Illustration: MULE FRAMES.
Illustration: FRENCH COMBING-MACHINE.
Illustration: “SCOTCHING” OR BLOWING MACHINE.
Illustration: LAP FRAME.
Illustration: CARDING MACHINE.
Illustration: DRAWING MACHINE.
After the cotton is sorted, and the grosser impurities picked from
it by hand, it is dressed by the “combing machine,” or subjected to
a machine (called a “willow,” as it was originally a sort of basket)
contrived to open out and mix the cotton well together, at the same
time blowing off all dust and allowing the heavier impurities to
fall through a grating. The next process is called “scotching,”
and the machine is sometimes called a “blowing machine.” From this
the cotton is passed in a “lap” or thin layer, which is beaten as
it passes, to get rid of dust, and a draught of air produced by a
blowing apparatus assists in the same object; it is thus entirely
freed from all impurities. The cotton is then carried to the “carding
machine,” for the purpose of having its fibres all laid parallel with
each other; this machine is, in fact, a sort of comb, and consists
of cylinders having fine wires projecting from their surfaces acting
in different directions, so as to draw out the fibres till they all
lie in one direction, forming a kind of “fillet,” called a “card,”
which is carried by rollers into a tin can and then subjected to a
process called “drawing and doubling.” As the “card ends” are not
yet sufficiently parallel in their fibres, they have to be passed
between three sets of rollers, the undermost of which are fluted
on their surfaces, the upper ones being covered with flannel. These
rollers act in a peculiar manner; the first pair pass the cotton
at a certain rate on to the second pair, which would pass it on to
the third unchanged if they revolved at the same rate as the first
pair, but they are turned a little faster, and therefore stretch
the fillet of cotton at an even and regular rate, and in such a
manner that it is not broken; the third pair, going faster than
the second, again stretch the fillet. After the fillet has passed
through it is doubled, passed through again and again, till it is
quite uniform in its structure, and drawn out by these stretchings
very fine, it is then called a “sliver.” When it is drawn as fine
as the kind of cotton admits, the first twist is given to it by the
“roving” machine, which twists it into a soft card, delivers it wound
on “bobbins,” and it is finally twisted into yarn by the “winding
machine.”
Illustration: BOBBIN FRAME.
Illustration: WINDING MACHINE.
These processes are carried on with great precision and rapidity,
and, by the aid of these machines, one man is able in a day to
produce as much yarn as the most expert spinner by hand could furnish
in a year! Cotton, until about 1760, was all spun by hand. A little
later, James Hargreaves invented the “spinning-jenny,” and Arkwright
afterwards improved the “carding machine;” the “mule-jenny” (see
Heading), invented by Crompton, was a still further improvement.
The cotton, when spun, is called yarn, which is used for weaving
into calicoes and other cotton goods. Cotton thread is made by
twisting (by machinery) two or more yarns into one, which are
afterwards dressed with starch, and wound on reels or into balls.