96 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
it is gripped by another pair which are running at a 
higher surface speed. The hairs between the two nips 
are thus dragged apart, rendered straighter and more 
nearly parallel, while the strand of cotton delivered 
from the second pair is necessarily thinner than before. 
In combination with preliminary cleaning and disen- 
tangling processes, with the doubling together of two 
or more strands to obliterate irregularities, and with the 
actual twisting, this drafting mechanism performs the 
process of ordinary cotton spinning. 
Considering the greater knowledge and control which 
we now possess as regards physical processes, in com- 
parison with our grandfathers, and considering also 
that a strand of cotton yarn is a very long way from being 
the uniform ideal product, we may reasonably consider 
that there are possibilities for research in this direction 
also. 
Lest the contrast which we have attempted to create, 
as between the world-wide interests of the crop in 
bulk, and its final resolution almost into single hairs to 
construct threads of yarn therefrom, should not have 
appealed sufficiently to the reader, we may point out 
that even the home industry in cotton is so great as to 
head the list of exports from the United Kingdom, and 
to employ capital which is estimated to be about 
£250,000,000, without reckoning the imperial interests 
in cotton-growing and spinning. Since the war aroused 
interest in the possibilities of scientific research methods, 
two attempts have been made to initiate systematic 
organisations for fundamental research on a scale worthy 
of this industry, bearing in mind that the word Industry 
