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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A COTTON-SPINNER KEEPING THE THREADS OE ROVING RUNNING PROPERLY FROM 



BOBBIN TO BOBBIN 



In spinning, the roving from the bobbin on top of the frame is fed through a little trum- 

 pet, and then through drawing rolls which further stretch the strand and make it smaller. 

 After this it goes through a whirling piece of steel called the traveler, which winds it on 

 another bobbin and gives it another twist. In the process of converting raw cotton to thread, 

 the cotton fibers pass through six to twelve twisting-machines, depending on the quality of 

 the thread to be produced. 



The next step is to put the sliver 

 through the drawing frames. Six slivers 

 as they come from the card are combined 

 into one in the first frame, which consists 

 of a series of rolls, the last pair of which 

 revolve six times as fast as the first pair, 

 thus making the sliver that comes out of 

 the frame six times as long, but of the 



same diameter, as the ones that went in. 

 Six of these latter slivers, in their turn, 

 are fed into the second drawing frame 

 and transformed into one. The final 

 frame takes six of these, in turn, and 

 transforms them into one (see page 211). 

 In other words, just as the final lap is 

 composed of sixteen original laps, so the 



