WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



We mud now return to the fcribbling-macbine : it is the 

 fame as the carding-machine, except that the breadth of the 

 cylinder is greater, and the teeth are coarfer ; there is no 

 roller-bowl D, and the doffer 4 is completely covered with 

 cards, without "any breaks or intervals ; hence the film of 

 wool which is taken off is continuous, and is fuffered to fall 

 down into a ballcet. 



Double Scribblers. — In Yorkfliire it is common to employ 

 double fcribblers ; that is, two of the machines combined to- 

 gether, and placed in one frame ; there are two large cyhnders, 

 each furrounded with its workers and clearers, and doffer, as 

 ■we have defcribed, making in all feventeen fmall cylinders. 

 The firft great cylinder has a feeding-cloth and carrier, to 

 fupply the wool to the cylinder ; but the fecond large cylin- 

 der is fupplied with wool from the doffer of the firft cy- 

 linder, which doffer ferves in place of a carrier to the fecond ; 

 it therefore has no comb. The doffer of the fecond cylin- 

 der has a comb to take off the wool, which then falls into a 

 baflcet. 



This machine is faid to fave trouble of attendance, and 

 does more work than two fingle machines. The ufual prac- 

 tice is to pafs the wool once through the double machine, 

 end then once through a fingle machine. A double machine 

 will fcribble about a hundred weight of wool per day. 



After the wool is fcribbled it is weighed, and when it is 

 taken to the carding-machine, a certam weight is fpread 

 over a certain length of the feeding-cloth, fo as to fupply 

 the wool to the machine with perfeft regularity. The proper 

 weight wliich (hould be allowed is afccTtained experimentally, 

 according to the finenefs of the thread which is required to be 

 fpun. The cardings are weighed from time to time, to 

 afcertain if each one contains the proper quantity of wool. 



The cardings produced by the united operations of fcrib- 

 bling and carding are compofed of fibres of wool laid very 

 lightly together with the lead poffible entanglement ; they are 

 very regular and even in fize, and upon this circumllance the 

 perfeftion of the fpinning chiefly depends. 



Slubblng-Macbine, or Billy. — This performs the firft procefs 

 of fpinning. It reduces the cardings, and draws them out in 

 length ; joins them together, and gives them a flight twift, in 

 order to form a coarfe and loofe thread, called a flubbing or 

 roving, which muft be fpun over again in the jenny, to 

 make a thread fine enough tor the loom. 



This operation was formerly performed by hand on the 

 common hand fpinning-wheel, which is fimilar to that ufed 

 for fpinning wool, but of a fmaller fize. Machines were 

 then contrived by which a number of flubbings could be 

 drawn out together ; but the aid of the hands was required 

 for joining the rolls or cardingt of wool together in fuccef- 

 fion, and for other purpofes, which were found to take fo 

 much time, that very little, if any, faving of labour was 

 effefted by the ufe of fuch machines. 



A perfpeftive view of the flubbing-machine, now univer- 

 My employed, is given in Plate I. Woollen Manufaaure. 

 A A is the wood frame of the machine ; witliin this frame is 

 a moveable carriage, D D, which runs upon the lower fide- 

 pils at a a, with wheels I, 2, to make it move eafily ; and 

 it is capable of running backwards and forwards in the 

 frame from one end to the other. The carriage contains a 

 number of perpendicular fpindlcs, marked 3, 3, which are 

 put in rapid motion by a long cylinder F, and a feparate 

 band from each fpindle, which paffes round a fmall pulley on 

 the fpindle. The cylinder F extends horizontally acrofs the 

 whole breadth of the carriage ; it is made of tin plate, 

 hollow like a tube, and covered with paper on the outfide. 



The fpindles are placed in a frame, fo as to ftand nearly 

 perpendicular, at about four inches from each other ; their 

 6 



lower extremities are fharp-poiated, anfl turn in fockets, and ' 

 they are retained in their perpendicular pofition by a fmall 

 collar of brafs for each, which furrounds the fpindle at 

 about the middle of its length. The upper half of each 

 fpindle projefts above the frame, and on the lower part the 

 fmall pulley or whirl is fixed, to receive the band from the 

 horizontal cylinder, which is about fix inches in diameter, 

 and a little longer than the row of fpindles ; it is placed be- 

 fore them with its centre at a lower pofition than the row of 

 whirls. The cyhnder receives motion by a puUey at one 

 end, with an endlefs band from a wheel E, made like the 

 large wheel ufed in fpinning wool by hand, and of the fame 

 dimenfions. The wheel is fituated at the outfide of the 

 great frame of the machine, and its axis is fupported by up- 

 right ftandards erefted from the carriage D ; the wheel is 

 turned by the left-hand of the fpinner, appUed to a winch, 

 which is plainly feen in the drawing, and gives motion to the 

 cylinder F, which again turns all the fpindles at once with a| 

 great velocity. , 



Each fpindle receives a thread, or flubbing, which 

 threads iffue from beneath a roller, C C, at one end of the 

 frame, and proceed to the row of fpindles placed in the 

 carriage, fo that the flubbings are extended nearly in an ho- 

 rizontal direftion. Th,' fpindles, by the motion of the car- 

 riage, are capable of advancing or retreating from the roller 

 C, fo as to extend any required length of flubbing. 



The cardings of wool, which are to be fpun into flub- 

 bings, are extended fide by fide upon an endlefs cloth, 

 which is ftrained in an inclined pofition between two hori- 

 zontal rollers, one marked B B, and the other cannot be 

 feen. There is one carding for each fpindle, and the number 

 is ufually from ^o to 80. C is a hght wooden roller to 

 bear upon the cardings which lie upon the cloth, and prefs 

 flightly upon there by its weight. Immediately before this 

 roller is a wooden rail G, and another beneath it, which is 

 fixed horizontally aerofs the frame : the cardings are con-' 

 dufted between thefe two rails, the upper of which is 

 capable of rifing ; but when it falls by its weight, it holds 

 the cardings fall between the two, and hence thefe rails are' 

 called the clafp ; the upper moveable rail G of the clafp is 

 guided between Aiders, and a wire 7 defcends from it to a 

 lever 6. When the carriage D is wheeled clofe home to the 

 end of the machine, a wheel j lifts up the end 6 of the 

 lever ; and this, by the wire 7, raifes the upper rail G fo 

 as to open the clafp, and releafe all the cardings : in this 

 ftate, if the carriage is wheeled or withdrawn back from the 

 clafp, it will draw the cardings forward. There is a fmall 

 catch which receives the upper rail G of the clafp, and 

 bears it up from falling until the carriage has retreated a!' 

 certain diftance, and drawn out about eight inches length of ' 

 the cardings ; a ftop on the carriage then comes againft the' 

 catch and withdraws it ; the upper rail of the clafp G then t 

 falls and holds the cardings fail, whilft the carriage con- ■ 

 tinsues to recede, and draw out or ftretch that portion of ' 

 each carding which is between the clafp and the fpindle. ' ' 

 All this time the wheel is turned to keep the fpindles in mo- ' 

 tion, and give twift to the cardings in proportion as they are 1 

 drawn out, by which means it is prevented from breaking ; ' ! 

 becaufe as the carding diminiflies in fize, and increafes in ' 

 length, the increafing twift combines the fibres of the wool, 

 fo as to give ftrength to the coarfe thread or flubbing which '■> 

 is thus produced. i 



The flubbing is lapped round the fpindle, but the clafp • « 

 being higher than the upper ends of the fpindies, the direc-! f 

 tion of the flubbing is not quite at right angles to the ' I 

 fpindle; hence the fpindle, when it is turned round, will' i 

 give twift to the flubbing, without winding or gathering it t 



up 



