Carding
Condenser
The blend is first put through a fearnought which might be described briefly as the most pitiless member of the card family. It is also known as a tenter-hook-willy, from the reversed position of its teeth. From this machine the wool goes through the card proper, which is similar to the worsted card except that the rollers go in opposite directions, instead of in the same directions. Here, again, the doffer lifts the wool off in a continuous filmy sheet and delivers it to the condenser. The sheet is not simply drawn through a funnel into a single thick sliver, but is forced between rollers into two leather rubbing aprons which by pressure and friction reduce it to a series of small soft flabby slivers, having just enough adhesiveness to permit of mule spinning.
Burling and mending
The fibres in these slivers may be of all lengths and degrees of fineness, and they lie in all directions.
There are now no elaborate drawing or combing processes. All that remains to be done before we have a weavable woolen yarn is a certain amount of twisting and attenuation. Both these results are obtained at once in the mule.
Mule Spinning
In a woolen mule the spools of sliver are placed in a fixed frame, and the sliver passes between a pair of rollers to the spindles. These stand, slightly inclined backwards, in a long row upon the movable carriage. At first the spindle tips are close to the rollers. The sliver is paid out, and at the same time the carriage bearing the revolving spindles retreats. During this time no yarn is wound on the bobbins, but the slivers are being twisted. Then the rollers cease to pay out sliver, the carriage moves out a little further, and the spindles rotate faster, so that the yarn is being twisted and stretched. When sufficient twist has been imparted the carriage moves back again and the spindles wind up the twisted yarn on to the bobbins. This, briefly, is the operation of the mule. There are a great many intricate devices in this machine which deserve attention, but which hardly fall within our scope. All that remains now is to wind the yarn on spools, or skein it, before it is ready for the weaver.