Ball Warping on the Warping Mill.
Before beam warping was invented, ball warping was the system commonly employed in the preparation of yarn for sizing. This is a somewhat clumsy method, and so far as the cotton trade is concerned has been superseded by a modern system, excepting in one or two cotton manufacturing districts situated on the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and for certain classes of goods in Bolton. A brief reference to it will not be out of place then, although, probably, the subject may interest few readers rather than many. The warping mill consists of a creel for bobbins, and a large circular frame. These are of different sizes, a common circumference being about 18 yards. This framework, or reel, is about 10 feet high, and thus forms a somewhat extensive cylinder. About 500 bobbins (which are wound from the cop in the ordinary manner) are placed in the creel and the ends from each are gathered together midway between the reel and the creel, at what is termed the heck box. This slides vertically between two posts, and has for its object the correct guidance of the yarn to the reel and also the keeping of the lease. The latter term will be understood by all connected with weaving as being the separation of the threads alternately, an arrangement which is used to enable the position of the ends being easily found in succeeding processes. Supposing there are 504 ends in the creel, these would pass through the heck box, and forming a loose rope be attached to the top of the mill. This revolves, and as by suitable mechanism the heck descends, the warp is coiled round the cylinder spirally, making in all several hundred yards, say 350. When the bottom of the mill is reached the direction of revolution is reversed, and a second layer wound upon the first one, and a third layer on the second, thus a warp of (3 × 504) 1512 ends is made 350 yards in length. Of course, the dimensions of the warp may be varied either in length or number of ends. The warp is now unwound from the mill and coiled in the form of a large ball. In districts where ball-warping is still used, the manufacturer is not usually his own sizer, and the warp, therefore, is now removed to a sizer’s establishment, where, after being weighted to the required extent, it is coiled into ball form again and returned. In the few places where ball-warping is still used the warping mill just described has been superseded by the sectional warping frame, as the ends are kept straighter, and a greater length run through in the same time. The uneven lengths in the old ball-warping mill, caused by the outside layers being longer than the inner ones, are also obviated.
CHAPTER III.
SIZING MATERIALS, MIXING, AND MACHINERY.
In a weaving mill there is no more important process than sizing, and on its satisfactory management depends the quality and quantity of work turned off, and probably the success of the concern. This is exemplified by the anxiety of a manufacturer to get hold of those recipes well known as obtaining good results. The sale of a shirting, domestic, drill, or heavily sized cloth, absolutely depends on the satisfactory sizing, whilst the cost of making it is regulated by the production of the looms. This has been known in many instances to vary 2s. per loom per week, in the use of a good mixing and a bad one. Cotton warp will not weave well without the previous application of some strengthening substance. In the loom the tension on the threads is great, and whilst distended—and therefore in the most favourable condition for being chafed—the healds with alternate vertical motion, and the reed with reciprocating horizontal motion, rub the threads so severely as to fray them to pieces, unless sized. This point was recognised and counteracted, even in the hand loom days, as mentioned in Chapter I.
In sizing, the objects are to press into the thread a mixture of suitable ingredients, so as to strengthen the yarn, smoothen it, and lay the fibres which project from the surface of the thread, thus increasing the strength, and at the same time reducing the amount of fluff at weaving; also to give to the yarn and cloth the requisite appearance of toughness, strength or body, known technically as the “feel.” It is in the sizing that the “boardy,” “leathery,” “clothy” feels or grip are produced.
Another very important object of this process is the introduction into low classes of cloth of an additional weight of foreign substances. We have not here to deal with the debated and debateable point of its honesty or otherwise, but how the object may best be attained; so long as heavily sized pieces will be bought, so long will they be made, and no blame can, at all events, be attached to the manufacturer. He profits not by the weight, unless unscrupulous, for the price obtained for the piece of cloth is not based on the total weight, but on the amount of cotton contained in it. Frequently the state of the market allows a greater profit out of pure sized goods.
The percentage of size put on cotton goods is calculated according to the increase of weight on the warp only. Thus if the warp in a piece of cloth be composed of 10lbs. of cotton covered with 4lbs. of size, the warp will have been sized to the extent of 40 per cent. The amount of size on cotton warps varies from 3 to 200 per cent. In those classes of goods which are intended for dyeing or bleaching, and which are generally sold by the counts of yarn, it is obviously not wise to add foreign matter to be washed out again, but in those exported goods which have to be made of a fixed weight, or certain feel, heavy sizing is adopted. In the chapter treating of cloths, fuller information on this point is given. Up to 20 per cent. are termed light sized goods, from this to 50 per cent. medium, and above 50 per cent. heavily sized.