COTTON SPINNING. 



287 



OTing. 



The larga - , or main cylinder, is covered with sheet cards, 

 : and moves at a considerable velocity ; the lesser, or dof- 

 fing cylinder, is covered with a spiral fillet of card wound 

 round it, and moves slowly. These cylinders revolve in 

 opposite directions, and nearly in contact with each other. 

 Over the main cylinder is a kind of .arch covered with 

 cards at rest, called the lop cards- The cotton is fed by 

 means of rollers into the main cylinder. The main cy- 

 linder lays it on the doffing cylinder, from which it is 

 combed, (as already mentioned of the carding for jenny 

 spinning,) and in an uniform fleece is wound round a 

 cylinder, or sometimes, instead of it, on a perpetual cloth. 

 After this cylinder or cloth has made a certain number 

 of revolutions, and thereby plying or doubling, (the fourth 

 elementary process,) the cotton is broken off, and is in 

 that state (called a lap) ready to be carried to the fi- 

 7iisher. 



The finisher is similar to the breaker, only that the 

 fleece, instead of forming a lap, is gradually brought into 

 a narrow band or sliver, and is compressed by a pair of 

 rollers, which deliver it into a tiacan, which is afterwards 

 removed to the drawing frame. 



Tlie Drawing-frame. 



In this machine, drawing, (the fifth elementary pro* 

 cess,) first occurs. Drawing is a curious contrivance, and 

 is the ground work or principle of Arkwright's invention, 

 for it is used in the roving and spinning as well as in the 

 drawing frame. It is an imitation of what is done by 

 the finger and thumb in spinning by hand, and is per- 

 formed- by means of two pair of rollers. The upper rol- 

 ler of the first pair is covered with leather, which being 

 an elastic substance, is pressed, by means of a spring or 

 weight. The lower roller, made of metal, is fluted, in 

 order to keep a firm hold of the fibres of the cotton. 

 Another similar pair of rollers are placed near to those 

 we have been describing. The second pair, movino- at 

 a greater velocity, pull the fibres of the cotton from the 

 first pair of rollers. If the surface of the last pair move 

 at twice or thrice the velocity of the first pair, the cotton 

 will be drawn twice or thrice finer than it was. This 

 relative velocity is called the draught of the machine. 

 This mechanism being understood, it will be easy to con- 

 ceive the nature of the operation of the drawing frame. 

 Several of the narrow ribbands or slivers from the cards, 

 (or as they are sometimes termed card ends) by being 

 passed through a system of rollers, are thereby reduced 

 in size By means of a detached single pair of rollers, 

 the reduced ribbands are united into one sliver. 



These operations of drawing and plying serve to equa- 

 lize the body of cotton, and to bring its fibres more on 

 end, which, in the card-ends, were crossed in all direc- 

 tions. These slivers are again combined and drawn out, 

 so that one sliver of the finisher drawing contains many 

 plies of card-ends. Hitherto the cotton has got no twist, 

 but is received into moveable tin cans or canisters, 

 similar to those used for receiving the cotton from the 

 cards ; sometimes, however, it does receive a small de- 

 gree of twbt in the finishing drawing. 



Roving. 



The roving is a process similar to the drawing, only 

 that it always communicates a degree of twist to the^ 

 cotton. The roves are wound up on bobbins, and are 

 then ready to be spun. The operation of winding is in 

 some cases performed by hand, and in others by power. 



Spinning. 



Cotton 

 Spinning. 



The bobbins containing the rove are placed on the *T 

 back part of the spinning-frame. The spinning is little S P inn n 

 more than a repetition of the process gone through in 

 making the rovings. 



The spinning-frame contains rollers similar to those 

 of the drawing and roving frames, which serve to extend 

 the rove, and reduce it to the required fineness ; at the 

 same time it is twisted by means of a spindle, but of n 

 different kind from that of the common jenny. 



Previously to the year 1 767, spinning was performed 

 on the domestic one-thread wheel, of which there were 

 two kinds. The first, which had a simple spindle, re- 

 quired the material to be previously carded ; and, as we 

 have seen, the common jenny was founded upon this 

 simple machine. 



The second was the flax-wheel, which was used for other 

 substances, that, from their nature, but more particu- 

 larly from the length of staple, did not admit of carding, 

 but were prepared by an operation resembling combing. 

 The spindle of this machine had a bobbin and fly, which 

 served to wind up the yarn as fast as it was spun. This 

 last kind of spindle is that which was adopted by Ark- 

 wright in his mode of spinning. When the bobbins are 

 full, they are taken" off the spindles in order to be reel- 

 ed. 



The Throstle. 



A maehine called the throstle has of late years come -r, . ., 

 , . , „ . . . r J In? tnr< 



much into use tor spinning- water-twist. Its principles tie. 



are the same as those of the water-frame, but it has fewer 



parts. In the water-frame, every head, as it is called, 



(of four or six spindles) may be stopped separately; 



wnereas, in the throstle^ the whole rollers and spindles 



on each side of the machine are connected. 



Reeling. 



The reeling is performed on a machine consisting of Retlin?. 

 six wooden raiis parallel to the axis, which winds a con- 

 siderable number of threads at once from the bobbins. 

 It is one yard and a half in circumference, and is of 

 such a length as to give room for the hanks without 

 danger of the threads getting foul of each other. At one 

 end of the axis is wheel-work, constructed to strike a 

 check at every 80 revolutions of the reel. These 80 

 revolutions form a ley, or rap, of 120 yards in length, 

 and seven of these leys constitute a hank, which mea- 

 sures 840 yards. 



The size of yarn is denominated from the number of 

 such hanks of 840 yards as will weigh one pound. Thus 

 what is called yarn No. 6'0, contains 60 hanks in each 

 pound weight. This measure is now in use for cotton 

 yarn in Scotland as well as in England : but the old Scotch 

 reel is different, 18 English hanks being reckoned nearly 

 equal to a Scotch spynal. 



The size of the yarn is ascertained by weighing the 

 hanks on an instrument called a quadrant, and each size 

 is put up -separately in bundles of 10 pounds weight. 

 These bundles, by means of the bundling press, arc 

 neatly formed into cubical packages, which being put up 

 in paper are ready for the market. 



Water twist is generally spun hard, and in that case 

 is u n\ for purposes requiring much strength, such as 

 the warps of fustains, calicoes, &c. A softer kind of 

 water twist, which is very uniform and even hi its thrcaJ, . 



