Nov. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES IN AUSTRALIA. 151 



tenuity, however, is so small, that it requires to be handled with great 

 care to prevent its dropping apart. These little rolls of wool are taken 

 from the revolving table of the carding machine by children, and placed 

 in an inclined frame belonging to what is called a " slubbing-billy." This 

 machine moves on a sort of railway forwards and backwards, stretching 

 out the little rolls of wool into threads by its forward motion, and 

 winding them on to perpendicular reels or spindles on its return. The 

 process is continued until the spindles are filled with the yarn. The 

 children who attend these machines are called "piecers," and the 

 dexterity with which they piece or join on the fresh rolls of wool to the 

 retreating ends of those which are being drawn into yarn or thread is 

 wonderful. 



In the Parramatta factory new machines have been introduced, 

 called " power-billies," in which the piecing is done by the machine, with- 

 out manual assistance. The next machine through which the yarn or 

 thread is passed is called a " mule ;" this operation makes the thread finer, 

 gives it a twist, and reels it on to spindles, ready to be placed in the 

 shuttles, either for the power-loom or the hand-loom weaver. The mule 

 finishes the spinning process, and it is up to this point in producing the 

 yarn or thread that modern invention has worked such wonders. What 

 follows — that is, the weaving process — is much the same now as it was in 

 times of the most remote antiquity. It is still done by a frame and 

 a shuttle, very similar to those in use two or three thousand years ago. 

 Even that modern invention, the power-loom, is but the old-fashioned 

 loom driven by machinery instead of by the feet and hands of a man. 

 The machine is almost the same, although the method of driving it is 

 different. As there is nothing novel in the weaving process, it is needless 

 to describe it. Colonial tweed is woven in pieces of forty yards long, 

 of double width, and the piece, after it comes from the loom, is divided 

 lengthwise at a salvage left in the middle. There are, in the Parramatta 

 factory, upwards of forty looms, about one-half being power-looms. In 

 Messrs. Campbell and Co.'s factory the number of looms is probably 

 larger, although we believe the power-loom has not yet been introduced 

 there. 



Alter leaving the loom, the cloth undergoes a variety of processes, 

 passing through several machines, in which it is scoured and cleansed. 

 One part of the operation is singular. The cloth is placed in what 

 is called the stocks, and beaten by enormous hammers driven by 

 steam. By this process it is felted or milled — that is, the fibres of the 

 wool are so mingled together that all appearance of separate threads is 

 lost. In this process the cloth shrinks in width and length, and becomes 

 stouter. It is then passed through a cutting machine, where revolving 

 knives, set like the threads of an endless screw, cut off all the loose 

 fibres, and give the fabric a more even and finished appearance. It then 

 goes through a brush machine, and lastly through a teazle mill. Tins 

 produces a nap or down on the surface, after which it is placed between 



