MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. 



feff this cylinder in the same way as from 

 the other engine ; hut instead of being 

 passed under the roller with longitudinal 

 projections, to form it into rolls, it is 

 drawn forward through a conical guide of 

 tin, hy two narrow wooden rollers, about 

 six inches in diameter, that deliver it into 

 deep and narrow tin vessels, in the form 

 of a long ribband, about two inches in 

 breadth. The mill engine, instead of the 

 small carding rollers above the main cy- 

 linder, used in the jenny carding engine, 

 has commonly narrow flat spars of deal, 

 with cards attached to them, fixed at a 

 proper distance from the principal cylin- 

 der. Toothed wheels and pinions are 

 more used in the mill carding engine than 

 bands ; but that this is any improvement 

 is doubtful, as in other parts of the ma- 

 chinery of mills, bands have been substi- 

 tuted for wheel work to advantage, and 

 probably will be more so than -they are 

 now, as they work without causing that 

 shaking motion which toothed wheels oc- 

 casion in general, and which is both inju- 

 rious to the evenness of the yarn, and 

 the duration of the machinery. For tooth- 

 ed wheels, when in quick motion, act by 

 a succession of percussions on each other, 

 unless constructed with an accuracy as to 

 the form of the teeth, that is very diffi- 

 cult to give to very small wheels, or un- 

 less the teeth are so numerous that se- 

 veral may come in contact at once, which 

 in small wheels would cause them to be 

 of too reduced a size, and too weak for 

 mill work. 



From the carding engine the long 

 stripes of carded cotton are brought to 

 engines consisting merely of two pair of 

 small rollers, one pair of which moves 

 faster than the other, and each pair of 

 which are caused to press against each 

 other with some force, either by weights 

 or springs. Here two, three, or more of 

 the stripes of carded cotton are drawn out 

 together into another stripe, smaller than 

 the first stripes, and this operation is re- 

 peated till the stripes attain that evenness 

 which is so essential to the formation of 

 good twist. 



OfJMill Shibbing. The prepared stripes 

 of carded cotton are then brought to the 

 stubbing engine, where they are formed 

 into a thread of very loose texture and 

 little twist. 



The slubbing engine consists of two 

 pair of drawing rollers, between which 

 the prepared stripes of carded cotton are 

 drawn out to the required fineness, they 

 then pass downwards into tin cylinders, 

 which revolve with a velocity proportion- 

 ate to the twist to be given ; at the top 



of each cylinder two very small roller?* 

 are placed, which are made to turn round 

 by bands passing down the sides of the 

 tin cylinder, over small pullies, to a fixed 

 wheel at bottom; these small rollers draw 

 down the narrow stripes of cotton into 

 the cylinders, and the centrifugal mo- 

 tion distributes them equally round the 

 sides of each cylinder in a long hollow 

 roll, which is taken out a door at the side 

 of the cylinder, that is fastened with a 

 hook and loop. 



The slubbing is then rolled on bobbins. 

 by hand, by children or women, by a very 

 simple method, which both prevents its 

 breaking, and causes it to be rolled on 

 the bobbins with equal tightness in every 

 part. The bobbin lies on the top of a 

 narrow cylinder of wood, that just fits in 

 between its two extremities, and which is 

 about eight or ten inches in diameter: a 

 wire is passed through the bobbin into 

 the frame, each extremity of which has a 

 vertical groove, that sustains it in its 

 place ; the cylinder is turned round by a 

 winch, and as the slubt>ling rolls on the 

 bobbin, still turns it round with equal 

 velocity, as it is against the surface of the 

 rolled cotton alone that it acts. 



Tlie Spinning Frames. When the slub- 

 bing is rolled on the bobbins, it is then 

 prepared for spinning, and brought to the 

 spinning frames for that purpose ; where 

 the bobbins are placed in rows above the 

 frames in a sort of vertical rack prepared 

 for them, and are kept in their places 

 there, by thick wires which pass through 

 them, on the points of which they revolve 

 as the slubbing is drawn off them by the 

 spinning apparatus, which consists prin- 

 cipally of three pair of small rollers, 

 which draw out the slubbing to the pro- 

 per fineness, and of the fly and bobbin 

 which gives it the due degree of twist, 

 and rolls it up when spun. The three 

 lower rollers are of steel, fluted or 

 grooved longitudinally at small intervals, 

 and are about an inch diameter. The 

 upper rollers are of wood, with iron 

 axles, and are covered first with cloth 

 and then with glove leather, and rubbed 

 well with chalk. Every steel roller is di- 

 vided into as many intervals, of about an 

 inch and a half long, as the number of 

 threads to be drawn by it amount to, 

 which is seldom more than six. The co- 

 vered rollers are in lengths of two of 

 those intervals, and each press on two of 

 the slubbings ; the extremities of their 

 axis move in pieces of iron with vertical 

 grooves, that admit them to press down - 

 ward freely, but prevent all lateral mo- 

 tion ; the middle of the axis, as well as 



