TEXTILES.
SPINNING AND WEAVING AN ANCIENT ART--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY--
ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE--CROMPTON’S MULE
SPINNER--THE COTTON GIN--RING SPINNING--THE RABBETH SPINDLE--JOHN
KAY’S FLYING SHUTTLE AND ROBERT KAY’S DROP BOX--CARTWRIGHT’S POWER
LOOM--THE JACQUARD LOOM--CROMPTON’S FANCY LOOM--BIGELOW’S CARPET
LOOMS--LYALL POSITIVE MOTION LOOM--KNITTING MACHINES--CLOTH PRESSING
MACHINERY--ARTIFICIAL SILK--MERCERIZED CLOTH.
Far back in the obscuring gloom of a prehistoric antiquity, man wore
probably only the hirsute covering which nature gave him. As he emerged
from barbarism, sentiments of modesty marked the evolution of his mind,
and this, together with the need for a more sufficient protection
against cold and heat, suggested an artificial covering for his body. At
first he robbed the brute of his fleecy skin and wore it bodily. Later
he learned to spin and weave; next to food and drink, clothing became a
fundamental necessity, for without it his life could not extend outside
of the limited zone of the tropics. Food and drink were to be found as
nature’s free gifts, but clothing had to be made, and its manufacture
constituted probably the oldest of all the living arts. The making of
cloth may be said to be coeval with history. The Old Testament of the
Bible is replete with references to spinning and weaving, and the cloths
wrapped about the mummies of ancient Egypt, although thousands of years
old, were of exceeding regularity and fineness.
So old an art, and so great and continuous a need for its products
necessarily must have resulted in much development and progress. When
the Nineteenth Century began, the world already enjoyed the results of
Hargreaves’ spinning-jenny, Arkwright’s roll-drawing spinning machine,
the mule spinner, the cotton gin, and the power loom, all of which were
most radical inventions, equaling in importance, perhaps, any that have
followed.
Prior to the invention of the _spinning-jenny_, the loose fibre was spun
into yarns and thread by hand on the old-fashioned spinning wheel, each
thread requiring the attention of one person. In 1763 Hargreaves
invented the spinning-jenny (see Fig. 285), in which a multiplicity of
spindles was employed, whereby one person could attend to the making of
many threads simultaneously. For this purpose the spindles were set
upright at the end of the frame, and the rovings or strips of untwisted
fibre were carried on bobbins on the inclined frame. The rovings
extended from these bobbins to a reciprocating “clasp” held in the left
hand of the workman, and thence extended to the spindles at the end of
the frame. The workman drew out the rovings by moving the clasp back and
forth, and at the same time turned the crank with his right hand to
rotate the spindles. Hargreaves’ machine is shown and described in his
British patent, No. 962 of 1770.
[Illustration: FIG. 285.--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY.]
The next important step in spinning was the introduction of drawing
rolls, which were a series of rolls running at different speeds for
drawing out or elongating the roving as it was spun into a thread. This
was mainly due to Arkwright, a contemporary of Hargreaves. The principle
of the drawing rolls had been foreshadowed in the British patents of
Louis Paul, No. 562, of 1738, and No. 724, of 1758, but Arkwright made
the first embodiment of it in practically useful machines, which were
covered by him in British patents No. 931, of 1769, and No. 1,111, of
1775. Arkwright’s spinning machine is shown in Fig. 286, the drawing
rolls being shown at the top of the figure.
[Illustration: FIG. 286.--ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE.]
Following these important inventions came the mule spinner. This was
invented by Crompton between 1774 and 1779, but was never patented. It
combined the leading features of Hargreaves and Arkwright. The spindles
were mounted on a wheeled carriage that traveled back and forth a
considerable distance from the drawing rolls, which were mounted in
bearings in a stationary frame. The long travel of the carriage back and
forth, and the simultaneous twisting and drawing of the yarns, produced
threads of great fineness and regularity. The value of the long travel
of the carriage may be briefly noted as follows: When the threads or
slivers emerge from the drawing rolls they are not absolutely of uniform
size, and the thick portions do not twist as tightly as the thinner
portions. The stretching and drawing of these thicker parts down to a
uniform size by the receding of the carriage is the distinctive feature
of its action. As the thread has greater tensile strength at the thinner
hard-twisted parts than it has at the thicker untwisted parts, it will
be seen that the stretching action is localized on the thicker untwisted
parts of the thread, which are thus brought down to uniform size by
elongation. The drawing and twisting of the thread is effected as the
carriage runs out, and when the carriage runs in these twisted lengths
are wound around the spindles. The rendering of the action of the mule
automatic or self-acting in its travel back and forth was the invention
of Richard Roberts, of England, and was covered by him in British
patents No. 5,138 of 1825, and No. 5,649 of 1830. The mule spinner shown
in Fig. 287 is a good modern example of this machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 287.--MULE SPINNING MACHINE.]
One of the most important of the early inventions in the textile art was
the _cotton gin_. This was the invention of Eli Whitney, of
Massachusetts, and was patented by him March 14, 1794. Prior to its use
the picking of the cotton fibre from the bean-like seed with which it is
compactly stored in the boll was entirely effected by hand, and it was a
slow and tedious process, and about 4 pounds per day was the average
work of one man. The cotton gin, shown in Fig. 288, is a device for
doing this by machinery in a rapid, thorough, and expeditious manner.
The cotton, mixed with seed, is fed to the roll box J, in which a sort
of reel F continually turns the cotton. The bottom of the roll box is
formed with a grating of parallel ribs E, between which project the
teeth of a gang of circular saws C, which pull the fibre through between
the ribs and deliver it to the revolving brush B, which beats the fibre
off the teeth of the saws and produces a blast that discharges the
fleece through the rear of the gin. The cotton seed, which are too
large to pass between the ribs with the fibre, drop out the bottom of
the roll-box. With the aid of the cotton gin the efficiency of one man
is raised from four pounds per day to several thousand pounds per day,
and the culture and manufacture of cotton fibre was revolutionized and
greatly stimulated by providing a mode of putting it into merchantable
condition at a reasonable price. It is said that the crop of cotton
increased from 189,316 pounds in 1791 to 2,000,000,000 pounds in 1859.
The cotton gin, as invented by Whitney more than a hundred years ago, is
still in use, substantially unchanged in principle, but its efficiency
has been raised from 70 pounds per day to several thousands. The cotton
crop of the United States for 1899, which was handled by the modern gins
at this rate, amounted to 11,274,840 bales, of about 500 pounds each, or
more than five thousand million pounds. But for the cotton gin this
great staple would have only a very limited use, and one of the greatest
of the world’s industries would have practically no existence.
[Illustration: FIG. 288.--COTTON GIN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 289.--MODERN SPINNING SPINDLE.]
A modern step of importance in spinning was the _ring frame_. Ring
spinning was invented by John Thorp, of Rhode Island, who took out two
patents for the same November 20, 1828. The leading feature of the ring
frame is the substitution of a light steel hoop or traveler running upon
the upper edge of a ring surrounding the spindle in lieu of the flyer
formerly employed. The thread passes through the hoop as it is wound
upon the spindle. In modern times ring spinning has attained
considerable proportions, especially in cotton manufactures.
Nearly 3,000 United States patents have been granted in the class of
spinning, and many valuable improvements in the details of construction
in spinning machinery have been made in recent years. The most
important, perhaps, are those relating to spindle structure, whereby the
speed and efficiency of spinning machines have been greatly increased.
Prior to 1878 the speed of the average spindle was limited to 5,000
revolutions a minute. In 1878 improvements were made which doubled its
working speed and permitted as high as 20,000 revolutions a minute. This
result was accomplished by making a yielding bolster. The bolster is an
upright sleeve bearing, in which the spindle revolves, and against which
is sustained the pull of the band that drives the spindle. By making
this bolster or sleeve bearing to yield laterally by means of an elastic
packing which surrounds it, a much greater freedom and speed of
revolution were obtained. The preliminary step in this direction was
made by Birkenhead in patent No. 205,718, July 9, 1878. In the same year
this idea was perfected by Rabbeth. The bolster was placed loosely in a
bolster case of slightly larger diameter than the bolster, and the
bottom of the spindle had a free lateral movement as well as the top, as
shown in his patent No. 227,129, May 4, 1880. With such perfect freedom
of movement, the spindle at high speed could find its own center of
revolution, and an indefinitely high speed and quadrupled efficiency
were attained. The Draper Spindle is shown in Fig. 289 as one of the
most modern and representative of spinning spindles. Considering the
great speed of the modern spindle and the fact that a single workman
attends a thousand or more of them, the record of progress in this art
becomes impressive. In 1805 there were only 4,500 cotton spindles at
work in the United States. In 1899 there were 18,100,000.
_Weaving._--A woven fabric consists of threads which run lengthwise,
called the “warp,” crossed by threads running transversely, called the
“woof,” “weft,” or “filling,” which latter are imprisoned or locked in
by the warp. In a simple loom the warp threads are divided into two
groups, the threads of one group alternating with those of the other,
and means are provided for separating these groups to form a
wedge-shaped space between them called a “shed.” Through this shed the
shuttle which carries the woof or filling thread is sent crosswise the
warp threads. Means are provided for changing the inclination and
position of the two groups of warp threads in relation to each other, so
as to lock in the filling, and put the warp threads in position to
receive the next filling thread. For this purpose the warp threads,
usually horizontal, are each passed through a loop, and every alternate
loop is attached to a frame called a “heddle.” The intervening loops and
threads are attached to another frame or “heddle,” and the two heddles
by being worked, one up and the other down, separate the warp threads to
form the shed. Formerly the shuttle was thrown by hand through the shed.
In 1733 John Kay, of England, took out British patent No. 542, for the
flying shuttle and picking stick, by which the shuttle was struck a
hammer-like blow and driven like a ball from a bat across the warp, and
was struck by a similar stick on the other side, to be returned in the
same way. This gave a much more rapid action than could be obtained by
hand-throwing, and enabled one weaver to do the work of two or three. In
1760 Robert Kay invented the drop box, by which different shuttles
carrying different colors of thread were employed.
The _power loom_, however, marked the first great growth in the art of
weaving. The enormously increased quantity of cotton spun by Arkwright’s
machinery made a demand for increased facilities for weaving it into
cloth. Dr. Cartwright, of England, foresaw and met this demand in his
_power loom_, in which all of the intricate operations were performed by
power-driven machinery. His invention was not extensively introduced
until about the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. One difficulty
experienced was that the warp threads, from their fuzzy nature, had to
be dressed with size, and this required the loom to be stopped from time
to time, and necessitated the services of a man to dress or size the
warp threads. This difficulty was overcome, however, by Johnson &
Radcliffe, about 1803, by the sizing and dressing of the yarns by
passing them between rollers and coating them with a thin layer of paste
before being put into the loom. Dr. Cartwright was granted British
patents No. 1,470, of 1785; No. 1,565, of 1786; No. 1,616, of 1787, and
No. 1,676, of 1788, but being unable to maintain any monopoly under his
patents he was compensated by Parliament with a grant of £10,000.
[Illustration: FIG. 290.--MODERN JACQUARD LOOM.]
_Jacquard Loom._--This most notable step in the art of weaving was made
at the very beginning of the Nineteenth Century. It enabled all kinds of
fabrics, from the finest to the coarsest, to be cheaply woven into
patterns having figured or ornamental designs. Jacquard, a native of
Lyons, conceived the plan of his great invention in the last decade of
the Eighteenth Century, and on December 28, 1801, took out French patent
No. 245, on the same. His invention was not, in fact, a new form of
loom, but rather an attachment to a loom which was universally
applicable to all looms. Before his invention, figured patterns of cloth
could only be made by slow and laborious processes. Jacquard’s invention
consisted in individualizing and differentiating the movement of the
warp threads, instead of operating them in constant groups. This
individualizing of the movement of the warp threads allowed any warp
thread to be held up automatically any length of time, or let down,
according as was necessary to form the figure of the pattern. This was
accomplished by making a chain of articulated cards, like a slatted
belt, and perforating these cards with varying arrangements of holes.
The cards were successively and intermittently fed to a set of needles,
which latter, by rising and falling, raise or lower the warp threads
attached to the same. By perforating these cards differently, and
arranging them so that when one card was brought in front of the needles
it would let certain needles through the perforations and hold the
others back, it will be seen that each card controlled the action of a
different set of needles, and the sequence of the series of cards
effected the necessary change in the needles and movement of the warp
threads to form the growth of the figure in the fabric.
In Fig. 290 is seen a modern form of Jacquard loom, showing at the far
end the chain of perforated cards. Jacquard received a bronze medal at
the French Exposition in 1801, was decorated with the Cross of the
Legion of Honor, and the gratitude of his countrymen was attested by a
pension of 6,000 francs, and a statue erected to his memory at Lyons in
1840.
Subsequent improvements and developments of the Jacquard loom have
carried its work to great nicety and refinement of action. In the chain
of pattern cards it is said that as many as 25,000 separately punched
cards or plates are sometimes used in weaving a single yard of brocade.
The great variety of elaborate designs of delicate tracery in silk, rich
patterns in brocades, and gorgeous figures in carpets, attest the value
of Jacquard’s important step in this art.
Nearly 5,000 United States patents have been granted in the class of
weaving. In the early part of the century much notable work was done.
Steam was applied to looms by William Horrocks (British patent No.
2,699, 1803). From 1830 to 1842 there were brought out the fancy looms
of Crompton, the application of the Jacquard mechanism to the lace frame
by Draper, and the carpet looms of Bigelow. In 1853 Bonelli sought to
improve on the Jacquard mechanism by employing electro-magnets to effect
the selection of the needles, instead of perforated cards (British
patent No. 1,892, of 1853).
Among more recent developments is the _Positive Motion_ loom of Lyall,
patented December 10, 1872, No. 133,868, re-issue No. 9,049, January 20,
1880. The distinguishing feature of this is that the shuttle is not
thrown or impelled as a projectile through the wedge-shaped space
(shed), between the two sets of warp threads, but is positively dragged
back and forth through the same by an endless belt attached to the
shuttle carriage and running first in one direction and then in the
other to drag the shuttle through.
[Illustration: FIG. 291.--CROMPTON FANCY LOOM.]
It is not to be understood that the positive motion loom has superseded
the flying shuttle. The latter is still the leading type, of which the
Crompton fancy loom, shown in Fig. 291, is a representative
illustration.
The tendency in late years in the art of weaving has been toward
labor-saving devices, a reduction in the cost to the consumer of all
kinds of textile fabrics, and the extension of the loom to the weaving
of new kinds of materials. Prominent among these are the inventions in
the loom for weaving plain fabrics made between the years 1881 and 1895,
shown in patents to Northrop, No. 454,810, June 23, 1891; No. 529,943,
November 27, 1894, and Draper, No. 536,948, April 2, 1895. This loom, as
usual, employs a single shuttle, but as the weft becomes exhausted
another bobbin is automatically supplied to the shuttle without
stopping the operation of the machine. During the year 1895 the first
loom for weaving an open mesh cane fabric having diagonal strands was
invented. Patents to Morris, No. 549,930, and to Crompton, No. 550,068,
November 19, 1895, were obtained for this. Prior to this time two
distinct machines were necessary to produce this fabric, and the
operation was slow and expensive. Between 1893 and 1895 two machines
were invented, upon either of which the well-known Turkish carpets can
be woven. Patents to Youngjohns, No. 510,755, December 12, 1893, and to
Reinhart von Seydlitz, No. 533,330, January 29, 1895, disclose this. The
drawing of warp threads into the eyes of the heddles and through the
reed of a loom requires great skill, and prior to 1880 was performed by
hand at great expense. In 1882, however, a machine for doing this was
invented, thereby dispensing with the old hand method and cheapening the
operation. Patents to Sherman and Ingersoll, No. 255,038, March 14,
1882, and Ingersoll, No. 461,613, October 20, 1891, were granted for
this machine.
To-day the shuttle flies at the rate of 180 to 250 strokes a minute, and
yet the complex organization of the machine works with an energy, a
uniformity, an accuracy and a continuity that leaves far behind the
strength of the arm, the memory of mind, and the accuracy of the human
eye, and yet, if the tiny thread breaks, the whole organization
instantly stops and patiently waits the remedial care of its watchful
master.
_Knitting Machines._--Knitting differs from weaving, braiding, or
plaiting in the following respects: In weaving there are longitudinal
threads called warp threads, which are crossed on a separate weft or
filling thread. In braiding or plaiting all the threads may be
considered warp threads, since they are arranged to run longitudinally,
and instead of locking around a separate transverse thread at right
angles, they extend diagonally and are interwoven with each other. In
netting and knitting, however, there is but a single thread, which, in
netting, is knotted into itself at definite intervals to leave a mesh of
definite size, while in knitting the single thread is merely looped into
itself without any definite mesh. Knitted goods have the peculiarity of
great elasticity in consequence of this formation of the fabric, and for
that reason find a special application in all garments which are
required to snugly conform to irregular outlines, such as stockings for
the feet, gloves for the hands, and underwear for the body.
Weaving, braiding, and netting are very old arts, but the art of
knitting is comparatively modern. It is believed to have originated
about the year 1500 in Scotland. In 1589 William Lee, of England, is
credited with making the first knitting machine. It is said that the
girl with whom he was in love, and to whom he was paying his attention,
was so busy with her work of hand knitting that she could not give him
the requisite attention, and he invented the knitting machine that they
might have more time to devote to their love affairs. Another version is
that he married the girl and invented the machine to relieve her weary
fingers from the work of the knitting needle, and still another is that
the machine was the leading object of his affections, to the neglect of
his sweetheart, who “gave him the mitten” before he had knitted one on
his machines.
[Illustration: FIG. 292.--BRANSON 15/16 AUTOMATIC KNITTER.]
The earliest circular knitting machine was by Brunel, described in
British patent No. 3,993, of 1816. Power was applied to the knitting
frame by Bailey in 1831, and the latch needle was patented in the United
States by Hibbert, January 9, 1849, No. 6,025. This patent was extended
for seven years from January 9, 1863, and covered a very important and
universally used feature of the knitting machine. Research has shown,
however, that the latch was not broadly new with Hibbert, as it appeared
in the French patent to Jeandeau, No. 1,900, of April 25, 1806. Among
the earlier knitting machines, the straight reciprocating type was most
in evidence, and of which the Lamb machine was a popular form. The
increased speed and capacity of the circular machine have, however,
caused it to largely supersede the others. In the circular machine a
circular series of vertical parallel needles slide in grooves in a
cylinder, and are raised and lowered successively by an external
rotating cylinder which has on the inner side cams that act upon the
needles. The Branson 15/16 Automatic Knitter, shown in Fig. 292, is a
good modern illustration. It performs automatically fifteen-sixteenths
of the various movements which ordinarily would be performed by hand on
a hand machine. Its salient features are covered by patents No. 333,102,
December 29, 1885, and No. 519,170, May 1, 1894. About 2,000 United
States patents have been granted in the class of knitting and netting,
and the value of hosiery and knit goods in the United States in 1890 was
$67,241,013.
An important branch of the textile art is cloth finishing, whereby the
rough surface of the cloth as it comes from the loom is rendered soft
and smooth. One method is to raise the nap of the cloth by pulling out
the fibre by a multitude of fine points. Originally this was done by
combing it with teasles, a sort of dried burr of vegetable growth,
having a multitude of fine hook-shaped points. Machines with fine metal
card teeth are now largely used for this purpose, and of which the
planetary napping machine of Ott, patent No. 344,981, July 6, 1886, is
an example. Another method of finishing the cloth is to iron or press
it. Plate presses were first used in which smooth plates were folded in
alternate layers with the cloth and pressure then applied, but in later
years continuous rotary presses have been employed, that of Gessner,
patent No. 206,718, August 6, 1878, re-issue No. 9,076, 9,077, February
17, 1880, is one of the earliest examples of a continuous rotary press.
The old Gessner presses of Saxony were the pioneers in this field. A
modern Gessner cloth press is seen in Fig. 293.
[Illustration: FIG. 293.--MODERN “GESSNER” CLOTH PRESSING MACHINE.]
In the field of textiles there are many related arts and machines. There
are hat felting and finishing machines, darning machines, quilting
machines, embroidering machines, processes and apparatus for dyeing and
sizing, machines for printing fabrics, machines for making rope and
cord, machines for winding and working silk, and in treating the raw
material there are cotton-pickers, cotton baling presses, cotton openers
and cleaners, flax brakes and hackling machines, feeding devices, wool
carding and cleaning apparatus, all in variety and numbers that defy
both comment and count.
In fabrics every class of fibre has been called into requisition. Flax,
wool, silk, and cotton have been supplemented with the fibres of metal,
of glass, of cocoanut, pine needles, ramie, wood-pulp, and of many other
plants, leaves and grasses.
_Artificial silk_ is made out of a chemically prepared composition, and
the fibres are spun by processes simulating not only the act of the
silkworm, but its product in quality. Vandura silk was spun from an
aqueous solution of gelatine by forcing it through a fine capillary
tube, but it attained little or no practical value. A far more important
artificial silk is covered by the patents to De Chardonnet, No.
394,559, December 18, 1888; No. 460,629, October 6, 1891, and No.
531,158, December 18, 1894, and also in subsequent patents to Lehner and
to Turk. These all relate to the manufacture of artificial silk by
spinning threads or filaments from pyroxiline (solution of gun cotton),
collodion, or some such glutinous solution which evaporates rapidly,
leaving a tiny thread, having most of the characteristics of silk and
produced by the same method employed by the silk worm when it expresses
and draws out its viscid liquid. The De Chardonnet artificial silk took
a “Grand Prix” at the Paris Exposition in 1889, and the industry is
growing to considerable proportions. Large works are in operation at
Besançon, in France, producing 7,000 pounds per week, and it is said
that the plant is to be increased to a capacity of 2,000 pounds a day.
Similar works at Avon, near Coventry, England, have an equal capacity,
and other factories are about to be established in Belgium and Germany.
_Polished_ or _diamond cotton_ is a lustrous looking article of a soft
silky nature, formed by plating the threads with a liquid emulsion of a
waxy and starchy substance, and polishing the threads with rapidly
revolving brushes.
_Mercerized Cloth._--In late years a distinct novelty has appeared on
the shelves of the dry goods stores. Beautiful, filmy fabrics, and
lustrous embroidery thread, not of silk, but so close to it in
appearance as to be scarcely distinguishable, have gained much
popularity and attained a large sale. They are known as _mercerized_
goods. About the middle of the century John Mercer, of England, found
that when cotton goods were treated with chemicals (either alkalies or
acids), a change was produced in the fibre which caused it to shrink and
become thicker, and which imparted also an increased affinity for dyes.
He took out British patent No. 13,296, of 1850, for his invention, but
practically nothing further was done with the process. Recently the
important step of Thomas and Prevost of mercerizing under tension gave
some new and wonderful results. United States patents No. 600,826 and
No. 600,827, of May 15, 1898, disclose this process. The cloth or
thread, while being treated chemically, is at the same time subjected to
a powerful tension that causes the fibres (softened and rendered
glutinous by the chemicals) to be elongated or pulled out like fibres of
molten glass, giving it the same striated texture and fine luster that
silk has, and by substantially the same mechanical agency, for it is the
elongation of the plastic glutinous thread from the silk worm that gives
the thread its silky luster, by a process which has a familiar
illustration in the molecular adjustment that imparts luster to spun
glass or drawn taffy.
Standing in the light of the Twentieth Century, and looking back through
past ages, we find the art of spinning and weaving in an ever present
and unbroken thread of evidence all along the path of history--through
wars and famine, floods and conflagrations; through the progress and
decay of nations, through all phases of change, and the vicissitudes of
centuries, it has never been relegated to the domain of the lost arts,
but has remained a persisting invention. It has been a paramount
necessity to the human race, indissolubly locked up with its continuity
and welfare, and will ever continue to supply its work in maintaining
the greater fabric of human existence.