A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines / containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice

by Andrew Ure

This denomination is different from that used for cotton, because the hank of cotton contains 840 yards, instead of 560; but in some places the worsted hank is made of the same length as the cotton.

To pack up the worsted for market, the proper number of hanks is collected to make a pound, according to the number which has been ascertained; these are weighed as a proof of the correctness of the sorting, then tied up in bundles of one pound each, and four of these bundles are again tied together. Then 60 such bundles are packed up in a sheet, making a bale of 240 pounds, ready for market.

Of the treatment of short wool for the cloth manufacture.—Short wool resembles cotton, not a little in the structure of its filaments, and is cleaned by the willy, as cotton is by the willow, which opens up the matted fleece of the wool-stapler, and cleans it from accidental impurities. Sheep’s wool for working into coarse goods, must be passed repeatedly through this machine, both before and after it is dyed; the second last time for the purpose of blending the different sorts together, and the last for imbuing the fibres intimately with oil. The oiled wool is next subjected to a first carding operation called scribbling, whereby it is converted into a broad thin fleece or lap, as cotton is by the breaker-cards of a cotton mill. The woollen lap is then worked by the cards proper, which deliver it in a narrow band or sliver. By this process the wool expands greatly in all its dimensions; while the broken or short filaments get entangled by crossing in every possible direction, which prepares them for the fulling operation. See [Carding], under [Cotton Manufacture].

The slubbing machine, or billy, reduces the separate rolls of cardings into a continuous slightly twisted spongy cord, which is sometimes called a roving. [Fig. 1213.] is a perspective representation of the slubbing machine in most common use. A, A, is the wooden frame; within which is the movable carriage D, D, which runs upon the lower side rails at a, a, on friction wheels at 1, 2, to make it move easily backwards and forwards from one end of the frame to the other. The carriage contains a series of steel spindles, marked 3, 3, which receive rapid rotation from a long tin drum F, by means of a series of cords passing round the pulley or whorl of each spindle. This drum, 6 inches in diameter, is covered with paper, and extends across the whole breadth of the carriage. The spindles are set nearly upright in a frame, and about 4 inches apart; their under ends being pointed conically, turn in brass sockets called steps, and are retained in their position by a small brass collet, which embraces each spindle at about the middle of its length. The upper half of each spindle projects above the top of the frame. The drum revolves horizontally before the spindles, having its axis a little below the line of the whorls; and receives motion, by a pulley at one of its ends, from an endless band which passes round a wheel E, like the large domestic wheel formerly used in spinning wool by hand, and of similar dimensions. This wheel is placed upon the outside of the main frame of the machine, and has its shafts supported by upright standards upon the carriage D. It is turned by the spinner placed at Q, with his right hand applied to a winch R, which gives motion to the drum, and thereby causes the spindles to revolve with great velocity.

Each spindle receives a soft cylinder or carding of wool, which comes through beneath a wooden roller C, C, at the one end of the frame. This is the billy roller, so much talked of in the controversies between the operatives and masters in the cotton factories, as an instrument of cruel punishment to children, though no such machine has been used in cotton mills for half a century at least. These woollen rolls proceed to the series of spindles, standing in the carriage, in nearly a horizontal plane. By the alternate advance and retreat of the carriage upon its railway, the spindles are made to approach to, and recede from, the roller C, with the effect of drawing out a given length of the soft cord, with any desired degree of twist, in the following manner:—

The carding rolls are laid down straight, side by side, upon the endless cloth, strained in an inclined direction between two rollers, one of which is seen at B, and the other lies behind C. One carding is allotted to a spindle; the total number of each in one machine being from 50 to 100. The roller C, of light wood, presses gently with its weight upon the cardings, while they move onwards over the endless cloth, with the running out of the spindle carriage. Immediately in front of the said roller, there is a horizontal wooden rail or bar G, with another beneath it, placed across the frame. The carding is conducted through between these two bars, the movable upper one being raised to let any aliquot portion of the roll pass freely. When this bar is again let down, it pinches the spongy carding fast; whence this mechanism is called the clasp. It is in fact the clove, originally used by Hargreaves in his cotton-jenny. The movable upper rail G, is guided between sliders, and a wire 7, descends from it to a lever C. When the spindle carriage D, D, is wheeled close home to the billy roller, a wheel 5, lifts the end 6 of the lever, which, by the wire 7, raises the upper bar or rail G, so as to open the clasp, and release all the card rolls. Should the carriage be now drawn a little way from the clasp bars, it would tend to pull a corresponding length of the cardings forward from the inclined plane B, C. There is a small catch, which lays hold of the upper bar of the clasp G, and hinders it from falling till the carriage has receded to a certain distance, and has thereby allowed from 7 to 8 inches of the cardings to be taken out. A stop upon the carriage then comes against the catch, and withdraws it; thus allowing the upper rail to fall and pinch the carding, while the carriage, continuing to recede, draws out or stretches that portion of the roll which is between the clasp and the spindle points. But during this time the wheel has been turned to keep the spindles revolving, communicating the proper degree of twist to the cardings in proportion to their extension, so as to prevent them from breaking.

It might be imagined that the slubbing cords would be apt to coil round the spindles; but as they proceed in a somewhat inclined direction to the clasp, they receive merely a twisting motion, continually slipping over the points of the spindles, without getting wound upon them. Whenever the operative or slubber has given a due degree of twist to the rovings, he sets about winding them upon the spindles into a conical shape, for which purpose he presses down the faller-wire 8, with his left hand, so as to bear it down from the points of the spindles, and place it opposite to their middle part. He next makes the spindles revolve, while he pushes in the carriage slowly, so as to coil the slubbing upon the spindle into a conical cop. The wire 8, regulates the winding-on of the whole series of slubbings at once, and receives its proper angle of depression for this purpose from the horizontal rail 4, which turns upon pivots in its ends, in brasses fixed on the standards, which rise from the carriage D. By turning this rail on its pivots, the wire 8 may be raised or lowered in any degree. The slubber seizes the rail 4 in his left hand, to draw the carriage out; but in returning it, he depresses the faller-wire, at the same time that he pushes the carriage before him.

The cardings are so exceedingly tender, that they would readily draw out, or even break, if they were dragged with friction upon the endless cloth of the inclined plane. To save this injurious traction, a contrivance is introduced for moving the apron. A cord is applied round the groove in the middle part of the upper roller, and after passing over pulleys, as shown in the figure, it has a heavy weight hung at the one end, and a light weight at the other, to keep it constantly extended, while the heavy weight tends to turn the rollers with their endless cloth round in such a direction as to bring forward the rovings, without putting any strain upon them. Every time that the carriage is pushed home, the larger weight gets wound up; and when the carriage is drawn out, the greater weight turns the roller, and advances the endless apron, so as to deliver the carding at the same rate as the carriage runs out; but when the proper quantity is delivered, a knot in the rope arrives at a fixed stop, which does not permit it to move any further; while at the same instant the roller 5 quits the lever 6, and allows the upper rail G, of the clasp to fall, and pinch the carding fast; the wheel E, being then set in motion, makes the spindles revolve; and the carriage being simultaneously drawn out, extends the slubbings while under the influence of twisting. In winding up the slubbings, the operative must take care to push in the carriage, and to turn the wheel round at such rates that the spindles will not take up faster than the carriage moves on its railway, or he would injure the slubbings. The machine requires the attendance of a child, to bring the cardings from the card-engine, to place them upon the sloping feed-cloth, and to join the ends of the fresh ones carefully to the ends of the others newly drawn under the roller. Slubbings intended for warp-yarn must be more twisted than those for weft; but each must receive a degree of torsion relative to the quality of the wool and of the cloth intended to be made. In general, however, no more twist should be given to the slubbings than is indispensable for enabling them to be drawn out to the requisite slenderness without breaking. This twist forms no part of the twist of the finished yarn, for the slubbing will be twisted in the contrary direction, when spun afterwards in the jenny or mule.