292 



COTTON SPINNING. 



Cotton 

 Spinning. 



Carding 

 machines. 



Plate 



ccxiii. 



I T ij>-s. 4. 5. 



Past and 

 loose pul- 

 Ires. 

 Fij. 6. 



drawing. 



The fleece from the finisher, instead of going to the 

 lapping-cylinder, is gathered into a tin funnel marked a, 

 (see also Figs. 4. and 5), and then passes between a 

 pair of rollers b, c, which compress and flatten the fleece 

 in its contracted state into a pretty firm and connected 

 sliver or band, called a card-end, and deliver it into 

 a can d, which, when full, is ready to be carried to the 

 next operation performed by the drawing-frame. 



The carding machines we have described, are those on 

 the construction at present most approved ; but many 

 other constructions are employed. Instead of dead top 

 cards are rollers, sometimes called urchins; but they are 

 certainly more complex, and produce no superior effect 

 In some cases, the operations of breaking and finishing 

 are performed on one large machine, having two main 

 cylinders and two doffing cylinders, surrounded by a num- 

 ber of urchins. 



This plan of double engines saves a great deal of at- 

 tendance in conveying the lap of the breaking card to 

 the feeding cloth of the finisher, but it is less perfect, as 

 it has not the advantage of plying or doubling the fleece 

 previously to the finishing. It is, however, sufficiently 

 perfect for very coarse goods, and was the prevailing 

 mode used in the preparation of cotton for common 

 jennies. 



Every part of the carding engines, where dust or films 

 of cotton can escape, are now generally carefully en- 

 closed, to prevent the pernicious effects on the lungs of 

 the people employed in attending the engines. 



We already mentioned, that in a cotton mill every 

 machine, (and even particular parts of some machines), 

 may be stopped or set agoing separately from the rest of 

 the small machinery. There are a great variety of con- 

 trivances * for this purpose ; and it may be proper to de- 

 scribe in this place one of them, remarkable for its sim- 

 plicity and beauty, which is now commonly applied to 

 carding engines. It is called the fast and loose pullies, 

 or dead and live pullies. 



The Fast and Loose Pullies. 



The pulley B is fixed on the axle A of the main cy- 

 linder of the carding engine, and the pulley C, having a 

 bush, is loose. The belt or band which conveys the mo- 

 tion from the mill-work, may at pleasure, either by hand 

 or by a lever, be shifted from the one pulley to the other. 

 When running on the loose pulley C, the axle stands 

 still ; when on the fast pulley B, the axle moves. 



This contrivance of the fast and loose pullies is at- 

 tended with no shock while throwing into action, and is 

 perhaps the most perfect thing yet invented for the pur- 

 pose in all cases where it can be applied. 



Drawing. 



The fourth elementary process, that of drawing, on 

 which the great merit of Arkwright's system depends, is 

 performed in the roving frame and spinning frame, as 

 well as in the drawing frame. We may therefore first 

 explain this elementary process. Its application in each 

 of these different machines, when we come to speak of 

 them, will then be more easily understood. 



The object of the process of drawing is to imitate the 

 human finger and thumb in drawing out the fibres; and 

 although the first idea of the mechanism was taken from 

 die elongation of a red hot bar of iron, by means of a 



pair of rollers, yet it is obvious, that although a sliver of Cottw 

 cotton may be compressed by a single pair of rollers, it Spinning, 

 cannot be elongated ; but, as shall immediately be ex- * ~ 



plained, that effect may be produced by two pair of 

 rollers. 



In Fig. 7. A represents an iron roller fluted longitu- Plate 

 dinally with sharp flutes. B is another roller, covered CCXIII. 

 with leather, and pressed downward upon A by a weight. S" 

 If a sliver of cotton be put between them, while moving 

 in the direction expressed by the arrows, it will be com' 

 pressed but not extended* If the sliver be made to pass 

 through a second similar pair of rollers, if they move in 

 the same direction, and at the very same velocity, no 

 extension of the sliver, even in that case, can take place; 

 but suppose C and D to move at double the velocity of A 

 and B, then the sliver will be extended to double its for- 

 mer length ; for C and D will take up the cotton faster 

 than A and B deliver it. It must either be forcibly 

 pulled through the first pair of rollers, or it must be ex- 

 tended a little by the fibres slipping among each other, 

 or it must break. When the extension, however, is mo- 

 derate, the effect is merely to draw the fibres into a more 

 favourable situation for extension. The relative mo- 

 tion of the rollers, as formerly mentioned, is called their 

 draught. 



The Drawing Frame. 



Besides merely drawing, the machine we are now to Rrawirig 

 describe, (the drawing frame), doubles or plys the cot- frame, 

 ton; and these elementary processes combined, produce, 

 besides the effect of equalizing the sliver, that of laying 

 the fibres of the cotton nearly parallel to each other. 



Fig. 8. of Plate CCXIII. and Fig. 1. of Plate CCX1V. Plate 

 represent what is termed one head of a drawing frame. CCXIII. 

 A frame usualty consists of several heads, which are in j^' s ' 

 fact each a distinct machine, but so arranged on a frame, CCXIV. 

 as to form one S3'stem. If one head, therefore, be un- Fig. i, 

 derstood, the whole system is easily comprehended. 



A represents a group of four tin cans brought from 

 the carding machines. The four card-ends from these 

 cans are passed through the rollers B, C and D, E, (which 

 have, suppose, a draught of four.) The slivers are then 

 united and conducted by a pair of rollers F, G, (which do 

 not extend the cotton,) into another can H, which sliver 

 being extended to four times the length of the card-ends, 

 is therefore the same size as one of them, but is more 

 uniform, and the fibres are laid more straight. 



This operation being repeated, through several other 

 heads on the same frame, the fibres of the cotton are laid 

 nearly parallel, and the sliver becomes still moie uni- 

 form, and is then ready to be carried to the roving 

 frame. The number of these operations, and the draught 

 of each head, and also the number of plies, are optional, 

 and are varied according to the nature of the cotton, or . 

 other circumstances. For the sake of simplicity, we have ■ 

 described each head as having only two pair of rollers, . 

 although three or more pair are now often used in each 

 head. In this last way the cotton is more gradually and 

 equably extended than when the whole draught is pro- 

 duced at once. 



Roving. 



The fibres of the cotton having been laid parallel by Roying. 

 the drawing frame, it is necessary to reduce the sliver to 



* See Buchanan's Essay on Methods of Disengaging and Re-engaging Machinery while in Motion. 



