Cotton yarn

“ If the threads are found to be strong and without flaws two to half a dozen of them are put together in a loose skein and they are twisted in a doubling machine. Afterward the thread is polished, cleaned, and run off on spools or bobbins. That is the road Mother's spools of cotton have to travel before they get to her. How seldom we think of this or are grateful for it!
There are in addition other ways of preparing cottons for embroidery, crocheting, or knitting, not to mention methods used to finish cotton yarn so that it will look like woolen, linen, or silk fiber. ”

“ For all ordinary purposes a sufficiently good quality of yarn can be made without the comber, and no other machine in cotton spinning adds half as much as the comber to the expense of producing cotton yarn from the raw material. ”

“ Whenever cotton yarn is used to adulterate other fabrics, it wears shabby and loses its brightness. When it is used to adulterate linen, it becomes fuzzy through wear. One may detect it in linen by rolling the goods between thumb and finger. Linen is a heavier fabric, and wrinkles much more readily than cotton. It wears better, and has an exquisite freshness that is not noticed in cotton fabrics.
Silk Distinguished from Wool. Place the fabric or threads containing animal fibers in cold, concentrated hydrochloric acid. If silk is present it will dissolve, while wool merely swells. ”

“ Cotton is dyed in its loose raw condition, as yarn in the form of hanks, yarn in the form of cops, and in the woven pieces of every kind. Formerly the idea was prevalent among cotton dyers that the process which succeeds with piece goods would not answer with yarns. It is now recognised however that this is not so, that a process which will dye cotton yarn will also dye cotton piece goods or loose cotton. ”

“ It is not dirty compared to shoe-making, and whereas one stands to "spool," when one is not waiting for yarn it is constant movement up and down the line. The fact that there are more children than young girls, more young girls than women, proves the simplicity of this task. The cotton comes from the spinning-room to the spool-room, and as the girl stands before her "side," as it is called, she sees on a raised ledge, whirling in rapid vibration, some one hundred huge spools full of yarn; whilst below her, each in its little case, lies a second bobbin of yarn wound like a distaff. ”

“ Preparatory to the actual dyeing operations, it is necessary to treat cotton in any condition—loose cotton, yarn, or piece—so that the dyeing shall be properly done. Raw cotton contains many impurities, mechanical and otherwise; cotton yarns accumulate dirt and impurities of various kinds during the various spinning operations, while in weaving a piece of cotton cloth it is practically impossible to keep it clean and free from dirt, etc. ”

“ A light-weight cotton fabric, the distinguishing feature of which is the cords or ribs running warpwise through the cloth, and produced by doubling the warp threads in either heddle or reed in sufficient quantity to form the rib desired. The name is from a Greek word meaning two-threaded. Dimity is a ladies’ [Pg 180] summer dress fabric, and is made of regular cotton yarn, from 1/60’s to the finest counts in both warp and filling. It is made in both white and colors, solid white being used in the most expensive grades. ”

“ It is a property of the cotton fibre that it can be made to imitate more or less either woollen, linen or silk goods, and since cotton is the cheapest fibre of the lot it follows that a considerable amount of cotton yarn is used in combination with these other fibres, in order to produce cheaper fabrics. ”

“ For a time he combined cotton-spinning on a very small scale with stone-working, but finally devoted himself entirely to cotton-spinning, working the frames with his own hands, and travelling through the Lancashire manufacturing districts to sell the yarn. His goods obtained a reputation for quality, and his customers increased so rapidly that in 1791 he removed to Preston, where he began to manufacture cotton shirtings and long-cloths in addition to spinning the cotton yarn. ”

“ Various fabrics require different grades of yarn, just as different finenesses of yarn must be spun from varying grades of cotton. The processes preparatory to spinning vary, not only with the counts to be spun, but with the use to which the yarn is to be put. Ordinary coarse and medium yarns for weaving usually follow one process, while fine counts for weaving, or knitting yarn, or coarse yarn made from long-staple cotton such as that used for tire-duck, go through a different preparation. ”

“ The long-staple Egyptian and Sea Island cotton, so twisted as to leave the fibers as nearly loose and parallel as possible, show the best results. If the yarn is singed the result is a further improvement. Yarns and fabrics constructed of the ordinary grades of cotton cannot be mercerized to advantage. The cost of producing high-grade mercerized yarn is about three times that of an unmercerized yarn of the same count, spun from the commoner qualities of cotton. ”

“ The spongy and size-absorbent properties are obtained at the expense of the strength of the yarn, and therefore a good sizing twist [34] 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. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the unpractised eye cannot see any difference between the sliver or soft rope of cotton as it reaches, the drawing frame and as it leaves the frame.
The experienced eye of the practical man can, however, detect a wonderful difference.
It has been shown that the immediately preceding operation of carding—amongst other things—reduces the heavy lap into a comparatively thin light sliver; thus advancing with one great stride a long way toward the production of the long fine thread of yarn ready for the market. ”

“ The mixing should be made with reference to the kind of yarn required, whether for warp or weft, coarse or fine, &c., and the sorting of the cotton for this purpose requires experience and good judgment. Some cottons, particularly those of long and short fibres, cannot be made to draw, rove, or spin well together. The cotton taken from the bing is too impure for spinning until it has been passed through several processes, by which the dirt is winnowed out and the matted lumps are opened and the fibres loosened and cleaned. ”

“ By having one yarn carrier threaded with cotton and one threaded with wool or worsted, as the case may be, and changing these carriers at the end of every course so as to keep the cotton always knitting at the cams that are leading or making the plain stitch, the cotton alone will draw through on the back of the fabric while the worsted or wool will practically cover the face stitch of the cotton. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Poor cotton that goes into coarse goods cannot be spun as fine as the finer cotton. The shorter the cotton the more twist is required to spin it, and the more twist that is put into the yarn, the less will be the yardage. Whereas on the finer and longer cotton there will be less twist put into it, and the yarn will be much stronger. Find the twist in different kinds of yarn.
Experiment 33—Determining the Direction of Warp and Filling Apparatus: Microscope. ”

“ A great many women are employed and some children; for the latter a school is maintained for two hours a day in the building. Cotton yarn is now selling for about forty cents a pound and is becoming one of the leading articles of export; China is the largest purchaser. Some idea of the growth of this branch of industry can be gathered from the fact that the exports of cotton yarn amounted to less than four thousand dollars in 1891 and 1892; in 1896 it had grown to over two millions, in 1898 to over ten millions, and during the last two years it has averaged about fifteen millions. ”

“ Cotton, wool and union (cotton warp and worsted weft) fabrics are frequently singed (see Bleaching) before dyeing. Worsted yarn, especially two-fold yarn, is very liable to curl and become entangled when scoured, and in order to avoid this it is necessary to stretch and "set" it. To this end it is stretched tight on a specially constructed frame, placed in boiling water, and then cooled. ”

“ The most important part of the entire plant is the fiber or cotton as it is used in the manufacture of cloth. The modern method of cotton manufacture does not date back further than 1760. Prior to that time weaving and spinning were altogether domestic. At first the work was done by means of the ancient distaff and spindle, more recently the spinning wheel. By these only one thread could be produced at a time and, as may be imagined, the process was very slow. Furthermore, the yarn produced was inferior. ”

“ From the year 1770 to 1788 a complete change had gradually been effected in the spinning of yarns. That of wool had disappeared altogether, and that of linen was also nearly gone; cotton, cotton, cotton was become the almost universal material for employment. The hand wheels, with the exception of one establishment, were all thrown into lumber-rooms, the yarn was all spun on common jennies, the carding for all numbers up to 40 hanks in the pound was done on carding-engines ”

“ Its use, however, is indispensable in the pro [Pg 169] duction of the finest yarns, since no other machine can extract short fibre like the comber. It is seldom used for counts of yarn below 60's and often as fine yarns as 100's or more are made without the comber. In England its use is chiefly centred in the localities of Bolton, Manchester, and Bollington, although there is a little combing in Preston, Ashton under Lyne, and other places.
Perhaps its greatest value consists in the fact that its use enables fine yarns to be made out of cotton otherwise much too poor in quality for the work ”

“ It appears that the total production of cotton yarn each day in all the mills together would be on the average about one hundred and fifty-five million miles. In fact, if they would only spin about one-fifth more, we could assert that Great Britain produced enough cotton yarn every day to stretch from the earth to the sun and back again! It is not hard to find from these figures how long it would take for all the mills in Lancashire to produce a piece of yarn long enough to reach from our earth to the nearest of the stars. ”

“ The hatters of Great Britain still raise their wool by the bow. The cotton being thus prepared, without any carding, it is spun by the women; the coarse yarn is spun on a one-thread wheel, and very much resembling those used at the present day by the peasantry in the west of Ireland.
The finer yarn is spun with a metallic spindle, and sometimes without a distaff; a bit of clay is attached as a weight to one end of the spindle, which is turned round with the left hand, whilst the cotton is supplied with the right ”

“ In a short time the cotton swells and becomes lustrous, approaching silk in general appearance, and this effect is augmented by the evenness of the surface of the thread. This type of yarn lends itself to the production of brilliant colours and is admirably adapted to such articles as knitted coats, scarves and other types of the fancy trade in knitted goods, being best suited for summer wear on account of their coolness. ”

“ Unlike the bobbin and fly frames, the roving or yarn is not wound on its cop or spindle as it is delivered, but a certain definite and regulated length of cotton is given out to each spindle, and fully twisted and attenuated before it is wound into a suitable shape for transit and for subsequent treatment. ”

“ Such yarns are usually passed through what is termed a "gassing" machine. In this process each thread is passed rapidly several times through a gas flame usually emanating from a burner of the Bunsen type. The passage of the thread through the flame is too rapid to allow of the burning down of the threads, but is not too quickly to prevent the loose oozy fibres, present more or less on the surface of all cotton yarns, to be burned away. This process is somewhat expensive, as it burns away perhaps 6 pounds weight of yarn in every 100 pounds. ”

“ In mills where strength and evenness of yarn are at a premium, the sheets from three or four laps may be fed through another opener, usually called a "scutcher," which breaks them all apart again, mixes up the fibers, cleans out more of the dirt, and produces a more even lap.
The cotton, as it comes from the opener and the scutcher, is much cleaner and 46 more attractive. It begins to look like the riches it contains. ”

“ In many cases, also, yarn is specially required to be spun upon the bare spindle as on a mule, as for instance when used as weft and put into the shuttle of a loom. It is probably the very greatest defect of the ring frame that it can only, with great difficulty, be made to form a good cop of yarn on the bare spindle, although thousands of pounds have been spent on experimenting in that direction. How soon it may be accomplished with commercial success cannot be known, as a great number of individuals are constantly working in that direction. ”