Linen yarns are based on a hank or lea of 300 yards, and the number of these in 1 lb. is the count of the yarn.
Spun silk, which is the silk chiefly used in cotton fabrics for stripes and headings, is numbered on the same system as cotton yarns. The number of hanks of 840 yards in 1 lb. is the count of the yarn.
Net silks or thrown silks are numbered on an altogether different system. The “skein” or hank is 520 yards, and the number of deniers—533⅓ deniers = 1 oz.—which a skein weighs indicates the number of the yarn. In silk manufacture the number of the yarn is called the “size,” the word “count” being used to denote the closeness of the reed.
Another system is used for silk yarns called the Manchester scale. This is based upon the hank of 1,000 yards.
The number of drams which one such hank weighs is the “size” or number of the yarn or thread.
In the former scale the yards per ounce may be found by multiplying the yards in a hank by the deniers in one ounce, and dividing by the number of deniers which a hank weighs.
The yards in an ounce of 40 denier silk will be—
deniers per oz. yards in skein
533⅓ × 52040 deniers =