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History
Historical evidence shows that silk was discovered in China and that
the industry spread from there to other parts of the world.
Silk Discovery Secret…
The Chinese has used silk since the 27th century B.C.. During the
Roman Empire, silk was sold for its weight in gold. The Chinese
domesticated silk worms and fed them with mulberry leaves. They
unwound the silkworms' cocoons to produce long strands of silk
fiber.
Silk is one of the oldest fibers known to man. Its discovery as a
weavable fiber is credited to the Lady Xi Ling Shi, the
14-year-old bride of the Emperor Huang Ti, the so-called 'Yellow
Emperor'. One day in 2640BC, according to Confucius, she was sitting
under a mulberry tree, drinking a cup of tea into which a silk
cocoon fell from above. She noticed the delicate fibers start to
unravel in the hot liquid and has been credited as the first person
to 'reel' or unravel a silk cocoon and use the filament to create a
yarn for weaving. Whether or not the legend holds true, it is
certain that the earliest surviving references to silk production
place it in China and that for nearly 3 millennia, the Chinese had a
global monopoly on silk production.......
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