MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS 



211 



"drawing" slivers in a cotton mill, one of the steps preliminary 



to spinning 



When the sliver comes from the card, as shown in the preceding picture, it is received 

 into one of the cans shown here. Six of these slivers pass through the drawing frame, as 

 explained on page 214, and are combined into one, as long as the combined length of the six, 

 but of the diameter of one of the originals. Each sliver passes through a number of drawing- 

 machines, each time entering as six and coming out united into one, and correspondingly 

 lengthened. 



in the warehouse, it leads one a merry 

 chase up and down countless flights of 

 stairs and keeps the mind busy enumerat- 

 ing the processes involved. 



Lawrence has one of the largest cotton 

 mills in the world and, connected with it, 

 the largest print works in existence. Let 

 us there follow the processes of convert- 

 ing cotton into calico. We shall appre- 

 ciate the clothes we wear the more when 

 the journey's end is reached. 



When the cotton comes to the mill it is 

 in the familiar bales of commerce, 500 

 pounds to the bale. After being opened, 

 the cotton is fed to a machine known as 

 the bale-breaker. Here the matted cotton 



is loosened and torn into small bunches, 

 which are delivered to an endless belt that 

 carries them to the "feeder" (see page 

 207). 



The feeder is a machine containing a 

 series of pin-studded slats which carry 

 the bunches of cotton in regular quantity 

 into the next machine, known as the 

 "opener." 



The opener gives the cotton a warm 

 reception — a terrific beating, indeed. It 

 has a shaft; on which there are mounted 

 two rows of arms. This shaft revolves 

 at from 1,200 to 1,800 times a minute, so 

 that the cotton gets from forty to sixty 

 slaps a second. The result is that the 



