4. Explain the process called drawing. Why is it necessary to repeat the operation several times?
5. What followed the distaff and spindle in the development of spinning?
6. On what is the spinning done now in the mill? See Textiles, picture, pages [135], [137].
Experiment 15—Gilling and Combing
Apparatus: Coarse comb, fine comb.
Material: Small quantity of scoured wool.
Reference: Textiles, pages [39-44].
Directions
1. Open up the wool a little with the fingers. Do this in place of carding, as you need but a small quantity.
2. You comb your hair to make the hairs lie parallel, side by side, in place. Combs are used on wool for just the same purpose, but the first process of combing is not known as such. It is called gilling, and the combs themselves are called fallers. The machines are known as gill boxes. See Textiles, page [43].
3. Hold the carded wool in the left hand in the middle of the strand. With the coarse comb in the right hand, comb and thus straighten the fibers first at one end then at the other. This is gilling. The principle of gilling is to comb the fibers more and more nearly parallel and to draw them out into more even strands.
4. The coarse comb causes the hairs to lie parallel. A fine comb will further straighten the hairs, but it will also remove the snarled, tangled, short hairs. Again wool is to be treated like hair. Hold the strand in the middle as before. Comb each end with the fine comb. Notice that the fine comb is removing the short fibers and leaving the long fibers between the fingers. This is the second process of combing, and is called combing.