204 



TEXTILE FIBRES. 



The dryinrf of the wool is a preparatory stage to that of willowing. 

 The cleaned wool as it comes from the drying, although pure and of a 

 white colour, requires to be softened before it is fed to the carding 

 engine. 



Fig. 131 shows the wool after it has been willowed and oiled. In 

 this state it is more cohesive and pliable in working, and the fibres are 

 less likely to spread out, so that less waste is made from the material 

 being spun. The oiling is intended to assist the wool in coming back 

 to its natural state of waviness, but relieved of its impurities. It 



Fig. 130. Merino wool after scouring and cleaning. 



increases the power of the scales of the fibres to interlock and to cross 

 felt together in a soft, round sliver. 



Fig. 132 is a strand or one of the attenuated slivers from the 

 condenser of the carding engine. The strand has now assumed a 

 nearly uniform thickness, and the fibres are shown to have interlocked 

 together crosswise. At this particular stage the fibres have little or no 

 tendency to lie in contiguity one to another, and ditier entirely in 

 behaviour from those seen in a cotton roving, where the object is to 

 get them to lie lengthwise, and to twist up spirally from the core of 

 the yarn to the exterior surface of the screw line of twist which holds 



