118 [Assembly 



until the combinations shall include several hundred of bats or 

 slivers in one. 



The principle of equalization is in part, that of compensation — 

 the accidental happening of a larger portion, or part of one bat, 

 coming opposite to a lesser part of another bat: but mainly in com- 

 bining many slivers whereby the occasional difference of one, 

 whether larger or lesser, may be associated with others of a more gen- 

 eral uniformity of size, and by which it will be noted that the uniform- 

 ity of size will be in proportion to the number of slivers multiplied. 



Before Railway Drawing-heads were invented large tin or wooden 

 cases were employed to receive and convey the bat from the carding 

 machine to the drawing-head; persons were in attendance to sever 

 the bat, and to take away the can when filled, putting an empty can 

 in its place: requiring in a cotton mill of ordinary size, a large 

 number of hands, to perform this part of the operation. Since the 

 Railway Drawing-head has been introduced, that portion of labor has 

 been wholly dispensed with. 



The original conception of the idea of a railway to collect the 

 bats as they were discharged from the carders, and deliver them to 

 a drawing-head, w^as a citizen of Rhode Island — the name not re- 

 membered by your committee, but the invention as first presented to 

 the world, had defects in its detail which rendered it of but little 

 advantage to the manufacturer: nevertheless crude and imperfect as 

 it was, the cotton manufacturer of this day, is under a deep cbliga- 

 tion of praise to that individual for the outlines of a valuable ma- 

 chine. 



When this original machine first made its appearance, as now, 

 several carding machines were arranged in a line with each other, 

 before which a transverse carriage called a " Railway," was made 

 to move, sweeping past the head of each carder, and from which 

 the bats fell upon the Railway — carrying the same forward in a 

 body to the drawing-head — at the terminus of the carriage, — the 

 back rollers of such a drawing-head corresponding in motion, with 

 the motion of the carriage, was passed through and delivered in cans 

 to be re-multiplied by separate drawing-heads, for that purpose; but 

 it was found in practice, that inasmuch as it became necessary to 

 suspend the operation of one or more of the carders, and that in 

 stopping one, all the rest of the carders must be stopped or produce an 

 unequal sliver it was found that the loss of time in the aggregate 



