Second principal operation; the formation of rovings.—Mr. Wordsworth’s improvements in machinery for preparing, drawing, and roving flax, hemp, wool, and other fibrous substances, consists in a novel contrivance or mechanism to be adapted to the machine commonly called the gill, employed for preparing, drawing, and roving flax and hemp, and for combing and spinning long wool; which improvements allow the points of the travelling heckles to continue longer in operation than in the ordinary construction of gill, and cause the heckle points to be withdrawn from the fibres at the end of the stroke without the possibility of their drawing the fibres down with them.
The manner of effecting this object will be seen by reference to the several figures which exhibit a gill on this improved plan in different views. [Fig. 443.] is a plan or horizontal view, exhibiting the upper surface of the machine; and [fig. 444.] is a longitudinal section taken through the middle of the machine: [fig. 445.] is a representation of the front of the machine, but in which several parts have been removed to show the action of the heckles more perfectly.