Scotch dressing is another system of applying size to the yarn. This is a much slower method than slashing, and is chiefly suitable for very fine yarns. In this machine the weaver’s beam is placed above an expanding reed, R ([Fig. 29]), and to prevent the ends being crowded the warper’s beams are divided, one-half the ends being placed at each end of the machine. The warp is passed through a pair of rollers, A E, the top one being very heavy. The lower roller of the pair is immersed some distance in the size, and takes the size up to the yarn. After emerging from the rollers or “squeezers,” the yarn passes through a revolving brush, B, and over a fan in a hot-air chamber, F, then through another brush, C, round a guide-roller through the expanding reed to the weaver’s beam. The opposite half of the machine is a duplicate of this. By this process the yarn is greatly strengthened. The brushing lays down all the projecting fibres, and makes the thread round, preventing any caking of the size on the threads. The production, of a machine of this kind, is much less than that of a slashing frame, as only about five beams a day can be dressed, whilst about fifteen beams could be slashed in the same time. Instead of the circular brush B, sometimes flat brushes are used. These are made to work on both sides, as shown at [Fig. 30]. The dotted lines show the movement of the brushes. The warp is brushed in the opposite direction to that in which it is moving.
FIG. 29.
FIG. 30.
FIG. 31.
Ball-warp Sizing.
[Fig. 31] is a sectional elevation of a sizing machine for ball-warps. One or more warps, A, are placed upon cones, and their yarn guided over rollers, B, C, into a large size-box, 4, containing a series of rollers, between which yarn passes until it emerges at guide-roller G, when all excess of size is removed by rollers H, I. From the squeezing rollers, yarn is conducted to a drying machine ([Fig. 32]), consisting of a series of steam-heated cylinders arranged in two vertical zigzag rows, O, N, the outer rows of which are driven from vertical shafts containing a series of bevel wheels, Z, gearing with bevel wheels Y at one end of the cylinder shafts. By this means yarn is subjected to little tension, and its elasticity is better preserved. After drying, the warps are deposited in box crates, R, to be subsequently re-balled, ready for beaming or winding on to a weaver’s beam.
