In this prosperity it is hoped the British spinner will participate more fully in the future, because it is a branch which lends itself to enormous production on a large scale, the usual way of doing the trade being for one mill to concentrate on few counts so as to have a minimum alteration in the setting of machinery. In addition the spinner requires to instal the right kind of combing plant which, it is satisfactory to learn, can be made very efficiently in this country; the British machine builder has risen to the occasion, and it is to be hoped that the spinner will follow quickly in his wake and prove equal to the enormous call for this class of yarn. These yarns are often referred to in the trade variously as botany yarns, or cashmere yarns, although the latter is in reality a misnomer, having original reference to the product of the Cashmere goat indigenous to the Himalaya Mountains in Northern India.
CHAPTER V
Counts of Yarn
Within recent years a great improvement has been effected in the matter of yarn numbering for the hosiery trade. Formerly a number of systems were in vogue which were distinctly local in their character and application, but these now tend to confine themselves to the standards common to other branches of textiles. Most yarns can be classed under the worsted, cotton or silk systems; woollen yarns spun on the Borders of Scotland are based on the Galashiels counts, whilst those from Yorkshire are counted on the skein system. Artificial silk yarns are numbered on the denier system which has come into greater prominence recently in connection with the growth of artificial silk goods on the market. The more irrational and arbitrary methods of numbering yarns are rapidly declining in use and the great majority of yarns now supplied are given in one or other of the systems named.
Worsted Yarns, including those coming under the term cashmere, botany and mohair are numbered on the worsted system which has its basis in the number of 560-yd. hanks which weigh 1 lb. of 16 oz.
Cotton Yarns, including those spun from a mixture of cotton and wool under the term merino, and spun silk are estimated on the number of 840-yd. hanks which weigh 1 lb. of 16 oz. There is a reservation in the case of two-fold silk yarns, the counts giving the exact number whether single, two-fold, or three-fold.
Woollen Yarns.—Alloa is an important centre of hosiery yarns spinning, and a system used in this locality is based on the equivalent of the number of 240-yd. hanks which weigh 1 lb.
Woollen yarns spun on the Scottish Borders are calculated on the Galashiels method which is equivalent to the number of 200-yd. hanks in 1 lb. The Yorkshire woollen skein system is based on the number of yards per oz. which, brought into line with others, gives a basis of the number of 256-yd. hanks which weigh 1 lb. Leicester lamb's wool system is equivalent to the number of hanks of 176 yd. each in 1 lb.
Silk Yarns.—In addition to the spun silk yarns mentioned as being counted on the basis of the cotton hank of 840 yd., what is known as the Organzine silk system is given by the number of yards per oz.
Tram silk is calculated on the weight in drams of 1,000 yd., and in the case of artificial silk yarns the counts are gauged by the weight in deniers of 520 yd. There are 1,600⁄3 or 533⅓ deniers in 1 oz.
Yarn Testing for Counts.—This subject has been taken up with greater interest by hosiery manufacturers, who are now installing suitable apparatus for conducting the important test as to whether a yarn is up to standard in regard to counts. Variation in the yarn size at once reflects itself in the weight per dozen garments, the usual trade basis, and with increased prices of yarns these tests are likely to become more prevalent in the future. Compared with the weaving trade the question of gauging the size of a yarn by the method of inspection and handling is by no means effective on account of the loose nature of many knitting yarns; in general they appear to have much less weight than their diameter would lead the observer to suppose. In weaving yarns the twist is much more decided in effect, but in hosiery materials accurate estimation can only be performed by making a calculation based on the weight of a given length of the sample. A number of simple devices are on the market whereby the counts of yarn can be accurately determined by weighing a given number of threads cut to a certain template according to the yarn system, and these instruments are being largely employed in cases where the overseer is too busy to give the matter personal attention. An intelligent yarn foreman, however, prefers the method of weighing off a given length of the thread and finding the counts by direct calculation or by the aid of an assimilating table. He can also devise short ways of making the calculation of counts adapted to the class of yarns being handled in greatest numbers, and these do not depend for their accuracy on any accidental mechanical factors.