Silk is one of the oldest fibres known to man. Its discovery as a weavable fibre 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 fibres 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.

Silk is an animal fibre produced by certain insects to build their cocoons and webs. Although many insects produce silk, only the filament produced by the mulberry silk moth, Bombyx mori, and a few others in the same genus, is used by the commercial silk industry. The silk produced by other insects, mainly spiders, is used in a small number of other commercial capacities, for example weapon and telescope cross
hairs and other optical instruments.

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