XIV. 
Description of a Machine, called a Gypsey, for spinni.g Hemp and 
Flax. 
BY DANIEL TREADWELL, A. A. S. 
In all the methods of spinning cotton and wool, whether by 
the common wheel, or by more elaborate machinery, the materi- 
al is subjected to a previous process of carding. The effect of 
this operation is to disengage the fibres from all entanglement 
with each other, and to leave them in a soft and uniform roll or 
roving. The spinning consists’ wholly in elongating these rolls 
or rovings, and binding the fibres together by a twist. Without 
the preparation by carding, or some preparation of like kind, it 
would be impossible to produce any thing like the evenness re- 
quisite to the formation of good yarns, by any known means of 
spinning. 
The great length of the fibres of flax and more particularly 
those of hemp, prevents the possibility of subjecting either of 
these materials to the process of carding, and the common meth- 
od of preparing them for spinning is by passing them through 
the hatchel. Prepared in this way, however, they are incapable 
of being drawn out in threads like carded cotton or wool, but the 
interposition of the fingers is constantly required to supply the 
proper number of fibres, which the spinner takes from a mass, 
