Noils
Noils are sold either to woolen or knitting mills direct by the top-maker, or else to a merchant who disposes of them.
The Noble Comb
The Noble circular comb is the most generally used combing machine. Other types are the Lister, the Holden, and the Heilmann. The Noble comb is a compact circular structure standing at a height of about three feet from the floor, with a steam box underneath it. (Heat greatly facilitates the process.) There are two smaller circles inside the main circumference which are tangent to the outer circle at opposite points of its diameter. All rotate in the same direction. Seventy-two slivers are rolled up in creels on the outside of the main circle and are automatically fed on to the tangental points. A dabbing brush pushes the slivers down between the points of the two circles. As the circles draw apart the long fibres are left protruding from the inner edge of the outer circle and the outer edge of the inner circles. They travel thus until they are gripped by vertical rollers set to catch them. After passing the rollers the wool is lifted off the pins of the circles by knives. The four ribbons of combed fibres (two from the outer and one from each of the inner circles) are condensed into a single beautiful even band which coils itself softly into a revolving can. What remains is the waste or noil.
Gilling the Top
The top, as it comes from the comb, is again put through a series of several gill boxes with the object of further drawing it out. Once again several slivers are combined into one in each process. At the end of this gilling the top is coiled in balls and allowed to rest.
We have now reduced the wool to its real worsted basis. The noils have been taken out, and the balls of top are ready to be sent to the spinner to be spun into worsted yarn.
5. Spinning
Drawing
The first processes in a spinning mill very closely approximate the last operations in the combing plant. The tops are usually gilled several times before weighing, and then are put through several drawing machines in which, as heretofore, several slivers are condensed into one. In the last of these machines there are no fallers, the entire process consisting of two sets of rollers revolving at different speed. Each operation results in a slightly finer sliver, and the number of machines through which the material is drawn is determined by the fineness of the yarn desired.