The Bobbin and Fly frame is now the great roving machine of the cotton manufacture; to which may be added, for coarse spinning, the tube roving frame. Of such a complicated machine as the bobbin and fly frame, it is not possible to give an adequately detailed description in the space due to the subject in this Dictionary. Its mechanical combinations are however so admirable as to require such an account as will make its functions intelligible by the general reader.
[Fig. 332 enlarged] (367 kB)
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[Fig. 332.] exhibits a back view of this machine; and [fig. 333.] a section of some of the parts not very visible in the former figure. The back of the machine is the side at which the cotton is introduced between the drawing rollers.
The cans, or lap-bobbins filled with slivers at the drawing frame, are placed in the situation marked B, [fig. 333.], in rows parallel with the length of the machine. The sliver of each can or the united slivers of two contiguous cans are conducted upwards along the surface of a sloping board f, and through an iron staple or guide e, betwixt the usual triple pair of drawing rollers, the first of which is indicated by a, b. In [fig. 332.], for the purpose of simplifying the figure, the greater part of these rollers and their subordinate parts are omitted. After the slivers have been sufficiently extended and attenuated between the rollers, they proceed forwards, towards the spindles i i i, where they receive the twist, and are wound upon the bobbins h. The machine delineated contains thirty spindles, but many bobbin and fly frames contain double or even four times that number. Only a few of the spindles are shown in [fig. 332.], for fear of confusing the drawing.
