1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VI.: Hibbert, Platt and Sons
1. HIBBERT, PLATT, and SONS, Hartford Works, Oldham, - Inventors and Manufacturers.
An improved patent opening and cotton-cleaning machine. This machine differs from others used for the same purpose, inasmuch as all fibre cleaned in it is passed between cylinders so constructed that all motes, seeds, etc. etc., are thrown down beneath it, making the operation of cleaning simple and cheap. The diameters of the cylinders of this machine are 9 and 12 inches, and the width 36 inches, making about 500 revolutions per minute, they consequently require less power than is necessary to drive the machines constructed upon the old principle. The power required for cleaning 3,000 lbs. per day, is from 1 to 1.5 horse, according to the state of the material.
[Cotton or cotton-wool is the hairy covering of the seeds of several species of Gossypium growing in South America, India, Egypt, etc. It is separated from the seeds by a machine called a cotton-gin, then packed with strong pressure in bags, in which state it is received in this country.
The cotton is cleaned in a willowing machine, or in a batting, or scutching and blowing machine. The willow consists of a conical drum, the axis of which is placed horizontal or nearly so. The surface of the cone carries a series of projecting pegs or spikes, and the upper portion of the case which covers and partly encloses the cone is furnished on its inner surface with a similar series of spikes, the spikes of the cone moving in the intervals between the spike of the case. This machine is fed at the smaller end of the cone by means of an endless apron formed of thin spars of wood, each about three-quarters of an inch broad and half an inch apart, fixed at the ends to two endless leather straps which move round rollers. The cotton being placed upon this creeping apron, is slowly introduced into the willow, where it is seized by the revolving spikes, and whirled round with increasing velocity, due to the increasing surface of the cone, until, in a few seconds, it arrives at the large end, where it falls upon a moving apron, which carries it away or turns it out upon the floor. While the cotton is being teazed out by the spikes of the cone, the heavier impurities, such as twigs, sand, stones, etc., fall out through the open lattice or grid-work which forms the bottom of the machine. The lighter impurities, such as dust, etc., are driven by centrifugal force to the large end of the cone where, they pass out through a spiral cage sieve into square pipes which convey them away.— C. T.]
- Single scutcher and lap-machine, used for taking out the remaining sand, etc., and for forming the cotton into laps to feed the breaker carding-engine. The novelty in the construction of this machine consists chiefly in the application of the "patent consolidating calender rollers," by which the "felting" of the cotton is performed in a superior manner, and its bulk so compressed as to admit of an increase of 40 per cent. on the "lap" roller. By this means a considerable saving of labour is effected at the carding-engines.
[The batting or scutching and blowing machine carrier on the work of cleaning the cotton which has been begin: by the willow, and serves also to open the matted tufts, The cotton being spread upon a feeding apron, is introduced into the machine by means of feeding rollers; as soon as it gets within the machine it comes under the beating action of flat bars, which are moved round with great rapidity, and strike with their fans upon the cotton fibres as they slowly escape from between the feeding rollers. It is then conveyed out of the machine and turned out upon the floor. It is next passed to another scutching machine, in which, after being batted, it is formed into a cylindrical roll or lap, ready for the carding engine.
In many cases, however, the scutching machine and the lapping machine are combined, in which case the willowed cotton is spread by hand upon a feed-apron to the thickness of about 2 inches, and this is carried forward at the rate of about 3 feet per minute between a pair of coarsely fluted iron feed-rollers, which are pressed together by a weight acting through a lever on the brass bearings of the top roller. There is also a wooden roller, which serves to keep the cotton close to the apron, so as to allow it to pass readily between the feed-rollers. As the cotton passes into the machine between the feed-rollers it is struck by the first beater, which consists of two flat bars fixed at right angles upon the arms of a shaft revolving 2000 times per minute. The cotton, on being struck and whirled round by the beater, is at the same time struck against the edges of long fiat bars, arranged in the form of a quadrant of a cylinder. The cotton tufts are thus opened, and the filaments wafted upon an endless apron, near the end of which is a revolving cage cylinder, enclosed under the general cover of the machine; over this cage is a pipe communicating with a rotatory fan, which, by rarifying the air, causes the dust of the cotton to escape through the cage into the pipe, whence it is carried away: the cage also serves to spread smoothly upon the apron the loose cotton filaments into a level mass or lap. This is conveyed away under a wooden roller, and passed between a second pair of feed-rollers, to be exposed to a second scutching by beater-bars revolving more rapidly than the former.
This second beater delivers the filaments to a second apron, which passes it under a second revolving sieve cylinder connected with the fan ventilator, by which means the cotton is again formed into a lap, which is passed out of the machine by the rotation of rollers. It is then carried between two pairs of iron rollers, the upper of which are loaded, which compress the filaments and form them into a kind of felt. This felt or lap is delivered to a wooden lap-cylinder, the axis of which is loaded, and thus made to bear down between two rollers which revolve both in one direction, and carry round by their friction the lap- cylinder. As this increases in diameter it rises up, together with the links at the ends of the axis which carry the weights, and thus the pressure continues uniform. When the coil of lap has attained a certain size, the rollers which turn the aprons, cages, and feed-rollers are thrown out of gear, while the rollers which support the lap coil continue to revolve. By this contrivance the lap is torn across; the attendant then removes it, puts an empty lap-cylinder in its place, and throws the machine into gear.
The laps from different machines are frequently combined into one lap, for the purpose of further equalizing the quality of different varieties of cotton. This is done at a lap machine, in which an endless apron moves between a frame, on which are slot-bearings for receiving the ends of the pins which support the laps. There are as many pairs of slot-bearings on this frame as there are different laps to be mixed. Each lap being unwound by the motion of the apron, the different laps are carried forward in parallel layers lying over each other; they are then all scutched and formed into one single lap as before. This is sometimes called a spreading machine.
For the finer varieties of cotton the laps are formed by hand.— C. T.]
- Breaker carding-engines: used for further cleansing, combing, and laying the fibres of the cotton. The laps from the scutcher feed this machine, and are reduced by it into continuous webs, which are delivered into cans at the front of the machine. The novelty of these machines consists, first, in the method of feeding the card by means of a dish, straight-edge, and large roller. Secondly, in the cylinders, doffers, rollers, and strippers being made of iron. And, thirdly, in the method of adjustment of the bearers or carriers for the rollers and strippers. By means of the dish, straight-edge, and large roller, the fibres of the cotton are held until combed away by the cards of the licker-in, and can be adjusted to suit any length of staple of cotton. These machines being constructed of iron are not liable to "warp," from variation of temperature, and the method of applying the bearings for carrying the rollers, is so simple as to be capable of the finest adjustment.
Lap-machine: used for making laps to feed the finishing carding-engine. The cans from the breakers feed this machine, and the cotton is again formed by it into laps for the next operation. The patent consolidating calenders are also applied to this machine with the same advantage as in the scutcher.
- Finishing carding-engines. The laps made in the last machine are taken in by this; and the fibres are again drawn, combed, and so completely straightened as to insure a more perfect evenness in the web, which is then delivered and coiled into cans. These machines are supplied with the same improvements as the breaker carding-engines.
- Grinding machine: used for grinding and sharpening the teeth of the cards on the rollers, and flats of the carding- engines.
[In the laps thus formed the cotton filaments are in a compressed state, crossing each other in all directions. In the next operation, which is carding, they are made parallel, or brought into a state favourable for parallelism. In this operation also any remaining impurities are completely removed. Carding is a sort of double combing. If we suppose the teeth of one comb to be set or bent in one direction, and the teeth of another comb to be set in an opposite direction, and that these two combs be moved against each other, with a tuft of cotton between them, the fibres will be seized by the teeth, those of one card will pull them one way, those of the other card will pull another way, and by repeating the operation many times the curls, and twists, and crossings of the cotton will be opened and draw-n out, and the fibres will be arranged in parallel lines. In the carding-engine the teeth are formed of thin iron wire, arranged on bands or fillets of leather or other suitable material, made of uniform thickness, and attached to a set of cylinders and curved surfaces, the former being made to revolve so as to sweep over the surfaces of the latter at rest; or a number of parallel cards on the surface of a large drum work against the surfaces of smaller cylindrical cards moving with a less velocity. The two plans may, however, be combined in the same engine. The tufts of cotton are held by the stationary or slow-moving cards, while the quick- moving cards comb out the fibres, and gradually disentangle them.
The main carding cylinder or drum has attached to its surface strips of card-leather, equal in length to the width of the drum. Over a portion of this drum is a number of long strips, the under surfaces of which are covered with card-leather; these strips are called card-tops, and their ends rest on the heads of adjusting screws, projecting from the side framing. Nearly in contact with the large drum are a number of small rollers, called urchins or squirrels, covered with card fillets, wound spirally round them.
The lap roll, prepared by the lapping machine, is mounted at one end of the carding-engine; and being gradually unwound, passes along the surface of a food- board, between a pair of feed rollers, until it comes in contact with the first roller-card, or licker-in, which draws in the filaments of the cotton As this card, No. 1, rotates, its teeth come in contact with the teeth of the large drum, which strip off the filaments; but the rotation of the drum almost immediately brings it in contact with the squirrel, No. 2, which strips off the filaments from the drum, and, by its revolution, transfers them again to No. 1, which again delivers them to the drum, together with fresh filaments taken up from the feeding-rollers: the filaments which escape the action of Nos. 1 and 2 are seized by No. 4, which is placed much nearer to the drum; the cotton thus taken up by No. 4 is combed out by No. 3, which is nearly in contact with it but moving with greater speed. From No. 3 it is again transferred to the drum, to be carded out again by No. 4, and any filaments which still remain are arrested by the first flat top-cards, and held until they are disentangled by the revolution of the drum. In this way the filaments become gradually arranged on the surface of the drum in nearly parallel lines, which is the condition sought for, and in this state they are not teazed off by the urchins, but pass round to the opposite end of the machine, and are removed from the drum by a smaller drum card, called a doffer or stripper, on the surface of which the cards are arranged in spiral lines. The fine fleece of the transparent web is removed from the doffer by means of a doffing knife, the lower edge of which is toothed like a fine comb, and this, by the action of a crank, is made to strike down with a rapid motion over the points of the cards. The fleece thus shaved off is equal in breath to the length of the card on the doffer, and it is disposed of in one of two ways.
There are usually two carding engines, the first called the breaker-card, and the second the finisher-card, and the cotton is passed through both. In the breaker-card, as the fleece is taken off by the crank and comb, it is wound upon a largo wooden roller, which, when filled, is removed and used for feeding the finisher-card. As the fleece is removed from the finisher-card it is contracted into a narrow riband, by being passed through a funnel, then through three pairs of rollers, the bottom roller of each pair being finely fluted, and the top roller of each pair covered with leather, and the top rollers are pressed upon the bottom ones by weights suspended from their axes. The middle pair of rollers moves at a greater speed than the first pair, or that nearest to the engine, so that while the first pair delivers the filaments the second pair pulls them, before it delivers them to the third, the effect of which is to draw and straighten the fibres, and spread them out into a flat riband, called a card-end or sliver. But before this sliver passes to the third pair of rollers it is opened out and made spongy in texture, by being passed through an upright slit situated between the second and third pair of rollers; it is then passed between the third pair, which are but slightly pressed together, and the sliver is finally received into a tall tin can.— C. T.]
- Drawing-machine: used for doubling and drawing the web or sliver prepared by the finishing carding-engine, and delivering and coiling it into cansfor the next operation. This machine is furnished with a series of self-acting guides, which stop the machine as soon as the sliver breaks, in passing from the can to the roller. It is also fitted up with the coilers and revolving motions to the cans.
- Slubbing-machine, 28 spindles: used for drawing the slivers prepared by the last machine, and afterwards twisting and winding them on bobbins.
- Second slubbing or intermediate machine, 54 spindles: used for doubling and drawing the slubbings, and twisting and winding them on bobbins for the creels of the roving machines. This machine is introduced in order gradually to reduce the sliver, so as to obtain a more even and a fuller thread.
[The next operation is intended to carry out in a still more perfect manner the operation which was commenced at the close of the carding, namely, drawing out and elongating the slivers, straightening the filaments, and laying them as parallel to each other as possible. Another object is still further to equalise the quality of the cotton, and make the slivers of uniform strength and texture, by combining many slivers into one; this is called doubling: and all these objects are attained at the machine called the drawing-frame. This consists essentially of three pair of rollers, of which the second pair moves with greater speed than the first, and the third more quickly than the second. These rollers are similar to those used in the finisher-card, with one or two additions. A mahogany bar, faced with flannel, rests upon the top rollers and strips off all the loose fibres; similar bars are also made to press up against the under-fluted rollers. The distance between the first and second pairs of rollers must not exceed the length or staple of the filaments of cotton, or the sliver might be torn apart by the pulling of the second pair, while the first pair held it firmly. The sliver is stretched most in passing from the second to the third pair.
The card-ends are usually supplied to the drawing-frame from the cans filled by the finisher-card, a number of them being guided along the channels of a metal plate, at the top of which they unite and pass between the first pair of rollers, which reduces them to one sliver, the second pair extends every inch of this compound sliver into about two inches; and the third pair extends these two inches into ten. The length of the sliver thus produced is generally equal to the sum of the lengths of all the separate slivers or card-ends employed. The single sliver, formed by the doubling or union of all these separate slivers, is passed between smooth iron rollers, which condense it, and it is then received into a can on the opposite side of the frame. When a number of cans have thus been filled, the drawings, as they are now called, are again doubled and drawn out into one, and, by repeating the operation several times, the defects of individual slivers or drawings are absorbed and got rid of, and uniformity is produced.— C. T.]
- A roving-machine of 120 spindles: used for the same purpose as the last, and twisting and winding the slubbings on still smaller bobbins for the creels of the spinning machines. The improvements in the construction of these machines consist first, in the self-acting motions for stopping the machine when the sliver breaks (used for the Blubber only): secondly, in the patent bearing or collars in which the spindles work, and the methods of fitting the flyers on the tops of the spindles whereby a greatly increased speed is obtained: thirdly, in the application of the double patent pressure to the flyers, which preserves the equilibrium of the spindles whilst working, whether the bobbin be full or otherwise.
[By the preceding operations the cotton has been cleaned and the fibres laid parallel. It is now in the form of a loose porous cord, too thick to be spun or twisted into yarn. By the next machine, the bobbin and fly-frame, the drawing is again elongated, and partially spun, and the roving, as it is then called, is wound upon a bobbin. The spindle which, by rapidly revolving, puts twist into the drawing, is furnished with a two-pronged fork, called a fly or flyer. One prong of the fly is solid and the other hollow. The bobbin on which the roving is to be wound is threaded upon the spindle, and revolves with it at a different rate, and by a perfectly distinct movement. One frame contains from 30 to 120 spindles, and the action, which is alike in all, is as follows:— The sliver, as prepared by the drawing and doubling frame, is brought in cans to the bobbin and fly-frame, where it is elongated by passing between three pairs of rollers, and twisted, by the rapid revolutions of the spindle, into a soft cord or roving: this is passed into a hole at the top of the spindle, and then down the hollow arm of the fly; it is next twisted twice round a steel finger, which winds it upon the bobbin with a certain pressure. The finger, however, does not move up and down the bobbin, but the bobbin moves up and down upon the spindle, against the finger, by which means the roving is equally distributed upon the bobbin. It is necessary, however, gradually to slacken the velocity of the bobbin, as it increases in thickness by the winding, otherwise the roving would be improperly stretched or broken. The velocity of the front pair of rollers, which delivers the cord, and of the spindle which twists it, is constant; the motion of the bobbin which winds up the roving is quickest when it is empty, and its speed goes on gradually slackening until it is full. This diminution of velocity is occasioned by causing the strap which drives the bobbins to move slowly along the surface of a conical drum, which, revolving with a constant speed, the strap at the small cud of the cone would of course impart a greater velocity than when it had arrived at the large end.
The roving is wound on the bobbin by causing the fly and the bobbin to revolve at different rates. If the bobbin, for example, revolve 50 times while the spindle revolve only 40, these 40 turns of the bobbin have nothing to do with the winding; the 10 turns of the bobbin above those of the fly perform the winding; so that while 40 turns of the spindle produce twist, 50 turns of the bobbin produce 10 coils of roving, upon its barrel. In some cases the winding is effected by the spindle revolving quicker than the bobbin, and in fine spinning, two rovings are doubled, and passed a second time through the frames.— C. T.]
- A throstle of 160 spindles.
[The rovings thus prepared, are finished at one of two machines, namely, the throstle and the mule jenny; the one spins the hard yarns, which are chiefly used in warps, and the other the softer yarns of wefts. This, however, is by no means a general rule.
The bobbins filled with rovings from the bobbin and fly-frame occupy the upper part of the throstle-frame. Each roving is passed through three pairs of drawing rollers, which draw it out to the proper degree of fineness; on quitting the front pair, the roving is guided by a small ring or a notch of glass let into the frame, towards the spindles, which revolve with great rapidity, and produce, by the motion of their flyers, a low musical hum, which is said to have given the name to this machine. By the rapid motion of the spindle, the roving is twisted into yarn, which passing through an eyelet at the end of one of the prongs of the flyer, proceeds to the bobbin, which is threaded upon the spindle, and is wound upon it. The bobbin fits loosely on the spindle, its lower end resting upon a shelf, called a copping-rail, which has a slow up-and-down motion, and thus distributes the yarn equally upon the bobbin. The motion of the bobbin upon its axis is derived from the tension of the yarn in winding: for while the flyer is spinning, the yarn drags the bobbin after it, but its weight and its friction on the copping-rail cause it to hang back; by this contrivance the yarn is kept stretched, and is wound upon the bobbin by the more rapid revolutions of the flyer.— C. T.)
- Weft self-acting mule, 402 spindles: used for drawing or elongating the fibres, and twisting and winding the yarn on cops, for the shuttles of the looms.
- Twist self-acting mule, 348 spindles. The same kind of machine as the one last described, but used for spinning thread or yarn for the warp instead of weft.
The improvements in these mules consist, first, in an improved patent drawing-out motion for the carriage, which can also he used, if required, for the purpose of "jacking or after-draft," in spinning fine numbers of yarn. Secondly, in the squaring of the carriage by means of a back-shaft, which secures steadiness whilst traversing; and is, consequently, of great utility in long mules. Thirdly, in a new mode of winding-on the yarn by a "catch-box," which dispenses with all the springs and levers previously used, thereby preventing the frequent breaking of the yarn, and the wear and tear of the machine.
[The mule or spinning-jenny consists essentially of two principal portions: one, which is fixed, containing the bobbins of rovings, and the drawing rollers; the other a carriage moving upon iron rails, and capable of being drawn out to a distance of about 5 feet from the fixed frame. The carriage carries the spindles, to which a rapid rotatory motion is given by means of slender cords passing round them and a drum. There is one drum to about every 24 spindles, and as many as 1,000 to 1,200 spindles in one mule. At the commencement of the spinning, the carriage is run up close to the drawing rollers, which by their revolutions give out the roving which is twisted by rapidly revolving round the points of the spindles; the carriage is then moved away from the roller-beams somewhat more quickly than the rovings are delivered, by which means the yarns become stretched and equalised. When the carriage has been drawn out about 54 to 64 inches from the drawing rollers, it is said to have completed a stretch; the drawing-rollers cease to give out roving, but hold it firmly, while the spindles now whirling with increased rapidity complete the spinning into yarn. In spinning the finer yarns, the carriage makes a second stretch, during which the spindles are made to revolve with great rapidity. Any threads which may happen to break, are now pieced, or mended by children called, "piecers" or "pieceners." This drawing, stretching, and twisting of a length of yarn being completed, the mule is disengaged from the parts of the machinery by which it was driven out, and the spinner then proceeds to do his part of the work, which consists of three simultaneous operations: he pushes the carriage in with his knee; he depresses with one hand a copping wire, which places the yarns in such a position with respect to the spindles, that they can be wound up upon them; and, thirdly, he moves with the other hand a fly-wheel, which sets all the drums and consequently all the spindles in motion. He causes the spindles to revolve backwards for a moment, in order to slacken the yarns just completed, and to throw them off the points of the spindles. Considerable skill is required to perform these three operations successfully. The spinner must guide the copping wire so as to insure the regular winding of the yarn on the spindle; he must regulate the velocity of the spindles, and he must push the carriage in at such a rate as to enable the spindles to take up the proper quantity of yarn without stretching or breaking. These difficult and delicate operations can now be accomplished by self-acting machinery: the self-acting mule does the work in many respects better than it can be done by the spinner.
The quantity of yarn collected upon each spindle is called a cop. The yarn is wound from the cops, or from the bobbins of the throstle-frame, upon a six-sided reel, one yard and a half in circumference. The reel is mounted in a frame containing the cops or bobbins, and when the reel has made 80 turns, a check is struck, or a bell rung, which warns the attendant that a ley or rap of 120 yards has been wound. Seven of these raps make a hank of 840 yards. The site of the yarn is ascertained by weighing the hanks in a quadrant balance. The number of hanks to the pound may vary from 2 to 600. The hanks are made up in cubical bundles of 5 or 10 lbs. weight, by a machine called a bundling press.— C. T.]
- A doubling machine: used for doubling and twisting a number of spun yarns into thread.
[The better descriptions of yarn are gassed, or passed two or three times through a gas flame, in order to get rid of loose fibres, and to make it more level and compact. Two or more yarns, doubled and twisted together in an opposite direction to the twist of the yarns themselves, form thread, properly so called.— C. T.]
- A winding-machine: used for winding the yarn from the mules and throstle, and preparing it for the warping- machine. One side of this machine winds from cops spun in the mule, and the other from bobbins spun on the throstle.
- A warping-machine.
[When the yarn is required for weaving, it is prepared in different ways, according to the purpose for which it is intended. The yarns for the warp or long thread of a woven fabric are wound upon bobbins from which they are drawn in the process of warping. The warping-mill or machine is a large reel or frame-work of wood, with 12, 18, or more sides, which serve to measure the total length of the warp. This reel is mounted on a vertical axis, to which motion is given by an endless band, connecting the lower part of the axis with a wheel set in motion by the warper. One-sixth of the number of the bobbins of yarn required for the warp, is usually mounted loosely upon upright spindles, in a frame called a traverse. The yarns pass from these bobbins to the large reel, through an instrument called a heck-box, which is made- to slide up and down between two upright posts, by being suspended by a cord which, passing over a pulley at the top of the posts, is made fast to the axle: so that as the reel revolves, the heck is gradually raised from the
bottom to the top, and when the mill is turned the other way it descends by its own weight, and thus the band of warp-yarn is wound in a spiral line from the top to the bottom of the reel. The use of the heck is to divide the warp-threads into the lease, or two alternate sets, one set for each heald of the loom. To effect this, the heck-block contains 120 or more steel pins, with an eye in the upper end of each, through which a yarn passes in the process of warping. The pins are arranged alternately in two frames, either of which may be raised at pleasure. The threads being passed through the eyes of the heck, the ends are knitted together, and fixed to a pin upon the mill. The mill is then turned slowly until the top lease pins come nearly opposite the heck. The warper then, lifting half of the heck-frame, raises half the threads which he places upon one pin, and the other half upon another pin of the mill. In this way every alternate thread is crossed, and the lease is formed. When the warp has described a spiral line round the frame, from the top to the bottom, the threads are again passed over pins, the motion of the frame is reversed, and the warp forms another spiral line in a contrary direction. The operation is thus repeated until the whole length of warp is run out. The lease or crossing of the threads is secured by a band tied through them at the top, and another at the bottom. The warp is then removed, and wound up into a ball.
The bundles of yarn thus formed are spread out upon cylinders or yarn-beams, and in order to distribute them equally the threads are passed through a separator or ravel, formed of a number of shreds of cane fixed in two rails of wood. A dressing of glue, size, or paste is next given to the warp-yarns to increase their strength and tenacity, and to lay down the minute fibres which feather the yarn. (The dressing machine is not exhibited.) In the dressing machine the yarn-beams are mounted in a frame at one end; the threads are passed through a reed to keep them distinct, and then between rollers covered with felt, one of which dips into a trough containing the paste or other dressing. The lower roller gives paste to the yarn, while the upper roller squeezes out the superfluous quantity. The dressing is also rubbed into the fibres of the yarn, and smoothed over by means of cylindrical brushes, one above and the other below the warp, and moving in a direction contrary to that of the yarns. The warp is dried by being passed over a box or chest filled with steam, and a current of air is made to stream over it by means of a revolving fan. The warp is passed to the main yarn-beam of the loom, on which it is regularly wound, the threads being kept distinct by passing through a reed.
The warp-beam thus filled is suspended by its axis, so that the ends of the warp-threads may hang down, and the weaver then draws every yarn through its proper eye or loop in the healds. The alternate crossing of the threads is preserved by the lease-rods, and in drawing in, as the operation is called, the weaver can easily make each thread to cross the one next to it. When the threads have been passed through the eyes of the healds they are next drawn through the splits of the reed. The lease-rods preserve the lease of the threads, and the arrangement is as follows:—The first thread passes over the first rod and under the second, the next thread passes under the first and over the second, and so on alternately; the third rod divides the warp into splitfuls, two threads passing alternately over and under it.— C. T.]
- Power-looms, the novelty in which consists, first, in the patent uniform winding or taking-up motion, which is effected by surface-rollers, without the aid of ground glass or emery, and is applicable to looms for weaving both light and strong cloths; and, secondly, in the method of holding the edges of the cloth during the process of weaving by an improved "temple."
[The loom used in plain weaving consists of— 1. An apparatus for stretching the warp. 2. An arrangement for raising one-half of the threads of the warp and depressing the other half alternately, so as to open a space for introducing the weft. 3. A shuttle for casting the weft into the opening thus made. 4. Means for striking each weft-thread close up to the one previously thrown. The common loom consists of four upright posts with cross beams at the top and bottom. At one end is the beam or roll containing the warp, at the other end the cloth-beam, on which the work is wound as it is woven. The warp is kept stretched between the two by weights slung over the ends of the warp-beam. The alternate arrangement of the warp-threads is preserved by means of lease-rods. One-half of the warp-threads is alternately raised and depressed by the healds, which consist of a number of twines, looped in the middle or furnished with glass eyes, each alternate thread being passed through the loops of one heald, while the intermediate threads are passed through the loops of the other heald. The two healds are united at the upper part by a rope passing over a pulley, and at the lower part a rope proceeds from each heald to a treadle, by which means the lowering of one heald causes the other to rise. The yarns are also passed through the teeth of a reed, which is set in a moveable swing frame, called the lay or batten. At the bottom of this frame is a channel, called the shuttle-race, along which is thrown the shuttle, a boat-shaped piece of wood containing, in a hollow in the middle, the cop of yarn which is to form the weft or cross- threads of the web of cloth. At the side of the shuttle is a small hole, through which the weft-yarn runs freely as the shuttle is shot along. The shuttle is sometimes furnished with wheels on the under side, and may be shot backwards and forwards by hand or by pickers or peckers, as in the fly-shuttle, in which case the two ends of the shuttle-race are closed, and two pieces of wood, called pickers, move along wires. To each picker a string is attached, and both strings meet loosely in a handle, which is held in the right hand of the weaver. When the shuttle is at one end of the race a smart jerk of the picker projects it along to the other end, and another jerk in the contrary direction urges it the other way. Every time a thread of weft is to be thrown across the warp the weaver has to perform three distinct operations- 1. To press down one of the treadles, by which means every alternate thread of the warp is depressed, forming what is called the shed. 2. To throw the shuttle across so as to lay a thread of weft in this shed. 3. TO drive the thread of weft close up to the web by means of the batten. As the web is completed it is wound round upon the cloth-beam, and the breadth of the unwound portion is kept extended by two pieces of wood, called temples, furnished with sharp points at the ends.
In plain weaving, the warp and the weft-threads are of the same colour and usually of the same degrees of fineness. By introducing yarns of different degrees of fineness, at regular intervals, a striped cotton is produced. By having the warp-threads of one colour and the weft-threads of another colour, shot patterns are formed. Coloured stripes are formed by introducing coloured yarns into the warp. In these and various other cases every thread of the warp and weft cross alternately at right angles. In twilled or tweelled cloths only the third, or the fourth, fifth, or sixth, etc., threads cross each other. Figures. flowers, or patterns of any kind are produced by dividing the warp between a number of healds which can be raised or lowered at pleasure, while threads of different colours may be either concealed or brought forward upon the face of the fabric, or be made to change places according to the pattern. The Jacquard loom, as it is called, is a contrivance attached to a loom for raising or concealing different threads.
In the power-loom the services of the weaver are dispensed with, the various movements being performed by self-acting machinery, driven by the steam-engine.— C. T.]
Messrs. Benjamin Hick and Son, Soho Foundry, Bolton, are the makers and exhibitors of the steam-engine (6-horse power), together with the mill-gearing and framing for turning the above machinery.
The card clothing on four of the carding engines was manufactured by Joseph Sykes and Brothers, Lindley, near Huddersfield; and that on the other two by Mr. Horsfall, of Manchester. The illustrations which are in process of rapid preparation, will exhibit the whole of these machines, and will be given with a succeeding Part.