COTTON SPINNING. 



■291 



Cotton come into csnlacl with, or produce an immediate effect on, 

 Spinning. fj le co tt on in various parts of the process of spinning. 

 ~~v~ m This mode we conceive to be the most simple of giving 

 the reader an intelligible description ; for were the ma- 

 chinery for communicating the motions represented to- 

 gether with the framing, it would render the subject far 

 more complex and obscure, 1 and it is further to be ob- 

 served, that the communicating machinery and the fram- 

 ing are very different in different mills, and are almost 

 daily changing in new erections, while the parts coming 

 in contact with the material under process remain nearly, 

 if not entirely, the same. The mode we have adopted, 

 we think, will not only give a better general idea of the 

 subject, but will make the reader more readily compre- 

 hend the construction of the machines themselves when 

 he has an opportunity of seeing them, than a more la- 

 boured and extended description, which representations 

 of the whole machines would require, and of which our 

 limits would not admit. 



The operation to be performed by the carding machines 

 (the first denominated the breaker and the second the 

 Jinisher,') will probably be more easily understood, after 

 we have considered the effect produced by the common 

 hand-cards, which every one must have seen. 



The cards are composed of small wires stuck through 

 a sheet of leather, forming a kind of brush. The 

 wires are not perpendicular to the plane of the leather, 

 but are all inclined in one direction at a certain angle. 

 The hand cards consist of two boards with handles, 

 each board having a sheet of cards nailed on it. 



AB and CD, Fig. 1, represent, in profile, part of the 

 boards of a pair of hand cards ; EF and GH the leather; 

 and IK and LM the teeth. 



Fig. 2. shows the form of one of the wires which are 

 stuck through the leather ; each wire forms two teeth. 



If cotton be stuck into one of those cards, and the 

 other drawn against it, the effect of repeated strokes of 

 the empty card in this direction against the full one, will 

 be a more equal distribution of the cotton upon the card 

 teeth, which will have the effect of separating the fibres, 

 disentangling every little knotty part, and laying the 

 whole more straight. Now, if one card be drawn in an 

 opposite direction over the other, it will, in consequence 

 of the inclination of its wires, take the whole cotton out 

 of the card whose inclination is contrary. 



In order to explain the imitation of this process, as 

 Fig. 3. performed by the carding machines, we refer to Fig. 3. 

 (being a vertical section of the breaker,) in which AB 

 represents a cylinder (usually about three feet diameter 

 and two feet long,) on which sheets of card are nailed 

 parallel to the axis. The teeth all pointing, as shown in 

 the Figure, in the direction of its motion, which direction 

 is pointed out by an arrow. This cylinder is turned ra- 

 pidly round, usually at the rate of from 60 to 80 revolu- 

 tions per minute, by an endless leathern strap or belt on 

 a pulley fixed on its axis. This cylinder being the first 

 motion of the machine, all the rest are communicated 

 from it. 



The cylinder AB, is called the main cylinder, and re- 

 volves under an arch CD, consisting of several pieces of 

 wood, each covered with a sheet T card also parallel to the 

 axis of the cylinder, with their teeth directed to oppose 

 those of the cylinder, and coming nearly into contact with 

 them, that is, within about one-twelfth of an inch of 

 touching. These pieces, of which the arch consists, are 

 called the (op-cards. 



Carding 

 machines. 



Plate 

 CCXIII. 

 Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



The second cylinder EF is covered witli card, the Cotiou 

 teeth meeting those of the main cylinder. This card is s I>"" ""g- 

 what is called a fillet, being a narrow ribband wound c ~ d ^ — 

 round the cylinder in a spiral form, so as to make the machines, 

 surface of the whole one uninterrupted sheet of card i'late 

 teeth. This cylinder moves in the direction shown CCXIII. 

 on it by the arrow, but much slower than the main cy- B ' * 

 linder. 



A certain weight of cotton is spread upon a certain 

 length of the feeding-cloth GHI, which gradually ad*, 

 vances. The cotton is taken from it by a pair of fluted 

 iron-rollers KL, which deliver it equally to the main cy- 

 linder. This cylinder carries it round, and works it 

 against the cards fixed within the arch. By this means 

 it becomes equally distributed over the main cylinder. 

 The cotton advances slowly from tooth to tooth, some- 

 times on those of the arch or top cards CD, and some- 

 times on those of the cylinder, until it has passed through 

 the arch. It then comes to the second cylinder EF. 

 Now, the property of two cards meeting each other 

 being to distribute the cotton between them, the teeth of 

 the second cylinder receives a full half of what is upon 

 the teeth of the main cylinder. The cotton received by 

 the cylinder EF, proceeds with it beneath till it comes to 

 the opposite side, and is removed by the taker-off. 



This curious piece of mechanism, the taker-off, con- 

 sists of a comb of polished iron Q, which receives a re- 

 ciprocating motion by means of sliding-rods MN work- 

 ing in guides above the comb from a crank at N. The 

 comb moves so as to descend at the time when its edge 

 is nearest the cylinder, and thereby combs or scrapes the 

 teeth downward, and in consequence removes the cotton 

 from the whole length of the cylinder EF. The motion 

 of the crank is so quick, that the cotton is stripped off 

 the cylinder in a continued and connected fleece. The 

 disposal of this fleece forms the principal difference be- 

 tween the breaker and the Jinisher. In the breaker 

 (which we are now describing,) it is received on a smooth 

 cylinder OP, called the lapping cylinder, moving regu- 

 larly at the rate the fleece is delivered, having a small 

 roller R resting lightly above it, which causes the fleece 

 to lap regularly on the cylinder, which continues to re- 

 volve until it has made about 20 revolutions, when, by 

 means of an apparatus for the purpose, the machine stops, 

 and the cotton is broken off by hand, forming a fleece, 

 consisting of about 20 thicknesses, called a lap, which is 

 ready to be carried to the Jinisher. This is the first 

 operation in which the elementary process of plying or 

 doubling occurs. The advantage of this process in this 

 last part of the operation, is producing great equality in 

 the thickness of the lap, which being fed on to the Jini- 

 sher, produces from it a regular sliver, upon which cir- 

 cumstance the perfection of the ultimate thread must de- 

 pend. 



Fig. 4. No. 1. and No. 2. represent a front view and Fig. 4. 

 plan of the taker-off of thejnisher, on a larger scale ; the No - 1 > -• 

 same letters expressing the same parts as in Fig. 3. and 

 6. The taker-off is constructed in the same manner, 

 both in the Jinisher and in the breaker. 



A vertical section of the Jinisher is represented in 

 Fig. 5. The lap produced by the breaker is, in some Fig. 5. 

 mills, laid on a feeding cloth ; in others it is placed in a 

 tin canister ; but in both cases it is fed into the main- 

 cylinder by the feeding rollers, in the same way as in the 

 breaker. The other operations of the cotton are the same 

 in both machines until it passes the taker-off. 



