The Jute Industry: From Seed to Finished Cloth

by Thomas Woodhouse; Peter Kilgour

cylindrical "rolls" or "spools" on to a weaver's beam.

4. The warp yarns are starched, dried and beamed

simultaneously on to a weaver's beam.

The last method is the most extensively adapted; but we shall describe the four processes briefly, and in the order mentioned.

For mill warping, as in No. 1 method, from 50 to 72 full spinning bobbins are placed in the bank or creel as illustrated to the right of each large circular warping mill in Fig. 27. The ends of the threads from these bobbins are drawn through the eyes of two leaves of the "heck," and all the ends tied together. The heck, or apparatus for forming what is known as the weaver's lease, drawer's lease, or thread-by-thread lease, is shown clearly between the bobbin bank and the female warper in the foreground of the illustration. The heck is suspended by means of cords, or chains, and so ranged that when the warping mill is rotated in one direction the heck is lowered gradually between suitable slides, while when the mill is rotated in the opposite direction the heck is raised gradually between the same slides. These movements are necessary in order that the threads from the bobbins may be arranged spirally round the mill and as illustrated clearly on all the mills in the figure. The particular method of arranging the ropes, or the gearing if chains are used, determines the distance between each pair of spirals; a common distance is about 1-1/2 in. There are about 42 spirals or rounds on the nearest mill in Fig. 27, and this number multiplied by the circumference of the mill represents the length of the warp.

FIG. 27 A ROW OF MODERN WARPING MILLS

At the commencement, the heck is at the top, and when the weaver's lease has been formed on the three pins near the top of the mill with the 50 to 72 threads (often 56), the mill is rotated by means of the handle and its connections shown near the bottom of the mill. As the mill rotates, the heck with the threads descends gradually and thus the group of threads is disposed spirally on the vertical spokes of the mill until the desired length of the warp is reached. A beamer's lease or "pin lease" is now made on the two lower pegs; there may be two, three, four or more threads in each group of the pin lease; a common number is 7 to 9. When this pin lease has been formed, one section of the warp has been made, the proportion finished being (50 to 72)/x where x is the total number of threads required for the cloth. The same kind of lease must again be made on the same two pins at the bottom for the beginning of the next section of 50 to 72 threads, and the mill rotated in the opposite direction in order to draw up the heck, and to cause the second group of 50 to 72 threads to be arranged spirally and in close touch with the threads of the first group. When the heck reaches the top of the mill, the single-thread lease is again made, all the threads passed round the end pin, and then all is ready for repeating the same two operations until the requisite number of threads has been introduced on to the mill. If it is impossible to accommodate all the threads for the cloth on the mill, the warp is made in two or more parts or chains. It will be noticed that the heck for the nearest mill is opposite about the 12th round of threads from the bobbin, whereas the heck for the second mill is about the same distance from the top. A completed warp or chain is being bundled up opposite the third mill. When the warp is completed it is pulled off the mill and simultaneously linked into a chain.

A very similar kind of warp can be made more quickly, and often better, on what is termed the linking machine mentioned in No. 2 method. Such a machine is illustrated in Fig. 28, and the full equipment demands the following four distinct kinds of apparatus--a bank capable of holding approximately 300 spools, a frame for forming the weaver's lease and the beamer's lease, machine for drawing the threads from the spools in the bank and for measuring the length and marking the warp at predetermined intervals, and finally the actual machine which links the group of threads in the form of a chain.