SIZING MATERIALS, MIXING, AND MACHINERY.
In a weaving mill there is no more important process than sizing,
and on its satisfactory management depends the quality and quantity
of work turned off, and probably the success of the concern. This is
exemplified by the anxiety of a manufacturer to get hold of those
recipes well known as obtaining good results. The sale of a shirting,
domestic, drill, or heavily sized cloth, absolutely depends on the
satisfactory sizing, whilst the cost of making it is regulated by the
production of the looms. This has been known in many instances to vary
2s. per loom per week, in the use of a good mixing and a bad one.
Cotton warp will not weave well without the previous application of
some strengthening substance. In the loom the tension on the threads
is great, and whilst distended--and therefore in the most favourable
condition for being chafed--the healds with alternate vertical motion,
and the reed with reciprocating horizontal motion, rub the threads
so severely as to fray them to pieces, unless sized. This point was
recognised and counteracted, even in the hand loom days, as mentioned
in Chapter I.
In sizing, the objects are to press into the thread a mixture of
suitable ingredients, so as to strengthen the yarn, smoothen it, and
lay the fibres which project from the surface of the thread, thus
increasing the strength, and at the same time reducing the amount of
fluff at weaving; also to give to the yarn and cloth the requisite
appearance of toughness, strength or body, known technically as the
“feel.” It is in the sizing that the “boardy,” “leathery,” “clothy”
feels or grip are produced.
Another very important object of this process is the introduction into
low classes of cloth of an additional weight of foreign substances.
We have not here to deal with the debated and debateable point of its
honesty or otherwise, but how the object may best be attained; so long
as heavily sized pieces will be bought, so long will they be made,
and no blame can, at all events, be attached to the manufacturer. He
profits not by the weight, unless unscrupulous, for the price obtained
for the piece of cloth is not based on the total weight, but on the
amount of cotton contained in it. Frequently the state of the market
allows a greater profit out of pure sized goods.
The percentage of size put on cotton goods is calculated according to
the increase of weight on the warp only. Thus if the warp in a piece of
cloth be composed of 10lbs. of cotton covered with 4lbs. of size, the
warp will have been sized to the extent of 40 per cent. The amount of
size on cotton warps varies from 3 to 200 per cent. In those classes
of goods which are intended for dyeing or bleaching, and which are
generally sold by the counts of yarn, it is obviously not wise to add
foreign matter to be washed out again, but in those exported goods
which have to be made of a fixed weight, or certain feel, heavy sizing
is adopted. In the chapter treating of cloths, fuller information on
this point is given. Up to 20 per cent. are termed light sized goods,
from this to 50 per cent. medium, and above 50 per cent. heavily sized.
YARN FOR WARPS.
The selection of suitable yarn is obviously important. Warp yarn is
generally stronger than weft, and the hardness is obtained by extra
twisting of the thread: owing to this peculiarity, warp yarn is
generally called “twist.” For heavy sizing purposes, a soft spun twist
is advisable, and one made out of the harder and wiry stapled cottons.
Brazilian is of this character, and is often mixed with American for
“shirting” warps. The spongy and size-absorbent properties are obtained
at the expense of the strength of the yarn, and therefore a good sizing
twist often winds badly. The colour of the warp yarn is not important,
and therefore whiter cottons are often reserved for weft. Fine twists
are spun out of longer and finer cottons forming a close spun thread,
which is used for better classes of cloth lightly sized. Strength and
elasticity are great advantages in twist, and these properties should
be obtained and preserved for the last process of weaving.
SIZING MATERIALS.
Many points distinguish a good size-mixing from a bad one, and the
leading qualifications for a suitable one are adhesive properties--it
is no use sizing warps if the substance falls off at the loom--good
colour, and uniform consistency. Mealy cloth is often produced by lumpy
size. Yarn, even with a heavy coat of size, should remain tenacious,
pliable and smooth.
The number and variety of sizing substances render it impossible
to adequately describe the properties and use of each. Mention is
only made of those of greatest use and importance; yet the list is
sufficiently long. They may be divided into four classes--those for
forming the basis or body of the mixing or adhesive substances, those
for rendering the dried size pliable, weight-giving substances, and
antiseptics. In the adhesive substances, _flour_ is of first importance
for medium and heavy sizing. This is manufactured by grinding a portion
of the wheat grain, and the qualities used in sizing are of the better
sort, fully equal to those used for bread-making. For giving body
and adhesiveness to the size, flour is valued, but is found a rather
expensive substance, and rather inclined to mildew. To remove this
latter disadvantage, and also to render flour more suitable for the
purpose for which it is intended, most manufacturers steep it in water
for periods varying from three days to as many months. Practical men
and sizing specialists generally agree, however, that from two to three
weeks is the best length of time for fermentation. On judging the
quality of flour, comparisons of colour and stiffness after boiling are
made; in the latter case equal quantities of each sample should be
taken and treated similarly, both as to amount of water taken and time
allowed for boiling. The best test, however, and one that applies to
all sizing substances, is whether it “goes far” or not in actual use.
_Farina_ is the ground starch of the potato, and largely used in light
sizing on account of its cheapness and convenience for mixing. It
requires the use of a softener with it, generally tallow or wax, to
counteract a harshness which it gives to the twist when used alone.
Two other vegetable substances--sago and rice flours--are used for very
light sizing, especially for fine reeds or coloured work.
_Softeners._--Unless some ingredient with a more or less greasy nature
be mixed with the above substances in sufficient quantities, the
warp is so brittle and harsh as to break frequently in the loom. The
substance most frequently used is tallow (refined animal fats). This is
somewhat expensive, yet its softening properties in heavy sizing are
often introduced into the mixing. The quantity of tallow to each bag of
flour or clay varies according to the quantity of other softeners used.
In using tallow care must be taken to obtain it hard and free from
grit; much wear of clacks and rams may be attributed to gritty matter
in this and other ingredients, especially in china clay.
_Wax_ is a softener used for light sizing with farina. It is of two
kinds: Japan wax, a vegetable substance, of rather yellow colour, and
paraffin wax, clear and semi-transparent, obtained from mineral oils. A
high melting point of wax is a great desideratum, to ensure the mixture
hardening thoroughly on the warp--110° is considered a fair temperature
for wax to bear before melting. For softness, castor oil and glycerine
are occasionally adopted, as is also Irish moss.
_Soap._--A mixture of animal and mineral substances is not generally
used, although a good softener, its frothy nature when boiling
rendering it difficult to deal with. Soap and chloride of magnesium
(so called anti.) should not be used together, as their action on each
other tends to make the size lumpy. One important property of soap,
or rather alkali contained in it, is that it kills any acid developed
in the mixing. Soda has a similar and stronger tendency. Chloride of
magnesium, muriate or chloride of zinc have softening properties, but
those substances will be more fully mentioned in the next group.
_Weight-giving Material._--Next to flour no substance enters into heavy
mixings in such quantity as _china clay_. This is a white earthy matter
found in Devon and Cornwall. After having all stony substances washed
out it is dried and packed in bags for shipment to Runcorn and other
small ports in the neighbourhood of cotton manufacturing districts.
In selecting good qualities, colour and smoothness should be borne
in mind. To use this material to advantage a good knowledge of other
materials is required, so that such ingredients may be used with clay
as to keep the size on the yarn at the loom. When clay is boiling it
is somewhat dangerous to lift up the lid of the boiling beck, this
substance having an unpleasant property of spurting up, possibly on the
face or hands of an attendant.
Metal size is that containing the chlorides of the metals, magnesium
and zinc. Chloride of magnesium, a mineral salt obtained in Germany,
is valued as a weighting and softening compound. It has the peculiar
property of attracting moisture to itself, always causing cloth or any
substance containing it to feel damp. This substance is melted out
of its solid form into a liquid by the application of steam, and is
afterwards stored in a lead-lined tank. Muriate of zinc, or chloride of
zinc, is a substance of importance for weighting, and is also valuable
in checking the growth of mildew.
Mildew, as may be seen under a microscope, is a species of fungus--a
vegetable growing under certain conditions favourable to its
development. If warp or cloth is sized or finished damp, then stored
in a dry room for a considerable time, mildew may be expected,
unless antiseptics have been used. An antiseptic is a substance
tending to destroy vegetable life, and of antiseptics muriate of zinc
and carbolic acid are the most suitable for sizing purposes. As
chloride of magnesium does not prevent mildew, indeed, its use being
rather favourable to the development of that evil, the name anti, or
antiseptic, usually given to it is misleading. It is very important
that a manufacturer should take every precaution to prevent mildew
by the use of real antiseptics, especially when using such sizing
materials as flour, tallow, or any other which readily mildews. It may
be mentioned that the maker of the cloth is liable for any damage done
in this respect, if the cause can be found in defective sizing, even
though the growth may not be seen until the goods have arrived abroad.
The before-mentioned chlorides are greatly dependent on the weather,
and also on the situation of a shed, for their good weaving properties.
In case of east winds, extremely dry or cold atmospheric conditions,
or in a dry shed twist sized with magnesium, zinc or china clay, is
rendered brittle first. Numerous other materials are used by a few
manufacturers, but they do not require an extended notice. Dividing
them into the four classes previously mentioned, we may refer to:--1st,
maize, starch, tapioca, dextrin, and gum; 2nd, oils, compositions,
spermaceti, curd soap, Irish moss, cocoanut oil; 3rd, French chalk,
Epsom salts; whilst soda is used to prevent iron-mould, and blue to
take away a yellow tinge from the size mixing.
SIZE MIXING.
Mixing is performed in becks--wooden tanks fitted with dashers,
constantly revolving and stirring the mixture. To each beck pumps are
attached so as to force the size to another beck to complete the mixing
process; or, if the mixing is ready for use, to pump it to the size box
of the slasher frame.
A set of becks generally consists of four--two about 4 by 8 feet, and
two each 4 feet square, while for heavy sizing a copper or copper-lined
boiling pan is used. This latter is fixed at a higher level than the
becks for convenience in transferring the boiled size to the becks.
Considering that a mixing made from a fixed quantity of certain
ingredients is not generally used for percentages ranging more than
15 per cent., and that different mixings are required all the way up
to 150 or 200 per cent., whilst at the same time not more than two or
three manufacturers may use exactly similar mixings even for the same
degree of weighting, it will readily be seen that the mixings employed
in the cotton trade are innumerable. This difference has been caused
by the jealous care taken by a sizer to preserve to himself the recipe
of his own mixing, and rightly so. Thus, new mixings have had to be
adopted by new firms, the correct quantity of each ingredient having
to be fixed by repeated experiments; and as the true properties of
each substance have not been, and are not yet, well understood among
manufacturers according to scientific investigation, the differences
of opinion, and consequent differences of recipes, are very great.
Nor is it to the ingredients that these opinions are confined, but to
the order of putting each into the beck, the times of fermenting and
boiling, and many other details.
It is somewhat difficult to satisfactorily determine beforehand the
amount of weight which can be obtained from a mixing. An instrument,
really a hydrometer, but often, from the name of its inventor, dubbed
a “Twaddle,” is sometimes used; but unless a fixed temperature is
always taken, these instruments are not reliable, as a mixing twaddles
differently at different heats. Indeed, from the varying results
obtained, a twaddle cannot be said to be of much practical use in
sizing. A better system, perhaps, is to take the proportion of solid
or semi-solid matters in a mixing as against the weight of water, and
compare it with the ratio of another mixing which is known to give a
certain percentage. Thus, if one mixing of 3lb. of solid matter to a
gallon (10lb.) of water gives 25 per cent., then a mixing with 6lb.
solids to the gallon may roughly be said to put in 50 per cent. Heavy
liquids, such as zinc and solution of magnesium chloride, will have to
be reckoned partially as liquids, in consequence of the evaporation
which will take place on drying at the cylinders; and the softeners,
from their inability to retain liquids as well as the starches, will
not be calculated as having the same weighting power. Magnesium may
be reckoned as having one-third of its weight in solids, and zinc at
one-half.
_For Light Sizing._--Taking a pure size, say 8 to 10 per cent., farina
and wax or tallow is generally used as being the cheapest, and at
the same time most suitable mixing. The ingredients are generally
combined in the same beck that they are boiled in; for 10 per cent. the
following may be used: 200lb. farina, 20lb. wax, 200 gallons water. By
the addition of clay, the same may be made serviceable up to 25 per
cent.
_For Medium Sizing_, say 50 per cent.--Flour, clay softener and
chlorides are used--say flour 480lb., clay 224lb., tallow 60lb.,
chloride of magnesium (so-called anti) 5 gallons, zinc 2 gallons, soda
8lb., water 150 gallons in all. It is mixed as described for 100 per
cent.
For 100 per cent.--1lb. of size for 1lb. of warp. Similar ingredients
are used, but different proportions. Flour 560lb., clay 560lb., tallow
130lb. (or other softener), chloride of magnesium 20 gallons, chloride
of zinc 10 gallons, soda 10lb., and blue.
The flour is steeped alone for three weeks, at the end of which
time the zinc is added to it with soda and boiled, then the other
ingredients, which had been previously heated in the boiling pan, are
lowered into the flour and the whole boiled together.
For 150 per cent. put still more clay and magnesium to the same
quantity of other substances, adding some specially prepared softening
grease, or adhesive size mixture.
The mixing of size requires constant care and supervision; for
variations in the quality of materials, in the weather, or in time
of storage or steepage necessitate changes in the proportions of
ingredients to obtain correct and unvarying weights.
SIZING MACHINERY.
The slasher is the machine generally used for applying the size to
the yarn; the usual name for the process is taping, a word derived
from the old tape frame in use 30 years ago, and handed down to its
successor, the slasher. One sizing frame is required for 300 looms,
the width of the frame being adapted to the size of beam required for
the loom; this is a few inches wider than the cloth. A common size is
a 9/8; this makes warps 54 inches wide between the flanges, the drying
cylinder face being 60 inches wide; a 6/4 is 60 inches beam and 66
inches on face; an 8/4 = 78 inches and 84 inches respectively.
A sizing frame is of great length, and in three portions--at the back
the creel, in the centre the drying, and in front the headstock. (See
Plate IV.)
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--SLASHER SIZING MACHINE. _To face p. 40._]
Supposing a warp is required of 2480 ends--three beams, each 504, will
be taken together with two of 484 each; these are placed in the creel
in two levels, and the narrower ones are placed at the back. If they
were in front of the broader ones the sheet of warp would overhang the
narrow beams. The ends are gathered in one sheet, the layers from the
hinder beams passing over the top beams and under the bottom ones, all
leaving the creel after passing under the foremost beam and travelling
into the sow box. Two contiguous boxes or troughs are used for holding
the size--the one farther from the creel, called the size box,
receiving the mixture directly from the beck, a regulating valve being
fixed on the inlet pipe to prevent the box becoming too full. The sow
box is the larger one, and receives the size from an aperture in the
bottom of the size box, as well as from a separate pipe. In the bottom
of the sow box is fixed a boiling pipe of elliptical form, perforated
with small holes, through which steam is forced into the size, causing
it to boil, and thus always be in the fittest state for application to
the yarn. At about half the height of the box two pairs of rollers are
fixed, the back pair having the bottom one of wood, and the top one
of iron, covered with flannel and cloth; the front bottom roller, or
finisher, is of copper, having resting on it a heavy iron one, likewise
covered with several layers of flannel and two of cotton cloth. On the
firm and even surface of these rollers depends, to a great extent, the
quality of the sizing. Between the wooden roller and the end of the
box nearest the creel is a copper immersion roller, its use being to
lower or raise the warp in the size by means of a rack and pinion. The
warp ends coming up from the beams pass under the immersion roller,
thus being soaked under the surface of the boiling size, thence between
the first and second pairs of rollers--the object of these being to
press out all superfluous size and imbed into the thread that which is
required. Immersing the thread deeply is advantageous for heavy sizing,
although, by simply dipping it, the fluid only attaches itself to the
outside of the thread. Better results could be obtained by pressing the
yarn whilst under the surface. An example of the hollow india-rubber
ball illustrates this. If a punctured or slit ball be immersed in
water, without pressure, little or no fluid enters it; but if, whilst
under, it is squeezed, the air is expelled, and, on expanding, the
surrounding water enters, filling the cavity. Similar results can be
obtained by expelling the air from the interstices of the yarn whilst
under the size, and patents have been taken out for suitable apparatus.
This point is worthy the attention of machinists. Unless well boiled,
size retains a granular nature, causing faulty cloth; to obviate this,
many machinists insert between the size beck and the sizing frame an
extra boiling apparatus, so arranged by the intervention of pipes to
boil the size under pressure, impinging steam against the particles of
size as they enter the box, thus breaking the globules. After boiling
thus, the size enters the box in the ordinary way. To lay the fibres on
the yarn a few sizers have recourse to revolving brushes acting on the
thread directly after passing the finisher roller. These revolve about
700 revolutions per minute, considerably faster than the warp speed.
They are considered advisable for fine reeds and fancy goods.
Adverting to the process of sizing the warp, we come now to the drying;
this is done by means of two tin or copper cylinders about 7 feet and
4 feet diameter respectively, the larger one being nearer the front
of the frame (see Plate). Steam at a low pressure is admitted to
these, and both are enclosed in a wooden case. The sheet of warp passes
over the smaller cylinder without touching it, and round the larger
one; leaving this at the bottom, the twist is next led over the small
cylinder and passes to the front of the frame under both. Thirteen or
fourteen yards of warp are always drying. Although the moisture has
been expelled, the twist is now in a very hot state, and on its passage
into the headstock a couple of fans are used for cooling purposes.
Systems of drying by currents of air have been introduced, but seem to
take no hold in the cotton industry. It is important that the surface
of the drying cylinders be kept smooth.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.]
The headstock of the slasher consists of framework, holding the rods
and reed necessary for separating the sized threads, and the apparatus
for winding the yarn on the weavers’ beam. This latter operation
comprises the driving of the whole machine, as all the actuating power
is transmitted from the headstock by the pull exerted at the front of
the machine. By iron rods the sheet of warp is repeated horizontally
into as many layers as there are back beams; then, by means of an
expanding comb, the rods are separated vertically; thus each being
sundered from its fellows, no possibility of “sticking” remains. The
split rods are shown in Plate IV.
The most effective mode of winding the yarn on the beam is shown in
section at Fig. 12.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
Power is received by the main shaft carrying the cone drum, and
transmitted by a strap cone drum; this in turn drives by a pinion the
wheel fixed on the friction roller (the largest of the three rollers
at the upper part of Fig. 12), which is thus positive driven. It also
drives the beam shaft, but not positively; the only connection between
the cog wheel A, Fig. 13, and the shaft on which A rides loose, is by
means of the friction plates L, between A and B, and A and C.
Unless these are compressed so as to clip a felt washer, the beam is
not driven at all, so that it is very easy for the sizer to regulate
the tension at which his yarn shall be wound by moving the weight H on
the lever G, which presses the positive driven plates B and C against
the friction driven plates L L, bringing them into closer contact and
thus speeding the beam, consequently tightening the yarn.
The friction roller is a shade larger in diameter than the finishing
roller in the sow box, and is connected with it by a long side shaft,
each roller revolving at the same speed; the yarn is consequently kept
sufficiently tight during the whole process.
In the old style of frame, without the above-mentioned friction,
cone drums were used for regulating the speed of the warp. As the
beam increased in diameter, one revolution meant a greater length of
twist wound on, and the strap had to be moved along the cone drums to
diminish the number of revolutions of the beam per minute, and thus
keep the speed of the sheet of warp constant.
Numerous presses are used to get a hard beam with a greater number
of cuts on it. Although, when extremely hard, the weaving is more
difficult, the advantage of fewer gaitings of beams in the shop,
doffings at the size frame, and less waste is adequate compensation.
These presses generally consist of one or two rollers resting on a
stand under the beam in the frame. By weighted levers the stand and
rollers are forced upwards against the beam, and keep it hard whilst
winding. Figs. 14 and 15 represent plan and section of this presser.
The duties of the slasher, or, as he is more frequently called, the
taper, are to keep the size of proper boil and density, so as to obtain
a constant weight of cut, to keep the twist pieced, and doff the beams
when filled. In some operations it is necessary to stop the frame
for a few minutes, and although the stopping handle is connected with
the cylinder steam pipe to prevent further admission of steam to the
cylinders, these remain so hot as to brown the twist.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.]
SLOW MOTION.
A slow motion is usually fixed on new frames, and as will be seen from
Fig. 16, it is a simple and effective method for preventing brown or
hard places in the warp by running the machine very slowly instead of
stopping it completely. A thin pulley rides on a collar on the main
shaft of the frame, and by the gearing shown (Fig. 16) drives the
driven cone far slower than its usual speed. Obviously the fast and
slow motions could not be both connected with the driven cone by fixed
gearing, and consequently, to enable the slow motion to be put in gear
only after the fast speed is out of action, the shaft only drives a
plate carrying a ratchet pawl. The ratchet wheel is on the driven cone
shaft, and as the pawl only overtakes the wheel when the latter is
almost stopped, the desired end is obtained.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.]
MARKING MOTION.
To enable the weaver to finish the piece when a required length has
been woven the warp is marked at the sizing frame at a certain length.
This is generally done for plain goods by means of a measuring roller
14·4 inches in circumference, round which the twist passes. On the end
of this is a tin roller wheel driving a change wheel or stud wheel.
By means of a worm on the same stud the motion is transferred to a
bell wheel of 45 teeth, which drives a marking cam so arranged as to
gradually lift and suddenly drop a hammer, which smits the warp against
a block soaked in some colouring matter.
To get the wheels for a certain length, say the stud wheel, multiply
the length of mark desired in inches by tin roller wheel, and divide by
the bell wheel and the circumference of tin roller.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--DHOOTIE MARKER.]
To get the tin roller wheel, multiply the circumference of measuring
roller by bell wheel and by stud wheel, dividing by length of mark
required. To prove this the length of mark may be obtained from the
wheels, say stud wheel 105 and tin roller wheel 45.
(14·4 × 45 × 105)/45 = 1512 inches, or 42 yards.
In marking dhooties, in addition to the smit for the end of the piece,
additional smits have to be made where the heading for each scarf has
to be inserted. Usually this is done by having an additional train
of wheels and an extra marker, called a dhootie-marker, to strike 3,
4, or 6, etc., times for the cut-marker’s once. In Fig. 17 a special
arrangement is shown. The usual wheels are shown at _h_, the worm _i_,
the bell wheel _k_, the bell shaft cut-mark hammer _m_. The other
wheels and the marker _n_ refer to the dhootie mark; _b_ is fixed to
the stud and drives _c_ with _d_, a pinion on another stud; the wheels
_e_, _f_ and _g_ complete the train, and on the same shaft as _g_ a cam
_o_ operates the dhootie-marker. This is arranged to strike any number
of times for once of the cut-marker, regulated by the number of teeth
in the change wheel _f_, 10 teeth in which give one mark to a cut mark,
30 give three marks to a cut, 100 ten marks to a cut, and so on by
somewhat similar systems for higher numbers.
TAPE DRESSING.
The tape dressing machine--the predecessor of the slasher--is still
used in Scotland, being suited to the light fabrics principally
made there. The back beams are placed in a creel at one level and
the ends pass through a reed at the back of the frame. The sheet is
then immersed in size, and passes between a pair of slowly revolving
circular brushes, afterwards being dried by a fan, and also on a small
cylinder. There is no friction, and the yarn is wound on the beam after
being split by the rods and reed.
BALL SIZING.
Only one system of sizing in addition to those referred to requires
description, and that is ball sizing, the process following ball
warping, described in the previous chapter. The warps are uncoiled from
the ball, and run into a large vat of size, at the bottom of which
the warp remains some time, passing over and under some eight or ten
rollers until thoroughly soaked. The superfluous size is expelled by
passing the warp between rollers, when it is removed to another machine
for drying purposes. This has 12 cylinders 2 feet in diameter, and of
considerable width, heated by steam. Between these cylinders the warp
is flattened and dried, after which it is again balled and placed in
a cloth for a short time to become “mellowed;” even yet it has one
process to undergo--beaming. Here the warp is taken, the ends sundered
out and run over a frame to the weaver’s beam. The reader will readily
see that the extra processes of balling after warping, and beaming
after sizing, as well as two machines required _for_ sizing, are
sufficient to explain the fact that ball systems are dying out, and not
only for this reason, but also because of the uncertainty as to what
extent goods can be weighted, the percentages being very irregular. The
warps are often streaky also, but the thread preserves a rounder and
stronger formation than at the slasher frame.
LOOMING AND DRAWING.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.]
[Illustration: FIG. 20.]
The weaver’s beam, as made at the sizing frame, contains from 500 to
1000 yards of warp, according to the counts of yarn and number of
ends. It is not yet ready for the loom, as the healds and reed have to
be attached. If new healds and reed are used each end must be drawn
through an eye of one of the healds and through a dent in the reed.
In this case the operation is performed by a drawer-in, who, with
hooks at one side of the gears, draws the ends through, which are
presented to him by a reacher at the opposite side. In case of healds
having been used before with similar draft, counts per inch, etc., a
loomer or twister-in is required, who, with an adroit twirl, pieces
each end on the new beam to a corresponding one which has been left in
the heald from an old beam. These men are remunerated for plain work
at so much per 1000 ends, the drawer having more for the same number
of ends. The order in which the ends are drawn through the healds is
most important, although for plain and simple fancy work one system
is generally adopted; for fancier cloths the difference of draft is
great, and regulates to a great extent the kind of figure produced on
the cloth. These healds and reed are required in the loom, being of
great importance with regard to the proper interlacing and guidance
of the ends. The healds, sometimes called heddles or gears, are of
cotton or worsted, and are used in making the shed for the passage of
the shuttle. The usual form is a loop, tied through which is a second
loop, knotted so as to leave a quarter-inch eye. Fig. 18 explains
the structure. The healds are knit in a special machine, and when
finished show the loops ten inches deep, connected with a braid running
along the top and bottom. The eyes are closely or sparsely arranged,
according to the counts of reed for which the healds are intended.
Staves are inserted in the top and bottom loops, and a set of healds
consists of three or more staves. Plain could be woven by two staves,
but four are almost always employed. The ends of warp are drawn through
the healds, one through each eye. The method of separating the warp to
form a shed is apparent. For example, suppose a warp of 2000 ends be
drawn on four healds, each having 500 eyes, and two of these healds be
raised whilst the other couple is depressed, a shed of two equal parts
will be formed.
Metallic healds are being introduced, we believe, satisfactorily. The
loops and eyes are of wire, sliding on bars attached to the staves
(Fig. 19). A set of healds may be used for different counts of reeds.
The reed, comb or ravel (Fig. 20) is an arrangement of dents--pieces
of flattened or polished wire four or five inches long fixed between
strips of wood by pitched band. The dents are closer or not as the reed
is finer or coarser in counts. Generally, two ends are drawn through
each split or dent.
[Illustration: Decoration]