FLAX 



445 



to the trumpet conductor A, the front delivery roller c, and (when more than one head 

 to the machine) from c to the end delivery c, over the conducting plate d. 



In e,f, g, and h, are the usual brush, doffer, comb, and tow box for the noils. 



These combing machines are made of different sizes to suit all sorts and lengths of 

 tow ; the yarn produced from them is much finer than that produced by the ordinary 

 carding system alone. The combed tow can generally be spun to as high numbers 

 as the lino from which it has been combed, and in some instances has produced good 

 yarn, even to higher numbers. The combed tow, after the combing machine, is 

 passed through a system of drawing, roving, and spinning, similar to that used for 

 cut line. 



Subsequently to the carding the preparation of tow is completed by making up sets 

 of cans for the second drawing, as explained for line ; these slivers are doubled and 

 drawn once or twice more, and then roved. The drafts used in tow-preparing are from 

 9 to 8, for, as the fibres are shorter, it necessitates the employment of less draft. In 

 both line and tow preparing, lesser drafts are employed as the stages advance, the gills 

 finer, and the conductors narrower : also for both materials much attention is requisite 

 to keep the various parts of the machines in good order, free from bent or broken pins, 

 and chipped or indented rollers, for no subsequent operation can cure the defects that 

 may be produced by negligence in these particulars. The drawing and roving frames 

 for tow are shown in^s. 974, 975, 976. 



A A (fig. 974), drawing frame ; B, driving pulleys ; c, rotary gill sheet ; D, drawing 

 roller ; E, pressing ; r, G, pairs of delivering rollers ; H, doubling plate ; i, back con- 

 ductor ; K, back roller wheel with pulley to turn the sliver rail i,. 



A A (figs. 975 and 976), roving frame ; B, pulley and fly wheel combined ; c, drawing 

 roller ; D, rotary gill ; a a, stand for gill movement. The regulation of the bobbins 

 is effected in the same manner as already described for line roving. 



975 



Spinning. This operation consists in drawing the rovings down to the last 

 degree of tenuity desired, and twisting them into hard cylindrical cords, which are 

 called 'yarns.' 



There are three modes of performing this operation : the first, and perhaps oldest, 

 is that where the drawing and twisting are performed altogether, with the material 

 preserved dry, and without breaking or shortening the fibre ; the second is that which 

 likewise, without changing the length of the fibres, draws them while dry, but wets 

 them just at the moment before twisting. This method is the nearest imitation of 

 hand spinning, and makes the yarn more solid and wiry than the first; as the fibres 

 of flax losing their elasticity while wet, unite and incorporate better with one another. 

 The third mode of spinning has been much more recently introduced than either of 

 the others, and by it the fibres are wetted to saturation previously to being drawn, 

 whereby they are not only much reduced in length, but their degree of fineness is 



