In describing this system of spinning the creel of rovings to be operated upon, and the drawing rollers being practically identical with machines already described, little here is required to be said of them, but there is, however, a modification in the arrangement of the rollers which is referred to later on.
After leaving the rollers, a thread of yarn is conducted downwards and passed through the "travellers," which may be seen in the illustration, and then attached to the bobbin. The "traveller" is a tiny ring made of finely tempered steel. It is sprung upon the edge of the ring shown in the frame, and which is specially shaped to receive the tiny ring or traveller referred to.
The bobbin in this case is practically fast to the spindle—unlike any other case in cotton-spinning machinery—and it is therefore carried round by the spindle at the same rate of speed.
As the spindle and bobbin revolve, they pull the traveller round by the yarn which passes through it, being connected at one end to the bobbin and the rollers above forming another point of attachment. If the reader will look carefully at the illustration he will see how twist is put in the yarn. The joint action, then, of bobbin, traveller and fixed ring, is to put the necessary twist in the yarn which gives it its proper degree of strength. If no fresh roving from the rollers were issuing for the moment, the small portion of thread reaching from the rollers to the bobbins would simply be twisted without any "winding-on" taking place. As a matter of fact, the roving always is issuing from the rollers, and "winding-on" of the twisted roving is performed by the traveller lagging behind the bobbin in speed, to a degree equal to the delivery of roving by the rollers. It will be remembered that in the old flyer-throstle "winding-on" was performed by the bobbin lagging behind the spindle, a procedure which is impossible on the ring frame.
There is also an arrangement of the mechanism for guiding and shaping the yarn upon the bobbins in suitable form, the action being as nearly as possible an imitation of the mule.
For a number of years after the introduction of these frames, it was found that the threads often broke down owing to the twist not extending through the roving to the point where it issued from the rollers. This was eventually remedied by placing the drawing rollers in a different position, thus causing the thread running from the rollers to the traveller to approach more to the vertical; this constituting the modification which has just been referred to previously.
Another difficulty was experienced in the fact that during spinning the threads would sometimes fly outwards to such an extent that adjacent threads came in contact with each other, causing excessive breakage. This was technically termed "ballooning," and has been very satisfactorily restricted by the invention of special apparatus.
At the present time, therefore, a contest between the two rival systems of continuous spinning which were in bitter antagonism over a century ago, is waging a more fiercely contested fight than at any previous time.
As the case stands to-day, the mule is retained for nearly all the best and finest yarns as yet found; the most suitable for them, just as it was when Crompton got 25s. per pound for spinning fine muslin yarns on his first mule.
In many cases, also, yarn is specially required to be spun upon the bare spindle as on a mule, as for instance when used as weft and put into the shuttle of a loom. It is probably the very greatest defect of the ring frame that it can only, with great difficulty, be made to form a good cop of yarn on the bare spindle, although thousands of pounds have been spent on experimenting in that direction. How soon it may be accomplished with commercial success cannot be known, as a great number of individuals are constantly working in that direction. If it does come about, there can be no doubt that the ring frame will receive a still further impetus.