THREAD AND YAHN. 



THHEE, lUl.i: 



revolve with any required velocity by a train of wheel-work. Upon 

 Uu* roller rt another, of box-wood, which revolves solely by oontact 

 with the iron roller, iU axil playing in vertical slot*. In passing under 

 the iron roller, then between it and the wooden roller, and finally over 

 the latter, the yame required to form the thread are brought together and 

 lightly compressed; but although thus prepared for a more intimate 

 union, they are not yet twitted together. In the annexed figure a a 

 represent* the united yarn* which are to form the thread, and 6 is a 

 fixed eylet through which they are conducted to the flyer c, which is 

 mounted upon and revolves with a long vertical spindle *et in motion 

 by a whorl or pulley and strap at d. ea the bobbin upon which the 

 finiahed thread u wound by the revolution of the flyer, which also 

 give* to it any predetermined degree of twist. The spindle pane* 



freely through a hole in the centre of this bobbin, which recta upon a 

 bar called the copping-rail, the transverse section of which is indicated 

 by a tint in the cut ; and the copping-rail, which extends the whole 

 width of the machine, U supported at intervals by vertical rods, one of 

 which is shown at /. To these rods, and consequently to the copping- 

 rail and bobbins supported by them, a reciprocating vertical motion is 

 imparted through the connecting pieces g and A, from the bent lever 

 i i, which U pivoted at I; and receives its motion through the adjustable 

 friction-roller /, from an eccentric or heart wheel ro. Thus by the 

 combined rotatory motion of the spindle and flyer, and the rising and 

 falling motion of the bobbin, the thread U at once twisted and wound 

 regularly upon the bobbins, which may be easily removed when full. 

 By changes in the relative sizes of some of the toothed wheels by 

 which the moving-power is distributed from the main shaft, the 

 spindles, which always revolve much faster than the rollers, may be 

 made to do so to any required degree, so as to impart a greater or less 

 degree of twist to the thread. 



These few illustrations will suffice to show the nature of the twist- 

 ing processes, aided by details given in such articles as COTTON ; LIN i N ; 

 BILK ; SPI.XXIHG ; and WOOLLEHS. We may, however, mention that the 

 prJitiiiny of sewing thread is a process on which its saleable quality 

 much depends. Mr. Adam, of Paisley, polishes sewing thread by pass- 

 ing it through a dressing composition, over a guide roller, through the 

 teeth of a reed, over a metal drum, under a brush roller, again through 

 a reed, and .finally under a polishing roller covered with cloth. Mr. 

 Brooks, of Derby, bos invented a mode of producing a polish on thread, 

 which he called patent glact ; and the assumption of the name ylncf 

 thread by Mr. Evans, of Huddersfield, led to litigation between the 

 t inventors. The polishing of sewing thread has indeed led to 

 more than one appeal to the law. Mr. Ewen patented a process where- 

 by he dips a hank of thread into size, squeezes it, panes it ovrr t\vu 

 rollers rapidly revolving, and applies it against a cylinder-brush, which 

 removes all asperities. Mr. Liddell, another inventor, used two sets of 

 rollers instead of one, and teaales instead of brushes ; but in some 

 other recpecU he was considered to have infringed Ewen's patent 

 Other appeals to the law have been made in reference to the length of 

 thread wound upon a reel. A manufacturer of Penian thread put 

 labels on hi* reels, denoting the quantities to be 100, 200, or 300 

 yards; whereas the real lengths were less. This was done at the 

 request of Manchester firms which hod lax notions of honesty. The 

 manufacturer n-fused to continue this system ; whereupon a Man- 

 chester man pirated his trade-mark, and used it for short-meaiure 

 cotton thread obtained elsewhere thus committing a double fraud. 



The exports of yarn and thread have now reached an enormous 

 quantity. In 1860 there were exported : 



Cotton farm 



Cotton thread 



Uaea yarn 



Linn thread 



silk, thrown 



Silk, tUt and yarn 



Woollen 



Wonted 



Total . 



THREAD-GILDING. 



. ie,43,905 Ibs. 17,423,799 



THKKATS AND THREATENING LETTERS. Threat* of 

 personal violence, or any other threat* by which a man of ordinary 

 tirmness and prudence may be put in fear, and by means of which 

 money or other property is extorted from him, amount in law to the 

 crime of robbery. [KoBBEBT.] And by the statute 7 Will IV. ft 1 

 Viet c. 87, sect 7, person demanding by menaces any property of 

 another with intent to steal the same, is declared to be guilty of felony, 

 and is liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three yean. 

 It is also a misdemeanor at common law to threaten another in order 

 to deter him from doing some lawful act, or to compel him to do an 

 unlawful one, or to extort money or goods from him, or to obtain any 

 other benefit to the person who makes the threat. 



The offence of sending or delivering letters or writings, threatening 

 to kill or injure the person to whom they are sent or delivered, or to 

 burn his house, or to accuse him of some heinous crime for tlio 

 purpose of extorting money, was formerly considered to be high 

 treason (stat 8 Hen. V. c. 6) ; and under the stat. 8 Geo. L c. 22, con- 

 tinued for more than a century to be punishable as a capital felony. 

 By the statutes 4 Geo. IV. c. 64, s. 3, A. 10 * 11 Viet c. 66, s. 6, a less 

 punishment is substituted ; and any person sending or delivering any 

 writing, with or without any name or signature subscribed thereto, or 

 with a fictitious name or signature, threatening to kill or murder any 

 person, or to burn or destroy his house, out-house, barns, or stack* 

 of corn or grain, hay or straw, is declared guilty of felony; this 

 offence being now punishable with penal servitude for life, or not less 

 than three years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding four 

 years. By statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c 29, a. 8, any person sending or 

 delivering any letter or writing, demanding of any person with 

 menaces, and without any reasonable or probable cause, any chattel, 

 money, or valuable security ; or accusing or threatening to accuse, or 

 sending or delivering any letter or writing accusing or threatening to 

 accuse, any person of any crime punishable by law with death, trans- 

 portation, or pillory, or of any auauult with intent to commit any rape, 

 or of any infamous crime (the meaning of which term is defined), with 

 a view or intent to extort or gain from such person any chattel, money, 

 or valuable security, is declared guilty of felony ; the offence being 

 now punishable with transportation for life or not less than three 

 years, or with imprisonment not exceeding four years, with or without 

 whipping. Threatening to publish a libel is a misdemeanor punishable 

 by imprisonment with or without hard labour not exceeding three 

 yam. 



THREE, RULE OF, the technical name of the rule in arithmetic 

 by which, three quantities being given, the first and second of one 

 kind, a fourth is found such that the four are in proportion, or that 

 the first is the same multiple part, or parts, of the second, which the 

 third is of the fourth. 



In the earliest modern treatises are found the explanatory headings 

 of this process, from which the denomination rule of three has been 

 formed by abbreviation. Almost all such abbreviations date from the 

 time when systems of commercial arithmetic began to be written that 

 is, about the beginning of the 16th century. Before that time, such 

 books as were written always contained demonstrations from full 

 definitions; and it was not judged necessary to provide the simple case 

 of finding a fourth proportional to three given numbers with a separate 

 name, or to divide the rule for doing it from others. This, however, 

 was done by traders in their daily practice, who separated the rule of 

 three from the other parts of arithmetic, and called it the golden rule, 

 an older term, probably, than rule of three. Bishop Tonstal, (' Ars 

 supputandi,' 1622) begins his chapter on the " Heguta do tribus notis 

 quartum ignotum cdmrnonatrautibus " in this manner : " Pr.< 

 omnium regula est qiito de tribus notis quartum ignotum in noticiaui 

 educentibus ab Arithmeticis traditur. Vulgus regulam auream vocat ; 

 quia liii-o catena Arithmetical regulis velut cscteris metallic ntinuii 

 pncstet." Robert Recorde (1540) calls it the " f eate of the rule << 

 proportions, whiche for his excellence is called the golden ; 

 Humphrey Baker (1662) uses the phrase " rule of three," and says that 

 " the philosophers did name it the golden rule, .... but nowe iu 

 these latter daies, by us it is called the rule of three." 



The immense variety of questions which are to be solved by finding 

 a fourth proportional defies all classification ; but they may all be 

 reduced to one form, though it may in particular cases not be easy to 

 see the mode of reduction. That form is : A produces B ; what will < 

 produce ? It may bo that it is money which produces goods, or goods 

 which produce money, or money which produces interest, or money of 

 one country which produces money of another, or time In. h [.induces 

 distance travelled, Ac., Ac., Ac. The difficulty to beginners is the 

 eduction of the question given to the above simple form, which must 

 30 done before what is (or used to be) called the ilatrmcnt of the 

 question can be mode namely, the writing down the numbers A, B, c, 

 n the proper order, with the marks of proportion between them : 



A : B : : c : the answer required. 



It is proper enough to say that this is a question of proportion when 

 lumbers only are considered, but absurd when the tilings represented 

 iy the numbers are used instead of the numbers. Thus, if 6 pence 

 my 10 apples, 7 pence will buy 14 apples, ami the number 6 is to 7 as 

 10 is to 14, or 6 i* the same fraction of 7 as 10 is of 14. But it in 

 absurd to say that 6 peace bear the same proportion to 10 apples that 



