WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



entirely different from woollens made of carded wool, and 

 part of it being applied to hofiery, we refer, for a fur- 

 ther account of it, to the articles Worsted ManufaHure, 

 and Worsted Spinning, 



Defcription of the Machines employed in the Woollen Manii- 

 faBure. — The ivool-mill, or 'willy, is the firft machine which is 

 employed on the raw wool to open and difentangle the clofe 

 matting, in which tlie wool comes from the wool-ftapler. It 

 is alfo ufed for clearing the dyed wool from the dye (luff, 

 and again for mixing different parcels of wool together ; 

 alfo for incorporating the oil with the wool. 



The wool-mill ufed in Yorkfhire confifts of a cyhndrical 

 drum, about three feet long and two feet and a half diameter, 

 which is made to revolve near three hundred times ^cr minute. 

 It» circumference is furnifhed with teeth or fpikes, and im- 

 mediately above it five fmall rollers are placed, which are alfo 

 furnilhed with fimilar teeth. The teeth of the rollers and 

 thofe of the drum interfeft each other when they all turn 

 round ; and the teeth of the five fmall rollers alfo interfeft 

 each other. The cylinder and rollers are inclofed in a box 

 or cafe, which is clofed on all fides, except a door in front, 

 which turns down, the hinges being at the lower fide. When 

 this door is fliut up it ftands in a perpendicular plane, 

 very near to the teeth of the drum ; when the door is 

 opened, or turned down into the horizontal pofition, the 

 wool is laid upon it, about one pound weight at once, and 

 the door being clofed the wool is brought within reach of 

 the teeth of the cybnder, which take the wool and carry it 

 upwards, fo as to work it between the teeth of the cybnder 

 and thofe of the five rollers placed over it. This effefts 

 the opening of the wool, and breaks the fibres if the itaple 

 is too long : it alfo feparates the matted fibres. In about 

 three feconds, the pound of wool is generally fufficiently 

 worked, during which time the cylinder has made about 

 fifteen turns. The lower part of the cafe in which the 

 cylinder revolves is a grating of wooden rods, through 

 which the dirt and duft efcape. The cylinder is fitted 

 very clofe to this grating, fo that the wool cannot efcape 

 from the cylinder, but is carried round in it, and is thus re- 

 peatedly fubmilted to the aftion between the teeth of the 

 cylinder and thofe of the rollers. When it is judged that 

 the wool h fufficiently worked, the door is opened again, 

 and the centrifugal force throws out the wool in an inftant ; 

 a frefh charge is then laid upon tlie door, and fhut up in the 

 machine. A preferable mode is to have tv;o doors on 

 oppofite fides of the cafe ; one to put in the raw wool, and 

 the other for the finifhed wool to come out at. 



The wool for coarfe goods is paffed feveral times through 

 the wool-mill ; firft, to breuk the mats of the raw wool and 

 render it light ; then a fecond time after it is dyed ; a third 

 time to mix the different forts together ; and laftly, after 

 the wool is oiled, it is paffed a fourth time through the 

 wool-mill, with a view to incorporate the oil well with the 

 fibres of the wool. 



Scr'tbhling-Machine. — This is the firft flage of carding. 

 The operation tends to difentangle the fibres which were 

 before clofely entangled, and draw them out feparately, fo as 

 to render the wool light and flaky. The fcribbling-machine 

 is very Cmilar to the carding-machine, having a large cylin- 

 der or drum, which is covered on the furface with fheets of 

 leather ftuck full of projeAing wire-teeth, called card-wires. 

 The teeth are-fo clofe together as to cover the whole fur- 

 face of the cylinder, like the briftles of a brufh. This 

 cylinder is turned rapidly round by the machinery, and the 

 wool is regularly and flowly fupplied by feeding machinery 

 to its teeth, which take it up, and the cyhnder, as it were, 

 clothes itfelf with wool. This wool is carded or worked by 



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the teeth of feveral other fmaller cylinders, called workers 

 and clearers, which are fixed around the great cylinder in 

 pairs. The teeth of the workers take the wool from the 

 great cylinder, and give it to the clearers, which return k| 

 again to the great cylinder. It is then transferred to another! 

 worker, and by its clearer is given back to the great cylin- 

 der, and fo on. It is by the repeated transferring of the 

 wool from one cylinder to another, that the chief aftion 

 of fcribbling or carding is performed. The teeth of the 

 different cylinders do not aftually touch each other, but they 

 work fo near together, that the fibres of the wool which 

 the teeth of one card contains are caught by the teeth of 

 the other card, and drawn out a very few at a time. This 

 aftion tends to feparate the fibres, and renders the wool hght 

 and open, and alio dillributes the wool with great evennefs 

 over the furfaces of the cyhnders. After the wool has 

 paffed between three or four pairs of workers and clearers,| 

 it is taken up by a cylinder, called the doffer, which isi 

 fmaller than the great cylinder, and turns round ver)' flowly. 

 The wool is ftripped off from this doffer by a fleel comb, 

 which is fituated parallel to the axis of the doffer, and is 

 moved rapidly up and down by a crank through a fmall fpace. 

 In afcending, the comb does not touch the doffer; but when 

 the comb makes its down flroke, it comes in contatl with 

 the teeth of the cards, and combs out almoft all the wooli 

 they contain. As the doffer turns round very flowly, and. 

 the comb afts at fmall intervals, the fucceffive portions of 

 wool which it combs or ftrips off, hang together in a con- 

 tinued fleece or web of a very thin texture, which hangs 

 down from the doffer, and is received in a bafliet. 



The wool in this Hate is faid to be fcribbled, but the 

 fibres are not yet fufficiently combed out or feparated ; for 

 on examination of the fcribbled wool, many fmall knots and 

 films of wool are found, which are ftill clofeiy entangled. 

 The fcribbling is therefore repeated twice or three times, and 

 then the wool undergoes another operation, which is called 

 carding, but which is very nearly the fame as the fcribbhng, 

 only the wool is formed into fmall cylindrical rolls, which 

 are the firft rudiments of a thread. 



We have thought it needlefs to give a drawing of a 

 fcribbling-machine, as it may be readily conceived from the 

 following defcription of the carding machine. 



Carding-Machine. ( See Plate IV. IVoollenManufadure. }— 

 A is the wood frame of the machine, but the bell machines 

 have call -iron frames ; C C is the outfide of the large 

 cylinder, which is about thirty inches diameter, and twenty- 

 fix inches wide: its axis is fupportedon bearings at each fide 

 of the frame, and it is put in motion by an endlefs ftrap 

 appHed upon a pulley at one end of its axis, which pulley 

 cannot be feen in the figure. The cylinder revolves about 

 1 00 times per minute. B is an arch of wood to receive 

 fcrews, which fupport the fix fmall cylinders marked 2 a 

 and 2 ; thefe are the workers and clearers. The workers 

 3 a are larger, and turn flower than the clearers 2 ; each 

 worker is afted upon by its clearer, and both worker and 

 clearer aft againfl the cards of the great cylinder. 



The raw wool is fpread evenly upon the feeding-cloth 5, 

 at one end of the machine : it is an endlefs fheet ftretched 

 over two rollers, one of which has a cog-wheel G upon the 

 end of its axis, and receives motion from a pinion fituated 

 behind the pulley F. This pulley is turned by an endlefs 

 cord palling round a pulley n, fixed upon the cog-wheel E, 

 which is turned by a pinion 8 on the end of the axis of the 

 great cylinder. The wool which is fpread on the cloth 5 

 is taken off, between a pair of feeding-rollers, which are 

 clothed with cards laid on in fpiral fillets. Thefe rollers 

 cannot be feen, being within the frame ; they are about 25 



inches 



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