Thomas William Fox

“ By placing each group of threads to be wound in the slit of a rotating drum, it is drawn quickly to and fro and coiled upon a spool. If solid instead of split drums be used, the guides for all the threads on one side of a machine are attached to a bar, which is traversed by a cam placed at one end of the frame. Or independent mechanism may be provided throughout for treating each group of threads to be wound. The bobbins or tubes may be filled from cops, ring spools or hanks, but a stop motion is required for each thread, which will come into operation immediately a fracture occurs. ”

“ Spinning (see Spinning) .—Improvements upon the Saxony wheel caused continuous spinning to become a mechanical art at an earlier date than intermittent spinning. Arkwright’s water-twist frame was gradually changed to the throstle, which was a duplex machine furnished with one set of drawing rollers, and one set of spindles and flyers at each side of the frame-work. All the bosses of one line of rollers were connected so that one driving gear would serve for the whole length, and all the spindles were driven by bands from a central cylinder. ”

“ So perfect is the construction of these spindles that they can be run without appreciable vibration at speeds far beyond the ability of operatives to attend them; although a speed of 11,000 revolutions per minute is a practicable one. After passing the drawing rollers (G) , the roving (H) is twisted, hooked into the traveller (B) , and made fast to a spool (I) placed upon the spindle. As spinning proceeds the traveller is pulled round the ring by the thread; it thus puts a drag upon, and holds the thread at the winding point. ”

“ One end of every lap is fed by a pair of rollers between the open jaws of a nipper which immediately closes upon the sheet of cotton, but a fringe is left protruding into the path of a cylinder, on whose periphery either one set of 17, or two sets of 13, graduated needle combs, and one, or two, fluted segments are secured. The first comb to reach the cotton may have as few as 16, and the last 90 teeth per inch. After the combs have passed successively through the overhanging fringe of fibres, the nipper opens and a fresh length of about 3/16 to 4/10 of an inch is fed in. ”

“ The Opener.—Mixed cotton may be thrown upon a lattice and conveyed to a spiked roller to be pulled, beaten, discharged into a trunk, and drawn by pneumatic force to the opener. Or it may be spread (fig. 3) upon a lattice (I) , and carried between feed-rollers (E) to be subjected to the action of a beater (A) whose teeth first seize tufts of cotton and then fling them upon a grid (B) , to be subsequently seized by other teeth and again flung off until dirt and other impurities pass between the grating. ”

“ This machine is provided with mechanical devices for stopping it on the failure of a sliver, and on the completion of a predetermined length of lap. When the sliver lap machine furnishes laps for the comber, the slivers are previously put through one head of drawing, namely, between four lines of drawing rollers, to straighten out the fibres. The more general practice is to pass sliver laps to a ribbon lap machine, at the back of which six laps are placed, end facing end, in one long line and simultaneously unrolled to feed each web between four pairs of drawing rollers. ”

“ If a series of fixed strips of card are placed above the main cylinder, the engine is known as a stationary flat card. But if the strips move forward (as at B) , it is a revolving flat card. In a roller and clearer card the small cylinders (E) are also covered with cards, but their teeth are bent to oppose those on the main cylinder, and they revolve with a different velocity. ”

“ A thread passed from the drawing rollers, outside the cup, to a spool. As a spool rotated its thread was uniformly twisted, the lower edge of the cup built the yarn equally on every part of the spool barrel, and the requisite drag resulted from friction set up by the thread rubbing against the surface of the cup. The throstle has almost disappeared from the cotton industry, and Danforth’s cap frame entirely so, but the latter is still used to spin worsted.
Ring spinning is practically the only system of continuous spinning used in the cotton industry ”

“ As the rollers (C) feed the partially attenuated rovings the carriage recedes from the rollers a little faster than the rovings are delivered, thus completing the attenuation. Meanwhile, the spindles are revolved rapidly by bands passing from a tinned cylinder (H) and the threads are twisted. This twist goes first to the thin places where least resistance is offered to it, leaving thick places almost untwisted; the pull of the carriage, therefore, causes the fibres to slip most readily where there are fewest twists, and gives to a thread an approximation to uniformity in diameter. ”

“ The tube is loosely mounted upon, but driven independently of, the spindle, in order that as the tube increases in diameter the number of revolutions it makes may be reduced to suit the constant delivery of the roving. This is effected by a differential motion which usually consists of a large wheel, within which two other wheels are made to work; the interior wheels have a regular motion, but the large wheel is driven from a pair of cone drums at a decreasing speed. ”

“ The roving spools were placed vertically in a creel between the two sets of rollers, and the rovings reduced to the requisite fineness by the latter; after which each was passed through a coiled eye at the lower end of a flyer leg, and attached to a double-flanged spool which was loosely mounted upon a spindle. At each revolution of a flyer a twist was put into the attenuated roving, and the flyer wrapped as much thread upon a spool as the rollers delivered. ”

“ The gas-burner is situated midway between the grooved pulleys, and so mounted beneath the thread that it will automatically swivel sideways and thus move the flame away from a stationary thread. Winding begins slightly before the flame moves beneath a thread, and the rapid motion of the latter permits the flame to burn off undesirable matters without injuring the thread. ”

“ If the bolster only provides a bearing for the centre of the spindle, and so leaves the foot free to find its own position of steadiness, it is known as a self-balancing or gravity spindle. A recess in the bolster is filled with oil to automatically lubricate the bearing. ”

“ When long fibres are turned to point in the direction of rotation they advance upon the cylinder A to the doffer teeth, where the scattered fibres on the surface of A are collected into a light fleece. ”

“ Meanwhile, a fluted segment on the cylinder has moved up to support the fringe; a top comb, which was inoperative when the cylinder combs were acting, has descended into the fringe, and three rollers first return a portion of the material already combed so that it may overlap that last treated. The rollers then reverse the direction of their rotation; one of them and the segment engage the fringe, and draw the tail ends of all free fibres through the teeth of the top comb. The product of all the heads is next united, condensed, formed into a continuous sliver, and deposited in a can. ”

“ Instead of rollers, a hopper breaker may be used. In this machine the cotton is carried by a horizontal lattice into contact with a sloping spiked one, whose spikes tear away small tufts and deposit them upon a second lattice for removal to the mixing room. A stack of pulled cotton is formed by superposing thin layers from different bales, and when completed the cotton is drawn from top to bottom of the stack. By this means a thorough mixing of fibres is effected. ”

“ For fine yarns the rollers cease to rotate slightly before the carriage has attained the end of its outward run, or stretch, and at such times all attenuation is due to the pull of the spindles upon the threads. ”

“ Intermittent Spinning.—The essential difference between continuous and intermittent spinning is that the former draws and twists consecutively, whilst the latter draws and twists simultaneously. In the mule, a creel (A, fig. 9) , fixed at the back of the machine, is designed to hold the rovings (B) in three or four tiers, from whence they pass between three lines of drawing rollers (C) and two faller wires (D) . They are next led to spindles (E) mounted in a carriage (F) whose wheels run upon rails (G) called slips. ”

“ Six or eight slivers (C) are put up to each delivery and drawn down into one by causing succeeding lines of rollers (A, B) to move at an accelerated speed; the front one revolving about six or eight times faster than the back one. On leaving the front roller the sliver is conducted to a trumpet-shaped tube (D) , thence between a pair of calender rollers (E) , and, finally, through a diagonal passage in a plate (F) ; the latter coils the sliver into a rotating can (G) . Back and front devices are provided to arrest motion in this machine when a sliver fails. ”

“ To one set of vertical bars a similar number of horizontal top pieces are hinged, and to the other set levers are jointed, which hold the horizontal bars in position. When the hinged bars are turned up, strings are drawn through the grooves, and the bottom is covered with stout paper. The hanks are then laid in the box, another paper is placed above them, and the hinged bars are drawn down and locked. ”