COTTON 75 



lengthens little by little at the expense of the lock 

 lu-ld and regulated by the fingers. When the thread 

 attains a certain length, Mother Ambroisine rolls 

 it on the spindle by a suitable movement of the 

 wheel ; then she continues twisting the wool again. 



"Strictly speaking, cotton could be spun in the 

 same way; but, however clever Mother Ambroisine 

 may bo, the fabrics made from the thread of her 

 wheel would cost an enormous price on account of 

 the thin* spent. What, then, is to be done? A ma- 

 chine is made to spin the cotton. In rooms larger 

 than the biggest church are placed, by hundreds of 

 thousands, the nicely adjusted machines proper for 

 spinning, with hooks, spindles, and bobbins. And all 

 turn at the same time with a precision and rapidity 

 that defy watching. The work goes on with noise 

 enough to deafen you. The flock of cotton is seized 

 hy thousands and thousands of hooks; the endless 

 tli reads come and go from one bobbin to another, 

 and roll themselves on the spindles. In a few hours 

 a mountain of cotton is converted into thread, the 

 length <>f which would go several times around the 

 whole earth. What have they spent for work which 

 would have exhausted the strength of an army of 

 spinners as clever as Mother Ambroisine? Some 

 shovelfuls of coal to heat the water, the steam of 

 which Marts the machine that sets everything going. 

 Weaving, the printim;- of the colored designs, in 

 short, ihe various operations that the flock under- 

 goes to become doth are ex. vnted by means quit* as 

 tditioUS, <|iiite as economical. And it is thus 

 that the planter, broker, mariner, .-pinner, weaver, 



