97G COTTON-SPINNING 



that the chief elongation takes place between the second and third pairs, while that 

 tat ween the first and second is but slight and preparatory. It is obvious, besides, 

 th:it the speed of the middle pair of rollers can have no influence upon the amount 

 of tho extension, provided the speed of the first and third pairs remains un- 

 changed. The rollers a, b, and c, d, maintain towards each other continually the 

 tho siimo position, but they may be removed with their frame-work, more or less, from 

 the third pair, e,f, according as the length of the cotton staple may require. The 

 distance between the points of contact of a, b, and c, d, is, once for all, so calculated, 

 that it shall exceed the length of tho cotton filaments, in order that these filaments may 

 iiot be torn asunder, by the second pair pulling them while the first holds them fust. 

 Between d and/, where the greatest extension takes place, the distance must be as 

 small as it can be without risk of tearing. If the distance between d and / be very 

 great, a riband passing through will be found to be much less evenly drawn than when 

 tho two sets of rollers are set so close to each other as to act upon the shortest possible 

 length of riband at once. 



The under rollers b, d,f, are made of iron, and to enable them to lay firmer hold of 

 the filaments their surfaces are fluted with triangular channels parallel to their axes. 

 The upper rollers, a, c, e, are also made of iron, but they are smooth, and covered with 

 a double coating, which gives them a certain degree of softness and elasticity. A coat 

 of flannel is first applied by sewing or glueing the ends, and then a coat of leather in 

 the same way. The junction edges of the leather are cut slanting, so that when 

 joined by the glue, the surface of tho roller may be smoothly cylindrical. The top 

 rollers are sometimes called the pressers, because they press by means of weights 

 upon the under ones. These weights are suspended to the slight rods k' k ; of which 

 the former operates on the roller e alone, the latter on the two rollers a and c together. 

 For this purpose tho former is hung to a c-shaped curve , whose upper hook embraces 

 the roller, not the curved portion of it used in the drawing operation and called the 

 boss, but the central portion between the bosses, which is turned smooth for the pur- 

 pose. The latter is suspended upon a brass saddle h, which rests upon a and c. A 

 bar of hard wood, g, called a clearer, whose under surface is covered with flannel, 

 rests, with merely its own weight, upon the top rollers, and strips off all the loose 

 hanging filaments, which gather upon the roller when at work. Similar bars with the 

 same view are made to bear up under the fluted rollers b, d, f, and press against them 

 by a weight acting through a cord passing over a pulley. Instead of tho upper clearers, 

 light wooden rollers covered with flannel are occasionally applied. 



Were the drawing of a riband continued till all its fibres acquired the desired 

 degree of parallelism, it would be apt, from excessive attenuation, to tear across, and 

 thereby to defeat the purpose of the spinner. The difficulty is got rid of in a very 

 simple way, namely, by laying several ribands together at every repetition of the process, 

 and incorporating them by the pressure of the rollers. The practice is called doubling. 

 It is an exact imitation of what takes place when we draw a tuft of cotton wool 

 between our fingers and thumb in order to ascertain the length of the staple, and 

 replace the drawn filaments over each other, and thus draw them forth again and 

 again, till they are all parallel and of nearly equal length. The doubling has another 

 advantage, that of causing the inequalities of thickness in the ribands to disappear, by 

 applying their thicker to their thinner portions, and thereby producing uniformity of 

 substance. 



Tho drawing frame, as shown in section in figs. 559, 561, and in a back view 

 in fig. 560, will require, after the above details, little further explanation. 1 1 are 

 the weights which press down the top rollers upon the under ones, by means of 

 tho rods k k 1 and hook t. Each fluted roller, is, as shown at/, fig. 561, provided in 

 the middle of its length with a thinner smooth part called the neck, whereby it is 

 really divided into two fluted portions, represented by e e in the figure. Upon this 

 middle neck in the pressure rollers, the hook i, and tho saddle h immediately bear, as 

 shown in the former Jiff. 559. The card-ends or slivers to the number probably of six, 

 are introduced to the drawing frame either from cans, placed at e e,fig. 561, and A, 

 fig. 560, or from lap-bobbins ; and, after passing through it, the ribands or slivers aro 

 received either into similar cans as g, or upon other lap-bobbins upon the other 

 side. These appendages may be readily conceived, and are therefore not exhibited in 

 all the drawings. Three of the slivers being laid together, are again introduced to 

 tho one fluted portion a b, fig. 559, and three other slivers to the other portion. The 

 sloping curved tin or brass plate a, fig. 560, with its guide pins t, serves to conduct 

 tho slivers to the rollers. When the two threefold slivers have passed through 

 between the three pairs of rollers, they are gathered together behind the last roller 

 pair ef,fig. 559, and issue from the conical funnel m,fig. 560, into a single riband, 

 which is immediately carried off with equable velocity by two smooth cast-iron rollers, 

 n o,figs. 660 and 561, and either dropped into <*v can or wound upon a large bobbin. 



