COTTON MANUFACTURE. 



COTTON MAMTACTL-RE. 



HI 



oonajrtt of feoding roller* made of wood and placed t abort <UUoo 

 from each other ; the cotton, while passing (lowly between the roller*, 



U struck by a set of better* made t. . i I""" t -' tim-i< in 



.1 minute. The cotton U pawed through two mirh net* of rol|.-r><, and 



to two fete of beaten. It in tliun taken ! ih- >'. 

 f, the tue of which is to upread given weight of cleaned 

 into a given length and breadth, in order to its being presented of 

 unifonu thickncMi t.i the next process. The spreading machine i-. 

 however, not universally used ; where the heavier quality of yarn U 

 spun it autwen sufficiently well, nnd effect* an adequate saving of 

 bbour; but fur fine yarn*, where the greatest precision is required in 

 order to produce regularity in the HIZC of the yarn, machine-spreading 

 does not answer no well as hand-spreading. The cotton in weighed 

 Terr accurately before it is put into the spreading machine, and when 

 perfectly spread is called a ftl. the thickness of which will of course 

 be regulated by the might of cotton supplied to the machine. This 

 operation u repeated continuously, so that an unbroken 

 . .'1I..H passes through the machine and is wound on a wooden roller. 

 In this form the cotton is called a brtatrr lap. 



Up to this stage the fibres of the cotton cross each other in every 

 direction. The (Janlin;i Kit ,ine then comes into requisition, to dis- 

 entangle them, to draw them out, and to lay them parallel to each 

 other. Properly speaking, this is the first operation of spinning the 

 previous processes being used only to open and clean the cotton. The 

 card is a species of brush mad,- ..t short wires. ]sscd through a sheet 

 of leather and pointing all in one direction. In the early period of> 

 cotton-spinning in this country, these cards were nailed on small 

 pieces of board with handles, and two of them were used together, one 

 held in each hand. The first improvement mode in this implement 

 was effected about 17ti<>, by James Hargreaves, the same ingenious 

 man who, a few years later, invented the spinning-jenny. This im- 

 provement in the cards consisted in having one of them greatly 

 increased in size, and fixed ; this was called the stock, and the other 

 was suspended by a cord working in a pulley, fixed to the roof of the 

 work-shop ; the effect of thin arrangement was that two or more cards 

 could be applied to the same stock. This modification was imme- 

 diately followed by the greater improvement of cylinder ran/*; the 

 father of the first Sir Robert Peel set up a machine of the kind at 

 Blackburn in 1 702, with the assistance of Hargreaves. The inventor of 

 cylinder cards is not known with certainty ; but Mr. Runes ascribes the 

 invention to Lewis Paul, who took out a patent in 17-18 for improve 

 ments in carding. The carding engine, which wa.- the nature! 

 of the invention of cylinder-cards, consists of a horizontal cylinder 

 covered in its entire circumference with narrow fillet cards wound 

 spirally round the cylinder, leaving an intervening space between the 

 several spiral lines thus described. Over the cylinder is a concave 

 frame, the interior surface of which is lined with cards, and the form 

 of which corresponds to that of the cylinder. When the cylinder is 

 made to revolve, the cards on it and on the frame act against each 

 other, by which means the fibres of cotton are disentangled and pro- 

 perl; arranged, as already mentioned. The cylinders, which are usually 

 ab .ut 3 feet in diameter and S feet long, are made to revolve at the 

 rate of 100 to ISO turns in a minute. 



The cotton, in the form already described as a breaker lap, is led 

 into the carding machine by a slow motion through feeding-rollers, 

 little more than one inch in diameter, The fibres of the cotton are 

 then immediately engaged by the wires of the main cylinder, and after 

 being by their means properly arranged, ore thrown otf by its velocity 

 to a second cylinder called a doffcr. 



When cylinder-cords were first used, hand -cards were employed to 

 take off the cotton. Various contrivances were at different times 

 adopted for improving this part of the process ; until at length Ark- 

 wright contrived for the purpose a plate of metal toothed at the edge 

 like a comb, which, instead of revolving as the former contrivances 

 hail dune, was, by means of a crank, made to move rapidly in a per- 

 pendicular direction, and with slight but reiterated strokes on the 

 teeth of the cards detached the cotton from them in a uniform fleece. 

 This fleece is made to undergo compression on its passage to a roller, 

 from which it is delivered in the form of a thick but soft thread, called 

 a etrd-nd, or Wi'wr, into a tin can. The duration of the carding pro. 

 cess U made to depend upon the quality of the cotton under prepara- 

 tion; if the fibres are short and coarse, the carding ,-h"i;M l-c quickly 

 performed, nut indeed by accelerating the speed of the cylinders, but 

 by taking the cotton faster off the cards. 



The next operation is called >/n> my, ami the machine by means of 

 which it is performed U called tin Tl,o object of this 



drawing U to complete what has been begun by the carding engine, 

 namely, the arranging of the fibres of cotton longitudinally, in a uni- 

 form and parallel direction, and to remedy all existing inequalities in 

 the thickness of the sliver. The drawing-frame acts upon the same 



pie as Arkwright's spinning-frame, two or three sets 01 

 being employed moving with unequal velocities. In it* passage 

 through the first pair (1, 1) the sliver is simply eompn .- , ,1 ; but be-ill^ 

 drawn through the second and thir.l paint ( 2, 2 and 3, 3) with gradual!) 

 increasing velocities, it is necessarily dmwn out in the mine pr<> 

 jmrtion. In relocating this operation, which is called il',iMiii;/, two 

 three, or a greater number of the drawings are passed through each sc 

 of rollers; in the first they are made to coalesce, and in the second ore 



[Drawing Rollers and ( 



he cord or sliver: ! the titiii.-.-t importance, and if ill <T 



nsufficiently performed, the yarn cannot prove of good qc 



a, the next .step in the process, is a continuation of tlicdi 

 with this only diifereiice - tint the cord, now called a row or 



again drawn out. Tin-no doubling and drawing processes are repeated 

 very frequently, in order to correct every inequality in the thickness of 



[Roving Cans.] 



being BO much reduced in thickness that it will not otherwise hold 

 together, a slight twist is given to it by passing it into a metal can, 

 which, while receiving it, is made to revolve wi; locity. 



The rove thus slightly twisted, is wound upon K>bbins, and is then 

 ready for the spinning-frame. About the year 1817, a machine called 



fly frame was contrived for preparing roving* for inferior mini! 

 yarn. Instead of revolving cans, this frame is provided with a 

 of spindles, each of which is furnished with a flyer; the revolutions 

 of this flyer give the requisite twist to the cord, which is de, 

 at once to the bobbin fitted loosely on the spindle. The //. frame, 

 more recently introduced, is used for preparing yarns of all qii. 

 Instead of cans, this frame is provided with revolving hoi 

 cylinders: and by it* means a much greater quantity of woi :. 

 be done in a given time than with the fly frame; the rove which 

 iuces has no twist, and is thei r. and the 



quantity of waste which it occasions is greater than ; 

 need. 



mpoitaut proces-- ? then comes for notice. The prin- 



ciple of Arkwright's original .^/ y be briefly describi-d 



\vo pairs of rollers; the lowly revolving in OOO- 



tact; and the second pair, at a litil- 



y. The lower roller of each pair was fluted louj..;indin,,|i ; . 

 the up|nT one was covered with : which m, 



would have a cullicient hold U|H>II the cotton passed bclw. en them. 



Ion, when ]>ass<-d between the lirst jiair oi roll< i . had tl 

 of a thick but very soft cord, and was no further altered in its texture 



