COTTON SPINNING. 



293 



jgotton a convenient size, preparatory to reducing it still further 

 Spinning. j,y tne spinning into a small thread ; and to accom- 

 plish this purpose, it becomes necessary to give the 

 sliver a degree of twine while drawing, in order that it 

 may have adhesion sufficient to undergo the stress of 

 spinning. 



The making of good rovings is a most essential part 

 of cotton spinning. They ought to be uniform in size, 

 have an equal degree of twist in every part, and that 

 twist should be no more than what is just sufficient to 

 give the requisite degree of strength. 



A great variety of constructions of machines for ro- 

 ving have been in use at different periods. We shall 

 begin with that which was used by Sir Richard Ark- 

 wright. 



The Can Roving Frame. 



The can ro- One head of the roving frame is represented in Fig. 2. 

 ving frame. 'Each frame contains several similar heads; but by tracing 

 Plate the progress of one roving, that of the rest will be easily 

 jpCXIV. comprehended. A, A represent two tin cans, each con- 

 taining a sliver from the drawing frame. The slivers 

 enter together between the rollers abed. 



The rollers of this machine are similar to those of the 

 drawing frame. The sliver, after being reduced by 

 passing through the rollers, is received into a can or box 

 JB (in the form of a truncated cone) through a small 

 funnel e at its upper end. This box is supported at bot- 

 tom by a pivot f, and kept in rapid motion by a band. 

 To keep the box steady as it revolves, the neck of the 

 funnel e is guided by a collar. The boxes have each a 

 door to open on one side for taking out the cotton ro- 

 vings. This door is secured by a ring g, which fits the 

 outside of the box, and when pushed down, keeps the 

 door shut; but when drawn up to the top, the door may 

 be opened and the rovings taken out. 



The sliver, after being reduced by the rollers passing 

 through the funnel e into the box, is twisted, and by the- 

 centrifugal motion coiled round within. The attendant 

 knows, by experience, the time when the box is full, and 

 lifting up the ring, withdraws the rovings. They are then 

 ready to be carried to what is called the winding block. 

 This is a very simple machine (moved by hand) by 

 means of which the roving is wound on bobbins. 



This mode of roving was found defective in two re- 

 spects,: 1st, The twine was not equally diffused over 

 every part. 2d, The winding the cotton by a separate 

 process damaged the tender rovings. 



To remedy the first of these evils, Arkwright tried 

 rollers on the top of the revolving can or box, which 

 were contrived to move at the same rate as the drawing 

 rollers delivered the roving; but in practice this me- 

 chanism was found to be attended with considerable ob- 

 jections, and for that reason has been abandoned for 

 other and more perfect machinery. 



The following method is now much in use : - Instead 

 of taking the rovings out of the box and winding them 

 on bobbins, a can is put within a revolving frame, (call- 

 ed a skeleton,) having a top and bottom, similar to those 

 of the revolving box. The rovings, when the cans are 

 full, are carried, without being wound on bobbins, to be 

 further reduced and twined on a machine called a stretch- 

 ing frame. By this method the damage which the ro- 

 ving otherwise sustains in winding by hand is avoided. 



The Jack Frame. 



To obviate both the evils mentioned above, many 



contrivances were tried. A machine called a. jack in the Cottoa 

 box was long in use in some mills. It was very ingenious Spinning, 

 in its construction; but its great fault was its complexity. ~ ~ '~ 

 It consisted of a frame revolving rapidly instead of the 

 revolving box or can of the can frame. Within this re- 

 volving frame a small cylinder moved vertically, the 

 surface of which had the very same velocity as the sur- 

 face of the front roller of the roving frame. Upon this 

 cylinder the bobbin was placed, which, by contact, 

 revolved and took up the roving at the same rate at 

 which it was delivered by the rollers. At the same time 

 the horizontal rotatoiy motion of the jack gave the twist 

 to the roving, a guide-wire also built the roving regular- 

 ly on the bobbin. 



The sketch in Fig. 3. will give an idea of this ma- Tlatf 

 chine, and of the simple contrivance for making the sur- CCXIV. 

 face of the bobbin, whether empty or full, always move Fl S - 3 * 

 at the same velocity. 



A is the cylinder, revolving at such a rate that its 

 surface has the same velocity as that of the front roller. 

 B the bobbin lying on it. C the guide-wire. 



But this machine, (the jack in the box,) has been su- 

 perseded by another, which is more simple, while it is 

 calculated to produce the same effects, viz. diffusing the 

 twine equally in every part, and saving the winding of 

 the rovings by hand. This is effected by means of the 

 spindle and flyer, similar to those of the common flax- 

 wheel; and although Arkwright tried to apply this part 

 of machinery to roving, he did not succeed. He found 

 difficulties? which were, even to him, insuperable, but 

 which time and experience have at length overcome. 



Spindle and Flyer Roving Frame. 



This machine has its rollers, &c. for drawing or re- Spindle and 

 ducing the sliver, the same as the roving frames already ^Y e - : "ving 

 described. Instead of the revolving boxes, there are p me 2 

 spindles AA, Fig. 4. each of which has fixed at its up- 

 per end a forked piece of iron called a flyer. One of the 

 legs b of the fork is made tubular, to receive the roving 

 as fast as it is twisted by the motion of the flyer, and to 

 convey it to the bobbin, which is fitted loosely on the 

 spindle. 



The rollers deliver the reduced sliver to the flyers on 

 the top of the spindles, where it passes through an eye- 

 hole a of the flyer, exactly above the centre of the spindle, 

 and thence proceeds through the tube b to the bobbin c. 

 The tube of the flyer running swiftly round the bobbin, 

 lays the roving on it as fast as the rollers deliver the 

 cotton. In the common flyer of a flax wheel, there are 

 teeth from one to another of which the thread is shifted 1 

 from time to time by hand, in order to fill the bobbin 

 regularly; but to answer this end, and in a more perfect 

 manner, this machine is so constructed, that the bobbins 

 rise and fall on the spindles, that they may lay the ro- 

 ving from the end of the tube regularly upon the length 

 of the bobbin. This rise and fall of the bobbins is ac- 

 complished by the motion of the wooden rail BB, which, 

 by a piece of mechanism, is kept in regular, slow, al- 

 ternate ascending and descending motion. 



The application of the spindle and flyer to roving, as 

 far as we have yet described it, is the same as was tried 

 by Sir Richard Arkwright, upon finding the defects of 

 his roving can frame. But the objections to the machine 

 in this slate, and which he found unsuperabie, were, (hat 

 the bobbins when they became filled with rovings, being 

 much heavier than when empty, required much more 

 force to drag them round. The bobbin rested on the 



