COTTON-SPINNING 991 



machinery ; the second is called the carriage, in which the remainder of the moving 

 mechanism and the spindles are mounted. 



The frame of the fixed part consists of two upright sides, and two or more inter- 

 mediate parallel bearings, upon which the horizontal roller beam , the basis of the 

 drawing rollers is supported, b, c, d are the three ranges of fluted iron rollers ; e, f, g, 

 are the upper iron rollers covered with leather ; h, the wooden wiper-rollers, covered 

 with flannel, which being occasionally rubbed with chalk, imparts some of it to the 

 pressure rollers beneath, so as to prevent the cotton filaments adhering to them. 



The skewers upon which the bobbins containing the rovings from the rovingr frame 

 are set up are seen at a 1 , a } , a\ arranged in three rows in the creel z. The soft 

 threads unwound from these bobbins, in their way to the drawing rollers, pass first 

 through eyelets in the ends of the wire arms b l , then through the rings or eyes of the 

 guide bar w, and enter between the back pair of rollers. The number of these bobbins 

 is equal to the number of spindles in the mule, and twice as great as the number of 

 fluted portions of the rollers ; for two threads are assigned to each portion. 



The carriage consists of two cast-iron side pieces, and several cast-iron intermediate 

 similar pieces, such as / 2 , which altogether are made fast to the planks 6 2 , c 2 , d 1 . 

 The top is covered in with the plank k 2 . The carriage runs by means of its cast-iron 

 grooved wheels, upon the cast-iron railway I, which is fixed level on the floor. 



The spindles stand upon the carriage in a frame, which consists of two slant rails 

 a?, x 1 , connected by two slender rods y 2 , and which frame may be set more or less 

 obliquely. The lower rail carries the brass steps for the points of the spindles 6 2 ; 

 upon the upper rail brass slips are fixed pierced with holes through which the tops of 

 the spindles play. The spindles are as usual made of steel, perfectly straight, turned 

 truly round, and are all arranged in one plane. To each of them a small wooden or 

 cast-iron whorl g 1 is made fast. They are distributed into groups of 24, and the 

 whorls are arranged at such different heights, that only two of them in each group 

 are upon a level with each other. A small brass head A 2 , which every spindle has 

 beneath the upper slant rail of the frame x 2 , prevents their sitting down into the step 

 during their rotation, or sliding off their cop of yarn. 



c* are drums, mounted in the carriage in a plane at right angles to the plane in 

 which the spindles are placed. At top they have a double groove for a cord to run 

 in, and the motion which they receive from the great fly wheel, or rim of the mule 

 (not visible in this view) they impart to the spindles. Such a drum is assigned to 

 every 24 spindles ; and therefore a mule of 480 spindles contains 20 drums. In the 

 middle of the carriage is seen the horizontal pulley k 3 , furnished with three grooves, 

 which stands in a line with the drums c 3 . 



The motion is given to the drums c 8 , upon the right hand half of the carriage by a 

 single endless band or cord which proceeds from the middle groove of the pulley &*. 

 The rotation of the spindles is produced by a slender cord, of which there are 12 

 upon each drum c s ; because every such cord goes round the drum, and also every 

 two wharves which stand at the same level upon the spindles. It is obvious that the 

 drums, and consequently the spindles, must continue to revolve as long as the main 

 rim of the mule is turned, whether the carriage be at rest or in motion upon its 

 railway. 



If we suppose the carriage to be run in to its standing point, or to be pushed homo 

 to the spot from which it starts in spinning, its back plant d- will strike the post 5' 

 upon the fixed frame, and the points of the spindles will be close in front of the roller 

 beam. The rollers now begin to turn and to deliver threads, which receive imme- 

 diately a portion of their twist from the spindles ; the carriage retires from the roller 

 beam with somewhat greater speed than the surface speed of the front rollers, where- 

 by the threads receive a certain degree of stretching, which affects most their thicker 

 and less twisted portions and thereby contributes greatly to the levelness of the yarn. 

 When the carriage has run out to the end of its course, or has completed a stretch, 

 the fluted rollers suddenly cease to revolve (and sometimes even earlier, when a 

 second stretch is to be made), but the spindles continue to whirl till the fully extended 

 threads have received the proper second or after twist. Then the carriage must be 

 put up, or run back towards the rollers, and the threads must bo wound upon the 

 spindles. This is the order of movements which belong to the mule. It has been 

 shown how the rotation of the spindles is produced. 



For winding-on the yarn the carriage has a peculiar apparatus, which we shall now 

 describe. In front of it, through the whole extent to the right hand as well as the 

 left, a slender iron rod, d b , runs horizontally along, in a line somewhat higher than 

 the middle of the coping portion of the spindles, and is supported by several props, 

 such as e*. Upon each end of the two rods, d*, there is an arm, ^ s ; and betwixt these 

 arms an iron wire, called the copping wire, /', is stretched, parallel with the rod d*. 

 For the support of this wire, there are several slender bent arms A* extended from the 



