COTTON SPINNING. 



295 



Cotton rollers serve to keep the roving from being pulled too 

 Spinning. fe st f onv ard ; the top roller k in the middle is much 

 lighter than the other top rollers., and permits the fibres 

 to move freely among themselves in reducing the ro- 

 ving. 



GH represents the spindle, to which motion is com- 

 municated from the list pulley E, by means of a strap 

 formed of cloth listing IK, which goes round the spindle 

 shaft at I. i k Hi the flyer, the legs of which consist of 

 two solid pieces of iron, twisted somewhat like a cork- 

 screw at the lower extremities i and e, in order to con- 

 duct the thread to the bobbin m n. 



The operation of this machine will now be easily ex- 

 plained. The bobbin containing roving L is placed in a 

 frame behind. From it the roving passes to the back 

 rollers g, p, through a wire eye o, fixed in a wood- 

 en rod r, that has a slow reciprocating horizontal mo- 

 tion. The use of this motion is to make the roving 

 traverse a little on the rollers, to prevent it from 

 wearing them, or bruising the leather too much in one 

 part. The roving being reduced in its passage between 

 the three 6ets of rollers, proceeds through the leader q, 

 (which is an eye formed of wire fixed in the leader board) 

 to the flyer, which twists and lays the thread on the 

 bobbin m n, in a similar manner to what we have already 

 described of the flyer used in the roving frame. 



The ascending and descending motion of the bobbin 

 for building the thread regularly, is produced as follows : 

 A wheel in the form of a heart, called the heart wheel, 

 moves with a regular vertical motion, and acts on a rol- 

 ler, which, by means of levers, alternately raises and 

 depresses the bobbin rail M. This rail has pieces of 

 thin wood xy projecting from it, which go under the 

 bobbins, and on which pieces they rest and are moved 

 along with the rail. The motion is so calculated, that 

 when the bobbin is full of yarn it is swelled a little some- 

 what into a barrel form. The bobbin (as was observed 

 of the spindle and flyer roving) does not revolve with 

 the velocity of the spindle. In the spinning frame it is 

 retarded by friction, which is increased to the requisite 

 degree by means of washers of cloth or leather : then the 

 thread, by the motion of the flyer, drags the bobbin 

 about after it, with a velocity equal to the difference be- 

 tween the motion of the flyer and the motion of the 

 thread delivered out by the front rollers. The thread is 

 sufficiently strong to bear, without injury, this drag of 

 the bobbin, and therefore, as before observed, it does not 

 require the mechanism to regulate its motion, which is 

 necessary for the delicate rovings. 



When the bobbins are full, the attendants take them 

 off the spindles. The dexterity with which this work is 

 performed, as well as that of the mending of the threads, 

 (for which last purpose it is not always necessary to stop 

 the spindles, ) is almost incredible to those who have not 

 witnessed these operations. 



The bobbins, when taken off the spindles, filled with 

 water-twist for warps, are carried to be reeled. But stock- 

 ing yarn undergoes the operations of doubling and twist- 

 ing. This last kind of yarn is softer than common 

 water twist, and requires to be more even, because, in 

 a stocking, the whole of the texture at any one part is 

 formed by the same thread, and any defect will make a 

 bar in the stocking, whereas, in cloth, so many different 

 threads cross each other at one place, that a defect in 

 any one thread is seldom perceptible in the cloth. In 

 order to obtain greater evenness, stocking yam is usual- 

 ly spun from double rovings, wound on the same roving 

 3 



bobbin. The roving can frame is therefore still used in Cotton 

 the preparation for this kind of spinning. Spinning, 



The Throstle. 



Water twist is spun on a spinning frame of another Throstle. 

 form, called the throstle. The operating parts are the 

 same in both machines, but the mechanism which actuates 

 them is different. A very short description, however, af- 

 ter what we have said of the spinning frame, will suffice. 



The rollers and spindles are similar to those of the 

 water frame, but instead of heads, each of which may be, 

 stopped independently of the rest, the whole rollers of 

 one side of the frame are coupled together, and the 

 whole of the spindles of both sides of the throstle are 

 driven, by means of bands or lists, from a cylinder A, 

 Fig. 6. which extends the whole length of the machine. p rATK 

 This cylinder receives its motion by a belt, and from its CHXIV. 

 axle motion is communicated by wheel work to the rol- Fig. fi- 

 lers. Thus, by stopping the cylinder, which has dead 

 and live pullies at the end of its axle, where it receives 

 its motion, we stop the whole machine. 



This machine is more simple, consists of fewer parts, 

 and of course costs less than the water spinning frame. 

 It is generally stated to require less power to work it. 

 But it has an evident disadvantage, viz. that in taking off 

 the full bobbins, the whole spindles of the throstle must 

 be stopped; whereas only a single head (of four or six 

 spindles) of the water frame requires to be stopped du- 

 ring this operation. On the whole, cotton spinners are 

 still divided in their opinions as to the comparative ad- 

 vantages of these two machines. 



The Reel. 



In some mills the reels are moved by hand, in others The refl. 

 by power. A, Fig. 7. is a board going the whole F'g- ?• 

 length of the reel. In this board a number of wooden 

 pins are fixed, of such a size that the bobbins may turn 

 freely on them. B represents one of the bobbins. The 

 thread from the bobbin is conducted between several 

 wires, and has a turn round one of them, in order that, 

 it may be conducted with sufficient tension to the reel 

 CDE. It consists of six rails a a a, &c. which extend 

 parallel to the axis the whole length of the reel, and on 

 which the thread is wound. The dimensions of the reel 

 are such, that it requires exactly one yard and a half to 

 go round it. The length depends upon the number of 

 bobbins which it winds at once — sometimes as many as 

 50. The reeler begins with making the ends of all the 

 threads fast to one of the rails a. By means of wheel- 

 work, when the reel has made 80 revolutions, (one 

 lay) a bell or click strikes, the reel is stopped, and 

 the lays are tied with pieces of thread, in order to keep 

 them distinct. Seven of these lays form a hanh. When 

 the hanks are completed, they are taken off the reel. 

 The arms of one of the rails is hinged, which permits it 

 to be folded inward, in order to take off the yarn with 

 ease, by slipping the hanks to one end of the reel, which 

 is lifted off its bearings for the purpose. 



The hanks are then twisted into knots, and weighed 

 on the quadrant, or averaged on a scale, in order to as- 

 certain the size of yarn. It is afterwards made up in cu- 

 bical bundles for the market. 



Having thus concluded our proposed description of 

 the machinery of mater spinning, we shall now proceed 

 to finish what we intended to say on the subject of mule 

 spinning. 



