Item 5: Boiling cocoons to loosen fiber ends in Syria--largest silk reeling plant, Mt. Lebanon

Image of a reeling plant in Mount Lebenon, Syria, where several aisles of young children attend to boiling hot water, in which cocoons are softening. An adult supervisor is overseeing the work. Once the cocoons are softened in the boiling water, older children stir them in slightly cooler water until the thread ends can be collected, passed over spools, and put into boxed-in turning frames. The 400 children employed by this reeling plant, the largest and only modern establishment in Mount Lebenon at the time, were paid eight to twenty-five cents a day for their difficult work, which included dipping their hands into hot water and breathing "noisome" vapors. Meadville, Pa.: Keystone View company, ca. 1900-1920. 17.75 x 8.75 cm.

Format: Stereoptic print.