FLAX 



439 



is enabled to advance to the place they formerly occupied. Figs. 965 and 966 show 

 this comparison of the older and more recent methods. A, B, spirals ; c c, the parts 

 by which they are supported, being \nfig. 965 small pivots in plummet block D D, and 

 in jig. 966 hollow tube-like recesses in frame plate cc ; E E, pinions to work the upper 

 and lower spiral together ; r, bearings ; o, drawing-rollers ; H, pressing rollers ; 1 1, 

 passage of the faller's descent. 



Here it may be as well to observe that the same parties have still more lately intro- 

 duced another important amelioration in these machines for remedying the noise and 

 wear and tear which ordinarily attend them by the abrupt and violent descent of the 

 fuller. Fig. 967 shows a sectional front view of a head having this improvement 

 applied. A A, supports for screws ; b, c, top and bottom screws ; d d, the new cams 

 fixed on shafts parallel with the screws, and revolving at the same speed. Thus, these 

 cams dd receive the faller ee at their largest diameter, at the moment they are froo 

 to descend, and guide them gradually down to the lower slide. 



Thus constructed, the ' screw gill ' continues to be the most esteemed in principle, 

 though not without some serious objections in practice. For the abrupt and angular 

 movement of the faller even here not only liberates too suddenly a portion of the 

 fibres that should be but gradually relaxed at the moment of being drawn, but causes 

 considerable wear and tear to itself, the slides, and the gills attached to it ; to which 

 cause of destruction must be added the great friction of the worm movement ; these, 

 however, in ' line ' preparing, where the fibres are long and straight, and the drafts 

 employed large, and where, consequently, a comparatively slow movement of the 

 gills is required, are not so much felt as in the preparation of tow, where they become 

 serious. 



In ' tow preparing ' the first operation, as before stated, consists of ' carding,' which 

 is generally repeated over two separate machines, which are respectively called the 

 ' breaker' and the ' finisher' cards. They are essentially the same in principle, and 

 vary but little in construction, the only difference being that the ' breaker' is fed or 

 supplied by the disjointed parcels of tow from a creeping sheet (as the spreader with 

 ' line ' ) and delivers its slivers into a can, whereas the ' finisher ' is fed from a bobbin upon 

 which several of the slivers from the breaker are united by a machine expressly for 

 that purpose, called a ' lap frame ; ' this card thus receives its supply of work in a very 

 regular form, and previously to delivering it in the form of slivers causes them to pass 

 over a gill, to consolidate and strengthen them before delivering them into the receiving 

 can ; it is also generally clothed with a finer description of wire filleting than the 

 breaker. $ Though it is the better method to card thus the tow twice, yet this second 

 carding is sometimes dispensed with ; in that case this auxiliary gill is similarly 

 fixed to the first card or breaker. The cards employed for tow are machines of con- 

 siderable weight and importance, the main cylinder, or, as it is sometimes called, 

 ' swift,' being from 4 to 5 feet diameter and 4 to 8 feet long ; those most generally 

 employed are 6 feet long. Previously to entering upon the detailed description of a 

 card, it may be as well first to trace in general terms the progress of its operations, 

 as tending to elucidate the explanation of the machine itself. 



The tow is first divided by weighing into small parcels of 10 to 20 drams ; these 

 are then shaken out and spread so as to cover certain definite portions of the creeping 

 feeding-sheet, by which they are conducted to the first pair of rollers called the feeders, 

 These rollers are covered with a leathern band, in which are fixed in close array a 

 number of wire points about % an inch long, and having a tangential inclination to the 

 circumference of the rollers, which are about 2} inches diameter. The tow passing at 

 a slow rate of progression between these rollers, is by them gradually presented to 

 the points with which the swift is likewise covered, also set in leathern bands, but 

 which are about 2 inches wide ; these points, the same length as those of the feeders, 

 have an inclined direction pointing to that in which the cylinder turns. The much 

 greater velocity of the ' cylinder ' combs and somewhat opens and breaks the tow as it 

 slowly arrives in contact, and the inclination of the pins at the same time carries it 



