophisticated automatic machines, to ensure production of raw silk of desired qualities. The filature concept is seen in developed countries where the raw material (cocoons) are of supe- rior quality. But in other countries (where cocoon quality is not good) highly efficient multiend reeling machines with auxiliary equipment are installed and rational techniques of production are adopted. Besides these cottage industries are also found in the remote rural areas of cocoon production. These machines consist simple mechanism, simple methods of reeling. The appliances are either foor-powered or hand-driven, with simple meth- ods of raw silk production. The cottage reeling industry has neither set patterns of organization not standardized equipment and production tech- niques. But the aim of reeling in the cottage sector is always to obtain the maximum yield of raw silk from cocoons at the minimum cost of material and labour. It also produces raw silk which would satisfy all classes of silk weavers and other pure silk industries. 1 SILK REELING