“SCOTCHING” OR BLOWING MACHINE.
CARDING MACHINE.
DRAWING MACHINE.
LAP FRAME.
After the cotton is sorted, and the grosser impurities picked from it by hand, it is dressed by the “combing machine,” or subjected to a machine (called a “willow,” as it was originally a sort of basket) contrived to open out and mix the cotton well together, at the same time blowing off all dust and allowing the heavier impurities to fall through a grating. The next process is called “scotching,” and the machine is sometimes called a “blowing machine.” From this the cotton is passed in a “lap” or thin layer, which is beaten as it passes, to get rid of dust, and a draught of air produced by a blowing apparatus assists in the same object; it is thus entirely freed from all impurities. The cotton is then carried to the “carding machine,” for the purpose of having its fibres all laid parallel with each other; this machine is, in fact, a sort of comb, and consists of cylinders having fine wires projecting from their surfaces acting in different directions, so as to draw out the fibres till they all lie in one direction, forming a kind of “fillet,” called a “card,” which is carried by rollers into a tin can and then subjected to a process called “drawing and doubling.” As the “card ends” are not yet sufficiently parallel in their fibres, they have to be passed between three sets of rollers, the undermost of which are fluted on their surfaces, the upper ones being covered with flannel. These rollers act in a peculiar manner; the first pair pass the cotton at a certain rate on to the second pair, which would pass it on to the third unchanged if they revolved at the same rate as the first pair, but they are turned a little faster, and therefore stretch the fillet of cotton at an even and regular rate, and in such a manner that it is not broken; the third pair, going faster than the second, again stretch the fillet. After the fillet has passed through it is doubled, passed through again and again, till it is quite uniform in its structure, and drawn out by these stretchings very fine, it is then called a “sliver.” When it is drawn as fine as the kind of cotton admits, the first twist is given to it by the “roving” machine, which twists it into a soft card, delivers it wound on “bobbins,” and it is finally twisted into yarn by the “winding machine.”
