Wool 77 



physical and chemical activities involved are also taken into 

 consideration it must be evident that wool washing is an 

 operation of considerable fascination to the scientist. 



2. Wool Drying. — Some wools leave the wash bowls with 

 just the right amount of moisture to ensure satisfactory 

 working in. the subsequent machines. Other wools are too 

 wet and must be dried. Various drying machines of ingenious 

 construction are placed on the market, most of which claim 

 to dry the wool quickly, regularly, and without burning it. 



When wool has been thus dealt with it is ready to be spun 

 into yarn by one of the three following methods : — 



I (a) It may be carded and mule-spun into woollen yarn. 



(b) It may be prepared, combed, drawn and frame-spun 

 into English or lustre yarn. 



(c) it may be carded, combed, drawn and frame or mule- 

 spun into botany or hosiery yarn. 



,. 3. Woolleii Yarn Production. — In this case the locks or 

 fibres are teased out and thoroughly mixed up head to tail 

 and tail to head until eventually a thin regular film of wool 

 fibre is obtained. This is termed carding. This film is then 

 divided up into continuous strips or threads, wound on to 

 bobbins and taken to the mule to be spun. This spinning 

 operation consists in elongating these strips or threads at the 

 same time that they are twisted, with the result that a fine, 

 regular, well-twisted thread results. These operations are 

 illustrated in Fig. 8. 



4. Lustre Yarn Spinning. — In this case the fibre is 

 straightened out in preparing boxes and eventually got into 

 a thick sliver form in which the fibres lie longitudinally. 

 This sliver is then combed, i.e., all the short fibres are taken 

 out, forming what is termed " noil," and the long fibres are 

 arranged almost mathematically parallel in the re-formed sliver. 

 These slivers are then reduced to a thin, level thread by 

 combining several of them to form one thick sliver, but in the 

 following process drafting or extending this compound sliver 

 so that it is rather thinner than any of the original single 

 components. As soon as the required fineness and regularity 

 is obtained the necessary twist is inserted and a strong thread 

 thus produced. A drawing frame consists of a slowly 

 revolving pair of back rollers delivering the slivers to a 

 quickly revolving pair of front rollers which thus elongate or 

 draft them. There is also an apparatus for winding the 

 worked sliver on to bobbins. A flyer spinning frame both 

 draws out into a fine thread and also twists the slivers fed into 

 the back rollers. 



5. Botany Yarn Spinning". — In this case the fibre is carded, 

 combed (usually on the Noble comb), and drawn and spun 



