TEXTILE MANUFACTURES. 



the drawing-frame a certain amount of twist, to 

 enable it to be wound upon large bobbins. A 



series of spindles, b, 

 b, fig. 14, are made 

 to rotate with great 

 rapidity vertically ; 

 these pass through a 

 board, d, upon which 

 jj rests a series of bob- 

 bins, a, up the central 

 tube of which the 

 spindles pass. The 

 bobbins are made to 

 rotate independently of the spindles, and at a 

 different speed. To the top of the spindle, a fork 

 is attached, the ends of which are bent down- 

 wards, so as to be on each side of the spindle like 

 the letter U reversed, as eg. One arm, g, of this 

 fork is hollow, and has at its lower extremity a 

 delivering or spring finger. The sliver is passed 

 from the drawing-rollers, yj attached to the frame 

 down the hollow tube, g, of the fork, eg, and 

 passed round the bobbin, a ; the machine is now 

 ready for operation, which may be described as 

 follows : The degree of twist and winding in is 

 entirely due to the difference of speed between 

 the spindle and its attached fork, and the bobbin 

 rotating on the spindle. The revolutions of the 

 fork give the twist, the difference of speed between 

 the bobbin and the spindle gives the quantity 

 wound on the former. If the finger always re- 

 mained at the same height, the cotton would be 

 wound up at one place of the bobbin only ; to 

 distribute it equally over its surface, the frame on 

 which the bobbins rest moves up and down. As 

 the diameter of the bobbin increases, it is neces- 

 sary, in order to lay the roving equally on, to 

 decrease the speed the decrease of speed being 

 proportioned to the increase of diameter. This is 

 effected by having a conical drum, the belt of 

 which works the drum giving motion to the 

 bobbins ; as the belt passes from the small end 

 of the conical drum to the large, its velocity 

 decreases. The speed of the spindle and of the 

 delivering-rollers being always equal, the quantity 

 of roving delivered to the bobbins is always uni- 

 form ; hence, as the bobbin surface increases in 

 diameter, its velocity must be decreased, to enable 

 the same quantity as before to be laid on during 

 the same time. In place of winding the yarn 

 round bobbins, as at a, a, it is sometimes wound 

 round cylindrical spindles without ends, and made 

 to assume the form shewn at A, fig. 14. 



The bobbins, when full of roving laid uniformly 

 on, are taken off the spindles by removing the 

 fork, and put into skips, made of buffalo-hide, 

 wicker-work, or gutta-percha, and conveyed to the 

 next process. 



The rovings thus produced are spun into hard, 

 well-twisted yarn by two machines, the throstle 

 and the mule ; the former generally spins the 

 harder kinds for the warp, and the latter the softer 

 for the weft of woven goods. In the throstle, the 

 arrangements are very similar to the roving- 

 frame, with this exception, that the bobbins have 

 no independent motion given to them by special 

 means, the difference between the speed of the 

 bobbins and the flyers or forks being caused by 

 the friction of the bottom of the bobbins revolving 

 in contact with a board faced with flannel ; this 

 board is called the copping-rail, and moves up 



and down, to distribute the yarn equally over the 

 surface of the bobbins. The yarn drags the bob- 

 bin after it, but the weight of this and its friction 

 on the rail keep it back, thus giving the twist by 

 the difference of the speed. 



In the mule, the yam is not wound upon 

 bobbins, but round steel spindles, and is built in 

 such a way as to be thickest near the middle, 

 gradually decreasing in diameter towards top and 

 bottom; the bottom part, however, being much 

 shorter than the upper, as shewn at Mm, fig. 15. 



Fig- IS- 



The mule consists of two essential parts, one of 

 which is fixed, and contains a row of bobbins 

 from the fly-frame, ranged on a series of spindles, 

 allowing them to rotate as the yarn is drawn from 

 them. On the fixed head, the sets of drawing- 

 rollers, a, are fixed. The other part of the mule 

 is the carriage, d, which moves to and from the 

 fixed head on parallel rails. The carriage carries 

 a range of spindles, c, sometimes 1000 to 1200 in 

 number. On these the yarn is laid to form cops, 

 as they are termed. The spindles are made to 

 revolve rapidly by bands passing from drums, e, 

 round pulleys or 'wharves/ fixed at the lower 

 extremities of the spindles. 



To the carriage, standards are fixed, carrying a 

 horizontal shaft parallel to the line of the spindles. 

 This shaft is provided at intervals with curved 

 arms, g, h, fig. 15; these supporting a slender 

 wire, as s, s. The shaft to which the arms are 

 attached is movable, so that the arms can be 

 brought from the position at g, into that shewn at 

 h. The operation of the machine is as follows : 

 The carriage is brought up to the 'head;' the 

 drawing-rollers, a, give out the yarn, which is 

 wound round the points of the spindles, c, the 

 faller-wire, gs, being in the position shewn at sgf ; 

 the carriage then moves outwards at a rate quicker 

 than the yarn is delivered by the rollers, so as to 

 stretch and equalise it ; the drawing-rollers, when 

 the carriage has gone out to some fifty or sixty 

 inches, or a ' stretch,' as it is termed, cease revolv- 

 ing, so as to hold the yarn firmly. The motion of 

 the carriage is greatly reduced in speed, while that 

 of the spindles is accelerated ; by this means the 

 required twist is given to the yarn. On the car- 

 riage leaving the head, any yarns which may have 

 broken are pieced or mended by little children, 

 called piecers. The carriage is now disengaged 

 from the mechanism which moved it on the rails, 

 and the spinner begins his work. This consists 

 of three operations, all of which must be done 

 simultaneously, and with great nicety, to propor- 

 tion all the movements to one another, on which 

 the fineness and value of the yarn depend. These 

 operations are the pushing in of the carriage 

 with his knee towards the head stock, or roller 

 beam ; placing the faller-wire in the position 

 shewn at hs, fig. 15, so as to bring all the threads 

 to the level of the bottom of the cop ; and, lastly, 



375 



