MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. 



When the cotton is thus formed into 

 rolls, it falls into a receptacle, whence it 

 is taken to be slubbed. 



It is to be understood, that the opera- 

 tion of carding 1 performed by the several 

 rollers described, is effected by each suc- 

 cessively moving 1 faster than the one be- 

 hind it, and of course slower than the one 

 before it, with the exception of the small 

 rollers placed above me great roller, 

 which move with an uniform velocity, and 

 all much slower than the large roller. In 

 some carding engines, formerly, a good 

 deal of the motions were performed by 

 toothed wheels and pinions, but of late 

 years they are effected by bands, or straps, 

 which produce a much more equable and 

 steady movement. The large rollers are 

 generally made by placing two or more 

 wheels of cast iron on one axle, the cir- 

 cumferences of which wheels are cased 

 with wood, which is attached to them by 

 screws or rivets : the smaller rollers are 

 formed in a similar manner on wooden 

 disks ; but all are made hollow, to pre- 

 vent warping. 



Slubbing. When the cotton is carded, 

 the long rolls into which it is formed are 

 next drawn out into a thick coarse thread, 

 of loose texture, and but little twisted, 

 called the stubbing. This operation is 

 generally performed by hand, on the 

 common hand wheel, which is similar to 

 that used for spinning wool, but of a 

 smaller size. Engines have been con- 

 trived, by which a number of slubbings 

 could be drawn out together ; but the 

 hands required for joining the rolls of 

 cotton in succession, and for other pur- 



res about those engines, were found to 

 so many, that very little, if any, sav- 

 ing 1 was made by those machines. 



Robing. The stubbing coiled into co- 

 noidal rolls, called cops, are next brought 

 to the engine called the robing billy, by 

 which it is drawn out into a finer thread, 

 flf the same loose texture as before, 

 receiving 1 at the same time a little more 

 twist. 



The Robing Billy. This machine is 

 contrived to give circular motion to a 

 number of spindles, and at the same time 

 draw out the slubbing which is attached 

 to them by a finer thread. The spindles 

 are placed in a frame, so as to stand near- 

 ly perpendicularly at about four inches 

 from each other ; their lower extremities 

 turn in sockets, and small collars of brass 

 sustain them about halfway up : their up- 

 per halves project above the frame : to 

 their lower parts are attached small pul- 

 lies, or whirls, from whence bands pass to 

 a horizontal cylinder of about six inches 



diameter, a little longer than the row of 

 spindles, which is placed before them at 

 a lower position, and which gives motion 

 to all the spindles tog-ether, when it is 

 turned round. This cylinder is now al- 

 most universally made of tin plate ; wood- 

 en ones of the same dimensions, however 

 carefully made, have been found liable to 

 warp and lose their proper shape. To 

 prevent the bands from slipping 1 , coarse 

 paper is pasted over the tin, which an- 

 swers the purpose very effectually. The 

 cylinder receives its motion from a wheel, 

 (like the large wheel used in spinning- 

 wool by hand, and of the same dimen- 

 sions), with which it communicates by a 

 band : this, wheel is turned by the hand 

 directly, by means of a winch. In front 

 of the spindles, about a foot higher than 

 their tops, a long spar of deal is support- 

 ed at each extremity by a pair of small 

 wheels, or sheeves, which run on the 

 sides of the frame in a kind of grooves, 

 so as to admit of the spar being moved 

 back and forwards about six or seven 

 feet, in a horizontal position, without va- 

 rying from its parallelism to the row of 

 spindles : the bottom of this spar is form- 

 ed into oblong ^narrow grooves, into 

 which projecting" parts from a lower spar 

 suspended beneath it fit accurately. This 

 lower spar is confined by a sort of sta- 

 ples, so as to admit only of a motion up 

 and down of a few inches below the upper 

 spar, along with which it is drawn back 

 and forwards : the up and down motion is 

 given by a number of small cords at about 

 three feet asunder, which pass from it, 

 over small pulleys in the substance of the 

 upper spar, to a thick wire that lies above 

 it ; which wire is moved by a cord going- 

 round a pulley of about six inches diame- 

 ter, supported at the middle of the upper 

 spar : to this pulley an handle is fixed, 

 which, on being pressed down over a 

 spring clasp, raises up the lower spar 

 close to the upper one, and retains it in 

 that position : when the spring clasp is 

 pressed back from the handle, the weight 

 of the lower spar causes it to fall down 

 clear of the upper one. The use of this 

 arrangement of the two spars, is to hold 

 fast the slubbings, which are passed be- 

 tween them on to the spindles. The cops 

 of slubbings are supported on a frame, 

 which lies below the moveable spars ; 

 small rods pass through them, and through 

 holes in the frame, which sustain them in 

 an upright position, at about the same dis- 

 tance from each other as the spindles. 



When the robing billy is worked, the 

 slubbings are first drawn between the 

 moveable spars, and each fastened to its 



