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Title: Cotton Manufacturing
Author: Brooks, C. P.
Language: English
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COTTON MANUFACTURING.
[Illustration: SINGLE-ACTION JACQUARD LOOM. _Frontispiece._]
COTTON
MANUFACTURING.
BY
C. P. BROOKS,
Examiner to the City and Guilds of London Institute; Sen. Honours
Medallist, Cotton Manufacturing, 1887; Late Lecturer on
Cotton Spinning, Weaving, and Designing, at the
Blackburn Technical Institutions.
_WITH OVER EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS._
Third Edition.
BLACKBURN: C. P. BROOKS, THE MOUNT.
LONDON: E. & F. N. SPON, 125 STRAND,
AND
NEW YORK: 12 CORTLANDT STREET.
1892.
[_All rights reserved._]
Cloth, crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.
SECOND EDITION.
WEAVING CALCULATIONS.
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
A Handbook on all Calculations required in
Weaving and the Preparatory Processes, including
Standard Wage Lists. For further
particulars see the end pages of this book.
PREFACE.
The lack of books relating to the weaving of cotton goods is the
motive which has led to the production of this work. Although several
admirable books are extant on special branches of textile industry,
few, if any, works claim to treat practically of the whole range of
processes popularly known as Cotton _Manufacturing_ as at present
conducted, and which, at the same time, are within reach of the
artisan’s pocket.
This class of work is all the more requisite in consequence of the
admirable system of trade education introduced by the City and Guilds
of London Institute, whose syllabuses for the subjects of Cotton
Manufacturing and Weaving and Pattern Designing are included in this
work. It is hoped that the student in either of these subjects may find
a handy book of reference in this volume, which goes into explanatory
details to as great an extent as space allows.
However, as the author has found, and doubtless many others actively
engaged in the industry have discovered, it is becoming a requisite
in the mill that those employed there be possessed of something more
than “rule of thumb” systems of working--that careful and intelligent
research and investigation is necessary to success in every department.
The writer trusts that this volume, based on practical experience and
on the application of theoretical principles in the industry, may prove
of assistance to such.
In addition to chapters on Weaving, in which reference is made to most
of the plain and figured fabrics woven in cotton, space is devoted
to the preparatory processes, especially to the important one of
Sizing; a chapter on Mill Calculations is added, as well as a Glossary
of Technical Terms--necessitated by the nomenclature of different
districts.
Acknowledgment is made of the assistance rendered by many
correspondents, whose suggestions have been, and will be, welcomed.
The thanks of the author, and it may be added those of the reader,
are due to the many firms who have lent blocks to illustrate and
simplify the letterpress. Amongst these may be mentioned Messrs. David
Sowden & Sons, Shipley; Butterworth & Dickinson, Burnley; J. H. Stott,
Rochdale; Devoge & Co., Manchester; Willan & Mills; Ward Bros.; and W.
Dickinson & Sons, Blackburn; whilst especial mention should be made of
Messrs. Howard & Bullough, of Accrington, whose sizing machinery has
been selected for description; and of Messrs. Hy. Livesey, Limited,
Blackburn, whose well-known weaving and preparatory machinery is
engraved.
C. P. B.
The Mount, Blackburn,
_January, 1888_.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In this edition some necessary additions and alterations have been
made, especially in the statistical portion of the work; and as the
City and Guilds of London Institute have altered the Syllabus of the
textile subjects during the few months that have elapsed since the
publication of the First Edition, the old Syllabus has been replaced by
the new one. Apart from these alterations the book retains its original
form, and the author hopes that this issue will obtain from those
interested in cotton manufacturing the same kindly appreciation as the
former edition.
C. P. B.
_April, 1889._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTORY.
History, Statistics, Cotton and Cotton Spinning, Cotton Manufacturing 1
CHAPTER II.--WINDING AND WARPING.
Warp Yarn, Winding, Beaming, Sectional Warping, Ball Warping 21
CHAPTER III.--SIZING.
Materials, Mixing, Machinery 32
CHAPTER IV.--WEAVING.
Plain Loom, Movements of Loom, Modifications of Loom, Splits 52
CHAPTER V.--COTTON CLOTH.
Varieties, Dimensions, Standard Makes 80
CHAPTER VI.--FANCY WEAVING.
Fancy Weaving by Tappets and Dobby, Analysis of Cloth, Tappets,
Dobby, Gauze, Handkerchief Motion 89
CHAPTER VII.--JACQUARD.
Jacquard Cloth, Woven Pile Cloths 118
CHAPTER VIII.--DROP BOXES.
Drop-Box Looms, Stripes, Checks, Spotting 133
CHAPTER IX.--CALCULATIONS.
Mill Calculations, Yarn Counts, Reeds, Healds, Cost of Cloth,
Warping and Sizing Lengths, Wages, Speeds, Engines, Miscellaneous 143
SYLLABUS OF TECHNOLOGICAL SUBJECTS 161
GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS 165
INDEX 169
COTTON MANUFACTURING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY, HISTORY, STATISTICS, COTTON AND COTTON SPINNING,
MANUFACTURING.
In the general acceptance of the term, manufacturing is understood to
refer to the whole range of processes which convert a raw material
into the finished article, but whatever that word may usually signify,
in the Cotton Trade it is technical for that department only, which
comprises the conversion of cotton yarn into woven fabric, and as such
is understood in the ensuing pages.
This department is frequently worked apart from spinning, and the
gradual and marked severance of the cotton industry into the two great
departments of spinning and manufacturing is a striking feature of this
great trade, although the reason of cotton spinning finding so fertile
a soil in South Lancashire is no more apparent than the cause of North
Lancashire being so favourable to the prosperity of cotton weaving.
Probably accidental causes in the early days of the trade had much to
do with its future division--the fixing upon a South Lancashire town
for the establishment of the first spinning machinist’s works, the
fact that the factory system was firmly established in the spinning
department before the working of looms in one building was possible, or
at any rate advisable, and the existence of large warehouses in North
Lancashire for distributing to the hand-loom weavers their materials
for use, were probably some of these causes.
The fact of the trade being carried on in two divisions, each in
different districts, has its disadvantages, the greatest being that
of additional carriage--an extra cost of no inconsiderable amount.
To remove this and other disadvantages, many attempts have been made
to introduce the lacking department both in the North and South of
Lancashire, but such attempts have generally failed to a greater or
less extent, mainly in consequence of the incompetence of the hands, or
rather the insufficient number of competent ones. Where the majority
may excel in weaving, the number of good spinners is generally very
small, and _vice versâ_. Another objection is the disadvantage at
which the one party is placed should the production of one part of
the industry exceed that of the other, the margin which might serve
to provide remunerative occupation for both being at present often
unequally distributed, the over-producer taking the lower position. On
the contrary, there is no doubt that the skill of the operative is more
greatly developed where one district takes up a specific branch of the
sub-divided labour, and conducts it in a more fully equipped style,
than would be the case were it to be attempted on a small scale.
The known pre-eminence of Manchester as the market town is attributed
in part to the necessity for some common centre where a meeting of
the representatives of each of these industries could take place to
transact the business of the trade. The Exchange of Cottonopolis is
that centre. Here, every day of the week, but more especially on the
Tuesday and Friday market days from all parts where the cotton trade is
conducted, the spinner goes to meet the manufacturer, the manufacturer
to meet the merchant, who in turn represents all countries to which
our manufactures are exported; and thus the Exchange has become, as
it were, the heart of the trade, for on it depends the prosperity of
the whole industry, and a stoppage or diminution of the business there
paralyses the trade.
The movement of the cotton trade, like that of civilisation, has ever
been westward. India is recognised as having been from time immemorial
its home, and although there cotton has probably been in use for ages
as clothing, there is no evidence to show that the substance was even
known in Europe till the tenth, or that its manufacture was commenced
in England till the end of the sixteenth, century. At _that_ time the
weavers used yarn made from “cotton wool,” as it was called, but which
yarn was furnished by the Levant and only used for weft, linen forming
the warp. However, the invention of simple hand-spinning apparatus
rendered it possible for the ever-increasing demand for cotton yarn
to be adequately supplied for a time by English spinsters, and it is
chronicled that, in 1701, 1,900,000lb. of raw cotton were imported,
although it is improbable that the whole of it was required for
conversion into cloth. At the beginning of the eighteenth century such
inventions as that of Kay’s fly shuttle so increased the output of
the hand loom as to cause for some years a dearth of yarn. This had a
good effect in inducing the great era of invention in cotton-spinning
machinery, from 1760 to 1780; during which time Hargreaves, Arkwright,
Crompton, and many lesser lights brought before the world the results
of their labour. These inventions, the importance of which it is not
necessary to refer to--their details and the story of their invention
having been so frequently dilated upon--these _created_ the cotton
manufacture.
The cause which influenced the development of spinning machinery was
antithetical to that which now caused an extension of the weaving,
which was an excess of the supply of yarn, and for which the only
consumers were the loomshops attached to scattered houses on the
country side, containing one or two ponderous hand-looms.
It is rather more than a century since the Rev. E. Cartwright, a
Kentish minister, first gave his attention to the invention of a power
loom, and although his first patent in 1785 was not satisfactory, yet
it is to this clergyman’s efforts that the world is indebted for the
first power loom. In 1787, he patented such a machine, fitted with
spring motion, batten or slay, temples, etc., with the addition of
a protector and weft stop motion in an imperfect form. Nine years
afterwards Robert Millar, of Glasgow, applied to it the means of
picking by plates and shedding by tappets or wipers.
Here all the principles of the modern loom were present, although in
very different form, and it is only in details that the loom of a
century later presents a different aspect. In 1834 the weft stop motion
was patented by Messrs. Ramsbottom and Holt, which was perfected seven
years later and patented in its present form by Messrs. J. Bullough and
Kenworthy, of Blackburn. To these gentlemen is due the invention of an
improved dressing machine called a “tape,” the forerunner of slashing;
also the take-up motion for cloth. They, too, patented the loose reed
loom and the roller temple; but from records of the time and tales told
by the older section of the community in Blackburn to-day, apparently,
it is to John Osbaldeston "that the honour is due of breaking the
concussion of the loom and inventing an improved temple. He also
originated many of those inventive appliances so essential to adapt the
power loom for weaving fancy goods, but was not successful in securing
any pecuniary advantage to himself, thus illustrating the fact that
not every benefactor of his species meets with the reward due to his
merits."[1] The creative spirit which carried cotton-spinning machinery
to so high a degree of perfection, was directed also to the improvement
of the preparatory machinery of the weaving department.
[1] Alderman Baynes’ Lectures, 1857, at Blackburn.
In the hand-loom days each weaver stiffened or dressed his own warp
whilst it was in the loom, applying the size with a flat brush. A
length of about two yards was sized in this manner, and dried by
means of hot irons being passed over the surface of the warp, paper
being first laid over the damp twist, or by means of a fan; grease
afterwards being applied. In the face of our modern systems this
old-fashioned method hardly appears credible. The paste used was a
mixture of flour and water, boiled over the fire, and stored in a
stone vessel not unlike a swine trough. Probably from this reason the
term “sow box,” indicating in our modern “slashers” the size vessel,
arose; and etymologists may find some connection between it and the
word "sowlin’"--a common expression in Lancashire for a mixture of the
nature referred to--of its intended use or application. The necessity
for this was removed by the invention of the dressing machine by
William Ratcliffe and Thomas Johnston, his assistant, of Stockport, in
the year 1803, by which warps were sized before putting them in the
loom. This dressing machine consisted of little more than a frame with
rollers to carry the warp from two back beams, one at each end, to the
centre where the weaver’s beam was fixed, whilst between were arranged
brushes traversing to and fro by means of rods actuated from a crank in
the so-called crank dressing machine, to apply the “sow” or size. In
addition there was a wooden fan to dry the warp, which passed through
the healds and reed also.
Dressing was in vogue until 1830 without any competitive system, but
soon after this the tape frame, producing five times more work than
the dressing machine, was invented, and continued in use until in an
improved form--delivering the yarn direct to the weaver’s beam, and
with still further capacity for large turnout of work--it under the
name of the “slasher” takes the lead among all sizing systems now
current, which important position is attributable to a great extent to
the speed and to the good quality of the turn off.
To James Bullough, a native of Westhoughton (though from early life a
resident of Blackburn), may be credited this last invention, which
brought in its train the beam-warping frame, and found increased
employment for the winding frame invented early in the century by the
senior Robert Railton.
The factory system was deeply rooted in the spinning department
before we hear of any attempt at gathering a large number of looms
under one roof. Arkwright had a spinning mill as early as 1771, but
the first successful weaving shed was built in Glasgow in 1801 by
Mr. Monteith, and contained 200 looms; previously, in 1790, Messrs.
Grimshaw partially erected one at Knot Mills, near Manchester, which
was burnt to the ground by a mob of hand-loom weavers. In 1813, we
learn of 2400 power looms being in use in the United Kingdom. Since
then the number of factories has rapidly increased, and excepting
for the effects of occasional deterrent influences, such as war and
famine, the cotton manufacture has steadily prospered and extended.
250,000 hand-loom weavers, and 30,000 power-loom weavers were engaged
in all weaving trades of all materials in 1833. Now, in 1887, 250,000
power-loom weavers are engaged in the cotton industry alone; while
in most districts a hand loom is a curiosity as a relic of the past.
The contrast is great, more especially so when it is remembered that
during the same period the trade has been established in many foreign
countries where nothing but handicraft skill was available at the early
part of the period, but where now the number of mules and looms has
grown, and is growing, so rapidly as to create out of former consumers
important competitors in the export trade.
The recent history of cotton manufacturing has been marked by little
which has caused extensive alterations in its methods.
The extensive and well-organised association of the operatives for the
protection of their position in relation to the masters, has become
a power, as shown by the great strike of 1878, when the operatives
were able to resist the masters for a period of nine weeks, and by
the increasing influence of the employés in all trade questions. The
more important Parliamentary proceedings relating to the cotton trade
during the time of its being conducted on the factory system are, of
course, the Factory Acts. The first important legislative enactment
was the Factory Act of 1833. By this no young person under 18 was
allowed to work before 5.30 a.m. or later than 8.30 p.m., nor more than
12 hours per day, although 3 hours extra might be worked per week to
make up for lost time. Children had to be 9 years old, and had not to
work more than 48 hours per week till 11 years of age, having 2 hours’
schooling per day to be provided by the employer. In 1844, females over
18 were granted the same privileges as young persons, and children were
allowed to work 6-1/2 hours per day if only 8 years old. Work had to
cease at 4.30 on Saturday. In 1846, the hours of labour were reduced to
11 per day, and 63 per week for children, young persons, and females.
Only minor alterations were made till 1874, when the Ten Hours’ Bill
was passed, limiting work to 10 hours per day, and 6-1/2 on Saturday.
In 1878, all the previous Acts were repealed and a new one made which
is still in force, and requires that for young persons and females the
hours be limited to 10 per day, and 56-1/2 per week; that no child be
employed at all under 10 years of age, or under the Second Educational
Standard; and only half-time below 13 unless the Fourth Standard of
Elementary Education shall have been passed, failing which the limit is
14 years of age. Males and females under 18 are deemed young persons,
and all young persons and females possess certain advantages over the
male workers, which rights are protected by Government inspectors. The
Bill was a lengthy one, and contains many restrictions as to holidays,
painting and cleaning, reports of accidents, fencing machinery, and
school attendance, for the benefit of the employé.
The Limited Liability Act of 1862 gave great facilities for conducting
business by companies of more than seven members, whose liability in
case of a collapse does not exceed the amount promised on formation--a
scheme inaugurated for the benefit of the working classes, but which
has been misapplied in many instances.
The Employers’ Liability Act of 1880 gives facilities for recompense to
the workmen for accident or injury sustained by the negligence of the
employer or his deputies, such liability being incurred under certain
conditions only, and being restricted to the amount of three years’
salary.
The Merchandise Marks Act of 1887 has caused a reaction in the tendency
towards short lengths and false description, by making it a penal
offence to falsely mark goods either in respect to dimension, quality,
counts, or place of manufacture.
In addition to these, the variation of tariff charges, notably the
reduction of Indian tariffs, the returns and reports to Parliament of
statistical information, the Inquiry Commissions, and some few small
enactments, all have their influence in a greater or lesser degree on
the industry.
The cotton goods of a standard make at the commencement of this
century comprised printer, muslins, corduroys, fustians, sheetings,
shirtings, twills, ginghams. In 1830, records give madapollams,
tanjibs, domestics, jacconets, gauze leno, figured muslin, splits,
and velveteens. Later, in 1846, there are chronicled lawns, books,
nainsooks, figured counterpanes; and, in 1864, brilliante, chambrey,
blue mottle, satin checks, in addition to previously mentioned goods,
from which list the absence of dhooties, Turkey reds, Turkish towels,
and cloths of later origin will be noted.
A comparison of the position of the cotton trade to-day with
what it was some thirty years ago shows a decided change in one
respect--_i.e._, in the firms conducting the business. Many of the
old private firms have disappeared and their places been taken by
companies, while, for many years back, the tendency has appeared to
be in favour of carrying on the trade by the co-operation of small
capitalists. Some of these companies are not limited, being formed
by a few speculative operatives who invest the savings of a frugal
lifetime in the mill concern, to which they also devote their labour,
being satisfied at the year’s end if they have drawn an ordinary wage,
week by week, while the capital has been added to, and increased.
Manufacturing, in consequence of the comparatively smaller amount of
capital required, is generally selected for the above system.
To these establishments many of the wealthy manufacturers of North
Lancashire can trace the beginning of their prosperity. By far the
greater number of these companies, however, especially in spinning, are
on the limited liability principle, and their increasing number shows
how valued, as an investment, such companies are; so much so that it
appears not unlikely, what with the narrowing margins and increased
competition, that the trade will, at no very distant period, cease to
be a means of making the wealthy cotton lord, and, as the trade falls
into the hands of gigantic companies, become merely a bank, with a
small rate of interest, in which the wealth of the smaller Lancashire
capitalists will be locked up.
This carries our thoughts to another branch of the subject--the
importance of the trade with regard to the capital invested in it,
a sum which cannot fall short of seventy-five million pounds even
in Great Britain alone, without taking the allied industries of
machine-making, dyeing, calico printing, lace and hosiery manufacturing
into account. By dipping into calculation, taking the spindles at the
figure of 17s. 6d. each, and the looms at £16, the amount invested in
plant will touch £45,000,000, and adding to this a floating capital of
£30,000,000, fully which will be necessary to the trade in importing
the raw material, converting it into fabric and distributing the same
to the world, a total sum is obtained which indicates what is at stake
in this mighty industry.
STATISTICS.
A perusal of the subjoined list will indicate in figures the extent of
the trade, and from it will be observed the comparative importance of
our trade with each country. Taking the value of the exports of piece
goods only as the standard of comparison, the list of countries will
be found as follows:--
_Exports of Cotton Manufactures--Piece goods of all kinds._
+-----------------------+---------------------------+---------------------+
| | QUANTITIES. | VALUE. |
| +---------------------------+---------------------+
| | Twelve Months ended | Twelve Months ended |
| COUNTRY. | December. | December. |
| +-------------+-------------+----------+----------+
| | 1886. | 1887. | 1886. | 1887. |
+-----------------------+-------------+-------------+----------+----------+
| | | | £ | £ |
|Germany Yds. | 45,358,400| 40,765,000| 676,321| 626,104|
|Holland | 34,132,200| 43,203,200| 519,491| 590,154|
|Belgium | 61,499,600| 65,712,700| 867,666| 921,207|
|France | 35,474,900| 34,585,300| 681,047| 598,531|
|Portugal, Azores, | | | | |
| and Madeira | 54,312,300| 66,761,400| 563,006| 683,429|
|Italy | 85,053,900| 119,961,500| 965,010| 1,364,075|
|Austrian Territories | 6,391,200| 5,946,800| 76,291| 72,245|
|Greece | 36,020,900| 35,860,000| 429,066| 454,862|
|Turkey | 299,706,200| 299,824,400| 3,358,980| 3,271,768|
|Egypt | 139,384,500| 156,150,900| 1,280,335| 1,391,736|
|West Coast of Africa | | | | |
| (Foreign) | 37,493,200| 46,394,300| 427,945| 547,784|
|United States | 45,251,600| 44,028,500| 1,148,955| 1,054,221|
|Foreign West Indies | 90,237,900| 95,223,700| 922,322| 973,227|
|Mexico | 32,312,200| 35,412,200| 359,932| 380,378|
|Central America | 37,503,800| 53,490,800| 379,280| 522,006|
|United States of | | | | |
| Colombia | 42,905,800| 61,637,100| 425,716| 572,082|
|Venezuela | 23,718,200| 44,697,300| 239,287| 446,528|
|Brazil | 241,034,500| 215,370,400| 2,679,273| 2,517,899|
|Uruguay | 35,732,600| 49,767,800| 414,497| 615,685|
|Argentine Republic | 104,812,100| 105,585,100| 1,224,586| 1,394,604|
|Chili | 59,701,800| 73,694,800| 562,722| 768,366|
|Peru | 33,593,000| 23,894,800| 354,389| 251,189|
|China and Hong-Kong | 455,823,000| 552,742,700| 4,570,207| 5,624,953|
|Japan | 34,628,500| 65,403,800| 383,500| 699,462|
|Dutch Possessions in | | | | |
| India | 86,511,500| 105,572,700| 928,813| 1,082,348|
|Philippine Islands | 43,214,700| 39,247,900| 481,513| 387,062|
|Gibraltar | 12,082,300| 17,424,300| 138,767| 190,988|
|Malta | 24,021,500| 16,987,100| 250,668| 175,010|
|West Coast of Africa | | | | |
| (British) | 28,502,600| 38,584,300| 318,964| 414,283|
|British North America | 32,584,700| 33,692,500| 634,158| 620,378|
|British W.I. Islands | | | | |
| and Guiana | 42,723,200| 51,593,100| 489,367| 582,803|
|British Possessions | | | | |
| in S. Africa | 21,465,800| 32,443,300| 341,689| 523,845|
|British East Indies | | | | |
|Bombay Yds. | 797,776,900| 647,673,400| 6,871,733| 5,737,475|
|Madras | 142,687,200| 126,804,300| 1,408,193| 1,296,161|
|Bengal |1,178,374,300|1,037,464,800|10,207,523| 9,422,554|
|Straits Settlements | 103,929,600| 144,570,800| 949,983| 1,325,562|
|Ceylon | 14,868,200| 16,914,200| 160,201| 184,024|
|Australasia | 96,756,600| 91,399,900| 1,700,432| 1,551,069|
|Other Countries | 152,629,100| 165,262,100| 1,779,844| 1,907,257|
| |-------------+-------------+----------+----------+
| Total |4,850,210,500|4,904,109,200|50,171,672|51,743,314|
| |-------------+-------------+----------+----------+
|Total | | | | |
|--Wholly of Cotton-- | | | | |
| Unbleached or Bleached|3,497,866,100|3,473,477,400|32,237,682|32,812,846|
| Printed Dyed, or | | | | |
| Coloured |1,351,976,700|1,430,537,600|17,922,454|18,925,985|
| Total of Mixed | | | | |
| Materials, Cotton | | | | |
| predominating | 367,700| 94,200| 11,536| 4,483|
| +-------------+-------------+----------+----------+
| Total |4,850,210,500|4,904,109,200|50,171,672|51,743,314|
+-----------------------+-------------+-------------+----------+----------+
In 1886, according to the estimate of Messrs. Ellison, of Liverpool,
the number of spinning spindles in various parts of the world was as
follows:--
Great Britain 42,700,000
Continent 22,900,000
United States 13,350,000
East Indies 2,100,000
----------
81,050,000
In a recent estimate published by Messrs. Worral & Co., of Oldham, the
spindles and looms engaged on cotton in Lancashire and its borders are
given as 40,946,709 spindles, and 582,504 looms. This does not include
other parts of the kingdom, nor a number of looms just now starting;
therefore we may without erring take the number of cotton looms in the
kingdom at about 615,000. In India there are 18,536 power looms.
The number of persons employed is:
Males 196,378
Females 307,691
-------
504,069
of which 465,654 are in England and Wales, 37,167 in Scotland, and 1248
in Ireland.
COTTON DISTRICTS.
Taking into consideration the various districts of Lancashire,
Blackburn is the most northern of those which take an important part
in the industry, and this town also takes the lead in Lancashire, if
not in the whole world, with regard to its importance as an exclusively
cotton manufacturing town. The class of goods made are of a plain
character, principally shirting, mulls, and jacconetts, while a large
number of looms are engaged on dhooties, grey and coloured, which goods
were introduced from Glasgow. A large quantity of dobby dhooties are
manufactured in this district--this class of cloth, of comparatively
recent origin, having been first made in Blackburn. The local spinning
industries are now very important, most of the spindles being run by
those who are also manufacturers.
Darwen weaving trade is of a similar character, and there is a fair
trade in yarn by several sale-spinning mills.
The neighbouring towns of Preston and Chorley have a connection with
goods of a distinctly finer and more “fancy” character, such as leno,
velveteen, damasks, embroidery, and brocades, while the plain trade,
including the well-known home trade shirting, is important. Here also
the spinning trade is comparatively small, the yarns spun being 40/80’s
T and 40/90’s W.
Burnley is remarkable for the recent increase of cotton manufacturing
within its borough, and has a most extensive trade in Burnley printers
and shirtings, with a few heavy twills--ranking second to Blackburn in
quantity produced.
Accrington, Harwood and district have a plain trade, but in yarns the
goods are of a much finer character than other plain districts. A large
business is done in the better classes of printers for the supply of
the local print and dyeworks.
The spinning of medium fine yarns, 40/200’s, from Egyptian cotton,
seems to be centred in Bolton, as is also the manufacture of heavy
fancy goods, especially Alhambra, Marseilles, and other counterpanes
and towels, with some finer fancies--leno, damasks, and velvets;
although many mills are to be found engaged in Blackburn goods.
Haslingden, Bacup, Rawtenstall, and many smaller districts in East
Lancashire are engaged on manufactures of coarse and heavily-sized
goods, shirtings, T-cloths, Wigans, and domestics.
Manchester, while being pre-eminently _the_ English market of the
manufactured cotton goods, is also known as the locality where the
finest yarns known to commerce are spun--_i.e._, yarns from Egypt,
and Sea Island cottons, 80/200’s in twists, and 80/350’s in weft.
The finer numbers, however, are not used for the ordinary purposes
of manufacturing, their consumption being divided between the lace
curtain manufactories of Nottingham and the great sewing thread
factories. The weaving trade of Manchester consists of checks,
ginghams, Harvard and Oxford shirtings.
Oldham is, it is needless to state, _the_ spinning town. Here the
coarsest yarns, 4/24’s, made out of the waste from finer mills, have
their spinning centre, and here the spinning of medium yarns from
American cotton has made the name of the town familiar wherever English
cotton yarn is known.
Rochdale depends mainly on the coarse trade, 12/24 warps (water T) made
from Indian cotton, together with some mule spinning up to 30/40’s.
The weaving of the heaviest cotton goods from waste, twills, sheets,
T-cloths, velveteens, fustian and cords, is here carried on.
Mossley, 30/50’s, warp yarn; Shaw Lees, Royton, Dukinfield, Ashton,
Heywood and Hyde, may be placed in the same category as Oldham, minus
the waste trade.
Stalybridge spins 30/150’s.
Stockport has good trade in spinning, as high as 150’s gassed and
doubled yarns with varied weaving, including the well-known Turkish
towels.
Nor must the other parts of the United Kingdom be forgotten. Cotton
weaving extends no further into Yorkshire than Todmorden, and about
2,000,000 spinning and doubling spindles are in use about Halifax,
Brighouse, Sowerby Bridge and district, these being employed on yarns
for dress fabrics made of a mixture of cotton and worsted, as well as
for curtains and hosiery in the Nottingham and Leicester districts.
In Scotland, the cotton trade is confined to the counties of Lanark,
Renfrew and Ayr. The spinning trade is here going down rapidly, there
only being about one third the number of spinning spindles running
this year (1888), as compared with 1857. The doubling spindles are on
the increase, especially for the Paisley thread trade. The weaving
department is also increasing, there being in the three counties
28,853 looms as compared with 20,963 in 1856. The superior classes of
cloth are made for the home trade--fine reeds, fine muslin, plain and
figured, and the manufacture of Turkey reds is also extensive. In
Ireland there are three cotton-spinning firms, three cotton-weaving
firms, and one both spinning and weaving, with a total of 70,900
spindles, and 2501 power looms.
Summarising the different classes of work into which the industry is
divided, we may allot to the coarse plain trade the Rossendale Valley
and Rochdale, locating the medium plain trade in Blackburn, Burnley
and Darwen, with the finest plain goods in Accrington and Preston, the
light fancy trade in Preston, Chorley, and Ashton, and the heavy fancy
in Bolton and Bury.
COTTON.
Even in a manual treating of the weaving processes it is not foreign
to refer succinctly to the cotton and the treatment it has undergone
to fit it for use in a weaving shed. The manufacturer who has had
experience in a spinning mill often finds the knowledge acquired there
to stand him in good stead in the selection and use of the yarn. Our
chief supplies of cotton are drawn from the United States of North
America; next in importance, although far removed in quantity from the
first-named, is East India, then Egypt, and lastly Brazil. Cotton is
a fibrous vegetable substance, being the fruit of the cotton plant, a
shrub of the _Malvaceæ_, genus _Gossypium_. There are several varieties
of this plant, but the development of the raw material is the same in
each. The plant attains its full height about June (this being about
two months subsequent to sowing), and the bolls or seed pods are found
to be ripening about the middle of July. These bolls, about 1in.
diameter, are divided by membranous walls into three parts, containing
three or four seeds each, covered with the thin transparent cylindrical
fibres attached by one end to the seed.
As the fruit approaches maturity, these fibres lose their cylindrical
form, becoming ribbon-shaped through the collapse of their walls,
and at the same time each fibre twists on its axis, thus causing a
sufficient pressure on the interior of the boll to burst it at the
junction of the compartments in the outer casing.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
After being left on the trees for some days, during which time the
ripening influences are at work, increasing the convolutions and
maturing the fibre--or exposed perhaps in the case of unfavourable
weather to the damaging influence of rain, which stains the cotton, or
intense heat which renders it brittle, or wind which fills the boll
with sand or leaf--the cotton is picked. It is then passed through a
gin, a machine which has for its object the separation of the fibre
from the seed. This latter, which in medium-stapled cotton exists
in the proportion of 2lb. seed to 1lb. fibre, is used up at the
oil-mills--while the cotton is packed in bales of 4cwt. and forwarded
to the sea-coast for export. The foregoing may be taken as a condensed
description of the cultivation of cotton on an American plantation.
In Brazil and Egypt the season is about a fortnight later; in India
planting generally commences in July, or immediately after the dry
season.
The raw fibre then is a ribbon-shaped filament with corded edges
twisted with 300 to 800 convolutions to the inch; thus, although to the
naked eye appearing quite smooth, under the microscope it has somewhat
of a resemblance to the shape of a joiner’s auger.
Fig. 1 represents a typical cotton fibre about 400 times the actual
size, and Fig. 2 represents its section. Fig. 3 represents an immature
or imperfect fibre, one which is more transparent, brittle, and weak
than the ordinary fibre, with no tendency to take dye. The convolutions
also are few and irregular. Fig. 4 represents its section.
The longest fibre is the Sea Island cotton grown off the coast of
the States, averaging 1-5/8 inches in length, and chiefly spun into
150’s to 400’s yarn, although for experimental purposes 2150’s have
been produced from it. Egypt gives three varieties--brown, white, and
Gallini. The first-named is commonest and is used for 50’s to 150’s
wefts and twists.
The American States yield a comparatively clean and even-running
cotton, the best variety being Orleans, of a mean length of 1-1/16
inches, used for 30/40’s T and 30/60’s wefts. Texas, though shorter,
is from its strength used for warp yarn, while the numerous varieties
classed as uplands or boweds are suitable for weft on account of their
usual good colour and cleanliness. The difference between the white
60’s and 70’s wefts and brown ditto is that the latter is from brown
Egyptian cotton.
Brazilian is a very harsh fibre about average length, and used for
twists either alone or mixed with American.
The East Indian varieties are extremely variable in length, and also
in relation to the quantity of weak fibres; the properties common to
almost the whole being brown colour, and dirty and rough character
of the cotton. It is chiefly used in Rossendale, Bury and Oldham for
coarse counts.
In the medium trade the fibre is subjected to no fewer than nine
processes (each different, and sometimes duplicated or triplicated)
before it arrives at the form of even thread known as yarn. In the fine
trade two or three additional processes are added.
[Illustration: PLATE I.--PLAN OF SHED. _To face pp. 16 and 18._]
The spinning department, to describe it briefly, consists of:--
1. _Mixing_ the cotton in stacks to secure thorough blending of
various qualities, and elimination of the unevenness present in
different bales or parts of one bale. Then commence processes
for cleansing, viz.:--
2. _Opening_ or passing the matted pieces of the bales through
a series of armed beaters having the functions of both
separating the material into small flakes and removing the
heavier impurities contained in it, such as sand and seeds.
3. _Scutching._--In this process a wing beater, revolving at a
speed of 11/1500 revolutions per minute, removes the remainder
of the heavy dirt, delivering the material in the form of a lap
or roll of cotton. This process is repeated.
4. _Carding._--Here, by means of revolving cylinders covered
with fine wire teeth, and combing the cotton against
other cylinders or plates similarly covered, the light
impurities--leaf, dust, short and weak fibres--are extracted,
and the lap attenuated into a thin sliver, in which the fibres
are laid in such a position as to be easily drawn parallel at
the drawing process. These four kinds of cleaning machinery
remove impurities and other matter foreign to the nature of
cotton, to the extent of about 10 per cent., taking middling
American cotton.
5. _Combing._--The long fibres are here separated from the
short, thus enabling a portion of the cotton to be used for
spinning finer yarns than the bulk would spin. It is only in
the mills spinning yarns above, say 80’s, that this process is
found; in ordinary, the custom is to go direct from carding to
6. _Drawing._--A simple process repeated for yarn up to 30’s,
used three times up to 60’s, and four processes are used above
this. The machine has for its object the levelling of the
slivers, six of which are placed together and drawn six times
the original length. When this has been repeated once or twice,
the sliver becomes very even and silky in consequence of all
the fibres having had the curl taken out and been laid parallel
to each other.
7. _Slubbing_; 8. _Intermediate_; and 9. _Roving_.--These
frames are all constructed on one principle, and have for their
object the gradual diminution of the thickness of the sliver,
which at these processes is attenuated so much as to require
twisting to keep it from breaking at the succeeding process. An
additional jack roving frame is used at mills making over 100’s
yarn.
10. _Spinning_ completes the object of all the former
machines--_i.e._, to produce a level clean thread, free from
unevenness in every respect.
Four sorts of machines are used for completing the attenuation--the
self-actor mule, ring frame, hand mule, and throstle frame. The two
latter are fast disappearing in consequence of the great improvements
over the hand mule recently made in the self-actor mule, so as to
spin fine counts up to 300’s, and in the increased output of the ring
over the throstle frame. The mule is automatic in all its movements
for spinning the yarn and winding it on the spindle in the form of a
cop--_i.e._, a cylindrical coil of yarn, cone-shaped at each end. In
this machine the spinning is intermittent--_i.e._, for a few seconds
the different portions of the machines are engaged in drawing out the
roving to the required fineness until about 64 inches have been spun,
the slack being taken up by a moving carriage bearing the spindles,
then a few seconds are employed in drawing back the carriage and
winding the yarn on the spindles. The ring frame is a constant spinner,
and as fast as the yarn is spun it is wound on a bobbin, while the
necessary twist is put in by a traveller shaped revolving round a
ring. It will thus be seen that the ring frame is only suited for warp
yarns, mainly in consequence of having to use a bobbin, which of course
requires modifications in the shuttle and box of the loom, and even
then is disadvantageous. The ring frame is suitable and preferable for
warp yarn up to 40’s, where the spinner also reels, warps or weaves his
own spinning. The mule spins both weft and twist. Throstle twist (or,
as it is called when reeled or warped by the spinner, water twist) is
generally admitted to be the evenest and roundest thread, ring twist
being next best, and mule yarn inferior to both. Mule yarn, however,
possesses an elasticity which neither of these can boast of.
From a consideration of spinning we arrive at a definition of the
manufacturing processes.
Unlike the spinning which is carried on in a building five or six
storeys high, the manufacture of cotton goods takes place in a “shed,”
as much of the work as is possible being carried on on the ground
floor. The weft yarn, or that which is laid transversely in the cloth,
leaves the mule in the condition in which it is required at the loom,
but the twist or warp yarn passes through several “preparatory”
processes to fit it for the operation in the weaving:--
1. Winding--to take the yarn from the cop and place it on the
warper’s bobbin.
2. Warping or beaming to wind the yarn from 400 or 500 bobbins
to one large beam.
3. Sizing--_i.e._, covering the warp with an adhesive
preparation to fit it for standing the strains in weaving.
4. Attaching the healds and reeds to the warp, called looming
or drawing-in.
5. Weaving.
Each of these will be described more fully in succeeding chapters,
and as in different districts different methods are employed, more
especially in the sizing and beaming systems, the one chosen for most
minute description will be the one used most commonly, although the
other systems will be referred to.
The weaving mill--or, as it is termed, shed--requires description next.
The general details of such a building will be more easily understood
by referring to the annexed plan.
The most important point to remember in the arrangement of the rooms
for the different processes, is to place each so as to require as
little transit of material as possible. The engine, a condensing one of
110 indicated H.P., horizontal, is driven by the steam generated in a
30ft. by 7ft. two-flued steel boiler working at 120lb. pressure.
In the flue is fixed a set of economisers heated by the hot air and
gases generated in the furnace, and through the pipes of which passes
the feed water.
In the winding room are two 200 spindle machines (100 each side),
keeping 12 winders employed. There are 3 beaming frames, 504 ends each.
In the sizing department are found the usual becks and cisterns for
mixing purposes, and one slasher sizing machine. It will be noted that
the weaving shop has direct communication with the looming room where
the beams are stored, and with the warehouse whence the weavers obtain
the yarn, at the same time returning the manufactured material. There
is also an outlet into the mill yard without passing through any other
department.
In case of a new shed having to be built, many important questions
present themselves for consideration. In fixing upon the site, the
essentials for a suitable position are a foundation sufficiently damp
and of such a nature as not to easily part with moisture, even in hot
weather, so as to preserve that humid atmosphere so essential to good
weaving, more especially where heavy sizing is resorted to; yet there
must be no yielding, for it is of vital importance that vibration be
reduced to a minimum, both in weaving, winding and warping, to avoid
breakages of yarn.
As many readers will be aware, it is partially in consequence of this
disadvantage being removed in mills entirely on the ground floor, and
partially in consequence of the increased dampness thereby obtained,
that such mills can obtain good results out of inferior yarns. A
position in the neighbourhood of good workpeople is most important;
such an advantage more than compensates for the increased rents,
rates and other dues of a town as compared with a country district,
for with inferior employés, inferior work, and therefore less
advantageous prices and fewer orders, are a consequence, while the
cost of production is increased. Good coal and water supplies are of
importance, and are best obtainable in the vicinity of a canal, and if
the district under consideration be a hilly one, it will be worth while
considering how to be sheltered from that _bête noir_ of a weaver, the
east wind.
CHAPTER II.
WINDING AND WARPING, WARP YARN, WINDING FROM COP, BOBBIN AND
HANK, BEAMING, SECTIONAL WARPING, BALL WARPING.
As has been previously mentioned, the weft yarn, when it leaves the
mule, is in the requisite form for use at the loom, whilst the twist
or warp yarn passes through at least three processes to fit it for the
operation of weaving. The object of these processes is to coat the yarn
with a layer of the adhesive substance necessary to protect it from
the chafing in the loom, and, secondly, to coil the threads of warp
upon a flanged roller evenly, so that they will unwind at the loom in a
level sheet the width of the beam, and containing the requisite number
of ends to make a cloth of desired dimensions. Bearing this object in
view, it is not difficult to understand the three processes--winding,
warping, and sizing.
THE TWIST.
The warp yarn is generally received by the manufacturer from the
spinners in skips of 200/250lb. weight, and in the form of a cop. This
has a cylindrical formation coned at each end, the more pointed end
from which the yarn is unwound being called the nose, the opposite
end the cop bottom. The best Oldham spinners make the cop about 7-1/2
inches long and 1-3/8 inches in diameter.
In judging twist yarn preference is given to the most even thread,
round and free from motes, soft places, and snarls. The latter are
caused by slack ends at the mule, the torsion of the thread taking
up the loose yarn in the form of a twisted loop. A similar effect
called a snick is caused by loose ends and inferior traverses at the
winding frame, but wherever caused, the fault is most annoying to
the weaver, and deteriorative to the cloth if intended for printing,
as the loops rise after the cloth has received the impression of the
pattern, showing white specks of an objectionable character. The twist
cop should be of full dimensions, firm and hard copped, free from
loose ends, and having clear apertures at the bottom for the winder’s
skewer. Any fault in these respects causes an increased percentage of
waste--most objectionable to a manufacturer.
The selection of a yarn for profitable use depends upon the foregoing
qualities, but care must be taken to select for heavy sizing an openly
spun yarn; for lightly sized printing cloths a strong, well-twisted
yarn; for sateens and velveteens a level one; and for other goods yarns
suitable to them.
WINDING FROM COPS.
The object of the machine shown on Fig. 7 is to wind the yarn from the
cop to a bobbin of about 4-1/2 inches lift--that is, having a barrel
1-1/2 inches diameter, and a head or flange at each end with a space
between of 4-1/2 inches.
The machine, Fig. 7, is duplex, having similar parts on each side of
the frame; on each side will be observed two rows of spindles driven
from a central tin drum by bands; five inches from the top of the
spindle is fixed a braid bearing a flannel washer on which the bobbins
rest, and are driven round by the friction; the cops are fixed in a
spindle rail, the end from each passing round a knee board covered
with flannel, thence through a brush which serves a secondary object
of cleansing the thread from loose dirt, and tightening it so as to
prevent snicks being formed. In front of this brush is fixed a guide
plate, slitted to prevent the winder lifting the thread so as to pass
lumps too large to go through the slits.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--WINDING MACHINE. _To face pp. 22 and 23._]
The brush and guide plate form a traverse, moving in slides
alternately up and down to fill the bobbin with yarn, which is drawn
from the cop through these “cleaners” by the friction between the
bobbin and the revolving spindle. To enable a greater length of yarn
to be wound on the bobbin, it is made of a barrel shape--_i.e._, of
greater diameter at the middle than at the ends. Although the first few
layers appear parallel, a greater increase of diameter is noticed at
the centre of the lift afterwards, simply caused by allowing a longer
dwell of the traverse than at the ends of the bobbin.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
Fig. 8 shows an ingenious arrangement for obtaining the reciprocating
motion, and at the same time the varying speed. A mangle wheel A is
driven by pinion B, alternately engaging with the inside and outside
of mangle wheel, thus reversing its direction of motion. On mangle
wheel shaft a spur wheel C of eccentric motion gears with a similar
one D on a stud, driving by a pinion E the rack F connected with the
traverse. When the traverse is halfway of the bobbin, the mangle wheel
is set opposite to the pinion B; and the small side of the eccentric
C driving the large side of D. It is quite plain, then, that by this
setting of the eccentric wheels the traverse will be at its slower
speed, while as the mangle wheel revolves the larger side of C will
drive D, and thus drive the traverse quicker as it gets near to the
flange of the bobbin, and consequently nearer to its reversal. An
exactly similar movement is obtained in another make of winding frame
by means of a heart cam actuating a treadle, to one end of which is
attached the traverse chain. As the larger or smaller part of the heart
actuates the treadle lever, it is driven more quickly, while its normal
speed is attained when contact is equi-distant between the apices. It
will be observed that when the bobbin attains a larger diameter, even
if the speed remains the same, the yarn is wound on more quickly in
consequence of the bobbin’s greater circumference, but the speed is
also increased because of the additional friction generated by the
increased weight. To obviate this uneven strain on the yarn, the back
row of spindles is often made to revolve more slowly than the front
one, and as the bobbin increases in size it is placed on the back row.
Winding from either throstle or ring bobbins is performed on a similar
machine, modification having to be made in the spindle rail only, so as
to obtain a proper position for the bobbin to unwind itself, the yarn
coming off the bobbin at right angles to it and causing it to revolve
on the modified spindle. Occasionally, where a manufacturer possessing
the cop winding frames uses ring bobbins, the yarn is unwound from
them in the ordinary way over the nose of the bobbin, and a little
additional drag is applied.
Winding is performed by women, who are remunerated at the rate of
about 1/4d. per lb. for 32’s T, and proportionately more for higher
counts. The most frequent fault in the shape of the bobbin is in its
being soft near one of the flanges: often dirt gathering in the guides
causes this, or the traverse is not set half-way of the bobbin when
the mangle wheel crab is opposite to the pinion. Gigging is the name
given to winding off any excessively large bottoms by means of a slowly
revolving bobbin, forming part of the winding frame. The speed of the
driving drum averages 160 revolutions per minute. The traverses should
have all gatherings of fluff, motes, etc., brushed out twice a-day.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--BEAMING FRAME. _To face pp. 24 and 25._]
WINDING FROM THE HANK.
Coloured yarn used for dhootie and other striped cloth is received by
the manufacturer in the hank, in which form it is dyed. When winding
it on the ordinary bobbin for warp, only slight modifications of the
winding frame are required. A swift is substituted for the spindle
rail, and used for holding the hanks while unwinding them, while the
kneeboard and brushes are absent. If the coloured yarn be used for weft
for heading purposes, a pirn is substituted for the bobbin.
Other systems of winding have been introduced with only partial
success, the principal one being a modification of drum-winding: a tube
on which the yarn is wound rests horizontally on a revolving drum, the
thread traverses the width of the drum, and thus a bobbin is built up,
having level edges sufficiently firm without any protecting flanges.
The ordinary drum-winding is similar, excepting that a flanged bobbin
is used.
BEAM-WARPING.
Three methods of warping are in use, but far ahead of the others in
production stands the beaming system. To enable a sufficient number of
threads to be gathered in one sheet for sizing purposes, say 2000, it
is necessary to wind them first on a warper’s beam. This is a round
roller, of wood, five inches in diameter, having an iron flange 20
inches diameter, and also an iron pivot at each end. This will hold 500
ends, each 15,000 to 20,000 yards in length, so that for a cloth of
2000 ends four beams are required at the sizing machine.
The beam-warping machine is for the purpose of warping the yarn from
these 500 bobbins to a beam.
The bobbins from the winding frame are placed in a creel, generally a
[V] creel, and shaped in plan view as its name indicates, each arm of
the [V] being a frame containing tiers of pegs to hold 250 bobbins, the
apex being nearest to the frame. The yarn passes through a reed, under
and over several horizontal rollers, emerging in front through a guide
comb, and thence to the beam. The beam is driven by friction, resting
on a large drum making about 50 revolutions per minute; therefore,
whatever the size of the beam may be--_i.e._, whether full or
empty--the yarn, being pulled at the front, is travelling at a constant
speed.
To avoid sudden strains of yarn the creel does not rest on the floor,
but is suspended from overhead beams by rods. The older makes of
beaming frames have a bed creel. Only one vertical creel is used, the
other half of the bobbins being fixed in a horizontal frame. The [V]
creel is preferable.
The whole frame occupies a space of about 16 by 18 feet.
The guide comb is of interesting construction. It is capable of
expansion or contraction. Each tooth of the comb projects from an iron
box, and is kept in position by being passed through the coils of
several spiral springs; by means of a screw and nut at each end these
springs can be compressed, thus diminishing the distance between the
comb-teeth equally at all parts of the comb. When the expanding combs
are used, far leveller beams are made than are otherwise attainable.
In the event of a thread breaking, the warper must have some
arrangement for running the yarn back, so as to find the broken end to
piece it up. This is obtained by six falling rods placed above seven
fixed ones. When the machine is running forward the sheet of yarn
passes between the fixed and loose rods, the latter resting on a slide.
When the machine is reversed, the slide receives a slight impulse,
allowing one rod to drop, say 3-1/2 feet, the yarn being suspended at
the top by the fixed rods; whilst this rod is dropping it pushes the
slide still further, and another drops, and so on, until when the sixth
rod has fallen, twelve times 3-1/2 feet equalling 42 feet of yarn are
taken up. This is ample for piecing purposes; indeed, the woman in
attendance seldom finds it necessary to go so far.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. FIG. 11.
PLATE II.
_To face pp. 26 and 27._]
Prevention, however, is better than cure, and several machines are
on the market fitted with stop motions to arrest the action of the
machine at the breakage of a single end, and reducing the number of
falling rods to two. One favourite system is to have a small bent wire,
not unlike a hairpin, but about 1-1/4 inch in length, suspended
from each thread and held in position by slots across the frame. This
system is shown in Plate II., Figs. 10 and 11. Immediately under these
pins are two nip rollers M (Fig. 10), revolving in contact, one of
them borne on a movable centre, and attached to an upright lever N.
This is immediately above an upright slide I, the bottom of which is
connected to one end of a lever centred on the drum shaft of the frame.
At the other end of the lever is a foot board and also the connection
of a long rod with heavy balance weight always tending to press the
footboard up, and consequently the slide down.
The machine is driven by a single open strap on the pulley, which,
however, does not actuate the machine until it is pressed against the
friction plate.
To start the machine, the footboard is pressed down, the slide
consequently lifted and held in position by a hook which catches on the
framework. By an inclined collar J, on the centre of the lever H (Fig.
11), the friction pulley and plate are pressed into contact and the
machine is in motion. When an end breaks, the hair-pin drops between
the nip rollers, pressing the loose one away from the other, therefore
by means of the upright lever already referred to knocking off the
catch H (Fig. 10). As soon as this is done the slide drops, and with it
the lever O. The inclined collar relieves the pressure on the friction
plate and the machine stops. The attendant pieces the broken end which
is thus brought under his or her notice.
Beam warping machines are of various sizes, the most common being for
504 bobbins, the width being 9/8ths, or 54 inches between the flanges
of beam. Other widths, of course, are in use, from 44 to 108 inches.
The waste of yarn, in the preparatory processes, indeed in all
departments of mill work, is extremely important, and should be kept at
as low a percentage as possible. At the winding frame the total waste
should be 1 to 1-1/4 per cent., varying with the count and quality of
yarn, and the total waste of warp yarn throughout the mill should not
exceed 1-1/2 per cent. at the most.
For the purpose of measuring the length of yarn on the beam, each
warping frame is supplied with a roller half-a-yard in circumference,
round which the yarn passes; on the end of this roller is a worm
driving a worm wheel B, of 54 teeth; on the stud carrying B is a
second worm C, driving a worm wheel of 132 teeth. The worm only takes
one tooth at each revolution, therefore a complete revolution of
the first worm wheel represents a length of 27 yards having passed
the measuring roller; this is equal to one tooth only on the second
wheel B; therefore, a complete revolution of the latter means 3564
yards--technically called a wrap--1/2 × (54 × 132)/(1 × 1) = 3564. If a
warp contains 4 wraps and 7 teeth, it is 14,445 yards long - 4 × 3564 +
(7 × 27). For other warping calculations see Chapter IX.
The faults in beams are principally, bad, or no piecings, soft places
caused by fine threads, or ends unevenly distributed in the combs, or
by crooked flanges.
Where dhooties and other striped cloths are made, the warper has to be
provided with a sheet showing how the coloured yarn is “laid in” at
the side. This will be described under the heading of Dhooties. Where
possible, all the coloured yarn is placed on one beam of the set,
leaving the other beams all “grey,” as the undyed yarn is termed.
In any case of warping two counts of yarn on one beam, whether coloured
or grey, allowance must be made for the different diameters of the
threads.
SECTIONAL WARPING.
[Illustration: PLATE III.--SECTIONAL WARPING FRAME.
_To face pp. 28 and 29._]
Where a warp is composed of two or more different counts of yarn,
or where a ball warp is required without having recourse to the
old circular warping mill, it is usual to use a sectional warping
frame--Plate III.
As its name indicates the beam is warped in several sections called
“cheeses,” of the usual diameter, but only about five inches in width.
Several of these sections are afterwards slid on a bar, compressed at
the ends and treated in the usual way. If required to be made into a
ball, the ends are gathered into a loose rope and coiled in a balling
machine. This latter method is generally adopted in those spinning
mills where the yarn is warped by the spinner and sold in the ball. The
sectional mill is a diminutive beaming frame of 400 bobbins running at
a high speed. The yarn is warped on a square block between two circular
plates, and when doffed is flangeless, thus necessitating careful
treatment.
There is an interesting piece of apparatus attached to these machines
for making all the cheeses of a uniform diameter when a certain fixed
length has been wound on, and the increase of diameter is regulated
automatically by the increment of length. The advantage of this is
obvious when using two counts, say 30’s and 40’s, the warp in each case
being, say, 1200 yards long.
If the diameter of warp were not regulated in any way, and the same
strain placed on the yarn, the 30’s warp would be of greater diameter
than the 40’s, or if of the same diameter the 40’s would be softer.
To obviate this a standard cheese is made; and in making it, the
attendant releases the setting lever, and allows the stud to move
freely in the vertical slot. With it is also released the scale lever,
and the other parts which control the presser. A required length of
warp is wound on the section block, say the length of a cut, which is
indicated by the measuring roller, and the movement thus made by the
presser is shown by the movement of the stud in the vertical slot. The
hand-wheel is then turned until the stud has returned to its former
position opposite the recess in the back of the slot. The position
of the nut is then noted on the front scale, and tightened up by the
handle shown. The setting lever is now brought forward, and the stud
resumes its normal position in the recess, and the setting operation
completed. In order that each succeeding section may be the exact
size and length of its predecessor, the only attention necessary by
the warper is to see that the revolution indicator points to the same
figures. Thus, when all are run off together, their sizes diminish at
an equal rate.
This machine is taking the place of the warping mill in the cotton
trade, especially for coloured work.
BALL WARPING ON THE WARPING MILL.
Before beam warping was invented, ball warping was the system
commonly employed in the preparation of yarn for sizing. This is a
somewhat clumsy method, and so far as the cotton trade is concerned
has been superseded by a modern system, excepting in one or two
cotton manufacturing districts situated on the borders of Lancashire
and Yorkshire, and for certain classes of goods in Bolton. A brief
reference to it will not be out of place then, although, probably,
the subject may interest few readers rather than many. The warping
mill consists of a creel for bobbins, and a large circular frame.
These are of different sizes, a common circumference being about 18
yards. This framework, or reel, is about 10 feet high, and thus forms
a somewhat extensive cylinder. About 500 bobbins (which are wound
from the cop in the ordinary manner) are placed in the creel and the
ends from each are gathered together midway between the reel and the
creel, at what is termed the heck box. This slides vertically between
two posts, and has for its object the correct guidance of the yarn
to the reel and also the keeping of the lease. The latter term will
be understood by all connected with weaving as being the separation
of the threads alternately, an arrangement which is used to enable
the position of the ends being easily found in succeeding processes.
Supposing there are 504 ends in the creel, these would pass through
the heck box, and forming a loose rope be attached to the top of the
mill. This revolves, and as by suitable mechanism the heck descends,
the warp is coiled round the cylinder spirally, making in all several
hundred yards, say 350. When the bottom of the mill is reached the
direction of revolution is reversed, and a second layer wound upon the
first one, and a third layer on the second, thus a warp of (3 × 504)
1512 ends is made 350 yards in length. Of course, the dimensions of
the warp may be varied either in length or number of ends. The warp
is now unwound from the mill and coiled in the form of a large ball.
In districts where ball-warping is still used, the manufacturer is
not usually his own sizer, and the warp, therefore, is now removed to
a sizer’s establishment, where, after being weighted to the required
extent, it is coiled into ball form again and returned. In the few
places where ball-warping is still used the warping mill just described
has been superseded by the sectional warping frame, as the ends are
kept straighter, and a greater length run through in the same time.
The uneven lengths in the old ball-warping mill, caused by the outside
layers being longer than the inner ones, are also obviated.
[Illustration: Decoration]
CHAPTER III.
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]
CHAPTER IV.
WEAVING, PLAIN LOOMS, SHEDDING, PICKING, BEATING-UP, OTHER
MOTIONS, MODIFICATIONS OF LOOM, SPLIT MOTIONS.
The last process of manufacturing, and the one in which all the
preceding ones culminate, is weaving. This has for its object the
combination of the warp and weft yarns, interlacing one with the other
in such manner as to produce a firm texture, fitted for the varying
uses to which cotton cloth is adapted--for warmth, for ornament, for
trade purposes--for sale. The power looms of the present day, as
employed in the cotton industry, vary very little in construction
in the most widely separated districts, unless for very different
classes of work, then what modifications are required consist of extra
mechanism added to our common type--the plain loom.
THE PLAIN LOOM.
The machine required for the weaving of plain cloth, or cloth in which
each end of weft and twist is interwoven alternately and on the face
of which no figure is shown, is simple. The warp yarn is contained on
a beam, the weft is placed in a shuttle, and the loom consists of the
necessary framework and mechanism for holding the warp in the required
position, passing the weft between alternate warp threads.
A general view of the loom is shown in Fig. 21, whilst a detailed
representation is given in Fig. 22.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--PLAIN LOOM. (Front View.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--PLAIN LOOM. (Back View.)]
In the process of weaving it is necessary to hold the warp somewhat
tightly, each portion at the same tension, and to obtain this condition
the cloth is pulled forward by the taking-up roller as it is woven; but
the warp is held back by the friction of weighted chains or ropes on
the collars of the beam. The warp passes upwards from the beam, over
the back rest, and thence to the back of the healds; between the back
rest and healds are the lease rods--a large one with a smaller rod
nearer the healds. By means of these rods the warp is separated into
equal portions, two ends passing alternately over or under the thick
rod; those passing over the thick one also run under the thin rod. The
rule commonly observed for four healds is to have the ends passing the
first and the third heald over the thin rod, and those drawn through
the second and fourth over the thick rod, and consequently under the
thin one. The first heald is the one nearest the front of the loom; the
draft is 1, 3, 2, 4, and applies to plain cloth, although the first and
second healds are worked as one, and the third and fourth together.
Respecting the two ends which pass together at the lease rods, the
one through the front heald is to the left of the one through the
third heald; whilst with the other couples, the end through the more
forward heald is to the left of the other. The weaver, bearing these
rules in mind, can thus find the place of any broken end. The healds
are suspended on each side of the heald roller A by means of straps
and cords, which are shown. The portion of the heald roller supporting
the back healds is larger than for the front ones; this is to make the
former when lifted make the shed at the same angle as the front healds.
Below are seen the crank shaft B, and the tappet shaft C, driven from
it at exactly half the speed. The latter shaft bears the picking plates
H and shedding tappets K. The slay, supported by the slay-sword[2] D
on the rocking shaft is shown also. It carries the reed at E, held in
position by the slay-cap F. The back rest at G, over which the warp
passes, and the weight levers and driving pulleys are also noticeable
parts. The cloth is woven pick by pick, and the whole action of the
loom may be comprised in repetitions of the operations contingent on
putting in one pick. Supposing the warp to be in position and the whole
machine in weaving order, the first movement is to open the warp into
two parts, and is called shedding; the second is to pass the shuttle
through the opening thus made, called picking; and thirdly, to beat up
the weft close to the pick last put in--technically, to the fell of
the cloth. In addition to these, auxiliary movements are taking place
for winding on the woven cloth, keeping it distended, and checking the
motion of the loom in case of accident.
[2] In addition to the references given in the text, each article is
shown on Plate V.
SUNDRY FITTINGS FOR LOOM.--FIG. 21.
The illustrations on the opposite page represent a number of the
various cast-iron parts which form a loom.
1 Back Bearer
2 Swing Rail
3 Brake
4 Brake, with Loose Clip
5 Stop for Bobber Wire
6 Gib for Crank Arm
7 Cotter for Crank Arm
8 Short Strap for Crank Arm
9 Step for Pin for Slaysword
10 Block for Crank Arm
11 Brass Steps for Crank Arm
12 Long Strap for Crank Arm
13 Bracket for 2-rod Vibrator
14 Eccentric for Vibrator
15 Crank Wheel
16 Swing Rail Brackets
17 Counter Twill Wheel
18 Large Twill Wheel
19 Small Twill Wheel
20 2 by 1 Leaf Tappet
21 2 by 2 Leaf Tappet
22 Large Tappet
23 Plain Tappet for Twills
24 Twill Bowl
25 Large Heald Boss
26 Small Heald Boss
27 Radius Bracket
28 Tappet Wheel
29 Slay Sword for Loose Reed
30 Slay Sword for Loose Reed
32 Slay Sword for Fast Reed
33 Pulley
34 Strap Fork Bracket
35 Strap Fork Bracket
36 Brake Stud and Bracket
37 Taking-up Catch Bracket
38 Brake Lever
39 Frog Plate
40 Frog for Opposite Side
41 Strap Fork Bracket
42 Bush for Old-make of Looms
43 Binder Boss for Twill Shaft
44 Dollhead Bracket for Twills
45 2 by 2 Leaf Dollhead
46 Small Tappet
47 Plain Treadle Bracket
48 Plain Treadle Grate
49 Dollhead for 2 by 1 Twills
50 Plain Dollhead
51 Change Wheel
52 Rack Wheel
53 Strap Fork Bracket
54 Frog (spring handle side)
55 Picking Bowl Stud
56 Loom Side Cap
57 Yarn Beam Bracket
58 Picking Bowl
59 Picking Bowl Collar
60 Picking Boss
61 Top Plate for Picking Stick
62 Under Plate for Picking Stick
63 Square Hole Cap
64 Picking Plate
65 Picking Neb
66 Hat for Picking Shaft
67 Foot-step for Picking Shaft
68 Swan Neck
69 6in. Ruffle
70 Fly Wheel
71 4in. Ruffle
72 Spring Bracket for Picking Shaft
75 Incline
76 Weft-fork Holder
77 Weft-fork
78 Brake Lever Rest
79 Bowspring Bracket
80 Bowspring
81 Upright Temple Spring
82 Under Spring
83 Small Spring
84 Knocking-off Finger
85 Hinge Spring
86 Front Plate for Slay
87 Bracket or Rest for Stop Rod
88 Finger for Loose Reed Stop Rod
89 Stop Rod, Rest, and Bracket
90 Heater Spring
91 Heater
92 Brake Wheel
93 Flange
94 Beam Wheel
95 Carrier Wheel
96 Cloth-rod Finger
97 Taking-up Lever Catch
98 Taking-up Lever
99 Three Leaf Treadle Grate
100 Twill Treadle Bowl
101 Twill Treadle Bracket
102 Long Twill Treadle Bracket
103 Treadle Bowl
104 Treadle Bowl Pin
105 Four Leaf Treadle Bracket
106 Four Leaf Treadle Grate
107 Holding Catch Bracket
108 Holding Catch
109 Carrier Wheel Stud
110 Carrier Wheel Stud Bracket
111 Treadle for Small Tappet
112 Twill Treadle
113 Change Wheel Boss
114 Taking-up Catch Lever Bracket
115 Back Lever Stud for Reverse Way
116 Binder
117 Duckbill
118 Slay Stud
119 Regulating Finger
120 Slay-stud Bolt
121 Hook for Chain on Cross-rail
122 Boxwood Strap Guard
123 Fly Spindle
124 Shuttle Guide
125 Slay Plate
126 Spring Hook
127 Swell
128 Incline Tumbler
129 Organ Handle Bowl
130 Organ Handle
131 Box End
132 Box End Spring
134 Tricker
135 Loose Reed Weft Grate
136 Loose Reed Weft Grate Neb
137 Fast Reed Weft Grate Neb
138 Fast Reed Weft Grate
139 Bow Spring Bracket
140 Weight Lever Spring
141 Under Beam Lever
142 Under Beam Lever Bracket
143 Weft Lever Bracket
144 Hammer
145 Temple Spring
146 Greyhound Tail
147 Hammer Stud
148 Hammer-stud Bracket
149 Tumbler Bracket
150 Tumbler Neb
151 Weight Lever Hook (reverseway)
152 Weight Lever (reverseway)
153 Usual Weight Lever
154 Plain Treadle for Large Tappet
155 Vibrator Lever
163 Loose Clip for Brake
164 Back Bearer Bracket
165 Crank Shaft Bush
166 Brake Weight
167 Fast Reed Brake
168 Weft Lever Stud
[Illustration: PLATE V.--PARTS OF PLAIN LOOM. _To face p. 56._]
SHEDDING.
Shedding is very important, and more so in figured cloth than in plain;
for it is by the shedding in its varied character that fancy cloth
is principally produced. For plain cloth, a two-leaved or two-plated
tappet is fixed on the tappet shaft, acting on a bowl fixed to the
end of a lever, as shown in sketches of looms. There is one lever or
treadle to each plate, and the heald worked by it is attached at the
centre by wire, and a small corded cross-piece of wood, called a lamb.
From the sketch it will be seen that, as the tappets revolve, the
healds are alternately lifted and depressed, opening the shed in the
warp. The shed for one pick will have the front heald at the top, and
the back one at the bottom; whilst for the next pick their positions
are reversed. The tappets are of rather peculiar form, a common shape
for plain being shown at Fig. 28.
Working on the centre S the eccentricity obtained is employed in
depressing the healds, but by an intermittent movement. The shed must
be opened quickly to economise time, but must be left open sufficiently
long to enable the shuttle being picked through. A reference to the
shape of the plate in Fig. 28 will show this. From N to H is the
portion for depressing the heald, from G to H being an arc of a
circle and the part by which the heald is held stationary, while G M
corresponds inversely with F N, and allows the heald to rise. It is
necessary for the eccentricity to be equal at each shed, a point which
may be tested by noticing if the sway of the beam is the same at each
shedding. To get this, the treadles must be level when the healds are,
and the centre of the bowl directly under the centre of the shaft. The
bowl should be in contact with the tappet during the whole revolution,
and thus give an easy tread--jerky motion in either treading or picking
being very detrimental to good weaving. A good shed should be almost as
large as the shuttle at the point where it passes through, quite clear
from obstructions of any kind, and the lower half of it not too low,
or, as it is termed, not “bottoming” too much, for when too low the
warp is frayed by the movement of the slay.
A point regarding which weaving technologists often enter into profuse
arguments and diagrammatic illustration, may here be summed up in
a few words. The line of warp when the healds are level should be
below a line drawn from the temple to the back rest, and the lower
the healds are in this respect the better is the cover on the cloth,
although attention must be given to the remarks in a previous paragraph
regarding bottoming. Whether the lowness of the warp line is produced
by depressing the healds or raising the back rest is immaterial.
When plain cloth is woven in a twill loom, the tappets act above the
centre of the treadle, and of course are of smaller size, the healds
being connected to the end of the lever opposite to the fulcrum.
The calculation of the size of the shed from given dimensions of the
tappets and treadles forms a good example in leverage. Suppose the
stroke of the tappet, or the distance through which it moves the
treadle bowl (represented in Fig. 28), between the outer and inner
circles is 3-1/2 inches. The treadle is 30 inches long, the treadle
bowl being 25 inches from the treadle pin, and the healds connected 15
inches from the pin or fulcrum at N. Then the movement of the heald
from its highest to its lowest level is equal to the distance moved
through by the point N--_i.e._, 2·1 inches--for if the bowl moves 3-1/2
inches, the point N moves (3-1/2 × 15)/25 = 2·1 inches. This gives the
size of the shed at the healds. Suppose the heald in question is 7
inches from the fell of the cloth, the shuttle passing through the shed
2 inches nearer to the cloth, then the size of the shed at the heald
multiplied by 5 and divided by 7 gives its size at the point where the
shuttle passes through, or (2·1 × 5) ÷ 7 = 1·5 inches.
There is a slightly different shedding arrangement adopted in some
looms, frequently so in Yorkshire, but rarely in Lancashire. This is
the Bradford gear shown in Fig. 23. The tappets are placed outside of
the loom, and the treadles are connected to the healds through jacks
at the top of the loom. A leaf or projection on the tappet in this
arrangement causes the heald to rise, not depressing it, as in the
previously described arrangement.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--BRADFORD LOOM.]
PICKING.
Among cotton looms the over-pick or Blackburn pick is commonest.
Attached to the tappet shaft are picking plates, one at each side of
the loom. As the picking arrangement at one side is similar to that at
the other, a single description applies to both.
The picking plate ends in a point and acts on an upright picking shaft
through a stud affixed to the latter. The point is removable and is
lengthened in broader looms about 1/8 inch for every 10 inches wider
reed space. At the top of the picking shaft is a picking stick, an arm
of some 30 inches long, carrying a band connected with the shuttle
box of the slay. It is now necessary to describe the slay. This is a
beam of wood along which the shuttle is passed through the shed and by
which the reed is held to beat up the weft. Its length is about 3 feet
more than the width of the cloth being woven, the space at each end
being taken up by the shuttle boxes. These are cavities open at the top
and at one end just sufficiently wide to hold one shuttle. Parallel
to the bottom of the box or fly-plate is a spindle carrying a hard
piece of horny substance called a picker. To the top of this the band
from the picking-stick is attached, whilst at the bottom the shuttle
rests against it. The back of the box forms an angle of 86° with the
fly-plate--thus, as it were, forming a dovetail into which the shuttle
is bevelled to fit. The space between the boxes is called the shuttle
race; it is not absolutely level, the middle point being from 1/8 to
1/4 inch lower than the boxes, the greater depression being for wide
looms.
It will be easily seen how the revolution of the picking plate actuates
quickly the picking shaft, and consequently the end of the stick, with
an increased speed. The blow is transmitted to the picker and the
shuttle driven across the slay into a similar box at the other side.
When a new shed has been formed by the healds it is driven back again.
A smooth pick is most desirable, and for this reason the stud on the
picking shaft must be set so as to receive a smooth _side_ blow from
the plate, neither a downward nor an upward one. This is a point in the
tackling of looms which receives the attention of every good overlooker.
The shuttle used in the ordinary classes of cotton goods is of box or
some other heavy wood pointed and tipped at each end with iron. The
usual length is about 13 inches and depth 1-3/8 inch. Care must be
taken that it is smooth at all parts where it comes in contact with the
twist, free from knots or other flaws, which, should they give, would
make havoc among the threads.
The weft is in cop form, and fits on a peg inside the shuttle, the
loose end from the cop nose being drawn through the shuttle eye by
a strong inhalation of air by the weaver. To prevent excessive waste
the manufacturer should obtain yarn well copped, the cops hard, free
from nicked places caused by the minder having his ends down; clear
apertures at the bottom of the cop, which should also be free from
backlashing--that is, ends hanging slackly below and over-lapping those
previously wound on. Weft cops, or pin cops, should be five inches
in length, and as thick as the shuttle will admit of. Weft yarn is
selected according to its evenness, good cover or nap, and cleanliness.
BEATING UP.
The shot or pick of weft often being put through the shed, is at a
distance of five inches from the woven cloth, and requires pushing
up into close contact with it. The motion of the slay performs this
operation. As explained on page 60, the slay is a beam of wood carrying
a reed, and having a reciprocating motion to and from the fell of
the cloth, imparted to it by the cranks on the shaft (Figs. 22 and
43.) The beam is supported on two vertical rods, called slay swords,
attached near the bottom of the loom to a vibrating or “rocking” shaft.
The slay is away from the cloth or front centre a sufficient time to
give opportunity for the propulsion of the shuttle through the shed.
Were the crank-shaft at the same level as the slay-sword pin, the
dwell at each end of the stroke would be exactly equal--a dwell of
some duration, however slight, it is obvious, there must be. However,
the centre of the crank-shaft is at a lower level than that of the
connection of the crank-arm with the slay-sword ears, and thus the slay
dwells longer at the healds than at the cloth. As the slay makes some
200 strokes per minute, the variations of speed at the back and front
centres are scarcely observable, but by means of exact measurements a
certain amount of dwell may be traced at the back centre.
By describing a circle to represent the movement of the crank, and at
a distance from it drawing to scale an arc of a circle to represent
the movement of the slay, we can prove the foregoing remarks. In Fig.
24 the circle referred to is shown, and also the line A E representing
the stroke of the slay. By observing the position of the ends of
the connecting rod E^1, when in contact with the circle at the back
centre, and also when the slay is at front centre, we find that it has
travelled over from E^1 to A^1, which is more than half of the circle.
Then assuming that the crank-shaft runs at one even speed, we would say
that the slay takes longer time going forward than coming back. Again,
by measuring the movement of the slay from A to B at the front, and
from D to E at the back, these parts are found of equal length, but
by extending from these points our crank-arm of equal length in every
case, we find that to move the slay from B to A and back occupies a
space on the circle from B to B^1, while to move the slay from D to
E and back occupies a space from D^1 to D^1 obviously greater, from
which fact we assume that the slay occupies a longer time at the back
than at the front, an arrangement purposely contrived so as to get
theoretically a longer dwell. The difference between the arcs D^1 D^1
and B B^1 is approximately 15°. Calculating at 180 picks per minute,
we get the difference between the time of dwell at front and back to a
seventy-secondth part of a second--to a practical mind not a very great
consideration.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.]
The shuttle race is made of hard wood laid on the beam, and in addition
to the depression at the centre is also rather wider at the middle of
the race--at that point bulging out slightly against the reed, which is
kept in contact with it by the slay cap at the top and the reed case
at the bottom. Care must be taken to keep the ends of the reed from
projecting in front of backboard, or the shuttle will be thrown out.
LOOSE AND FAST REEDS.
To obtain a firm blow at the cloth the reed is made to strike it at
right angles, for if the angle were more obtuse or acute a loss of
force would be entailed by a consequent downward or upward stroke
imparted to the cloth, the line of action not being in the same plane
as the line of reaction.
With regard to the firmness of the beating up, we have to consider the
merits of fast and loose reed looms.
In weaving, an accident which not infrequently occurs is the stoppage
of the shuttle when it has only traversed a portion of the distance
across the warp. A case of this shuttle trapping causes the breakage
of more or fewer ends, and consequently arrangements are made for
preventing much damage, either by arresting the motion of the loom
suddenly, in case of a fast reed, or by having a reed hanging loosely
behind the shuttle so as to give way in case of a “mash.” The latter
arrangement is preferable, as there is not the sudden concussion given
to the loom, which causes the vibration and straining of every part,
so objectionable in the fast reed loom; the loose reed can, however,
only be used for light and medium cloths, as the reed is too lightly
fixed to give a strong beat-up. In the case of the loose reed, the slay
cap holds the upper part of the reed in a slot, the bottom part being
pressed against the shuttle race by a strip of wood (completing the
reed case) attached to the stop rod. When at the fell of the cloth, the
stop rod is held firmly by a spring, and a fairly strong blow can be
given to the cloth; but at all other portions of the slay’s movement
nothing holds the reed but a weak spring acting on the casing, and if
the shuttle traps, the reed flies out, while a finger on the stop rod
knocks the loom handle off, stopping the machine without unnecessary
concussion. This latter advantage enables the loose reed loom to be run
at a speed of some 30 or 40 revolutions more than the fast reed.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.]
_Fast Reed Loom._--Here the loom is stopped suddenly in case of the
shuttle being stopped in the shed. From Fig. 25 the arrangement will
be understood. A swell attached to the shuttle box is placed so as to
project into it when the box is empty, and through an L-lever A drops a
catch so as to strike the frog B and arrest the motion of the slay. The
frog moves a short distance and puts the loom brake in action before
checking the motion of the slay. This is done by means of the rod C.
The catch is attached to the slay sword and rests on the lever A. When
the shuttle is in the box, and as the slay is on the top centre, the
protector rides above the frog about a quarter of an inch; it is only
when the shuttle has not landed in its place that the loom is stopped.
There is an arrangement for the swell to be released at the time
picking takes place, so as not to give unnecessary obstruction to the
shuttle.
TAKE-UP MOTION.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.]
Among cotton looms the positive take-up motion is generally used. The
cloth as woven is, by this arrangement, drawn on the cloth roller a
certain distance at every pick, the amount of take-up being regulated
by wheels. Fig. 26 shows a sketch of the arrangement. The construction
is similar for almost all looms, but there are different gears and
sizes of wheels used. In Dickinson’s gear the rack wheel of 50 teeth
receives its motion from a pawl, worked by one of the slay swords. On
the same stud is the change wheel: this gears with the stud wheel, 100
teeth, firmly connected with the pinion of 12 teeth, driving the beam
wheel 75. The beam or sand roller is 15 inches in circumference, and is
covered with glued sand, perforated tin, or some pointed substance, to
hold the cloth firmly. The fabric is wound on the cloth roller below
this by means of contact with the sand roller. The change wheel is
varied to give changes of picks in the cloth, a larger wheel giving
fewer picks in the quarter inch. Each gear has a constant number
associated with it, called a dividend. If the number of teeth in the
change wheel be divided into this dividend, it gives the picks in a
quarter inch of cloth. Imagining that a change wheel, having the effect
of only one tooth in a revolution, could be applied, then the dividend
is the number of picks that the loom would run before the sand roller
advanced a quarter of an inch. Suppose 528 dividend is taken, this
represents a change wheel supposed to have one tooth. If a wheel of
66 teeth be put on, only 1/66 as many picks to the quarter will be
inserted--_i.e._, 528/66 = 8 picks.
The method of obtaining the dividend for any ordinary gear is--
(Rack wheel × Carrier wheel × Beam wheel)/
(Pinion wheel × number of 1/4 inches in circumference of taking-up roller)
afterwards adding 1-1/2 per cent. for shrinkage of the cloth after
being released from the tension of the loom.
Thus, Dickinson’s gear is--
(50 × 75 × 100)/(12 × 60) = 520.
Add 1-1/2 per cent. = 7.8
-----
Dividend 527.8
The principal gears in use in Lancashire are:--
+------------------------+------+-------+-------+------+--------+-----+
| | | Stud | | |Circumf.| |
| | Rack | and | | Beam |Take-up | |
| |Wheel.|Carrier|Pinion.|Wheel.|Roller. |Divi-|
| | | Wheel.| | | |dend.|
+------------------------+------+-------+-------+------+--------+-----+
|J. Harrison & Sons, now}| | | | | | |
| J. Dugdale & Sons }| 50 | 100 | 12 | 75 | 15 | 528 |
| | | | | | | |
|H. Livesey & Co. }| | | | | | |
|Willan & Mills }| | | | | | |
|J. Dugdale & Sons }| 50 | 120 | 15 | 75 | 15 | 507 |
|J. & R. Shorrock }| | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
|Butterworth & Dickinson | 50 | 100 | 12 | 75 | 15 | 528 |
|W. Dickinson & Sons | 50 | 120 | 15 | 75 | 15 | 507 |
|Geo. Keighley | 50 | 140 | 15 | 78 | 14-1/2 | 637 |
|Pickles | 24 | 89 | 15 | 90 | 15 | -- |
+------------------------+------+-------+-------+------+--------+-----+
Pickles’ gear also has a swing pinion 24, and 2 change wheels; to find
the change wheel required, multiply the change wheel on the rack stud
by the picks per quarter inch, and divide by 9--
Equal to 4 teeth per pick for a 36 change wheel.
" 3 " " " 27 " "
" 2 " " " 18 " "
By using this motion, which is shown on Fig. 23, both heavy and light
pick cloth can be woven without a great variation in the wheels.
To weave heavy pick cloth with, say, the first-named motion, the rack
wheel might be increased to 60 from 50, and the dividend would then be
634.
In some looms a letting-off motion works in conjunction with the
take-up, to release the yarn on the beam at a fixed rate.
THE WEFT STOP MOTION.
A reference to the invention of this very ingenious and useful
apparatus is made in Chapter I. Its object is to stop the loom on the
breakage of the weft, or when the cop is finished. Unsightly gaws or
goals in the fabric are thus prevented, and the weaver enabled to
attend to more looms. A lever is fixed to the breast beam (Fig. 27),
hinged at one end, and arranged so as to rest against the starting
handle E. The lever carries a bent fork C, which projects into a grid
D in the slay at the moment that the crank is at the fore centre. The
grid is let into the back board of the slay between the reed and the
shuttle box at the starting side of the loom. On the tappet shaft is
fixed a projecting cam or sector, raising one end of a bent lever C,
the lower part of which is called the greyhound tail, and the upper
part, which ends above the breast-plate, from its peculiar form is
dubbed the hammer. The fork before referred to is balanced, and its
back end hooked and resting on the hammer.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.]
When there is weft in the loom the fork is prevented by the thread from
passing through the grid, and its back part is thus lifted clear of the
hammer. Should the weft be broken, the loom is stopped thus: The sector
raises the greyhound tail at the moment that the slay is at the fore
centre, and there being no weft to raise the fork, it is caught by the
hammer, and the lever to which the fork is attached pulled forward,
when, as previously referred to, the spring handle is released and the
loom stops. Manifestly the motion must be set so as to act when the
shuttle is at the fork side of the loom.
THE BRAKE.
A good brake contributes greatly to the manufacture of even cloth;
should the stopping arrangements be ineffective, thin places and
cracks will be inconveniently numerous. Usually the brake is a simple
lever acting on a brake pulley at one end, whilst at the other it is
regulated by an inclined bracket connected with the starting handle.
When the handle is pushed forward, the brake lever is lifted; when
the knocking-off takes place the end of the brake lever drops and the
leathers come in contact with the pulley, stopping the loom. Additional
brake power may be made by altering the leathers or weighting the brake
lever.
TEMPLE ROLLERS.
The cloth as it is woven tends to contract in width in consequence of
the tension at which it is wrought lengthway, and to counteract this,
temple rollers are used. For commoner heavy fabrics the roller and
trough is used, and consists of a fluted roller cut in the manner of
a screw at either end, one end with left-hand thread and the opposite
end a right-hand. Thus a spiral row of points is left at each end of
the roller, and it is fixed in the loom, so that as the roller revolves
the points distend the cloth. The roller is fixed in a trough for
convenience in attaching to framework. Lighter fabrics are woven with
side temples. These are small rollers acting only for a distance of 3
to 4 inches at the selvages of the cloth. Two pairs are usually used
at each side, the contrary-thread spiral arrangement being preserved;
a bar of iron connects the two sides. In the latter arrangement the
weaver can see the cloth from the moment it is woven, which is not
possible with the roller and trough, as some two inches are hidden
under the roller: the cloth is not held so firmly at the middle of its
width.
TIMING.
All the contrivances just described are required to work harmoniously
in order to produce the desired results, each coming into action at
the proper time. In plain cloth weaving, when the crank is at the fore
centre, the reed touches the cloth at right angles, and the healds
are slightly open, forming a new shed. As the slay moves backwards
just in front of the bottom centre, the picking band is tight and just
commencing to move the shuttle. At this point the healds are full open
and remain so until the crank has passed the back centre, when, as the
shuttle has arrived in the opposite box, the shed begins to close.
Before the slay has reached the front again, indeed when just past the
top centre, the healds are level; an advantage is thus gained in having
the rods crossed on the weft at the time it is beaten up, holding it
firmly. The sector lifts the greyhound tail for the weft stop motion
at the moment that the reed touches the cloth, when the fork would be
lifted if there were weft in the loom. This only happens, of course,
every alternate pick, when the shuttle is at the fork side of the slay.
Generally the monkey tail on the slay sword moves the take-up pawl
as the slay moves back, just dropping the holding catch as the crank
reaches the back centre.
The reed is held tightly in a loose reed loom when the slay approaches
the front. Of course, the timing of the motion varies under different
circumstances; if cloth is being woven as wide as the loom will
possibly admit of, or if the shuttle boxes be short, then picking
necessarily must take place later, as the shuttle starts so close to
the cloth; consequently, shedding must be later or the shed will close
before the shuttle is through. Of course in this case the pick must
be stronger, as the shuttle has more friction in its traverse. Other
circumstances also affect the timing.
THE POSITION AND FIXING OF THE LOOMS.
In a weaving shed the looms are driven from shafting running parallel
to the looms when looked at lengthway. Drums on the line shafts drive
the loom pulleys by means of straps. Of these pulleys there are two,
generally about 9 inches diameter for a 40-inch loom. One pulley is
loose on the shaft, the other keyed to it--the former to carry the
strap when the loom is stopped. The looms are in groups of four, with
an occasional row of couples for two or three loom weavers. The four
arrangement is adopted for convenience to the weaver, as the looms
having the starting ends contiguous, he has little walking for the
purpose of setting on the machines. Thus, two “hands” of loom are
required, those with the starting handle at the right-hand side being
named right-hand looms, and _vice versâ_. There is little difference in
construction--the crank-shaft is longer in one than the other for the
purpose of having two straps on one driving drum. Many parts, such as
crank-shafts, slays, shuttles, forks, brackets, etc., are required to
be of two “hands,” each for its own hand of loom.
In view of a case of having to remove looms or fix new ones, a few
remarks on the general arrangements for fixing them may not be
unacceptable. The line shaft runs over the space between the warp beams
of the looms. A line must be marked on the floor with chisel or other
convenient instrument parallel to this shaft and exactly below it. By
dropping a plumbline from various parts of the shaft, the starting
points can be obtained for stretching a line to mark from. The same
arrangement is adopted at every third shaft, as the intermediate ones
may be measured. From these lines the distance at which the loom feet
are to stand may be measured, just leaving convenient space for getting
between two full beams in each loom.
The ends of the loom must be set parallel also, so that on looking
down the shop a straight row of machinery will be observed. A line for
setting the outside loom feet may be measured from the pillars, after
getting the first pair of looms in suitable position. To test the
accuracy of these measurements, the breast beam of each loom, as fixed,
must be examined in a line with the breast beam of the previously
deposited one. After the correct position is obtained, each loom must
be levelled up by thin sheets of wood packing placed under the feet as
required. Holes are then drilled in the floor, wood pegs inserted, and
long iron nails driven home.
A good passage round each group of four looms cannot be too greatly
valued, and likewise a broad alley here and there running the whole
length of the shed.
LOOM TACKLING.
A loom requires a considerable amount of repairs and renewals, the
performance of which is delegated to an overlooker (sometimes called a
tackler or tuner) placed over each hundred looms. If on fancy goods,
fewer looms are under the control of one man; if plain narrow goods are
woven, more. His work is to keep the looms supplied with warps, gait
them up, repair or tackle the loom when necessary, provide weavers,
and, especially in a small place, perform rather multifarious duties.
When the weavers’ beam has been placed in the loom, having the healds
and reeds attached to the warp, the overlooker draws the gears forward,
placing a weight rope or chain round one beam ruffle, and, if a loomed
beam, fixes the reed. The healds are slung loosely to the heald roller
straps, and then the twist attached to the sand roller. If old healds
are used, the lap end of a former cut is placed on the roller, and the
warp tightened. If new healds have had the warp _drawn in_, a lap end
is attached to the roller and the twist tied to it, care being taken to
draw up any ends which may be ruffled. The temple is fixed so as to
revolve in the direction required to distend the cloth. Then with the
cranks near the top centre, the healds are levelled by means of the
cords below being attached to the lambs and treadles. After a little
manœuvring so as to make the shed _bottom_ nicely, whichever heald is
down, to get the healds level all across, and clear of any obstruction
or drooping ends, the lease rods are put in. The second and back healds
are raised when the back rod has to be put through the front, the third
being up for the thin rod. A few picks of weft being put through by
hand, a start is made after finishing the weighting of the beam and
changing the pinion, if necessary. The weighting is somewhat important;
for light cloths, fine yarns and light picks less weight is required
than for the heavier classes of goods. More weight is required for full
beams and under certain other conditions.
It is impossible to enumerate all the little points in the management
of looms, which it is the overlooker’s duty to perform; and only long
practical experience can teach their proper performance. However,
neglecting the derangements, which cause faults in the cloth, and
which will be treated of in the next chapter, we will refer to some
of the commoner mishaps. The shuttle flying out of the loom is caused
generally by some obstruction in the shed, floats, projecting reed,
top of shed too low or bottom too high, or by a crooked spindle or bad
picker. Cops flying off the shuttle peg may be attributed to too large
holes in the cop, or shuttle spring too weak or unpacked. When the
loom does not knock off when the weft is done, the fork may be bent
and thus lifted by grate, an end of weft may be hanging to the shuttle
sufficiently long to catch in the cloth and lift the fork. But for
the cause of this, and also of the loom knocking off when weft is not
broken, the weft stop-motion must be carefully watched. The picking
may sometimes be so strong as to throw the shuttle out of the loom, or
so weak as to allow it to be trapped by the closing shed. By judicious
setting of plate and bowls, any desired result may be obtained.
When by the shuttle binding too tightly in the box, etc., a fracture of
the weft is made, it is said to be “cut.”
THE WEAVERS.
The average weaver runs four looms, but in many sheds provision is
made for three, or even two-loom weavers, whilst qualifying themselves
for the higher number. In some North-East Lancashire towns five and
six-loom weavers are not infrequent on narrow strong goods. The
weaver’s duties require some little skill, and consist of piecing up
the broken ends of warp and drawing them through the heald and reeds,
filling the shuttles with weft and placing them in the loom as those in
working become empty, oiling, doffing “cuts,” putting in the coloured
headings--an important part of dhooty weaving--oiling, and performing
simple repairs.
The wages obtainable on ordinary goods, such as shirtings and printers,
should not be less than 11s. per pair, to give satisfactory results,
while 12s. 6d. per pair on dhooties and simplest fancy goods is good.
The waste in this process is important, four per cent. being allowable
on common yarns, say 36’s, this being reduced on finer and consequently
better copped yarns (weft).
The foregoing remarks apply to the weaving of plain cloths only, and
that by the most usual methods. In any process whatever, it may be that
some variation will be found to exist, and, before concluding this part
of the subject, the modifications of the one standard type of loom may
be referred to.
In shedding, the tappets may sometimes be placed on a third shaft,
driven from the tappet shaft, and termed a twill shaft, because by
altering the tappets and the speed the loom may be made available for
weaving twills. When the tappets are fixed to the twill shaft they are
smaller than those fixed to the tappet shaft.
SETTING OUT TAPPET.
The setting out of a tappet is an important problem. Two circles
must be described round the same centre, the difference in the radii
being the stroke of the tappet--thus, say A B or C D in Fig. 28 is
3-1/2 inches, then that is the stroke of the tappet. This is also the
radius of the smaller circle. The large circle must now be apportioned
according to the number of picks to the round in plain cloth, say
two. The circle is then divided into two parts by E F. Suppose we
wish the healds to be still during two-thirds of a revolution of the
crank-shaft, then as E A F represents a whole revolution, divide it
into six parts where marked, place four of these parts from G to H for
the dwell, and leave E G to form part of the lifting, and F H part of
the depression of the healds.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.]
The movement of the rising healds commences, however, before the
falling heald has come to a pause; therefore we must trespass into the
lower half to an extent equal to E G and H F, thus obtaining by drawing
a diameter through G and the centre, also through H and the centre,
the parts G J and H K for the rise and fall respectively. Divide C
J now into six parts by radii to the centre, also divide by arcs of
circles transversely, to these radii, the space between the small and
large circles into six parts, then by drawing a line diagonally through
the figures thus formed, we get a line G M giving an easy fall from the
large circle to the small one, and by similar treatment a rise on the
opposite side from N to H.
This is the theoretical construction of a plain tappet, from M to N
being the dwell from the heald when up. N to H the depression, and H
to G the dwell for the heald when down; and it will be noted, that
although G H is apparently larger than N M, the time of dwell is the
same in each case, in consequence of the arc N M being so much nearer
the centre. In practice, the hollows N and M may be found rather fuller
than shown here. This method of construction applies to tappets with
an increased number of picks to the round, a point which will be found
described in Chapter VI.
The speed of tappets is an important subject for calculation in
connection with the loom. When the tappets are on the tappet shaft they
are always plain, and are driven at half the speed of the crank-shaft,
in consequence of the latter shaft only representing one pick, while
the tappet shaft,[3] carrying two picking plates, represents two
picks. Should the tappets be on the twill shaft, and driven from the
tappet shaft, then the calculation is simple--_e.g._, say four picks
to the round are required, then the crank-shaft must revolve four
times for the twill shaft once. The tappet shaft must revolve half as
many times as the crank-shaft--that is, twice--and the ratio between
the speeds is as 2 to 1, which is also the ratio of the wheels, say
16 and 32, or 20 and 40, the larger wheel being on the twill shaft.
In this case the rule is to divide the number of picks to the round
by 2, which will give the ratio of the wheels gearing the tappet and
twill shafts. Occasionally, the shaft carrying the tappets is driven
from the crank-shaft direct, and the ratio of the gearing will be
as one is to the number of picks to the round--say 6 picks to the
round--then such a pair as 12 and 72, or 15 and 90, will be required.
Obviously, for a large number of picks, an intermediate pair would have
to be inserted--say 13 picks to the round must be woven, the wheel on
the crank-shaft being 25 and the last wheel on the same shaft as the
tappets is 65. Then, to get the size of the pair of intermediate wheels
on the stud, multiply 13 by 25 and divide by 65, which will give the
ratio of the size of the two wheels:--
(13 × 25)/65 = 325/65 = 65/13
These, or a multiple of these, are the wheels required, which may be
proved:--
(65 × 65)/(25 × 13) = 13 picks to a round.
[3] The term tappet shaft is used here in the sense understood in North
Lancashire--_i.e._, the shaft driven from the crank-shaft and carrying
the picking plates and tappets if plain.
SPLIT CLOTHS AND MOTIONS.
Split cloths are sometimes woven in the ordinary loom when narrow
widths are required and a perfect selvage is not a necessity. Thus, a
40-inch loom may weave a cloth with a few empty dents at the centre,
whilst on each side of the space thus caused the warp threads are
crossed (on the gauze principle) between each pick to make a firmer
selvage than could be got by ordinary lifting. The weft threads are
then slit along this space by a sharp knife, giving two cloths, each 20
inches wide. One system of forming the selvage is by having an extra
loop attached to the top stave of one heald, and carrying a thread
which is drawn through the other heald. By correct drafting this thread
can be made to lift at every pick first on one side of its neighbouring
warp thread and then on the other.
The same object is attained in a split motion, patented by J. & R.
Shorrock, and Taylor, of Darwen. By means of eyeletted straps revolving
round a tightened warp thread, the doup or crossing threads drawn
through the eyelets make a very firm selvage when slit.
The picking motions require a few further remarks. For some goods,
especially fancies, the under pick is used. In this case the picking
stick is rather longer than the slay sword, and is fixed parallel to
it, projecting from the rocking shaft through the shuttle box and
picker. The loom, Plate VII., possesses the under-pick arrangement. It
is driven by means of the picking plate acting _downwards_ on a lever
centred at one end, whilst carrying at the other end a strap fixed to
the picking stick about four or five inches from the bottom end of it.
The scroll or side pick is a favourite one for velvet looms. The
picking plates are fixed on the _crank_-shaft, and consist simply of
a disc of metal carrying a lug so as to catch against a latch or lug
on a short inclined shaft at the loom side. This shaft at the bottom
end actuates by means of a strap and picking stick fixed as in the
under-pick loom. Obviously, the picking from each side of the loom must
be done alternately, and the plates at the loom side are arranged so
as to act only once in two revolutions of the crank-shaft. This motion
is obtained by means of a scroll plate on the crank-shaft carrying a
groove forming an inner and outer ring in the plate; in this works a
slide in the inner ring for one pick, then traversing the outer part of
the groove for the second pick. This slide regulates the latch on the
short shaft. When in the outer ring the latch is lowered so as to be
caught by the lug on the picking plate, but is out of the way when the
sliding piece is in the inner ring. Of course, when the slide is in the
inner part of the groove at the right-hand side of the loom, the slide
of the left-hand picking scroll is in the outer ring, so as to pick
alternately. This picking arrangement is very compact.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--SHEDDING MOTIONS. _To face p. 79._]
SPEEDS.--AVERAGE SPEED OF NEW LOOMS.
Reed Space. Picks per Minute. If Double Cylinder
Plain. If Dobbied. If Drop Boxes. Jacquard.
32 inches 240 190 190 190
44 " 200 175 175 175
54 " 180 160 160 160
66 " 150 150 150 150
On goods with ordinary headings, the stoppages for changing shuttles,
piecing ends, etc., should not be more than one minute in twelve, or 8
per cent.
REED SPACE.
The reed space of a loom is measured from backboard on the one side
to the fork grate on the other. Thus, what is called a 40-inch loom
measures 45 inches reed space, and in it it is usual to weave cloth up
to 41 inches wide, although it is possible to weave 42-1/4-inch cloth
in it. A 26-inch loom has a 30-inch reed space, and will weave to 28
inches. In wider looms the reed space is about six inches above the
nominal size of the loom.
TOP MOTIONS.
In Plate VI. are shown a number of top motions to keep the healds tight
when worked from below. Each is self-explanatory, and by imagining the
effect of changing the heald or healds which are up for others, the
value of each arrangement will be seen. For example--take H, a 3-shaft
motion, two up. If No. 2 be required up and No. 3 down, the change
is made without any movement of the top pulley; if No. 1 be required
down and the other two up, it will be drawn down a distance equal to
the size of the shed--say 2 inches; whilst the small pulley being
connected to a step pulley on the larger one, is only lifted half that
distance--say 1 inch. Now, if the small one be raised 1 inch and No. 3
heald be kept still, No. 2 heald will lift 2 inches--the height desired.
It will be noted that a top motion is adapted only for one number of
healds, and that the same number must be up in successive picks. Should
different numbers be up at consecutive picks, a spring top as at S is
used.
CHAPTER V.
COTTON CLOTH, CLOTH-LOOKING, VARIETIES, DIMENSIONS, STANDARD MAKES.
It is for export that the bulk of cotton goods are manufactured, for
although the home trade is extensive when considered separately, yet
if compared with the foreign trade it becomes unimportant. Goods for
export may be classed into a few standard makes of cloth distinguished
by some special feature as to length, yarns, finish or other
characteristics such as are described later.
Before leaving the mill, the classification of the goods by name
receives no attention, the order to which they belong being the only
distinguishing description.
CLOTH-LOOKING.
The pieces are brought into the warehouse off the mill, by the weavers,
and are hooked in folds of 1 yard. This operation is performed on
the hooking or plaiting machine, a contrivance which requires little
or no special description, as a few minutes’ examination of it will
suffice to acquaint even a tyro with its construction and working.
In some concerns the looking is done on this machine. Probably the
cost is lessened and the cutlooker sees the whole of the piece (not
missing one side of the “flue,” as not infrequently happens in the
counter-looking), but the fact that the smaller faults are not all seen
renders the advantages questionable, unless the cloth is afterwards
counter-looked.
The cloth-looker’s duty is to examine each piece of cloth, reporting
any fault to the person responsible, and throwing out as seconds the
pieces which are not up to quality. The faults attributable to the
weaving are:--
FAULTS IN CLOTH.
Bare, badly-covered cloth, caused by the back rest of the loom being
too low, the shed too large, late treading and picking, too much
weight or uneven sheds. Cockly cloth looks raw and has raised lumps on
the face caused by too little weight. Cracks are sometimes weavers’
faults in not letting back after weft breaking, take-up motion working
unequally, or through some parts not being screwed up tightly. The
reed case also requires attention in case of this objectionable fault.
Uneven cloth is generally attributable to the unevenness of the weft,
although anything tending to unequal release of the warp from the beam,
such as weights touching the floor, damp ropes, or loose pivots, may
cause it.
Reedy cloth is caused when a few dents of the reed are bent out of
position.
Bad sides are either slattered, caused by unsatisfactory bottoming, or
are frayed and raw from lack of sufficient side ends. Occasionally a
bad picker catches the weft and causes a peculiar ridgy selvage.
Floats are the result of obstruction in the shed generally, broken
twist keeping down the warp threads and preventing their interweaving
with the weft; a raw place is caused which can generally be obliterated.
Mashes are on a larger scale. If the shuttle is entrapped without
the reed flying out, in loose reed looms, or the protector acting in
fast reeds, the twist is entirely broken out for several inches in
the width. To piece up all these ends leaves an ugly place, and it is
occasionally preferable to weave on and seam the piece, after cutting
out the obnoxious part. A shuttle spelling will cause the same effect
as trapping.
Broken picks are caused by several layers of weft coming off the
cop into one shed. These should be picked out by the weaver, as,
besides being unsightly, they are objectionable in certain after
processes--printing, raising for oilcloth purposes, etc.
In figured work faulty patterns, slattering borders, and missing picks
or ends require attention.
Black oil--that is, oil discoloured by being mixed with the particles
of iron ground off the shaft necks and bearings--must be washed out
with soap and water. Oxalic acid is often applied to the spots,
combining with the iron and forming oxalate of iron, which, being
soluble in water, can be rinsed out. This substance, unless thoroughly
cleansed out, acts somewhat corrosively on the fibre, and for this
reason is tabooed by some cloth buyers. In coloured work care must
be taken that the colour shows up well and bright. According to the
prevalence of any of these faults in a piece of cloth, the cloth-looker
has to select and classify his deliveries. Other important items
are included in the scrutiny--short lengths and widths, short or
uneven weights, too light reed and pick, wrong headings, are all very
important points, necessitating careful attention, and instant report
of same to the persons responsible.
HEADINGS.
Headings, or cross-borders, are bars of coloured wefts placed at the
end of each piece of cloth for distinction from other pieces. These
headings are also placed at other parts of the cloth, indicating where
the pieces are to be separated by the retail dealers. These headings
are very fanciful and intricate in some instances, ranging, as they do,
from the simple stripe heading of 2 or 4 picks, to the extensive Sarrie
or Madras heading 15 or 20 inches in length. The principal headings are
the Bombay, Ceylon, Sarrie, Calcutta, and Madras.
PACKING.
After having been passed the goods are made up into portable bundles
of about 10 pieces in each, and are ready for forwarding to the
warehouses in Manchester, or possibly to the bleachers or printers,
or to some Glasgow or London house. Some few manufacturers have also
a shipping connection, when the cloth is packed and forwarded direct
without passing through the hands of the Manchester agent. The bulk
of the cloth goes to Manchester, and here undergoes a second scrutiny
preparatory to packing if shipped “in the grey,” or previous to being
forwarded to the bleacher, dyer, finisher, or printer, if it has to
undergo these processes before export.
Bleaching is the removal of any colour from the cloth by the action of
chemicals.
Printing is the colouring of the surface of the cloth according to a
figure or design, and may be in several colours.
In finishing, the cloth is coated with filling substances and has a
gloss imparted to it, greatly improving the appearance of the fabric.
In such fabrics as cotton blankets, or for the thin oilcloths known
as American cloths, the fibres on the surface of the cloth have to be
raised; this operation is performed in a raising machine, where, by
means of pointed filleting, the face of the fabric is abraded until the
fibres form a nap.
In packing, the pieces are arranged in bales and compressed to about
half their bulk when loose. The layer of protective material round the
bales consists of white paper, brown paper, followed on the outside
by black oiled sheets and pack sheeting. Occasionally, linen sheets
are introduced between the inner and the outer layers as an additional
protection against stain or damage. The bales are hooped in the press.
VARIETIES OF COTTON CLOTH.
The principal makes of cotton cloth are given below, together with
remarks concerning export, sizing, etc., and at the end a list of the
standard sizes is attached. The first group of cloths includes the
shirtings, dhooties, and long-cloths:--
Shirtings are heavily-sized goods, 125 per cent. not being unusual. The
widths vary from 38 to 50 inches, length about 37-1/2 yards long-stick.
Reed and pick from 12 square to 19 × 18. These goods are made to
weight--thus, a 39-inch 16 × 15 weighs 8-1/4lb.; a 45-inch, 9lb.; a
50-inch 10lb. Various kinds are made, some medium-sized. What is known
as Indian shirting is the heavy-sized class.
Shirtings are exported to India, China, Japan, Turkey, Italy, Levant. A
good class is made, bleached, and exported to Egypt, Japan, India, and
China, as white shirtings.
Dhooties are shirtings ornamented by stripes of grey or coloured yarn,
and in suitable lengths for Hindoo loin cloths. The stripes are not
of very varied character in grey dhooties, being simply tape edges
formed by cramping grey or bleached yarn at the selvage. In coloured
dhooties, stripes of vari-coloured warps are introduced about an inch
from the edge of the cloth, and varying from half an inch in width to 4
inches, sometimes being introduced at intervals all across the piece.
In dobby-dhooties these stripes are woven in figures.
A range of dhooties includes all widths from 22 to 50 inches, and the
length of scarf varying from 2 yards in the smaller size to 5 yards
in the larger. A scarf is the distance between the headings, which in
these goods are very extensive, sometimes reaching to 20 inches in
length at the juncture of the two scarves.
A Range = 22 inches and 23 inches = 2-yard scarf.
24 " " 25 " = 2-1/2 " "
26 " " 28 " = 3 " "
29 " " 32 " = 3-1/2 " "
35 inches ... ... ... = 4 " "
The higher widths being variously 4-1/2 or 5 yards.
Dhooties are made up in about 40-yard lengths--thus, a piece 44 inches
wide would contain 4 double scarves. The yarns employed vary similarly
to shirtings, from 30/40’s warp, 36/60’s wefts.
The dress of a male Hindoo consists of a dhootie containing 4 square
yards, a doputta of 8 square yards, and a turban of 12 square yards;
whilst in addition the Hindoo woman wears sarrie, a similar cloth
to the dhootie. India is the recipient of the dhooties in greatest
quantity. Sarongs go to Java, patadiongs to the Phillipines.
The shirtings here mentioned must not be confused with the home trade
shirtings--goods in which only the finest yarns are used, free from
any of the objectionable filling referred to above. To this class
belong long-cloths, mediums, Wigans (plain and twill), double warps and
twills. Export long-cloths are plain goods, shirting style, 36 yards
long, generally 36 inches wide, 12 square, medium size.
Another group of sized cloths, next in importance to the shirtings,
consists of the T-cloths, Mexicans, domestics, and madapollams.
T-cloths are always 24 yards in length, of coarse yarns, heavily sized,
from 28 to 32 inches wide, 12 × 10 to 16 × 16,[4] 4lb. and 6lb. in
weight. The name is derived from the mark [T] of the first exporters.
Exported to India, China, Japan, South America, Roumania and Servia.
[4] In this Chapter, where reed and pick is given, it must be
understood as referring to a quarter of an inch, unless otherwise
specified. Thus--12 × 10 means 12 ends and 10 picks in a quarter of an
inch, or 48 ends and 40 picks per inch.
Domestics are from 28 to 39 inches, 60, 72, 80, or 96 yards. Warp,
18/24’s; weft, 16/40’s; and from 14 to 16 reed and pick; medium to
heavy size. Exported to South America, Italy, Levant, Turkey, Egypt. A
somewhat better class is made and used extensively by the home trade.
Mexicans are of better quality than the foregoing, and are always above
17 × 17 reed and pick, yarns, twist, coarse; weft, medium; medium size;
28 to 32 inches in width. Exported to South and Central America.
Madapollams are lighter in reed and pick than the foregoing, being
about 11 and 12 square; width, 28 to 32 inches, and similar in
length to the T-cloths and Mexicans; sized medium. Exported to India
principally, also to Mediterranean States and to South America.
Dyeing and printing cloths form an important department.
Under the first heading Turkey reds are prominent. These, like
printers, are cloths of good quality. Shirting counts and widths, but
about twice the length; pure size. Exported to Japan, China, India.
Printers, Burnley makes, sometimes dubbed Burnley lumps, are 32 inches,
116 yards, 16 × 16, 32’s/50’s yarn. Quality important, yarns good,
lightly sized, warps even and hard-twisted, weft free from unevenness,
snarls, etc.
Glossop printers, 36 inches, 19 × 22; 50 yards, 11-3/4lb.
These are not the only descriptions of printers, coarse cloth of
varied dimensions being required, which, when stamped with patterns of
every conceivable style, are exported to India, Persia, Italy, Brazil,
Levant, Java and Japan.
In light goods, tanjibs, jacconetts, mulls and cambrics may be classed
together.
Tanjibs are the coarsest; 30 to 50 inches wide, 38 yards long, 12
square, 32’s/40’s; lightly sized.
Jacconetts and nainsooks are finer; 39 to 44 inches, 14 × 14 to 16 ×
16, 32’s/50’s, about 20 yards long.
Mulls are somewhat similar in style; 39 to 50 inches wide, 20 yards, 16
× 16 to 20 × 20, from 60’s to 100’s yarn; pure size.
Cambrics are the finest of the group; generally wide from 24 square to
36 square, 80 to 160’s yarn; pure size.
Turkey, India, China, Japan, Roumania, the Levant, Egypt, are all
customers for these four cloths.
Book and tarletan muslins are very fine home trades.
A variety of cambric called embroidery cloth is largely made in some
districts. It is of first-class quality, usually about 50 inches wide,
and cut up into short lengths. It is chiefly exported to Germany and
Switzerland, there to be embroidered by the machines spread over the
country districts, and returned as Swiss work, etc.
Sheetings are very wide goods; 60 to 100 inches. The yarns are coarse,
generally 12’s to 20’s, although fine sheetings are frequently made.
Waste plains are coarse goods woven with yarn spun from waste.
Ginghams, checks, zephyrs, although coloured goods, are of plain weave,
and of unclassifiable dimensions.
Other plain cloths needing little remark in consequence of their
unimportance are:--
Tarletan Muslin 52 inches 40 yards, 13 square
Chambrey 28 " 30 " 27 × 22
Hair-cord Muslin ... 59 " 24 " 20 × 22
Warped 1 twofold, and 1 fine single.
Blue Mottle 27 inches 96 yards, 16 × 11
Blue warp, white weft.
Victoria lawns, fine goods, and Taffechelas, formerly important goods,
are now in little request.
Cotton cloths other than plain:--
_Drills._--Heavy 3-shaft twills, narrow, heavily sized. Exported
chiefly to China, few to Cyprus, Levant, Turkey, and Brazil.
_Cretonnes._--Printed twill, made from coarse waste wefts, finer warps,
various widths, generally narrow. Home trade; also exported to Turkey
and British Colonies.
_Jeans._--Finer 3-shaft twills, plain borders, narrow, for printing or
finishing.
_Sateens._--5-shaft broken twills, 30 to 36 inches, 75 to 90 yards, 70
to 96 reed, 40 to 80 picks, 36’s to 80’s weft.
_Velveteens._--Narrow, heavy-picked cloths, from 90 to 120 to the
quarter-inch, yarns fine and best quality, 80 to 100 yards. Home trade
and general export.
_Cords, Fustians, Corduroys._--Heavy, figured cloths, 20’s yarn, 90 to
140 picks to a quarter-inch, 70 to 90 yards.
_Brocades._--Fancy jacquard goods; 36 inches, 75 yards; 72 to 96 reed,
20 to 26 picks.
_Doriah Stripes._--Cloth carrying crammed stripes--not in colour--are
often narrow, 26 to 30 inches, 10 yards long, 12 to 30 reed by 13 to 14
picks; yarn, 40/50’s T; and finer wefts.
_Leno._--Narrow, generally 30 inches; 24 to 40 yards, very variable in
reed and pick; yarns.
In white check we find:--
_Figured Checks._--30 to 36 inches, 13 × 16 to 18 × 20; 12 yards single
cuts.
Satin Check 40 inches 32 yards, 16 × 20
Tape Check 36 " 24 " 22 × 20
37 " 48 " 20 × 24
STANDARD MAKES.
Width. Length. Reed and Pick. Yarn or Weight.
Shirtings 39 37-1/2 16 × 15 30/36’s 8-1/4lb.
T-Cloths 32 24 14 × 14 -- 6lb.
Mexicans 32 24 18 × 18 -- 7lb.
Jacconetts 44 20 14 × 14 40/50’s --
Mulls 50 20 20 × 20 80/100’s --
Domestics 29 80 14 × 14 18/18’s --
Dhooties 44 40 16 × 15 30/40’s --
Printers 32 116 16 × 16 32/50’s --
In this connection, as reliable and comprehensive a list as it is
convenient to gather is placed before the reader; although, from the
varied character of cotton cloth, many specialities are omitted, such,
maybe, as those cloths used in the hat trade for lining, the oilcloths,
umbrella cloths, and numerous milliners’ and drapery requirements for
the home trade.
[Illustration: Decoration]
CHAPTER VI.
FANCY WEAVING, TAPPET AND DOBBY WORK, ANALYSIS OF CLOTH, TAPPETS,
CLOTH, DOBBIES, DOBBY CLOTH, GAUZE, HANDKERCHIEF MOTION.
An important and increasingly successful department of cotton
manufacturing is that comprised under the heading of fancy work. Here
a great amount of skill and intelligence is necessary, and in the more
complicated goods a display of talent uncalled for in the limited and
well-trodden ways of plain manufacturing. In fancy weaving not only do
we come across the variations of manufacturing details which present
themselves in the ordinary branches, but, in addition, an infinite
variety of patterns and different designs crowd upon the one side,
while on the other an artistic eye is required to combat with and blend
the varied groups of colours and shades in harmony and beauty.
A moment’s reflection will remind the reader of the great number of the
cotton cloths which come under the heading of fancies, and for purposes
of convenience we must treat of them under the headlines of three
chapters--Simpler fancies, Jacquard and complicated fancies and Checks.
CLASSIFICATION OF CLOTH.
Woven fabrics of any material may be divided into four main
classes:--Plain, figured, gauze and woven pile cloths; laces formed on
an entirely different structure being disregarded.
Plains show no figure of any nature on the face of the cloth, have
every end and pick interwoven alternately, while the warp forms a right
angle with the weft. Apparent figures, ribs and stripes may be made
by using fine and coarse weft or alternate counts of warp. Stripes or
checks of colour may be introduced, but if the weave be unaltered the
cloth still is classed as plain.
Figured is a very comprehensive group, consisting of the twills,
sateens, velveteens, figured borders, figured checks, damasks,
brocades, dimity, weft pile, counterpanes, fustians, cords, etc., and
almost all fancy cloths, except gauze and warp pile.
Gauze has a peculiar structure, pure gauze differing from plain cloth
in the ends, weaving at an angle more acute than a right angle. Leno is
one kind of gauze.
Woven or warp pile cloth has a nap woven on the face and cut whilst
in the loom--a class of cloth not frequently met with in cotton, but
generally in the silk and carpet trades.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.]
ANALYSIS OF PATTERNS.
For purposes of reference and communication some method of representing
cloth patterns on paper is necessary, and the one generally adopted
is to use point paper ruled in small squares by thin lines; bolder
lines group the smaller into larger spaces, generally 8 by 8, as
shown in Fig. 29. Assuming that a row of horizontal spaces (not lines)
represents a pick of weft, and correspondingly a row down the paper is
indicative of a warp thread, a cross or mark is made where the twist
shows on the face of the cloth. Thus, Fig. 30 represents plain cloth.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.]
Referring to Fig. 30, and following each pick across, we find that
first the warp and then the weft rise, and by tracing any end we see
that it floats over and under the weft alternately--this giving the
well-known plain weave. Wherever the warp shows, a cross is made in
that intersection. The cross is only used for convenience. When a
design has to be properly shown the whole of the intersection must be
filled up thus: [@]
[Illustration: FIG. 32.]
[Illustration: FIG. 33.]
[Illustration: FIG. 34].
Advocating the method of placing a [@] for a twist riser is a departure
from the rules of some authorities on weaving in the past, and also
from the system adopted in other textile industries at the present.
The reason for adopting the system mentioned is, that for most cotton
fabrics it is advantageous in facilitating the reading of the design,
for pegging in Keighley dobby, card-cutting in the jacquard, planning
tappets, in showing up some classes of designs more clearly, less work
in marking some ground cloths with preponderating weft, and in other
technicalities, the whole of which compensate for the disadvantages
of the system in some few classes of cloths where a designer uses the
alternate system of [@] weft riser at his convenience. In reference
to Fig. 30, the beginner will clearly understand that the marks or
crosses show the warp on the face of the cloth with the weft underneath
it. The same square if left blank would show the weft on the face with
the warp beneath it. Thus, the row of marks numbered 1 in Fig. 32 shows
number 1 warp thread floating over 7 picks out of 8, and the row of
blank space numbered 8 shows the weft over warp thread number 8 for the
space of 7 picks out of 8.
The cloth shown in Fig. 31 has its representation on point paper at
Fig. 32, the numbers attached to the threads corresponding with the
rows of spaces in the design.
In transferring a pattern from a piece of cloth to point paper, a
beginner would pin it to a board, mark an end of warp, say No. 1 in
Fig. 31, and commencing with the bottom pick 1, mark crosses on his
point paper where the warp shows at any square in that pick--thus, at
the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 9th ends--working upwards to the next pick,
starting at the same end. Similarly a second pick is put down on the
point paper above the first, always working in one direction, say from
left to right. This is continued until the pattern begins to repeat
itself, as at pick 9, when it is complete. A pattern is the least
number of ends and picks on which a cloth can be woven, the picks or
ends of a second pattern being facsimilæ of the first.
The analysis or pricking of patterns is performed by an experienced man
without the tedious process of pulling the cloth asunder, the pattern
being read from the face of the cloth by means of a cloth-glass.
DESIGNING.
Designing (actual) is a very different process. A figure or figures
of some character must be originated suited to the class of cloth for
which it is intended. This is first sketched on plain paper, called a
rule, painted (if colour be desired), and having due regard to economy
in the weaving, it is transferred to point paper.
This is done by ruling the design in inch squares, and should the reed
and pick per inch be equal, 8 × 8 paper is used; if the reed and pick
are in proportion to 8 and 6, 8 and 10, 12 and 8, or any other ratio,
point paper of that size is used, and the figures will appear in the
cloth proportioned as in the rule. The leading figures of the pair of
numbers are, in jacquard work, always equal to the number of rows of
needles, thus 8 ×--is for a 400 machine, 12 ×--for a 600.
DRAFTS.
After having obtained the pattern of a cloth it is necessary to draft
the ends on the least number of healds on which the cloth can be woven.
Drafts are represented in various ways--_e.g._, by drawing lines
representing the healds and marking the order in which the ends are
drawn on them; thus, if the first end be drawn on the first or front
heald, the second on the second heald and so on, we get a straight
draft as shown in Fig. 35.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.]
The numbers represent the heald on which the end is drawn. The ends are
lettered in their order.
Should the first end be on the first heald, the second end on the
third heald, the third end on the second heald, the fourth on the
fourth heald, we get a skip draft--thus:
[Illustration: FIG. 36.]
In practice it is usual to omit the lines and just give the draft,
thus:--
4
3
2
1
This is a very convenient method of representing a draft for the use of
the drawer-in or the weaver, but when using point paper it is better
to reserve a few picks above the design to represent as many healds
and indicate on which the end is drawn by making a small circle. Thus,
a honey-comb design is shown in Fig. 37, A. It can be reduced to and
woven on 8 picks and 8 ends, as at B, the pattern; the draft is shown
at C, the 8 ends being drawn on 5 healds. Below is shown the method of
obtaining these plans--a study of which remarks will enable the reader
to perform similar work for other cloths. Commencing at the first end
on the left-hand side, it is placed on the first heald, H 1; looking
across the pattern we find no other end working like it. Proceeding
to the second end, it is placed on heald number 2, and as the eighth
end works like it, it is placed on the same heald shaft. The third and
seventh ends are marked for the third heald. The fourth end working
differently to any other except the sixth, these two are placed on H 4;
whilst the fifth end only is left for the fifth heald. This draft, from
its appearance, is dubbed a point draft or V draft.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.]
LIFTING PLANS.
It is now necessary to indicate when the healds shall be lifted to make
the cloth with the given draft. A portion of the point paper is taken
as many spaces wide as there are healds, and as long as there are picks
to the round.
Taking Fig. 37 again, for example, we find the lifting plan at D, the
ends and picks being numbered. The marks indicate where the heald has
to be lifted at the pick indicated; thus, taking the first heald, we
find it to be lifted at the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th picks, a
working necessary for the first end, which is drawn on the heald in
question. The pegging plan for a dobby is a modification of this. (See
page 106.)
For a straight draft the pattern is exactly a duplicate of the lifting
plan. Other names for this plan are tie, working design, treading
plan, and shedding plan. The tie is a plan serving the same purpose of
the lifting plan, but somewhat differently arranged, the end being laid
horizontally in a line with the heald through which they are drawn;
thus, for the honeycomb, Fig. 37, the tie-up is shown at Fig. 38, in
which A is the tie-up.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.]
The lifting plan for Fig. 32 is shown at Fig. 34, A, while the tie-up
is shown at Fig. 34, B.
SHEDDING.
The principal motions for shedding--_i.e._, raising the ends in the
required order for producing the desired weave of cloth--are tappets,
the dobby, and the jacquard. The tappets and the dobby are described in
this Chapter. The tappets, which have the smaller range of work, are
taken into consideration first.
TAPPETS.
For the simpler classes of fancy weaving, designated stavework,
tappets are often used. These are arrangements of plates carrying
projections to raise the healds when required, the plates being placed
so that the projections in several plates which are to act at one
pick are in line with each other, so as to raise the different healds
at one and the same time. Tappets are fixed either above the loom
(and are named motions or Jamieson’s tappets), or at the side of the
loom--as, for instance, the Woodcroft tappets. In some cases, for
three and four-shaft twills, under-heald tappets are used, and fixed
on the twill-shaft previously referred to (page 76). In setting out
a tappet--for a sateen motion, for instance--first get our pattern,
Fig. 41, which is composed of Fig. 39, a satin, and Fig. 40, a plain
for the selvage. Fig. 41 is the pattern on 7 healds and 10 picks to
the round, that number being the least that will contain both 2 and 5
without remainder. The draft being straight over the pattern is also
the lifting plan, and the first plate is required to lift the healds
at the 1st and 6th picks. Dividing a circle into 10 parts, we take
the first part, and allowing half a revolution of the crank-shaft for
dwell, obtain an inclined portion C for the raising, and D for the
depression of the heald (as described in Chapter IV.), by dividing E C
into six parts, and describing six arcs of a circle, afterwards drawing
a line diagonally. The tappet follows the circumference of the inner
circle until it arrives at the 6th pick, when another projection must
be raised. The complete tappet follows the form shown by the thick line.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.]
[Illustration: FIG. 40.]
[Illustration: FIG. 41.]
It will be seen now that, as the tappet only moves 1/10th of a
revolution for one pick of the loom, the heald connected with this
plate will be actuated just as is required in the treading plan.
Four other similar plates must be cast for the other satin healds,
which five will be bolted together so as to have projections at the
1, 3, 5, 2 and 4 picks, as shown at A. To these are bolted two plain
plates, or, as is more usual, one casting equal to the whole seven.
The plates for plain show an alternate projection and space. By the
kindness of Messrs. Willan & Mills, of Blackburn, a sketch of their
loom with one of these motions (Smalley’s patent) affixed to it is
shown.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.]
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--LOOM WITH SMALLEY’S MOTION.
_To face pp. 98 and 99._]
The tappet is fixed on the upper frame-work of the loom and short
treadles arranged above it. To these the healds are attached and lifted
by the plates, being drawn down afterwards by springs and the healds.
In a recently-improved form the treadles raise the jacks to which the
healds are attached, giving a straight lift. These tappets are seldom
used for more than 8 healds and 12 picks to the round. Above this
extent in tappet work, a Woodcroft sectional tappet is used, arranged
at the loom side. In these tappets the projections (called risers
and fallers) are removable, the tappet being adaptable to different
patterns up to 14 staves and 20 picks. In the Yorkshire loom, Fig. 23,
the tappets are placed at the loom side, and are connected with the top
of the healds by rods.
Tappets possess the advantage over other shedding motions of larger
capacity, such as the dobby: (_a_) in lower first cost; (_b_) steadier
and stronger lift without risk of hooks slipping; (_c_) in having a
split shed--_i.e._, a shed which has one portion pulled down while the
other is drawn up, saving time. Dobbies and jacquards generally have a
sunk shed, and if by those machines a shed 2 inches deep is required,
the lifting knives have to be raised the whole distance, from the
bottom to the top.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.]
[Illustration: FIG. 45.]
CLOTHS WOVEN BY TAPPETS.
Among the cloths woven on tappets there are twills, cloths in which
a figure is woven diagonally across the cloth by raising the healds
consecutively. They are in large variety, being woven on three shafts
upwards and not confined to the lifting of a single heald at each pick;
as in some cloths two or three out of a larger number may be raised,
but the same number is up at every pick, although moving one end or
more at each pick. A serge is a modification of a simple twill woven
in this manner. Fig. 44 represents a 4-shaft twill rising one in four,
while Fig. 45 shows a 4-end twill rising two in four, called a denim,
swansdown, or cashmere twill. The satin weave is a broken twill--that
is, instead of lifting consecutively at each pick, an end, or in some
cases two ends, are passed over, as shown in Fig. 39 (sateen). The ends
are lifted in this order: 1, 3, 5, 2, 4. A 5-stave, showing a weft
satin, is the standard for _sateen_. The satin or broken twill applies
to any number of twill staves--_e.g._, a 12-stave satin, passing 4 ends
over, lifts 1, 6, 11, 4, 9, 2, 7, 12, 5, 10, 3, 8.
A perfect satin never shows contiguous ends lifting together, as such
would give a “spotty” appearance. As almost all the weft shows at one
side of the cloth, the parallelism of the threads gives to this weave
its well-known lustre, but unless fine yarns and reed with heavy pick
are used a very frail structure is the resultant.
_Stripes_ are of various kinds. The herring-bone or reversed twill
forms an undulating pattern by using a point draft. Simple figures, on
not more than six or eight staves, woven cramped between stripes of
plain, are called doriah stripes.
PILE CLOTHS.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.]
Velveteens are woven by motions similar to the one in Fig. 46,
generally on six staves. The object aimed at in this cloth is to
produce a firm ground cloth with picks of pile weft floating over
several ends of warp. Pile picks are inserted between plain or twill
ground picks and are firmly bound in at intervals, so that when the
floating portion is slit by the cutter the pile threads will not be
loose. In the uncut cloth a slight rib of weft is seen transversely.
A pattern of velveteen is given at Fig. 46. Velveteen is classed with
the figured cloths, for as it leaves the loom it presents no appearance
which warrants other classification. The fourth class of fabrics--woven
piles--is woven in an entirely different manner. A wire is inserted
in every fourth shed instead of weft; picks of weft are then put in
and the wire withdrawn. As it carries a knife, the loops of warp over
the wire are cut as it is pulled out, leaving a pile on the cloth, the
length of which is perfectly regular, differing from the weft pile
velveteen in this respect. The wires are inserted and withdrawn by
additional mechanism attached to the loom.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.]
CORDS, FUSTIANS.
Cords, moleskins, corduroy, fustian, bull-hides, thicksets, are all
pile fabrics of a heavy character. The pile is all in the weft floating
upon a ground cloth. Different makes of each fabrics are woven and
named frequently according to the style of this ground or backing
weave--_e.g._, tabby back means plain, Genoa is a 4-end twill, Jeanette
is a 3-end twill, double Genoa, double Jeanette. Woodcroft tappets
are chiefly used in the production of these cloths. The cords show a
broad wale or stripe running lengthway of the piece, consisting of weft
floating over the warp and ground cloth, and in such a manner that when
slit along the centre of each stripe the divided threads stand up to
form a cord. The weft of the next wale being cut similarly, a stripe of
pile fabrics is now formed, having its centre above the groove which
divided each stripe of uncut yarn. A rounded effect is given to these
cords by having the threads forming the centre of greater lengths than
the sides of the cord, they having had a longer float in the weaving.
This cloth is dyed and finished, being sold as corduroy.
Cords are of several kinds, one class named “constitution,” of which
a pattern is given at Fig. 47, on 12 ends and 12 picks, requiring 8
staves to weave it. The constitution is the broadest cord, the thickset
cord being the finest, whilst 8 and 9 shafts, bang-up, Mellor’s round
top and cable cords are names given to other varieties.
Constitutionals are generally made on 8 shafts; yarns, 30/2 fold twist;
16’s to 20’s weft; 120 to 140 picks to a quarter inch; 36 to 44 reed,
Stockport; 31 inches wide, 100 yards long. Cables are on 10 and 12
shafts. Thicksets are on 6 ends and 9 picks, 30 inches wide; 30 to 44
reed, Stockport; 90 to 120 picks to quarter inch; 14’s twist, 22’s
weft. In imitating skins of animals the bull-hide weave is resorted
to either for beaver or lambskin finish; woven on 8 ends and 8 picks.
Moleskin is a smooth, solid cloth, and, before finishing, shows a very
slight longitudinal rib which distinguishes it from the cotton velvets,
which have a transverse rib. Moleskin is often called velveteen,
although not correctly so; really, velveteens are the cotton weft pile
velvets previously described.
These classes of cloth are woven with the non-positive or drag take-up
motion, which draws forward the cloth as it is knocked up by the slay.
A catch is raised by the rocking shaft of the loom, and actuates by a
ratchet worm and wheel the cloth roller. The catch is only weighted
sufficiently to draw the cloth forward when it is knocked up, thus not
acting when no weft is in the loom.
There is a heavy cloth woven from coarse (waste) yarns named cotton
blankets or cotton flannel. This fabric passes through a raising
machine, in which its surface is scratched by pointed steel teeth. It
is exported chiefly.
Double cloth may be woven by tappets, but as it is more frequently done
in the dobby, we will consider it in connection with that machine; the
same may be said of some spots, handkerchiefs, and other goods.
DOBBIES.
These shedding motions, in principle, perhaps, bear more relation to
the jacquard than to the tappets, but are included in the same chapter
as the last in consequence of their frequent association in the same
shed of looms, both being adapted for stave work.
The dobby, for very many classes of fancy cotton cloth, has gained a
reputation as a good shedding motion, and is well worthy the attention
of a student of this branch of industry. Its capacity is superior to
tappets, extending to 40 shafts, and over two hundred picks to the
round in some makes.
The machine is fixed above the loom, Plate VII., giving a direct lift
to the healds, which are kept down by springs or dead weights.
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--KEIGHLEY DOBBY.]
Dobbies are occasionally of single lift, but in the cotton trade far
more frequently double. The difference is in the double lift having two
sets of knives: either knife can lift any heald, and, by duplicating, a
second knife can be preparing for and even commencing to lift a heald
as the first drops; it thus saves time and increases speed. In single
lift machines only one knife is used, and in case of a heald having
to be raised two picks in succession, it would have to be dropped
to the bottom of the shed after the first pick, and raised again. A
double lift Keighley is often called, in error, a single lift, in
consequence of only one shedding rod being used; it however lifts twice
in one complete stroke. Dobbies have the advantage over tappets in
increased power of weaving fancier cloths, a greater number of picks to
the round, and a possibility of changing to other patterns.
[Illustration: FIG. A. FIG. B. FIG. C.
PLATE VII. _To face pp. 104 and 105._]
The leading characteristic of dobbies is, that by means of pegs placed
in revolving lattices, any heald can be selected and raised by the
machine.
The favourite dobby is the improved Keighley, first patented in 1867 by
Messrs. Hattersley & Smith, of that town--it was used to a considerable
extent, but recent improvements have greatly increased its value. Plate
VII. and Fig. 48 show a general view of the machine--one of Henry
Livesey’s, Limited, make, on Ward’s principle, 20 jacks, double lift.
At the under side is seen a pegged lattice; immediately above the pegs
and resting on the topmost lag is a row of levers, double the number of
shafts or jacks representing the capacity.
The [T] knife lever works on the centre shown, and slides the knives
backwards and forwards in grooves at A and B.
The jacks to which at one end the heald cords are attached have at
the other end latches fixed to them, which are out of the way of the
sliding knives, unless purposely dropped on to them.
When a lag is in gear without any pegs, none of the latches touch the
knives, and there is consequently no raising of the healds. If all
the holes be pegged, one end of each lever is raised, the other end
depressed, and consequently all the latches drop on the knives; at the
next stroke of which all the healds will be lifted.
By pegging a few of the holes, say the 1st, 3rd, and 10th, we should
find only those three healds lifted; in this manner any desired working
of the healds may be obtained. The lattice is made up of lags, each
of which suffices for two picks, and as the barrel of the dobby will
not hold less than 8 lags, a pattern of 16 picks or more is required,
unless a smaller pattern be repeated.
In pegging, the lags are placed so that the lattice stands as in the
machine, thus:--
[Illustration: FIG. 49. Numbers 1 to 10 indicate the picks; L 1 to L 5
indicate the lags.]
In a left-hand machine the numbers here given (Fig. 49) represent the
order of the picks, the lattice when in use moving over to the left. B
indicates the peg-hole for the back-jack, the front or first jack being
at A, and the other holes ranging between; there are two rows of holes
on each lag, each equal to 1 pick.
Taking Fig. 37, showing lifting plan which occupies 5 healds and 8
picks, the pegging for this dobby will be as under, the small number
indicating where the peg is placed and which jack is lifted, the picks
being also indicated:--
[Illustration: FIG. 50. PEGGING FOR HONEYCOMB, LEFT-HAND DOBBY.]
As at least 16 picks are required, a lattice would be prepared for 8
lags, 4 being a repeat of those given.
For the other hand of dobby the pegging would commence at the right
hand for the first pick, and move towards the left.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.]
The tie-up, shown in Fig. 38, A, is correct pegging for a right-hand
Keighley or Ward dobby, as is also 34, B.
Among other makes of shedding machines the common dobby or witch
machine may be mentioned. It is of earlier invention than the Keighley,
patents having been taken out for it at varying dates from 1830 to
1850. In it the knives slide vertically; there are two lattices, all
the odd picks being on one side, the even ones on the other, and a peg
indicates a faller--contrarily to the Keighley.
A sketch of a double-lift machine on this system, called by the makers
a Blackburn dobby, is shown at Fig. 51.
The connection of the jacks with the lifting knives is made by hooked
wires, 2 wires to each jack. Where there is no peg these hooks are in
position over the knives; thus, whichever knife should lift, the jack
will be lifted by one of the two hooks. Where there is a peg, however,
the wire is pressed back slightly, sufficiently so as to remove the
hook at the top of the wire away from the knife; and there is no lift
for the jack to which the wire is attached.
The pegging for a Blackburn dobby of pattern Fig. 32 is shown in Fig.
52, which represents six jacks and four lags on each side of the
machine, a lag in the Blackburn dobby only carrying the pegs for one
pick. The large figures indicate the picks and the smaller ones the
jack pegged for the picks against which they stand.
[Illustration: FIG. 52.]
The Keighley is generally preferred by practical men for its strength
and less liability of getting disarranged or broken. Other makes of
dobbies are made, resembling in principle one or other of the types
given.
CLOTHS WOVEN ON THE DOBBY
Include all makes from plain to 40-shaft patterns. Stripe patterns
of the character described on page 101 are frequent; indeed, this
shedding motion is useful for stave work of all kinds, including:--
_Spots or Brilliantes_--- Small figures woven in the fabric at regular
intervals, often made from 10 to 14 shafts, on a plain ground. Also,
cotton dress materials woven in figured stripes, or a combination of
stripes to form figured checks, spot figures, satin stripes and checks,
spot figures on plain satin or oatmeal ground--the latter weave being
used frequently in fancy cloths woven with coarse yarn, the effect
being to show short floating ends apparently irregularly on the face of
the cloth, and thus a rough appearance is imparted. The oatmeal weave
is in different styles up to 40-shaft.
Double cloth is not now often made in cotton, except for pillow slips,
light bags, and similar cloths.
The semi-double cloth of the Yorkshire trade, formed by having an
extra weft or warp for putting a cheap back to the cloths, is not
known in Lancashire; the extra weft of the velveteen being most nearly
approaching the principle. In plain, double cloth weaving, both warps
are on one beam, four healds being employed, each movable, independent
of the others. Two healds carry the top cloth ends and two the bottom
cloth. The shuttle first puts a pick in the top cloth, passing over
three ends out of four, all the ends for the bottom cloth being down
and half of the top cloth ends; then all the top cloth ends are raised
with half of the bottom cloth ends, the shuttle passing under three out
of four, and throwing a pick into the bottom cloth. The ends of the top
cloth are drawn in the first and second healds, those for the bottom in
the third and fourth, thus:--
B------4
B--3----
T----2--
T-1-----
and are lifted as under:--
The pegging being--
4th pick = Nos. 1, 2, 3 . * . .
3rd pick = No. 2 . . . *
2nd pick = Nos. 1, 2, 4 . * * *
1st pick = No. 1 * * . *
1 2 3 4
The selvages are bound by the weft passing from the upper to the lower
cloths, and _vice versâ_.
In some cloth, for bags, plain weaving of all the ends is resorted
to at certain points to seam up the cloth. A three-stave twill weave
may be used by arranging the draft and pegging for six healds or a
five-thread satin on ten healds.
FIGURED DHOOTIES.
In no stripe pattern, perhaps, is the dobby more generally used than
in these cloths. They differ from the ordinary plain dhootie in having
coloured ends woven to a pattern along each selvage, or occasionally
12 or 15 inches from the side also. The patterns at each side are
balanced--that is, similar in figure, with the inner part of the figure
at one side being also the inner part at the other side. This style of
cloth may be described as figure with extra warp, for the plain weave
extends under the figure, the figuring ends being “cramped” between the
plains, and bound by passing through the plain cloth. In designing for
these the plain end may be neglected.
The width of the coloured border is generally about 1 inch, although
extending to 4 inches in special cases.
The beams are warped in the manner described for plain dhooties, but
only the grey ends are drawn in the healds with any coloured warp
which has to weave plain. The ends which form the pattern are drawn
through harness composed of separate leashes and mail eyes, each with
an elastic thread tied to them. These we will refer to as the leashes.
They are placed behind the healds and tied as required to the jacks
above; the elastic cords are fixed to a bracket below, so as to draw
down the leash after the shedding. Above the mail eye is fixed a cumber
board perforated with rows of small holes, and used for keeping the
leashes in proper order, so as not to become entangled in the weaving.
A clear pattern is a great desideratum in this cloth, consequently it
is generally woven face down to prevent spoiling face by drooping ends.
In pegging for it the wrong side of the cloth is taken, a pattern of
it obtained from the coloured figuring ends only in the usual way, and
drafted on the required number of jacks. The leashes are drawn through
the cumber board about 6 in each row, but so arranged as to have all
those to be tied to one jack drafted together.
The ends are drawn through at the drawer-in’s frame, and the leashes
having been previously looped in bunches, each bunch containing those
intended for one jack, the beam is ready for the loom.
In gaiting up, the coloured ends often pass over a small special back
rest, and the bunches of leashes are tied to their respective jacks.
By pegging the dobby in the required order any desired jack or jacks
may be raised, and those ends kept above the plain cloth. When the
jacks are lowered back the same ends will weave below the plain cloth.
The body of the cloth is generally of plain weave, although stripe and
check patterns are occasionally introduced.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.]
GAUZE AND LENO CLOTH.
This class of fabric is frequently woven by means of the dobby,
although the tappet and jacquard are occasionally used should the
pattern come within the scope of either. The peculiarity of gauze
is, that some of the warp ends cross over one or more of the other
warp ends between the picks, giving an open fabric, sometimes of a
beautifully delicate nature, and yet strong, considering the small
amount of material used. When gauze weaving is combined with plain it
is styled leno. The latter name is sometimes erroneously attached to
the gauze itself.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.]
Fig. 53 shows a pure gauze in plan, and Fig. 54 the same in section.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.]
Fig. 55 is the plan of a leno. The threads marked heavily in each
case are the crossing threads. It will be noted from Fig. 54 that the
crossing thread passes up alternately at each side of the backing
thread, pick by pick.
The operation of crossing is performed by doup healds. In these an
additional loop or half heald carrying a stave at the bottom is slung
through the eye of an ordinary heald (Fig. 57). For the purpose of
description, the whole of this heald will be termed the doup. This
heald is used for crossing purposes, while two or more ordinary healds
are provided for the purpose of varying the working, if necessary. The
draft for cloths, Figs. 53 and 55, is as shown by Fig. 56. The crossing
thread is drawn through two healds and passes under the backing thread
as shown.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.]
[Illustration: FIG. 57.]
However, the heald No. 2 can be used to raise the crossing thread on
the left-hand side of the backing thread, although it is drawn to the
right of it at the front, as whenever the back heald is lifted, the
loose stave of the doup is lifted also, and the crossing thread is thus
free to be wrought by No. 2.
The weaving of the plain is performed by either No. 2 and the doup, or
by Nos. 1 and 2. In weaving the gauze portion, healds No. 1 and the
doup are used only.
Four jacks are required--one for the back heald, one for No. 1 heald,
one for lifting the whole doup when weaving gauze, and a fourth for
raising the half loop when necessary to release the crossing thread.
To weave the design Fig. 55 with the given draft, at the bottom pick
No. 2 heald and the loop will be raised, at the next pick above the
whole doup requires lifting, at the third No. 2 and the loop, at the
fourth the doup, at the fifth No. 2 and the loop, at the sixth the
plain commences and the doup is raised, at the seventh No. 1 is raised,
eighth the doup, ninth No. 1, tenth the doup, which completes the
pattern, the eleventh being a repeat of the first.
It is not necessary that the crossing should be round one thread only,
but may be round three or four; to do this, of course, the crossing
thread would have to be drawn under three or four backing ends in the
healds.
The crossing may also be in opposite directions, say--
[Illustration:
() ()
)( )(
() ()
)( )(
FIG. 58.]
as in Fig. 59, where the crossing thread passes over two backing ends.
Every alternate end is, in this case, douped contrarily, the same
healds being used--the difference being made in the draft. This style
is called netting.
All the patterns hitherto mentioned have been single doups. A more
highly-ornamental class of goods is made in double-douped cloth. Here
two-doup healds are used, and, consequently, half of the crossing
threads may be weaving plain at the same picks that the others are
douping, and then a reversal is made--the first half commencing to
doup while the other section is weaving plain. Thus, check patterns
are made alternately gauze and plain. Double-douped netting and
stripe patterns may also be made. With a single doup, only stripe
patterns may be produced with the gauze running either transversely or
longitudinally. For more complicated patterns three or even four doups
are employed.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.]
Gauze patterns are not generally marked on paper as are other fabrics,
but sketched thus:--
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--GAUZE SKETCH.]
HANDKERCHIEFS.
Handkerchiefs are made in cotton, either by the drop-box, the dobby, or
by a handkerchief motion. We are referring now to those made without
colour, with ribbed side and cross borders. A stripe border is made by
warping the necessary coarse ends (to form the selvage) with the plain
ends. To put in the cross border, either the drop-box loom is used
with two or more shuttles having different counts of yarn, or, as is
more general, the shed is kept open for the reception of several picks
of weft in the same counts as the body of the handkerchief. This is
easily done by the dobby, which also continues to hold the weft at each
selvage by a few plain ends worked from a different jack, or by a catch
cord.
It is impossible to have a lattice with as many lags as there are picks
from heading to heading, consequently lags are pegged to weave the
heading only, the lattice being stopped during the time that the plain
body of the handkerchief is being woven. In the double-lift dobby it is
possible to stop it, so that the pegging of the lags where the motion
of the lattice is arrested will suffice to weave plain until motion is
again communicated to the lattice.
Sometimes a special handkerchief motion is used. In this arrangement
a chain of lags is arranged, each lag having holes for three pegs.
By means of this motion, which is shown in Fig. 61, “a border can be
obtained without drop-boxes or dobby, _and without reducing the speed
of the loom_. The tappets, which are of the usual form for plain
weaving, are not secured to the tappet shaft, but are driven from it
through the medium of a clutch, which, when disengaged, allows the
shaft to continue revolving whilst the tappets remain stationary;
thereby enabling any required number of picks, even or odd, to be put
into the same shed, according to the length of time they are kept in
this condition. The clutch is under the control of a set of lattice,
which cause the disengagement of the clutch, and a succession of pegs
causes the tappets to remain out of action according to the desired
number of picks required.”
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--HANDKERCHIEF LOOM. _To face pp. 116 and 117._]
The other pegs regulate, secondly, the stoppage of the take-up to
give a better defined rib; and thirdly to stop the chain itself when
necessary. The chain only represents the picks in the heading, and
is stopped during the plain weaving of the body. It is started again by
an ingenious measuring motion, which by a contrivance of levers starts
the chain one pick, after which the catch put out of gear by peg three
continues the motion. The makers claim for this motion a high rate of
speed, and a low first cost of apparatus.
[Illustration: Decoration]
CHAPTER VII.
FANCY WEAVING BY THE JACQUARD, ITS CONSTRUCTION, CARD CUTTING, WOVEN
PILE CLOTHS.
The jacquard machine for shedding is employed in the production of
some of the most complicated cotton fabrics that are woven. In its
primary principle it is very simple, strangely so when we reflect on
its importance in the manufacturing industry, and that by it only
are we enabled to make so very ornamental cloths of great extent and
beauty. Originally a French invention, the contrivance of Joseph Marie
Jacquard, of Lyons, it was introduced into England in the early part of
this century and adopted by the silk manufacturers. Its manufacture was
early taken up by Lancashire firms, and we find now that in improved
forms it is in extensive practical use in the cotton trade at the fancy
weaving establishments of Bolton, Ashton, Preston, Glasgow, and other
towns.
THE JACQUARD MACHINE.
The advantage of this motion is in its enormous capacity or scope of
varied working of the ends. When we are aware of the existence of 1200
hook jacquards, the capacity of which is equal to that of 30 dobbies
of 40 jacks each, or giving 600 times as many different workings of
the ends as a plain tappet, we immediately recognise its value. It
is a machine for automatically selecting out of may be thousands of
threads the end or ends required to give a desired effect in the
cloth. A representation of its simplest form is shown in Fig. 62.
[Illustration: Cumber Board]
Taking a 400 hook machine, the commonest size used for cotton weaving,
we find a row of 8 needles or lances E of thin wire, arranged
horizontally; at the left hand we see each of these attached to a
spring in the spring box A, the other end projecting about 3/8-inch
through a needle board B. Each lance regulates a vertical wire hooked
top and bottom, and shown with each upper hook standing over its
respective griffe or knife C. These griffes, eight in number, are
lifted simultaneously through being connected together at the ends.
The lower end of the hook rests on a wire grid J, slotted so as to
allow the lower end of the hooks--to which are attached the neck cords
F--to pass through. A bottom board below the bend is used for those
machines which have no wire grid. To these neck cords is attached the
harness--_i.e._, linen threads or leashes, some seven feet in length,
carrying a brass mail-eye H, through which the end of warp is drawn.
Just above the mail-eye the harness passes through a cumber board C,
for the purpose of keeping in proper order and regulating the number of
leashes per inch. At the bottom of each leash is fixed a metal weight,
called a lingo, intended to pull the leash down after having been
raised to form the shed.
The method of raising the ends is as follows:--A square cylinder is
placed at D, and makes a quarter of a revolution at each pick. This
cylinder carries a set of cards (N^1, N^2, N^3), sheets of cardboard
perforated in places. Supposing a 400 (408) machine is referred to,
each card has space for 408 perforations, the holes corresponding in
position with the ends of the 408 needles projecting through the needle
board. A hole indicates a lift.
THE CARDS.
The cards are only perforated by groups of holes distributed
incidentally, and where no perforation is made the needles at that
point are pushed back 3/8-inch by the cylinder. This is sufficient to
remove the tops of the corresponding hooks attached to these needles
from their position over the griffe; thus, when this knife or griffe
is lifted it does not actuate these hooks, but only those which were
not pushed back by the cylinder and card. Suppose, for instance, one
hook out of four had to be lifted, then 102 perforations would be made
in the card, and 306 hooks would thus be pressed back, whilst 102 only
would be lifted. The holes in these cards can be cut in any order, and
as one card acts for one pick only, it is easy to realise the extent
of the patterns which may be made; a cloth, for example, requiring
200 picks to the round, all of which may be different in the order or
number of ends lifted, would require a set of 200 cards.
In what is called a 400 machine, 408 hooks are used, the needles being
arranged in 51 rows of 8 each; one row only is shown in Fig. 62, thus
the others are arranged at the back of the one shown and in line with
it.
A 100 machine is in rows of 4.
A 200 (204) machine is in rows of 4 or 8.
A 300 (304) " " " 6, 8 or 12.
A 600 (612) " " " 12.
An 800 (816) " " " 8 (usually 2/400’s).
A 1200 (1224) " " " 12 (usually 2/600’s).
The knives are placed on the slant so that their edge more readily
catches the hook in lifting, while their under side presses the hooks
out of the way when dropping.
To place 408 hooks in one row is of course out of the question, and for
compactness they are placed in 51 upright rows of 8’s; this advantage
is more apparent in 1800 hook machines--the largest made.
The machine is fixed to a gantree above the loom (_Frontispiece_), and
in a single-action jacquard motion, such as has just been described,
the knife is raised by a lever over the machine, worked by an upright
rod driven by an eccentric or crank on the crank-shaft, so as to give
one lift for every pick. The cylinder is suspended to a batten swinging
from the top, and also worked by connection with the crank-shaft. The
movement of the cylinder is to and fro; as it is moving from the needle
board one corner is caught by a latch and the cylinder partially
revolves, bringing another card to face the needles, against which it
is then pressed. The batten type is preferable to the sliding cylinder,
which is only used in sheds where the building renders the sliding
cylinder more applicable. The frame work of the batten is more solid
and strong.
SINGLE AND DOUBLE LIFT.
In the single-lift jacquard, the knife has to lift as often as the
loom picks, and should a hook require to be raised several picks in
succession, it has to be dropped between each pick and raised again.
These defects are obliterated in the double-action jacquard. The
machine, Fig. 64, has two hooks to each needle, they being connected at
the bottom to one neck cord. Two sets of knives are used, one lifting
when the loom picks from the right-hand side, the other when picking
from the left, thus reducing the speed of the knife one-half; whilst as
the hooks for one pick are being used, the other knife can be preparing
for the next shed, and when lifting, keep up any leash several picks
in succession, thus saving time, and so enabling the production to be
increased. The Fig. 64 shows a double-action machine with a single
cylinder, 400 hooks and swing batten, giving at least 50 picks per
minute greater speed than a single lift with less vibration and strain.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.]
Fig. 63 shows the different shapes of jacquard needles, A being the
ordinary one in plan, B another view of the same, C the double-action
one, and D another style of single-action needle.
[Illustration: FIG. 64. DOUBLE-ACTION JACQUARD, SINGLE CYLINDER.]
The speed may still further be increased by having a double-action
machine with double cylinders and two sets of needles and hooks (see
Fig. 65).
In this system two sets of cards are employed, all the odd picks on
one cylinder and the even ones on the other--thus, the cylinders
only revolve at half the speed, causing less vibration and giving an
increase of 20 picks per minute. If requisite, this machine can also be
arranged as a compound or cross-border machine, carrying two sets of
cards of different patterns, only one set in use at once, while, by
pulling a handle, the other set can be actuated instead, so as to weave
an entirely different pattern in the cloth--_e.g._, in the heading of a
tablecloth, shawl, or handkerchief.
[Illustration: FIG. 65. DOUBLE-ACTION JACQUARD, DOUBLE CYLINDER.]
TIES.
There are two arrangements of the machine--the London arrangement being
best, in which case the cards and card race are at the loom side and in
better view. Fig. 62 shows this system. There is, however, more strain
on the harness, as the short rows of hooks are at right angles to the
short rows in the cumber board, thus:--
[Illustration: FIG. 66.]
In the Norwich arrangement, the machine is placed so that the cards
come over the head of the weaver or over the beam, and the short rows
of 8 in the hooks correspond with the short rows of 8 in the cumber
board, and thus the harness is kept straight.
The cumber board is a frame containing "slips"--pieces of wood with
holes bored in rows; in a 400 machine, rows of 8; in a 600, rows of
12. Through these the leashes are passed, and the warp ends almost
always drawn in straight draft through the mail eyes. Jacquard patterns
are generally varied by the lifting only, and the sole variation
corresponding to the draft in stave work is the tie-up. There are three
ties--
1. _Straight._--In this each hook has one end only attached to it, and
the tie is as under. The rectangle represents the needle board; the
dots, the needles; and the numbers, the end to which the hook on the
needle is attached.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.]
Nos. 1 to 8 will be in the first row of the cumber board to the
left-hand side of the cloth.
2. _A Lay-over Tie_ (the commonest).--It is the same thing, except
that two or more patterns are woven in the width of the cloth, say
three. Then three ends would be attached to each neck cord, and in a
400 machine 1200 ends would be used. The cumber board plan would be
repeated thrice. For example, a pattern on 9 hooks--
[Illustration: FIG. 68.]
Fig. 62 shows a portion of a lay-over tie, the ends attached to the
first row of hooks being in the first row in the cumber board, and the
pattern being completed on 400 ends; the 401’s, etc., are attached to
the first, etc.
3. _A Centred Tie._--When a pattern of 815 ends is in two equal and
balanced portions, the middle end of the cloth is tied to the hook at
the right side, and two ends to every other hook, the pattern thus
being woven on 408 hooks, _e.g._--
[Illustration: FIG. 69.]
In harness building or mounting, considerable ingenuity has to be
displayed in keeping the leashes in proper order, and in knotting the
harness to the neck cord so as to produce a small but strong joint.
The warp is drawn through the mails after the beam has been slung at
the loom.
THE SHED.
A jacquard shed presents a different appearance to a plain loom
shed--the large overhead machines darkening the scene. Where the
weaver is expected to mind four looms, only about half the looms are
jacquarded, and then only when the simpler styles are woven, indeed one
jacquard out of four looms is considered sufficient for most cloths.
In the mills where all the looms are engaged on jacquard cloths, one
weaver cannot attend to four looms. Compared with plain goods, the
preparation machinery for jacquard work possesses no peculiarity. The
power required to drive is greater, the weaver’s work generally less
laborious and more intricate, the warps weave better as they are sized
more lightly, and also the harness gives way to the shuttle or to any
obstruction better than healds; the highest speed for medium widths
is about 200 in double cylinder--double lift. It is important that
no picks be missed; therefore, in starting a loom, the cards must be
turned back to their proper position. This is done by reversing motion.
CARD CUTTING AND REPEATING.
The method of transferring designs to design paper is described on page
93. After the design has been finished the cards have to be cut. The
first set is prepared in a piano card-cutting machine, the place where
the hole has to be made being read from the design--thus, if for the
first pick the 1, 2, 9, 15, 18, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 40 hooks have to be
raised, holes would be made as under, looking at the face of the card
or the side which is in contact with the needles--
1 9 . . 33 .
2 . 18 . . .
. . . . . .
Numbers . . . . . . The left-hand side here is
indicating holes. . . . . . . the right on the machine.
. . . 30 . .
. 15 . 31 . .
. . . 32 40 .
The piano card-cutting machine is shown at Fig. 70.
The punches which make the holes in the card are operated by the
attendant’s feet actuating a treadle, but the punches are regulated by
his finger pressing certain keys and thus causing only those punches
to be locked where holes are required. There are only sufficient keys
to cut the short row of 8 at one stroke.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.]
After one set of cards has been cut from the design, any number of sets
can be made from it on a repeating machine. The original set is placed
on a jacquard cylinder and actuates the needles in the ordinary manner,
excepting that the hooks are pushed on the knives by the blanks in
the card. These hooks are attached to punches, and at each stroke of
the knives a card is cut, a duplicate of the original one then on the
lantern face. The holes are cut by the punches which are not lifted
and which are locked by wedges at each stroke. On this machine cards
can be repeated at the rate of 40 per minute.
CASTING OUT.
In lay-over patterns a number of ends are tied to one hook, and if the
pattern contains as many ends as there are hooks, or some factor of the
number, it is easy to calculate how many shall be tied. In a warp of
1600 ends in 400 machine, and 400 ends in the pattern, four would be
tied to each hook. With 100 ends in the pattern there would be 16 ends
similar, which, however, would be divided between the four patterns
representing the capacity of the machine, still giving four ends to a
hook. We are supposing that any hooks over 400, 600, 800, etc., are use
for selvage. However, suppose there are 64 ends in the pattern, the
machine will weave six patterns and have 16 hooks to spare, which would
be cast out--
6 × 64 = 384 + 16 = 400.
One row of 8 would be cast in the middle and another at the end. The
1600 ends, neglecting selvages, will give 25 complete patterns of 64
ends each in the width of the cloth; this will give four ends and four
patterns to each hook to five sets, and five patterns or five ends to a
hook, in the sixth set.
JACQUARD GOODS.
Regular cloths vary from small patterns on 20 ends and 20 picks to
others with 2000 ends and picks in a round, while for exceptional cases
these limits are far exceeded. A feature of many jacquard cloths is a
figure more or less fanciful on a ground which may be plain, twill,
satin or oatmeal weave. Spots and brilliants are examples of this style.
Damasks are extensively made. The true damask weave consists of a
design of large extent, woven, we will suppose, with weft predominating
in the figure, which may be bound by satin or twill weave. The ground
is also in similar weave, but with warp predominating. Thus the cloth
is firmly bound at all parts of its surface and is reversible.
The damasks woven in cotton do not always fulfil these conditions, but
are in sufficiently similar style to warrant their being classified
together. Frequently they are made in light goods of about 60 ends and
picks per inch for export to China and other countries, or heavier both
in yarn and pick with a finer reed for the home trade. These goods are
of great variety of pattern and are generally finished before use, or,
as in the case of furniture and curtain damasks, dyed.
Dimity is a cloth of smaller pretensions with regard to figure, which
is arranged in stripe form. The cloth is firmly bound, and the figure
somewhat raised, which gives it an embossed effect.
Brocades are jacquard cloths of fine yarns, the pattern arranged in
weft spot on plain ground, or narrow stripes of spotted figures, which,
when well finished, have a charming effect. The brocade is not limited
to the longitudinal stripe or figure, but may be arranged as a brocade
check, while the ground cloth in either case may be of plain weave. A
good effect is also produced by arranging this style in diamond figures
by introducing honeycomb diagonally.
Figured canvas gives a pleasing effect when dyed. The figure is woven
in plain cloth, and the work between the figures shows the end cramped
together alternately with open spaces, so as to give an open effect, on
which the figures show to advantage.
Figured gauze cloths are woven by the jacquard. This industry is
carried on to a large extent in the cotton districts of Scotland. The
harness of the machine is arranged with doup leashes passing under
the plain ends to the crossing thread, which is drawn through a mail
corresponding to the back stave in heald gauze working. The gauze
figures are shown on a plain ground and present the pattern in open
work, caused by the peculiar intertwining of the warp ends indicated in
a previous chapter.
COUNTERPANES.
The jacquard is largely used in the counterpane and quilt industry,
centred in Bolton. The Marseilles and toilet quilts, with which may
be associated the well-known toilet cloths, are on the double-cloth
principle--a good face of plain weave in fine yarns being embossed,
as it were, by a thick soft weft being woven underneath and attached
to the cloth by additional warp threads. This backing weft sometimes
floats outside the cloth, sometimes is bound inside just below the
plain face, and at other parts the whole of the yarn is firmly united.
Where the backing is brought inside, the top cloth is raised up; whilst
at those places where all the ends are woven together a depression is
caused. Large embossed figures may thus be shown on the cloth, although
it appears to have an unbroken surface. A coarser quality is made,
where both face and back wefts are coarse and from the same cop.
Perched quiltings are in this style, but the figures are small,
diamond-shaped, and regular.
The honeycomb quilt, as its name implies, is a cloth with the figures
on its surface formed by raised ridges both warp and weft way. This is
generally woven in bleached knitting cottons, two or three-fold; and as
with this weave others may be combined, and stripes of coloured worsted
inserted, great scope is given to the designer.
A Grecian quilt is woven in bleached knitting cottons, and yet the
coarse threads give a smooth glossy surface in consequence of the weave
being on the damask principle--_i.e._, the figure may be formed in a
weft satin while the ground is a warp satin.
The Alhambra quilts are figured in various designs and woven with
vari-coloured yarns.
WOVEN PILE CLOTHS.
A class of cloth has now to be referred to which does not usually
come under the scope of jacquard work. The velveteen classes of cloth
have been described, in which the pile is cut after the cloth leaves
the loom. There is one style of pile cloth, occasionally woven in
cotton, in which the pile is cut whilst in the loom. Two beams are
used, one carrying the warp for the pile, and the other the warp for
the ground cloth in which the pile is bound. A couple of picks of weft
are inserted, and then a wire about one-twentieth of an inch thick,
and of varying depth, consequent on the length of pile required; when
this wire is beaten up to the fall of the cloth, the warp is allowed
to be slackened, and it thus forms a loop on the cloth face. Two more
picks are inserted and another wire, which is continued. The weaver
sometimes draws the wire out--leaving looped cloth--or cuts it out
along a groove, in which case a nap is caused on the cloth face. The
best system, however, is to employ special looms for the purpose, which
not only insert the wires in the proper shed, but also draw them out,
and, as they bear a sharp knife at the farther end, cut the loops to
form pile in doing so.
Another pile fabric of cotton or linen which has attracted greater
attention during the last few years is the Turkish or Terry towel. This
is woven with two beams, one for the loop pile, and the other carrying
the ground warp, which is always kept tight. After two picks have been
inserted and tightly beaten up, the reed is allowed to fly loose by a
peculiar arrangement, and, both warps being kept tight, two picks are
put in without beating up. Then the reed is fastened, the loop warp
slackened, and on the next pick being beaten up, the two previous ones
are also driven home, and with them the loop warp which stood between
the fell and the two neglected picks, thus forming loops on both sides
of the cloth.
This weave is not confined to the making of fabrics with an unbroken
pile surface, but is adopted in stripes for bath towels and wraps,
in checks and even figures for quilts, combined with colour in other
effects, and also woven alternately in some special cloth with entirely
different patterns. The headings also for the towels are of a firmer
weave, and afford great scope for ornamentation.
CHAPTER VIII.
DROP-BOX LOOMS, STRIPES, CHECKS, AND SPOTTING.
In certain classes of cotton fabrics stripes are a leading feature of
the cloth, and are made either in colour or in different counts of
yarn, or reed or pick; stripes may run length-way of the face as in
dhooties, sarongs, some shirtings, regettas, tape muslin, ticks, and
many other cloths, and in these cases the effect is produced simply by
warping and reeding the ends in the required order, often by varying
the number of ends in different dents.
STRIPES
May run transversely, and are then formed by coloured or vari-counted
yarns, or a series of spots in colour may be shown on the face of the
cloth, a stripe of extra weft being shown at the back of the cloth and
brought through to the face as required. In these cases some system
of manipulating extra shuttles carrying the different wefts must be
adopted.
CHECKS.
The third class with which this chapter more especially deals is the
checked cloth--ginghams, Oxford and Harvard shirtings, tape checks,
satin checks, etc. These are all formed by combining warp stripes with
weft stripes of corresponding colour and extent, thus forming squares
of colour on the fabric. These patterns may be formed in endless
variety of colour, weave, or length.
In ginghams, the colours used are often four or five in number--say
20 pink ends, 2 black, 6 white, 2 black, 6 white, 6 black, 6 white, 2
black, 6 white, 2 black = 58 ends in the warp pattern, while the picks
of weft are in the same colours, number, and order. In the larger
patterns the number of ends and picks may get into the hundreds. Fine
counts are often used.
In shirtings of heavy material for the home cotton and union material
trade, smaller patterns are commoner, as they are also in all the
“zephyr” class of goods--such, for instance, as shirting, warping 12
white 24’s, 2 red 20’s, 12 white 24’s, 2 blue 20’s; weft same; weave,
4-end cashmere twill.
In white yarns, satin checks may be made with satin stripes on a plain
ground, the satin ends being “cramped” in the reed, and the picks being
inserted in other yarn of special spinning.
Tape checks are similar, excepting that the weave is plain all through.
These one-colour checks must not be confused with the crossovers and
the satin or other checks formed by the same weft, but heavier in pick
at places.
Handkerchiefs in colour have the appearance of a large check, but
when the coloured headings are far removed it is advisable to change
shuttles by hand, as the chain for the drop box would be too long. Some
check looms, however, carry contrivances for stopping the motion of the
chain when the body of the handkerchief, shawl, towel, etc., is being
woven, this being a very suitable system. In case of changing by hand a
measuring motion is attached to the take-up roller to stop the loom at
the place for heading.
THE DROP-BOX LOOM.
For changing the shuttle a drop-box loom is generally employed. In
a double drop-box machine six boxes may be used at each side of the
loom, any one of which may be brought into action, giving a scope of
eleven colours of weft. The single drop box is, however, more usually
employed, with four or six boxes at one side of the loom, only giving
four or six colours, but not allowing less than two picks of the same
colour to be put in. To insert single picks of colour a double-box loom
is used, and possesses a special pick-and-pick arrangement (uncommon
in the cotton trade) to admit of its picking twice consecutively from
either side of the loom. The number of boxes just mentioned is seldom
met with in the cotton trade, three and four boxes being the usual
sizes. The single four-shuttle drop box carries a frame at one end
of the slay in which the boxes or shelves rise or fall. These boxes
contain the shuttles, and by suitable regulating motions the boxes may
be shifted so as to bring any one shuttle level with the shuttle race
and in front of the picker. The spindle is duplicated, and the couple
is placed in front of the box, not above, as in a plain over-pick loom.
The picker is broad and is without nib, fixed in a horizontal position,
so as to act on any one of the shuttles which may be placed before it.
The principal drop-box regulating motions are Diggle’s chain and Wright
Shaw’s motion.
DIGGLE’S CHAIN MOTION.
Diggle’s chain is noted for short patterns, is simple in construction,
and sure in its action. Attached to the loom top is a star wheel A
and barrel B revolving on a stud. The barrel carries a chain C, of
different sizes of links united by pins; the star wheel receives its
motion through a train of wheels from the crank-shaft, of which D and
E are connections. The links of the chain support a lever F, connected
with another lever G at the loom side supporting the drop boxes. For a
four-shuttle box the links are of four heights, the deepest raising the
boxes to the highest point, while the lowest link supports the levers
so that the boxes are at the bottom, with the top shuttle level with
the shuttle race. The chain is arranged so that a sufficient number of
links of the same height are placed together where several picks of the
same colour are required. The shapes of the links are varied to adapt
the lifts from or sinking to different boxes--thus, for a four-box
loom twenty different shapes of links may be used to give lifts or
depressions from any box of the four to any other; their arrangement in
chain depends on the before-mentioned principle. A plate of links is
shown at Fig. 72. They will be seen to be of four different heights. A
44-inch loom of this make may run 150 picks per minute. The change of
shuttle is made immediately the shuttle enters the box. We are not able
to change the shuttle at less intervals than two picks, but can do so
at greater intervals--say, for example, once in four picks.
[Illustration: FIG. 71.]
[Illustration: FIG. 72.]
WRIGHT SHAW MOTION.
The motion called, after its inventor, the Wright Shaw motion is
perhaps more suitable to cotton goods. Indeed, in Manchester, near to
which city it was invented and is manufactured, it finds much favour in
the check trade. A greatly improved motion has been recently introduced
by Mr. Wright Shaw, but as the older form is in commoner use, we will
refer to the latter.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.]
Fig. 73 shows a sketch of this machine, in which the parts will be
clearly seen. It is the make of Messrs. Henry Livesey, Limited, of
Blackburn, but is on the Wright Shaw principle improved. The shuttle
box is supported and moved by a rack and pinion; this pinion shaft
is actuated by a forked rack supported on a pivot at the end of a
lever, so as to gear with either side of another wheel on the pinion
shaft. The lever is driven by a cam, and raises and lowers the fork.
The pattern chain consists of iron plates which are thin and narrow,
thus enabling a longer pattern to be obtained than is possible by
the previously described motion. These plates are linked together by
elastic bands, and each contains two peg holes, and also one, two, or
three larger holes to correspond with the points of the three-pattern
chain needles. The pattern chain passes round a square block perforated
to correspond with the needles, and driven at the speed of a quarter
of a revolution for each two picks. The pegs on it carry the pattern
plates round with the block. The needles are arranged horizontally,
points facing pattern block. The outer needles regulate whether the
right or left leg of the fork shall be in contact with the wheel on
pinion shaft, to determine whether the reciprocation shall be upwards
or downwards. A hole in either one side or the other of the plate
regulates this; should both sides be perforated, the fork remains in
its previous position. The fork is raised and depressed by a lever,
actuated by one of two cams--one to move the boxes one shelf, and
the other to skip a shelf, thus moving two boxes. These cams are
changeable, and operate on one end of the lever, while the fork is
suspended to the other end. The central needle decides which shall be
in action, as it carries a projection which, when pushed back, thrusts
the larger sweep cam into action. It is easy, therefore, to understand
the action of these cards; three holes give no movement; two holes,
with a blank at one side, put the fork into gear with the corresponding
side of the pinion wheel; and in the case of two blanks, the one in the
centre puts two-box stroke in action, and the side blank puts the fork
in gear at one side. One blank at the right side causes a rise, or, at
the left side, a fall. The five forms of plate are:--
[Illustration: No change. Rise one. Fall one. Rise two. Fall two.]
Rising one means that the box is risen to the next shelf; rising two
is risen to the next shelf but one, skipping one. This style of drop
box can be driven at the speed of 170 picks per minute. Generally, a
weaver attends to three of these looms, and an overlooker to from 50 to
60. For the check shirting trade looms to weave from 30-inch to 37-inch
cloth are used.
OTHER MOTIONS.
An ingenious drop-box motion is manufactured by a Burnley firm, by
which the weight of supporting the boxes, etc., is altogether removed
from the pattern chain, which is consequently made of less cumbrous
construction. Other firms claim decided advantages in respect of a
greater skip than either Diggle’s or Wright Shaw’s motions--_e.g._,
from the first to the sixth box. Skips of this extent are obtained
principally by using several eccentric cams. One of these may lift a
single box, a second may raise the boxes two spaces, and their effect
in combination is a lift of three shuttles, and so on for greater
effects.
CIRCULAR BOXES.
Circular boxes are seldom used for cotton goods. In this arrangement
the shuttles are fixed in grooves formed in a block revolving at the
slay end, and drawn round in either direction by hooks, one being
placed at each side of the revolving barrel. The movement of the hooks
is regulated by a pattern chain. The speed is about the same as a
Wright Shaw motion.
GENERAL.
Any of these types of boxes may be used with the over-pick, and either
with tappets, dobby, or jacquard shedding. Attempts have recently been
made to apply the drop-box principle to a system of replenishing the
loom with three or four cops of weft without a stoppage, by having
them previously placed in the shelves and lowered on the breakage or
running-off of the previous weft.
COLOURED SPOTS.
Additional colour is introduced into cotton fabrics in spots and
figures after the manner of embroidery, by using circle swivels or
lappets. If a series of small spots in colour are required to be made,
by using a drop-box loom with a jacquard or dobby the object is easily
attained, but it necessitates the cutting away of much of the coloured
yarn which has been picked across the cloth, and only a portion of
which is required for the figure. Now, by using extra twist or weft,
and only interweaving as much as is required for the figure alone, much
waste can be prevented, and a firmer spot obtained. Take, for example,
the spotted muslin so frequently used for window curtains; each figure
only consists of a few inches of coarse yarn so loosely passed through
the ground cloth, and apparently so entirely independent of the other
spots, that a tyro can form no other explanation of their appearance
there than that they have been sewn on.
CIRCLE WEAVING.
Circle weaving has been used in these cases. In addition to the ground
weft, which is carried across the cloth in the ordinary shuttle, there
is a frame above the shed of the warp carrying several circular, or
rather horseshoe-shaped attachments with a small bobbin of weft pivoted
at the upper part (farthest from the opening in the ring). These rings
are driven round by gearing with a rack. When the figure has to be
formed by the weft passing round, say 20 ends, these are raised above
the level of the top of the ordinary shed, inside the ring, which then
makes one complete revolution, and the ends are depressed. Maybe a
plain pick or two is then inserted, and afterwards more spotting, until
the desired figure is embroidered on the muslin, when plain weaving is
resumed for a few inches.
LAPPETS.
In lappet weaving, extra bobbins of warp are placed below the loom,
and the ends from them carried to a set of upright needles, which
slide in a groove immediately in front of the end, a false reed being
arranged for the guidance of the shuttle. The needles are regulated
by a cam, and, with their point projecting, raise the thread into the
shed, so that it may be bound into the cloth by the weft; after which
the needles are removed the distance of a few threads, and again raise
the coloured end, so that it may be bound into the cloth. The cam
causes the needles to be slid to and fro in this manner until a figure
is formed as desired. By this latter method the colour in the figure
largely predominates on one side of the cloth, that which is the under
side in the loom. The upper side merely shows the outline of the figure
where the thread has passed through to be bound. In the circle swivel
figures the weft usually shows equally on both sides.
[Illustration: Decoration]
CHAPTER IX.
MILL CALCULATIONS--YARN COUNTS, REEDS, HEALDS, COST OF CLOTH, WARPING
AND SIZING LENGTHS, WAGES, SPEEDS, ENGINES.
It is desirable that the calculations connected with cotton
manufacturing in all its bearings be treated in a separate chapter.
This is not only necessary from their number, but from their great
variety and difficulty of classification under different chapter
headings, inasmuch as many are applicable to more than one process.
YARN CALCULATIONS.
The fineness of cotton yarn is indicated by the counts (otherwise
numbers or grist). The counts refer to the number of hanks in a pound
(avoirdupois). The cotton hank is always 840 yards; and, therefore,
if we speak of 10’s, we refer to yarn of which 10 hanks or 8400 yards
weigh one pound; or in referring to 36’s, of that which 36 × 840 or
30,240 yards weigh one pound. This applies to either twist or weft. The
cotton yarn measure is--
120 yards = 1 lea.
7 leas or 840 yards = 1 hank.
and the cotton yarn weight is peculiar, being an avoirdupois pound
divided into pennyweights and ounces as in the troy weight.
24 grains = 1 pennyweight.
437-1/2 grains = 18-11/48 pennyweights = 1 ounce.
7000 grains = 16 ounces = 1 lb.
WRAPPING.
1’s are taken as the standard with 840 yards in 7000 grains, and a
higher count means finer yarn; then 840 yards of, say 2’s, would weigh
3500 grains, or of 70’s, would weigh 100 grains. If we measure a hank
of yarn, and find that it weighs 100 grains, then 7000, divided by 100,
gives the counts. It is inconvenient in wrapping yarn to measure 840
yards, therefore a lea of 120 yards is taken as the standard length for
1’s, and also the proportionate weight = 1000 grains. Instead of taking
840 yards and 7000 grains it is usual, then, to take 120 yards and 1000
grains. A wrap reel is 1-1/2 yards in circumference, and, by revolving
it 80 times, we can wind 120 yards from a cop placed in the machine.
Suppose this lea of 120 yards weighs 25 grains, then 10000/25 = 40’s.
Should less than a lea be taken, say 60 yards, then 500 grains must be
the dividend. Generally, however, _to obtain the counts_ of any yarn,
120 yards are weighed, and the weight, in grains, divided into 1000.
_Having the Length and Counts given, to find the Weight._--9240 yards
of 44’s weft = 9240 yards ÷ 840 = 11 hanks. In the given counts 44
hanks weigh 1 lb., then 11 hanks weigh 11/44 or 1/4 of a lb.
_Counts of Silk, Worsted, Linen._--Single silk is counted same as
cotton, except that in two-fold patent silk the actual wrapping is
given--say, 30’s/2 in silk will wrap 30’s. In cotton, 2/30’s would wrap
15’s. The worsted hank is 560 yards. The linen “lea” is 300 yards.
The French cotton standard is 1000 metres in 500 grammes--equivalent
to 992·4 yards in 1 lb. Thus, 1·181’s in English would be 1’s in
French. To transfer cotton measure to any other take the cotton count,
proportion it inversely to the number of yards in the hanks, say--
20’s cotton equals 30’s worsted,
(20 × 840)/560 = 30’s
20’s cotton equals 56’s linen,
300 : 840 :: 20’s : 56’s.
20’s cotton equals 20’s silk.
20’s English equals 16·93’s French.
1·18 : 1 :: 20’s : _x_
_x_ = (1 × 20)/1·181 = 16·93
_Double Yarns (Cotton)._--Two-fold yarns are numbered according to the
single yarn counts--thus, 2/80’s = two ends of 80’s twined together,
which would wrap 40’s. Actually, to make the resultant count 40’s, the
single yarn should be finer than 80’s, because the twist put in the
folded yarn contracts it in length and causes the two-fold to be really
coarser than would appear. However, neglecting this, suppose we twine
one end of 40’s and one of 20’s, the counts would not be 15’s, as a
first glance would indicate, but 13·33. This can be proved by taking
the weight of a lea of 40 = 25 grains, and of 20’s = 50 grains; total,
75. 75 divided into 1000 gives the counts as 13-1/3. Another rule is,
multiply the two counts and divide by their sum--
(40 × 20)/(40 + 20) = 800/60 = 13-1/3
3/300’s = 100’s.
3-fold yarn of 40’s, 80’s, and 120’s would be 21·81.
A lea of 40’s = 25 grains.
A lea of 80’s = 12-1/2 "
A lea of 120’s = 8-1/8 "
------
45-5/6
1000/(45-5/6) = 21·81
Or take the highest count and divide it by each of the others and by
itself, then divide the total of the quotients into the highest--
120 ÷ 80 = 1-1/2
120 ÷ 40 = 3
120 ÷ 120 = 1
-----
5-1/2 120/5-1/2 = 21·81
TESTING YARNS.
In addition to wrapping warp yarn to ascertain actual counts, it is
frequently tested as to strength; the lea from the reel is placed
between two hooks on a testing machine, and by a wheel worm and screw
the lower hook is moved downwards, increasing the tension on the yarn.
By an index finger this tension is indicated on a face plate, and when
the lea is broken the finger stops at the highest weight or strain that
the yarn has stood. Below is a table, which will give a general idea
of the comparative strength of mule twists, having, for the American
cotton, the standard turns in--_i.e._, square root of counts multiplied
by 3-3/4.
20’s American Cotton = 80lb.
30’s " " = 54lb.
40’s { " " = 40lb.
{ Egyptian " = 50lb.
50’s { American " = 28lb.
{ Egyptian " = 37lb.
60’s " " = 30lb.
70’s " " = 26lb.
In yarn the diameters of the threads do not vary inversely as the
counts, but inversely as the square root of the counts. Thus, 16’s is
not four times as thick as 64’s, but twice as thick, the square roots
being four and eight respectively.
REED COUNTING.
Before entering into the calculations regarding the weight of cloth,
it is necessary to familiarise ourselves with some method of counting
the ends of warp in the cloth. On the Exchange the system adopted both
for ends and pick is their number per quarter inch--_e.g._, a 16 by
14 means 16 ends per 1/4-inch, or 14 picks per quarter. The methods
used in the manufactory are based on the counts of reed. Formerly
many systems of reed counts prevailed, each town or district having
a method peculiar to itself; thus, Blackburn counts, Preston counts
and many others were at one time adhered to in their respective
districts, but have now fallen into disuse, and almost been forgotten.
The Stockport counts is commonest in Lancashire, and is based on the
number of dents or splits of the reed in two inches, and as cloth is
generally wrought two ends on a dent, this system is often taken as the
number of ends in one inch. It is in use in almost every Lancashire
manufacturing district, being adopted in consequence of its simplicity
and suitability for calculation purposes.
The Bolton counts is still used in some mills in that town and also
in Bury and some few other districts. It is based on the number of
beers in 24-1/4 inches--a beer comprising 20 dents. A Stockport 40’s
reed would have 485 dents on 24-1/4 inches, or 24-1/4 beers Bolton.
A Bolton 24-1/4 reed is then equal to a Stockport 40’s. To find the
number of splits per inch in a reed having Bolton counts given,
multiply those counts by ·8249, or _vice versâ_. This rule shows the
number of dents and decimal parts; 8·245 is more often taken, but it
gives the number with less exactitude. The fraction is only taken to
two places of decimals, showing thus the 100th parts of dents--_e.g._,
a 30^0 Bolton has 24-74/100 splits per inch (8·249 × 30 = 24·747). To
convert Stockport into Bolton counts multiply by ·60625. To convert
Bolton into Stockport multiply by 1·6495. This rule gives the number of
ends per inch in Bolton counts, supposing the cloth to be wrought two
ends in a dent. The Scotch systems are to take the number of dents or
splits in the old Scotch ell, 37 inches, or by the number of porters
on the same length. The Scotch porter is equal to the Lancashire
beer--20 splits. In the first system, the splits per ell are expressed
in hundreds--thus, 17^{00} indicates 1700 splits on 37 inches, almost
equal to a 92 reed, Stockport; or a 46 on the Scotch inch scale, which
is the number of splits in one inch, and corresponding to the old
Radcliffe and Pilkington method in Lancashire.
By the porter system, a 40-porter reed would give 40 × 20 dents =
800 on 37 inches, equal to a 43 reed, Stockport, In Scotland (as in
Lancashire) the old complicated systems show a tendency to give way in
favour of the simpler systems of counting the dents or ends in one inch.
In the reed table given below, the first row of figures shows the
proportion which these reeds bear to one another, and the lower rows
indicate the fineness of the different systems for 33 and 40 splits
per inch respectively--the calculation results being given, which same
might not frequently appear in practice--
The Inch Stockport Bolton Scotch. Scotch
Scale. Dents Beers 100 ends Porter.
Dents per on on on Porters on
Inch. 2 Inches. 24-1/4 Inches. 37 Inches. 37 Inches.
1 2 1·2125 0·37 1·85
33 66 40· 12·20 61
40 80 48·5 14·80 74
HEALDS.
In Stockport counts four healds are considered as a set, and having
one thread through each eye are dubbed of similar counts to the
reed--_e.g._, a 60’s set of healds has 15 stitches per inch in each
set, equalling 60 ends per inch in the reed, which is a 60’s reed,
Stockport.
In spaced healds some are knitted finer than others and consequently
numbered differently. In this point draft:--
5 5
4 4 4 4
3 3 3
2 2
1
twelve ends are drawn on five healds, one end on the 1st heald, two
on the 2nd, three on the 3rd, four on the 4th, and two on the 5th.
Four different degrees of fineness are required in the five heald
staves, and the above draft is given to the knitter with instructions
for so many patterns to the inch. Say five patterns per inch: 5 × 12
would give a 60 reed, and the number of stitches per inch would be
respectively 5, 10, 15, 20 and 10--the front one being equal to a
Stockport 20’s, for if there were four similar to it in a set, the
number of ends would be 20. Similarly the second stave equals a
Stockport 40’s, the third 60’s, the fourth 80’s, and the fifth same as
the second, a 40’s. To prove this, the requisite set of five staves
might be obtained by taking one stave out of a plain 20’s set, two
staves of a plain 40’s, one stave from a 60’s, and one from an 80’s set.
WEIGHT OF A PIECE.
In calculating the weight of a piece, the warp weight is obtained
from the number of ends, based upon the width in the reed. This is
multiplied by the sizing length and brought into hanks, from which
the weight can be obtained by dividing by the counts. The weft is
calculated from the picks to the inch, the reed width, and the actual
length of piece. Example--A piece has to be made full dimensions, 36
inches wide, 36 yards long, 16 square (1/4 inch)--_i.e._, 64 ends per
inch and 64 picks; yarns 30’s/36’s, the first number being the warp,
sized 25 per cent. In the reed it would stand 38 inches, about six
per cent. being allowed for contraction. Of course, if the yarn were
coarser, the pick heavier, and the reed finer, more than this would be
allowed. Supposing that a 60’s reed (Stockport) is used, the number
of ends would be 38 × 60 = 2280; the length of warp, say 38 yards,
allowing six per cent.--then
(2280 × 38)/840 = 103-1/7 hanks,
Divided by 30’s gives 3lb. 7oz.
_Weft._--The weft, 37-1/2 inches wide, 64 picks; length of piece, 36
yards.
(37-1/2 × 64 x 36)/(840 × 36’s) = 2lb. 13-3/4oz.
37-1/2 × 64 gives the number of inches of weft in one inch of cloth,
or, what is the same, yards of weft in one yard of cloth.
_Size._--
3lb. 7oz. = 55oz.
25 per cent. on 55 =
55 × 25 ÷ 100 = 13-3/4oz.
The weight of the piece is then--
Twist 3 : 7
Size 13-3/4
-----------------------
4 : 4-3/4
Weft 2 : 13-3/4
----------
7 : 2-1/2
When the piece is measured by the long stick, about half an inch more
to the yard must be reckoned--_e.g._, 38-inch: 14/14, 37-1/2 yards
L.S., 38’s weft, to be 8-1/4lb. in weight; this would be perhaps 38-1/4
yards long S.S.
_Weft._--
(40 × 56 × 38-1/4)/(840 × 38) = 2 : 10-3/4
Leaving 5: 9-1/4 for twist and size, say of the latter 100 per cent.,
then 2: 12-1/2 would be twist--
(40 × 52 × 41)/840 = 101-1/2 hanks
required to be found in 2: 12-1/2 of yarn; then if 2: 12-1/2 = 101-1/2
hank:: 1lb. equals 36’s twist about.
This cloth would then be composed of--
Warp 2 : 12-1/4
Size 2 : 13
Weft 2 : 10-3/4
----------
8 : 4
For quoting purposes the weight of the yarn is taken at the market
price, say that of the cloth No. 1--
lb. oz.
3 7 of 30’s T at 8d. = 2 : 3-1/2
2 13-3/4 of 36’s W at 8d. = 1 : 11
Weaving Price = 9-1/2
To this is added a sum sufficient to cover cost--winding, warping,
sizing, power, miscellaneous expenses, waste (which sum varies
considerably, and depends mainly upon the situation of the producers
as regards the amount at which he can produce this cloth). Often, for
lightly-sized goods, the weaving price is doubled, making this piece
cost 5s. 9-1/2d. Should it be a dhootie, then an addition is made for
coloured yarns for heading and border, and if a figured cloth extras
are included for increased cost of production.
The examples given are supposititious ones, for, as has been said, the
exact details of weight and quoting prices are decided purely by local
or temporary position, and fixed data cannot be given as a standard for
every case.
STRIPE PATTERNS.
In case of stripes with two counts of warp yarn, for example, the
number of ends of each must be obtained. If there are 38 stripes each
of 15 ends, 40’s twist, with a ground cloth between each of 45 ends
warp, 60’s T, separate calculations for each must be made.
38 × 15 = 570 stripe ends.
38 × 45 = 1710 ground ends.
ALTERING.
When the pick or reed is altered, the weight of the weft or warp is
altered in proportion; when the length or width is altered, the weight
of the piece is altered in proportion; when the counts of yarn are
altered, the weight alters inversely proportionately.
OTHER REEDS.
Although the 1/4-inch scale is mostly used for calculating warps in
Lancashire, we give an example of a calculation with the Bolton reed.
To get the number of ends, multiply the reed counts by the width of
your warp in the reed, and by 1·6495--thus, Bolton 36’s, 39 inches
in the reed, would give 2238 ends. The calculation is then proceeded
with in the ordinary manner. In the Scotch ell standard system, the
dimensions of the cloth before-mentioned would be 36 inches wide, 36
yards long, 11^{00} reed, 11-1/2 shots to the glass, yarns 30’s/36’s.
To calculate the weight of warp, add six per cent. to the 36 inches,
making it 38 inches wide in the reed. If there are 1100 splits on 37
inches, then the number on 38 inches will be proportional.
(1100 × 38)/37 = 1130.
Multiply by 2, as it is always understood that there are two ends in a
split, and we get 2260 ends. The calculation is then continued in the
usual way.
(2260 × 38)/(840 × 30) = 3·407lb.
_Weft._---- The meaning of shots on the glass refers to a counting
glass used in Glasgow district, one two-hundredth part of a yard in
width; 11-1/2 shots will then give 11-1/2 × 200 = 2300 picks in a yard.
(2300 × 37-1/2 inches wide)/(36’s × 36 inches to the yard × 840) = 2·85lb.
If required to be left in hank, omit to divide by the counts in each
case. In other materials, the length of the hank varies, and, in
the case of single worsted, we should have divided in the previous
calculations by 560 instead of 840, in linen by 300, or in single silk
by 840.
WARPING AND SIZING CALCULATIONS.
In getting an order passed through a weaving shed the first point,
after calculating the particulars for each piece or cut, is to get
the length for warping and sizing. In the case of an order for 3750
pieces of the before-mentioned dimensions, the total length of warp
is calculated thus--38 yards for one piece × 3750 = 142,500 yards,
allowing nothing for waste in length, as the tension on the yarn in
process will stretch it sufficiently to allow for that, and perhaps a
little more. At the warping mill the length is taken in wraps of 3564
yards, subdivided into teeth of 27 yards. In this case, four wraps or
14,256 yards would be taken to a set of back beams; therefore, this
order would be run in ten separate sets.
The number of back beams for the sizing machine is proportioned to the
capacity of the warping mill--say five beams, the length on each beam
must be 14,256 yards, and the total number of ends on the beams equal
to the ends in the piece--say 5 at 456 each = 2280.
_To Calculate the Counts of Yarn after Warping._--Divide the length
by the weight and 840. A beam weighs 301lb., carrying 504 ends, each
14,256 yards long--
(14,256 × 504)/(301 × 840) = 28·41’s.
Having 375 pieces to make from the set of beams, which will probably
weigh about 1300lb. for 30’s twist, to this add 25 per cent. for size =
(1300 × 325)/100 = 325
1300
----
1625
Divide by 375) 1500 (4lb. 5oz.
----
125
16
----
2000
4lb. 5oz. being about the size required (_vide_ page 150).
_Actual Size._--To find the size actually put on the yarn, subtract the
weight of the unsized yarn less waste from the sized yarn--_e.g._,
1639 Actual sized weight.
1300
----
339 = Weight of size.
1300) 33900 (26·07 per cent. actual.
2600
----
7900
7800
----
100
_Counts after Sizing._--
(14256 × 2280) / (1639 × 840) = 23·61’s
_To Calculate the Percentage of Waste._--Multiply the waste made by
100 and divide by the weight of yarn used. If eleven skips of twist,
weighing 3189lb., make 33lb. of waste--
3189 ) 3300 ( 1·034 per cent.
3189
------
11100
9567
------
15330
WAGES--STANDARD LISTS.
In those towns where a uniform class of goods is made of simple weave,
it is possible to formulate and adhere to a standard method of payment
such as is done in Burnley, Blackburn, and other towns. In other
districts, such as Bolton and Preston, the sorts are so varied and
difficult to classify that at many mills a private list is adhered to
with satisfaction to the employer and employed. For the benefit of
some readers a typical calculation will be given, based on the 1853
Blackburn list, as in 1883 this list was adopted in Preston, Chorley,
and other towns. This may be considered a list of medium position with
regard to other lists--Burnley being lower for plains, Ashton list
being considered a low one for fancies.
The Blackburn list is based on a 40-inch loom, weaving from 36
to 41-inch cloth, 60 reed Stockport counts, 16 picks per 1/4
inch, 37-1/2 yards, from 30’s to 60’s weft, and from 28’s to
45’s twist, for 12·25d.
_Reeds._--A 60 reed or 30 dents, being the standard, is made
the starting point, and 3/4 per cent. is deducted for every
two ends or counts of reeds, from 60 to 48; but no deduction
is made below 48 reed, and 3/4 per cent. is added for every
two ends or counts of reed above 60. _Weft._--All weft from
30’s to 60’s, both included, is considered medium, and reckoned
equal, but all weft above 60’s to be allowed 1 per cent. for
every 10 hanks,
and all below 30’s to 26’s to be allowed 2 per cent. on list.
" 26’s to 20’s " 5 "
" 20’s to 16’s " 8 "
" 16’s to 14’s " 10 "
_Twist._--All twist from 28’s to 45’s, both included, is
considered medium, and reckoned equal, but all twist above 45’s
up to 60’s to be allowed 1-1/2 per cent., and all above 60’s 1
per cent. for each 10 hanks,
and all below 28’s to 20’s to be allowed 1 per cent. on list.
" 20’s to 14’s " 2 "
_Additions for Picks._--All picks above 8 and up to 18 are
considered proportionate, but 8 picks and all below and all
above 18, to have 1 per cent. allowed for every pick over and
above the proportionate difference in the number of picks.
_Width of Looms._--A 40-inch loom being the standard, is taken
as the starting point, and all additions or deductions are
made therefrom. (The reed space is measured from back board to
forkgrate.)
25-inch loom has 2-1/2 per cent. deducted from 30-inch loom.
30-inch " 5 " " 35-inch "
35-inch " 5 " " 40-inch "
40-inch loom (45-inch reed space) the standard--
45-inch loom has 5 per cent. added to 40-inch loom.
50-inch " 10 " " 45-inch "
55-inch " 10 " " 50-inch "
60-inch " 10 " " 55-inch "
_Looms of Intermediate Width._--One per cent. per inch is to be
deducted from 40 down to 30-inch loom; below 30 to 26-inch loom
5/8 per cent. per inch to be deducted. Above 40-inch and up to
45-inch loom, 1 per cent. per inch to be added, and all above
45-inch 2 per cent. per inch.
_Narrow Cloth in Broad Looms._--Suppose a 40-inch loom should
be weaving cloth 36 to 31-1/4 inches in width, take off
one-half the difference between 40 and 35-inch loom price; and
if weaving cloth 31 to 27-1/4 inches wide, take off one-half
the difference between 40 and 30-inch loom price; or if weaving
41-1/4 to 46-inch cloth in a 50-inch loom, take off one-half
the difference between 50 and 45-inch loom, and so on with all
other widths.
_Range of Cloths._--
26-inch loom allowed to weave cloth up to 27 inches.
35-inch " " from 31 to 36 inches.
40-inch " " " 36 to 41 "
45-inch " " " 41 to 46 "
50-inch " " " 46 to 52 "
_Basis of Calculations._--The calculations in the Blackburn
list are based upon the picks counted by the glass when the
cloth is laid upon the counter. Forty yards short stick to be
taken as 39 yards long stick.
To find price for a 44-inch cloth in 45-inch loom = 66’s reed, 44
change pinion, 528 dividend, 75 yards long, 34’s/36’s--
12·25 Standard.
Add 5 per cent. loom ·61
-----
12·86
Add 2-1/4 per cent. reed ·28
-----
13·14
Calculate in proportion to pick 16 to 12 = 9·86
Calculate proportion length 37-1/2 to 75 = 19·72 = List price.
Double
Deduct 10 per cent. = 1·97
-----
17·78 = Present price.
or from list under heading, 45-inch loom--
66 reed, 37-1/2 yards = ·822 for 1 pick.
9·86 for 12 picks.
19·72 for 75 yards.
SPEEDS OF SHAFTS, ETC.
In calculating the speed of a shaft driven from another by pulleys or
gearing, multiply the speed of the first shaft by the driving pulley or
wheel, and divide by the driven one. A shaft makes 100 revolutions per
minute and carries a 40-inch drum driving a 16-inch pulley on another
shaft; the speed of the second shaft would be 250, thus:--
(100 × 40)/16 = 250.
The same rule and calculation would apply if the first shaft had
carried a 40-teeth cog-wheel, and the second a 16-teeth wheel.
In taking the dimensions of a pulley for calculations the diameter
is often taken; it does not matter, though, if the circumference be
taken, but care must be exercised in taking the same dimension for the
driven as is taken for the driver. If the diameter is taken of one, the
diameter must be taken of the other.
_To get Speed of Loom from Engine._--Multiply the engine speed by all
the driving pulleys, and divide by the driven ones. If the engine make
46 strokes per minute, spur-wheel 105 teeth, second motion pinion 52
teeth; also on same a 52 driving a 49 on line shaft in shed. Pulley
on line shaft on which is a 15-inch drum driving a loom pulley on the
crank-shaft of 8 inches.
The driving and driven pulleys are always alternate; then as the first
must be a driver--
(46 × 105 × 52 × 15)/(52 × 49 × 8) = 185 nearly.
The answer gives the _calculated_ picks per minute. About 4 per cent.
must, however, be allowed for slippage, reducing the 185 to an actual
speed of about 177.
_To find the Size of Pulley for any required Speed._--Find the ratio of
the given speed and arrange size of pulley accordingly. Suppose a shaft
running at 100 revolutions per minute has to drive a loom-shaft at a
speed of 180 picks per minute the ratio of speed is as 100 to 180 or as
5 to 9; arrange the pulleys in this proportion--say 10 inches and 18
inches, the larger pulley being on the driving shaft.
_To alter Speeds._--Calculate in proportion to the alteration. If a
twill-shaft is driven by a 30-cog wheel, and revolves at a speed of
45 revolutions per minute for a 4-leaf twill, and it is desirable to
change this to a 3-leaf twill with the twill-shaft at 60 revolutions
per minute, then, as 45 is to 60, so 30: _x_--
_x_ = (60 × 30)/45 = 40
A 40 wheel must now _drive_ the wheel on the twill-shaft, and the speed
will be increased one-third more.
ENGINES.
The strength of a steam engine is indicated in horse-powers. A
horse-power is taken as the capacity of performing 33,000 foot-pounds
of work in one minute; lifting 3300lb. 10 feet high, or 10lb. 3300 feet
high would be 33,000 foot-pounds of work.
_To obtain the Indicated Horse-power--the most usual Standard._--A
diagram is taken from the engine by a small apparatus, and this
diagram, when measured and averaged at different points of its length,
gives the mean pressure of steam in the cylinder. Multiply this by the
speed of the piston, by the area of the piston, and divide by 33,000,
and the I.H.P. is to hand. 39·81 average pressure per square inch, area
of piston 400 square inches, length of stroke 5-1/2 feet, strokes per
minute 40 (or 11 feet both ways)--
(39·81 × 400 × 11 × 40)/33,000 = 212·32 I.H.P.
Nominal horse-power (condensing) = area of piston divided by 22; ditto
high pressure = area of piston divided by 11.
2-1/2 to 3 looms, with preparation, are reckoned to 1 indicated
horse-power.
_Coal._--A good quality of coal should evaporate 8lb. of water for each
1lb. burnt, and for a manufacturing concern (including sizing, which
takes a great amount of steam) the consumption of coal should be about
3-1/4lb. per I.H.P. per hour. Thus 600 horse-power should use about 24
tons per week; excluding sizing, 2-3/4lb. would suffice.
_To find the Circumference of a Circle._--Multiply the diameter by
3·1416 or (roughly) by 3-1/7.
_To find the Area of a Circular Space._--Square the diameter and
multiply by ·7854.
_To find the Cubical Contents of a Rectangular Block._--Multiply the
depth, length and breadth together.
[Illustration]
CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
_TECHNOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS._
19B.--COTTON MANUFACTURE.
SECTION I.--COTTON SPINNING.
=I. Syllabus.=--The Examination will include questions founded on such
subjects as the following:--
1. The geographical position of the world’s cotton fields, and suitable
regions to which it may be introduced.
2. Cotton cultivation and the various causes of damage to the fibre
during growing and picking seasons, with the dates of planting and
picking in all cotton-growing countries.
3. The mode of preparing the raw material, cotton gins, ginning,
packing, &c. Means and methods of adulteration.
4. Commercial handling of the raw material up to the spinning mill.
5. The nature and properties of the various kinds of raw material--Sea
Island, Queensland, Fiji, Egyptian, New Orleans, Uplands, Boweds,
Dollerah, Hinghinghat, Surat, Brazilian, &c.
6. The selection of, and advisability, or otherwise, of mixing various
cottons with a view to the full utilization of every kind.
7. The development of and the principles involved in the construction
of the several machines used in cotton spinning.
8. Cleaning cotton by opening, scrutching, carding and combing
machines.
9. Processes of attaining a parallel arrangement of fibres by
carding, and the attenuation of the sliver through drawing, slubbing,
intermediate and finishing roving frames.
10. Spinning operations upon the throstle, mule, and ring frames.
11. The doubling of single yarns for lace, hosiery, sewing thread, and
kindred purposes.
12. Warping and bundling for the home trade and export, with the
accompanying processes of winding and reeling.
13. Packing and commercial dealing with yarns in the process of
distribution.
* * * * *
In the Honours Examination more difficult questions in the above
subjects will be set than in the Ordinary Grade.
=II. Full Technological Certificate.=--The candidate, who is not
otherwise qualified (see Regulations 33 and 34), will be required, for
the full Certificate in the Ordinary Grade, to have passed the Science
and Art Department’s Examination, in the Elementary Stage at least, and
for the full Certificate in the Honours Grade, in the Advanced Stage at
least, in two of the following Science subjects:--
II. Machine Construction and Drawing.
III. Building Construction.
VI. Theoretical Mechanics.
VII. Applied Mechanics.
XV. Elementary Botany.
Certificates, showing that the candidate has passed the Second Grade
Examination of the Science and Art Department in Geometrical Drawing as
well as in Freehand or Model Drawing, will be accepted in lieu of one
of the above Science subjects for the full Technological Certificate in
either grade of the Examination.
SECTION II.--COTTON WEAVING.
The Examination in the Ordinary Grade will consist of a paper of
questions only.
=I. Syllabus.=--The Examination will include questions founded on such
subjects as the following:--
1. Winding Machines for warping and pirns.
2. Warping.--Mill, beam and sectional.
3. Sizing.--Ball, hank, dressing, slashing upon both cylinder and
hot-air frames.
4. Beaming and Scotch Dressing.
5. Reeds and Healds (Counts Setting, &c.), Drawing in and Twisting.
6. Comparative merits of Hand and Power Looms.
7. The Power Loom--its parts, the principle governing each, with the
relation and timing of each to the other.
8. Shedding Motions--as Tappets with their over and under motions.
Dobbies or witches.
9. Picking motions, alternate and “pick and pick.”
10. Beating up, shuttle box, and minor motions.
11. Necessary calculations for the power loom.
12. The various makes of cloth produced by Tappets and Dobbies as plain
cloth, twills, satins, and small figured effects, with one warp and
weft, or with the addition of extra warp for figuring, as in Dhooties.
13. Method of making designs, drafts, and tie-ups for the above.
14. Colour and colour blending as applied to the coloured branches of
the industry.
15. Calculations for warp and weft and method of costing goods.
* * * * *
The Examination for the Honours Grade will consist of more advanced
questions on the preceding subjects, especially those enumerated
in Sections 7 to 11; and, in addition, questions relating to the
following:--
1. Construction of the various Jacquard machines in use, and their
relative suitability to various goods, and the system of mounting
Jacquard looms.
2. Construction, merits and uses of the hand loom.
3. Principles of cloth structure, and the mechanism required for the
production of the following typical fabrics:--Plain cloth, twills,
diapers, brocades, damasks, coloured stripes and checks, warp spots,
repps, weft spots produced with circles, swivels or extra shuttles,
backed cloths, double cloths, 3, 4, 5, &c., ply fabrics, tapestries,
velveteens, cords, Terry fabrics, plain and figured gauze, lappets,
plain and figured leno.
4. Principles of designing and card cutting involved in producing the
above fabrics, giving preference to the actual designing and working of
such patterns as shall be practically useful as articles of commerce.
5. Analysis of samples of woven fabrics to determine pattern, draft,
tie-up, and counts of material used.
6. Composition of the various yarns used in the production of mixed
fabrics.
7. Latent and other defects in fabrics caused by faulty construction
and unequal balancing of warp and weft.
8. Selection of warp and weft yarns suitable for the fabrics required.
9. Proportioning of fabrics so as to maintain the original structure
with an increased or diminished weight.
10. Method of calculating the cost of a fabric from given data of
values of material and labour, by ascertaining the fibre, counts, ends,
picks and weight.
11. Actual Weaving.--Each candidate will be required, during the year
preceding the Examination, to design and execute in suitable material
an original pattern, of not less than 200 ends and 200 picks in a
complete pattern, and to forward the same (carriage paid) to London
a fortnight prior to the day of the Examination, together with a
certificate signed by his employer, or by the class teacher and a
member of the School Committee, stating that the work has been executed
by the candidate without assistance. The specimen of weaving, showing
the complete pattern, must not be less than one yard in length and at
least 24 inches in width: it must be properly dyed or finished, and
constructed in such a manner as to be a saleable article.
=II. Full Technological Certificate.=--The candidate, who is not
otherwise qualified (see Regulations 33 and 34), will be required, for
the full Certificate in the Ordinary Grade, to have passed the Science
and Art Department’s Examination, in the Elementary Stage at least, and
for the full Certificate in the Honours Grade, in the Advanced Stage at
least, in _two_ of the following Science subjects:--
II. Machine Construction and Drawing.
III. Building Construction.
VI. Theoretical Mechanics.
VII. Applied Mechanics.
XV. Elementary Botany.
Certificates, showing that the candidate has passed the Second Grade
Examination of the Science and Art Department in Geometrical Drawing as
well as in Freehand or Model Drawing, will be accepted in lieu of one
of the above Science subjects for the full Technological Certificate in
either grade of the Examination.
[Illustration]
GLOSSARY OF TRADE TERMS.
_Am._--AMERICAN. _Sc._--SCOTCH.]
_Some words not mentioned here are explained in previous parts of the
book, and will be found in the General Index._
=Apex=--The tip or point--_e.g._, of a cone or wedge.
=Backed Cloth=--Cloth which, in addition to the faced fabric,
bears bound underneath a layer either of extra weft, extra
warp, or of another cloth. The term is usually applied to the
first-named variety.
=Bar=--A term applied to a single strip of coloured weft, used
as heading or cross border.
=Beam=--The flanged roller on which the warp yarn is wound,
either at the beam, warping, sizing, or dressing machines; also
applied to the full beam.
=Beer=--Twenty dents or splits in a reed, also 40 ends--_i.e._,
two ends to each split.
=Bevel=--A cog wheel, having the teeth set at an angle with
the shaft on which it moves, but in the some plane, unless a
skew-gear bevel.
=Bitting=--Drawing in additional ends at the side of healds and
reeds in case of a wider warp having to be used.
=Bobbin=--A flanged wooden cylinder.
=Borders=--The stripe running along the side of a piece of
cloth--formed either by different colour, counts of yarn, or
weave, from the centre.
=Box Motion=--Arrangement for operating the shuttle boxes in
check weaving.
=Bracket=--An attachment bolted to a framing for the support of
other apparatus.
=Cam or Camb=--A plate revolving on a shaft, having its
circumference other than circular, thus giving a reciprocating
motion to any lever actuated by it.--Applied in some districts
to the shedding tappets and picking plates.
=Cellulose=--A botanical term referring to an organic
substance of which the cotton fibre principally consists, and
being composed of six atoms of carbon with five of water, or
C{6}H{10}O{5}.
=Cloth=--The technical name for woven cotton fabrics: although
cloth is the popular name for woollen and worsted fabrics, and
cotton is usually called calico, or some such name, yet in the
trade the name of cloth is always given to cotton goods.
=Compass Board=--Another name for the cumber board.
=Cop=--The cylindrical coil of yarn formed at the mule, or, in
the case of two-fold yarn, at the twiner.
=Cord=--The bands used in attaching the healds to the
heald-rollers, or lambs--_i.e._, heald cords; also a very
coarse thread, used as a heading or stripe border; a name given
to a cloth bearing a stripe, formed by using cord warp yarn;
and also a contraction of corduroy.
=Counts=--A system of indicating the fineness of yarn, written
by placing ’_s_ after the figures signifying the number of
hanks per lb.--thus, “40’s”; otherwise, _grist_ or _numbers_.
=Cover=--A name given to the downy appearance of cloth or yarn.
=Cross-band=--Sometimes applied to yarns spun twist-way, in
contradistinction to _open-band_.
=Cross-border=--A heading to a piece of cloth or handkerchief,
either formed by coloured or other weft, or by a change in the
pattern.
=Cumber Board=--The perforated frame for the guidance of the
harness in the jacquard or some dobby shedding motions.
=Cutting=--The severance of the pile warp or pile weft in a
fabric which requires the slitting of some filament, so as to
produce a nap, formed by short threads presenting their section
on the face of the cloth.
=Cut=--A length of warp required to weave a piece of cloth;
also the piece when woven.
=Deliquescent=--A substance which tends to liquefy in the
air--thus, chloride of magnesium tends to retain dampness and
cause a fabric in which it is present to become moist.
=Dent=--A space between the wires of a reed, otherwise _split_.
=Draft=--A plan showing the order in which the ends are drawn
through the healds (_see_ page 94).
=Elongated Twills=--Twilled cloth, in which the wale extends a
greater distance than usual before reaching the other side of
the fabric, caused by weaving two or more picks before altering
the risen ends forming the wale. These twills do not run at an
angle of 45 degrees.
=End=--The technical name for a thread.
=Entering Draft=--The system of drawing the warp through the
healds (_see_ Draft).
=Fell (of Cloth)=--The edge of the fabric (in the loom) which
has most recently been woven.
=Filling=--_Am. for_ weft.
=Fixing=--_Am. for_ tackling.
=Flue=--One lap of the folded cloth.
=Flushing=--Bringing the warp or weft to the surface of the
cloth without interweaving.
=Fly-reed=--_Sc. for_ loose reed.
=Gaws=--_Sc. for_ goal.
=Gears=--_Sc. for_ healds.
=Goal=--A gap caused in a piece by the cloth being drawn
forward without the weft interweaving, especially when used to
mark the end of a piece.
=Grey=--Yarn or cloth in an undyed or unbleached state.
=Grist=--Synonymous with counts (_Sc._).
=Ground=--That portion of a fabric, usually of a simple weave,
which serves as a base on which to display a figure.
=Hank=--A measurement of yarn. In cotton, 840 yards.
=Harness=--The arrangement of leashes in a jacquard. (_Am. for_
a heald.)
=Heald=--The arrangement of top and bottom staves, carrying the
leashes with eyes for use in stave work.--_Sc._, heddle; _Am._,
harness.
=Lag=--A bar of the lattice used in dobby work.
=Lathe= (_South Lancashire_)--Synonymous with slay.
=Lay=--_Am._ and _Sc. for_ slay.
=Leaf=--A heald or a plate of the shedding tappet--_e.g._,
three-leaf twill = three-stave twill.
=Lingo=--The weight below the leashes in the jacquard.
=L.S.=--Abbreviation of “long stick.”
=Mail-eye=--The aperture in the harness for the reception of
the thread.
=Manufacturing=--(_Vide_ Chapter I.).
=Mash=--(_Vide_ Index).--Otherwise smash, or trap.
=Mitre Wheels=--Bevel wheels which gear with and are exactly
similar to each other.
=Open-band Yarn=--Yarn spun weft-way--that is, twisted over to
the right.
=P.C.=--Pin cop--_i.e._, weft size of cop.
=Pick=--The insertion of a thread of weft; the propulsion of
the shuttle through the shed; the time occupied in the opening
of the shed, the picking, and beating up.--A term used to
signify the number of picks in a quarter-inch.
=Pirn=--A wooden tube on which is wound the weft used for
headings, etc.
=Ply=--A thickness or layer of fabric--thus, two-ply,
three-ply, refer to double or triple cloth.
=Positive Motion=--A motion driven by gearing as distinct from
one driven by friction or some non-positive force.
=Pure Size=--Sizing with vegetable or animal substances, used
for light percentages.
=Range=--A series of cloths similar in style, but varying in
width or other dimensions.
=Reed=--(_Vide_ Chapter III.).--Also the number of ends per
quarter-inch.
=Run=--A stripe of colour in a fabric.
=Scobs=--_Sc. for_ slattering.
=Selvage=--The sides of a fabric.
=Sett=--The fineness of reeds--reed counts. Also signifying the
amount of warp on the beams which are sized at one time.
=Shaft=--A heald.
=Shed=--The opening made in the warp for the passage of the
shuttle; also, a weaving mill.
=Shot=--_Sc. for_ pick.
=Slay=--Otherwise _lay_ or _lathe_ (_vide_ Index).
=Smash=--Synonymous with mash or trap (_vide_ Index).
=Split=--Dent.
=S.S.=--Abbreviation of “short stick.”
=Stave=--Equivalent to shaft.
=Strip=--A narrow bar of heading.
=Stud=--A short projecting pin to carry a wheel or wheels.
=Tapes=--Borders of cramped or coarse warp.
=Tappet=--(_See_ Index).--_Sc. for_ wiper.
=Technical=--Specially appertaining to an industrial art,
business, or profession.
=Technology=--The branch of knowledge dealing with the
systematic study of the industrial arts.
=Terry=--Uncut or loop pile.
=Trap=--Synonymous with mash.
=Trevette=--A knife used in cutting the pile wires out of the
cloth.
=Tuning=--Tackling.
=Turns (per inch)=--The extent of the torsion in yarn.
=T.W.=--Twist-way yarn or thread, which, in being spun, has
been twisted over to the left--distinct from weft-way.
=Tweel=--_Sc. for_ twill.
=Twist=--Warp yarn.
=Up-taking=--_Sc. for_ the take-up motion.
=Warp=--The yarn arranged length-way of the cloth--the full
beam of warp yarn.
=Water T.=--Throstle twist.
=Waves=--Zigzag twill pattern.
=Wax=--Cotton wax is a substance coating the outside of cotton
fibres, and present to the extent of about 1/2 per cent. It is
a brownish horny vegetable wax.
=Weft=--The yarn arranged across the cloth.
=Weft-way=--Yarn twisted over to the right in spinning. Weft
may be either twist-way or weft-way.
=W.W.=--Weft-way.
=Whip-roll=--_Am. for_ back-rest.
=Whip-thread=--The crossing thread in gauze.
=Woof=--The weft.
=Wraith, Wrathe, or Rathe=--The reed comb used for guiding the
yarn to the beam.
=Wrap (Warper’s)=--_Vide_ index.
=Wyper or Wiper=--_Sc. for_ tappets.
=Yarn=--The thread of twisted fibres.
INDEX.
A
Accrington trade, 12
Adhesive substances, 34, 37
American cotton, 16
American trade terms, 165
Analysis of patterns, 90
Antiseptics, 34, 36
Area (circular), 159
Arrangement of looms, 71
Arrangement of shed, 19
B
Back beams, 40
Ball sizing, 48
Ball warping, 30
Ball warps, 29
Bare cloth, 81
Beaming or beam warping, 25
Beating up, 55, 61
Becks, 37
Blackburn dobby, 108
Blackburn pick, 59
Blackburn standard list, 154
Blackburn trade, 11
Black oil, 82
Bleaching, 83
Bobbin warpers, 22
Bolton quilts, 131
Bolton reed counts, 147
Bolton trade, 12
Bottoming, 73, 81
Bradford loom, 58
Brake, 69
Brocade, 130
Bullhide, 102
Burnley trade, 12
Bury trade, 13
C
Calculations for--
Cloth, 149
Counts, 143
Engines, 158
Healds, 148
Jacquards, 129
Reeds, 146
Sizing, 149, 152
Speeds, 76, 156
Capital invested, 9
Card cutting, 127
Carding, 17
Cards for drop-box, 140
_Cartwright’s_ loom, 4
Casting out, 129
Centre tie, 126
Checks, 133
Checked shirtings, 134
China clay, 36
Chloride of magnesium, 36
Chloride of zinc, 36
Circle swivels, 141
Circular boxes, 140
Circumference, to find, 158
Classification of fancy cloths, 89
Cloth, cotton, 80
Cloth, cover of, 81
Cloth, faults in, 81
Cloth looking, 80
Cloth, uneven, 81
Coal, 158
Cockly cloth, 81
Coloured spots, 141
Coloured warping, 28
Coloured winding, 24
Combing, 17
Common dobby, 108
Contraction, 149
Cop, 21
Cop bottoms, 21
Cop nose, 21
Cords, 87, 102
Cotton, 14
Cotton cloth, 80
Cotton cultivation, 14
Cotton districts, 16
Cotton fibre, 14
Cotton lands, 14
Cotton manufacture--syllabus, 161
Cotton plant, 14
Cotton, selection of, 16
Counterpanes, 131
Counts on beam, 153
Counts, reed, 146
Counts, single yarn, 143
Counts, two and three-fold, 145
Cracks, 81
Creel, 25
Cretonnes, 87
Cross borders, 82
Crossing thread, 111
D
Damask, 130
Darwen trade, 12
Designing, 93
Designs, 92
Dhootie marker, 48
Dhooties, 84
Dhooties, figured, 110
Diameter threads, 146
_Diggle’s_ chain, 135
Dimity, 130
Dividend of loom, 66
Divisions of the industry, 1
Dobbies, 100, 103
Dobby sides, 110
Domestics, 85
Double cloth, 109
Double lift, 104
Double yarn, 145
Doup, 77
Doup healds, 112
Draft for plain, 55
Drafting, 94
Drag take-up, 103
Drawing, 17
Drawing-in, 49
Dressing machine, 5
Dressing, old system, 5
Drop box, 134
Drying cylinders, 41
Dwell of slay, 62
E
Eccentricity of slay, 62
Engines, horse-power, 158
Examples wage calculations, 154
Expanding comb, 26, 42
Exports, cotton cloth, 10, 84, 85, 86, 87
F
Factory Acts, 7
Falling rods, 26
Fancy cloth, classification of, 89
Farina, 35
Fast reed, 64
Faults in cloth, 81
Feel, 32
Fermenting flour, 34, 39
Figured canvas, 130
Figured cloth, 90
Figured dhooties, 110
Figured gauze, 130
FIGURES:--
Frontispiece: Single-action jacquard loom
1 Perfect cotton fibre
2 Section of same
3 Imperfect fibre
4 Section of same
5 Seed and fibres
6 Section of fibres
7 Winding frame
8 Traverse (winding)
9 Warping, falling rods
10 Stop-motion warping, elev.
11 " " plan
12 Beam gearing, slasher, section
13 " " elev.
14 Presser " plan
15 " " section
16 Slow motion " plan
17 Dhootie marker
18 Heald
19 Metallic heald
20 Reed
21 Plain loom, front view
22 Plain loom (right hand), back view
23 Bradford loom
24 Diagram--eccentricity of slay
25 Shuttle-box and frog, fast reed
26 Take-up motion
27 Weft stop motion
28 Plain tappet
29 Point paper
30 Plain cloth
31 Plan of cloth
32 Design
33 Draft
34 Lifting plan and tie
35 Draft
36 Draft
37 Design, etc.
38 Draft and tie
39 Sateen
40 Plain
41 Sateen and plain
42 Plate, sateen tappet
43 _Smalley’s_ motion on loom
44 Four-leaf twill
45 Four-leaf twill
46 Velveteen
47 Constitution cord
48 Keighley dobby
49 Dobby lattice
50 Dobby pegging
51 Blackburn dobby
52 Dobby pegging
53 Gauze--sketch
54 Gauze--section
55 Leno--sketch
56 Draft--gauze
57 Doup heald
58 Netting
59 Netting
60 Figured gauze--sketch
61 Handkerchief loom
62 Jacquard--section, single-action
63 Needles, jacquard
64 Double-action jacquard--single cylinder
65 Double-action jacquard--double cylinder
66 London tie
67 Straight tie
68 Lay-over tie
69 Centre tie
70 Piano card-cutting machine
71 _Diggle’s_ chain
72 Chain links for ditto
73 _Wright Shaw’s_ drop box
74 Plates for ditto
_(Also vide Plates.)_
Finishing, 83
Floats, 81
Flour, 34
Flour, testing, 34
Fork and grid motion, 68
Friction--sizing, 43
Fustian, 102
G
Gaiting warps, 72
Gauze, 111
Gingham, 134
Goods made--1800-1860, 8
Goods made--present time, 83
Grist, 143
Ground for jacquard patterns, 109, 129
H
Handkerchiefs, 115, 134
Handkerchief loom, 116
Hands of looms, 71
Hank, 143
Hank, winding from, 25
Haslingden trade, 12
Headings, 82
Headles, 51
Heald counts, 148
Heald motions, 79
Healds, 51
Heck box, 30
Heddles, 51
Heddling, 94
History of trade, 3
Honeycomb, 95, 131
Hooking, 80
Horse-power, 158
Hydrometer, 38
I
ILLUSTRATIONS:--
Beam gearing, slasher, plan, 42
" " section, 43
Blackburn dobby, 107
Bradford loom, 59
Centre tie, 126
Chain links, _Diggle’s_ motion, 137
Constitution cord, 102
Cotton fibre, 15
" section, 15
Design, 92, 96, 98, 101 and 102
Dhootie marker, 47
_Diggle’s_ chain drop box, 136
Dobbies, 104, 107
Dobby pegging, 106, 108
Dobby lattice, 106
Double-action jacquard, Single cylinder, 123
Ditto, double cylinder, 124
Doup healds, 113
Drafts, 92, 94, 95
Eccentricity of slay, 62
Fast reed loom, 64
Figured gauze, 115
Four-leaf twill, 2
Gauze, 112
Handkerchief loom, 116
Healds, 50
Heald motions, 56
Imperfect cotton fibre, 15
" section, 15
Jacquard loom, single action, _Frontispiece_
Jacquard loom, single action, section, 119
Jacquard loom, double action, 123
Jacquard loom, double action, double cylinder, 124
Keighley dobby, 104
Lay-over tie, 126
Leno, 112
Lifting plan, 92, 97
Looms, 53, 59
London tie, 125
Metallic healds, 50
Needles, 122
Netting, 114, 115
Parts of loom, 56
Pegging for dobby, 106, 108
Perfect cotton fibre, 15
Piano card-cutting machine, 128
Plain cloth, 91
Plain loom, 53
Plain loom in parts, 56
Plain tappets, 75
Plates, _Wright Shaw’s_ loom, 140
Point paper, 90
Plan of cloth, 91
Plan of shed--Plate I., 19
Presser, slasher, plan, 45
" section, 45
Reed, 50
Sateen, 98
Sectional warping--Plate III., 29
Seed and fibre, 15
Shuttle box and frog, 64
Slasher sizing machine, 40
Slow motion, 46
_Smalley’s_ motion, 99
Stop motion, warping, plan, 27
" " section, 27
Straight tie, 125
Take-up motion, 26
Tappet plates, 75
Ties, 125, 126
Traverse motion, winding frame, 23
Velveteen, 101
Warping, falling rods, 24
" stop motion, 27
Weft stop motion, 68
Winding frame, 22
_Wright Shaw’s_ drop box, 138
Indian cotton, 16
Ingredients, size, 34
Introduction, 1
Inventions, 3
Ireland, cotton trade of, 14
J
Jacconetts, 86
Jacquard, 119
Capacity, 118
Cards, 120, 127
Cloth, 129
Weaving, 127
K
Keighley dobby, 104
L
Lappet weaving, 142
Lay-over tie, 126
Lease, 30
Leash, 110, 120
Legislation, 6
Length warps, 149, 152
Leno, 88, 112, 114
Liability for mildew, 37
Lifting plan, 96
Limited liability, 7, 9
Linen counts, 144
Long cloths, 85
Long stick, 167
Loom, 52
Loom fixing, 71
Looming, 49
Looms, number of, 11
Loose reed, 4, 63
M
Madapollams, 85
Madras muslin, 130
Manchester trade, 12
Mangle wheel motion, 23
Manufacturing, meaning of term, 1
Manufacturing processes, 19
Market town, 2
Marking motions, 47
Mashes, 81
Measuring motion--warping, 28
" " --weaving, 117
Merchandise Marks Act, 8
Metallic healds, 51
Metal size, 36
Mexicans, 85
Mildew , 36
Mildew, liability for, 37
Mildew, prevention of, 36
Milling up, 149
Mixings, cotton, 17
Mixings, size, 37
Mixings, light size, 39
Mixings, medium size, 39
Mixings, heavy size, 39
Movements of loom, 55
Mull, 86
N
Netting, 115
Non-positive take-up, 103
Number of machines in shed, 19
O
Oatmeal cloth, 109, 129
Oldham trade, 13
Opening, 17
Overlookers (loom), 72
Overpick, 59
_Osbaldeston, John_, 4
P
Packing, 83
Parts of a loom, 55, 56
Pattern pricking, 90
Pegging for dobby, 106, 109, 111
Percentages of size, 33, 38, 149, 153
Percentages of waste, 27, 154
Picking, 55, 59
Pile weaving, 101, 131
Pillow-slip weaving, 109
Plain cloth, 84, 90, 91
Plain drafting, 55
Plain loom, 52
Plaiting, 80
Plan of shed, 18
PLATES:--
I. Plan of shed, 19
II. Stop-motion warping, 27
III. Sectional warping, 29
IV. Slasher sizing machine, 40
V. Plain loom in parts, 56
VI. Heald top motions, 56
VII. Dobbied loom, 104
Point paper, 90
Position of warp, 58
Potato starch, 35
Preparatory processes, 19, 21
Pressers, 45
Preston trade, 12
Printers, 86
Processes, spinning, 17
Processes, weaving, 19
Q
Quilts, 131
R
Raising, 83, 103
Rating goods, 149
Reed and pick, 85
Reed counts, 146
Reeds, 51
Reed space, 79
Reed table, 148
Reedy cloth, 81
Repeating jacquard cards, 128
Rice starch, 35
Ring bobbins, 24
Rochdale trade, 13
Roving, 17
S
Sago, 35
Satin, 98, 100
Sateens, 87
Sateen motion, 99
Scotch reed counts, 147
Scotch trade, 13
Scroll pick, 78
Scutching, 17
Sea Island cotton, 16
Sectional warping, 28
Selection, warp, 21, 33
Selection, weft, 60
Selection, yarns, 21, 60
Shed, 19
Shedding, 57
Shedding motion, 79
Shed (warp), 54, 58
Shirtings, 84
Short stick, 168
Shuttle, 60
Shuttle flying, 73
Shuttle race, 60, 63
Side tappets, 58
Silk counts, 144
Site for shed, 20
Size of warp shed, 58
Sizing calculations, 149, 152
Sizing--drying, 41
Sizing headstock, 42
Sizing machinery, 5, 39
Sizing materials, 34
Sizing--object, 32
Sizing--percentages, 33, 38
Sizing rollers, 40
Sizing under pressure, 41
Slasher, 39
Slashing, 39
Slay, 60
Slow motion, 45
Slubbing, 17
_Smalley’s_ motion, 99
Smash, 81
Snarls, 22
Snicks, 22
Soap, 35
Soda, 36
Softener, 34, 35, 37
Sow box, 40
Specification shed, 19
Speed loom, 79
Speed shafts, 156
Speed tappet shaft, 76
Spindles, number of, 11
Spinning department, 16
Spinning--mule, throstle, ring, 18
Split motion, 78
Split rods, 42
Splits, 77
Standard goods, 88
Starches, 34, 37
Statistics, 9
Steeping flour, 34, 39
Stockport counts, 147
Stockport trade, 13
Stop motion, warping, 26
Straight tie, 125
Stripes, 101, 133
Surat cotton, 16
Syllabus--Cotton manufacture, 161
Syllabus--Weaving and pattern designing, 162
T
Tackling, 72
Take-up motions, 65, 103
Tallow, 35
Taping, 39
Tappets, 55, 57, 75, 97
Tappets, construction, 57, 99
Tappets, plain, 55, 57
[T]-cloth, 85
Terry towels, 132
Temple rollers, 4, 69
Testing yarn, 146
Thick sets, 102
Throstle bobbins, 24
Tie, 97
Tie for jacquard, 124
Toilet cloth, 131
Top motions, 79
Timing, 70
Tooth, 28
Traverse, 23
Treading plan, 97
Turkey-reds, 86
Turkish towels, 132
Twaddle, 38
Twill shaft speed, 76, 157
Twist, 21, 33
Twisting, 49
Two and three-fold yarn, 145
U
Under pick, 78
Uneven cloth, 81
Uplands cotton, 16
V
Varieties of goods, 83
Velveteens, 87, 101
W
Wages--looming, 50
Wages--weaving, 74
Wages--winding, 24
Wages--standard list, 154
_Ward’s_ dobby, 105
Warp, 21, 33
Warping (beam), 25
Warping calculations, 28, 29, 30, 152
Warping mill, 30
Warping several counts, 28
Warping stop motion, 26
Warp line, 58
Warp pile, 90, 131
Waste, 27, 74
Waste, weaver’s, 74
Wax, 35
Weavers, 74
Weaving, 52
Weaving and pattern designing syllabus, 162
Weft, 61
Weft pile, 101
Weft stop motion, 4, 67
Weight-giving size, 36
Weight piece, 149
Weight size in piece, 149, 153
Weight warp in piece, 149
Weight weft in piece, 149
Winding, 22
Winding frame, 22
Witch machine, 108
Working design, 97
Workpeople, number of, 11
Worsted counts, 144
Woven pile, 90, 101, 131
Wrap reel, 144
Wrap, warpers’, 28
Wrapping, 144
_Wright Shaw’s_ drop box, 138
Y
Yarn calculations, 143
Yarn measure, 143
Yorkshire loom, 58
Z
Zinc, muriate of, 36
[Illustration: Decoration]
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
ADVERTISEMENTS.
FLEMING’S “STANDARD” OAK TANNED
MAIN DRIVING BANDS. ANY WIDTH OR THICKNESS. DELIVERED AT A DAY’S NOTICE
IF REQUIRED.
[Illustration]
BELTING FOR ALL REQUIREMENTS.
ORDINARY WIDTHS IN STOCK.
_CAMEL HAIR BELTING. COTTON BELTING. LINK BELTING. LACES. PICKERS.
PICKING BANDS. MILL LEATHERS._
MULE BELTING. A Speciality.
JOINTS CEMENTED ONLY, AND GUARANTEED EQUAL TO ANY BELTING OF THIS
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Apply for Catalogue, Contains Valuable Commercial Information.
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BELTING.
Comprising Firms established 100 years.
FLEMING, BIRKBY & GOODALL, LIM^{D.}..
Belting, &c., Manufacturers,
WEST GROVE MILL, HALIFAX, ENGLAND.
BRANCHES AT LIVERSEDGE AND BRIGHOUSE, YORKS.
_Cloth, Crown 8vo. Second Edition. 3s. 6d._
Weaving
Calculations.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
A Volume on all Varieties of Calculations Required in the Weaving and
Preparatory Processes, Standard Lists of Wages, &c.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"Mr. BROOKS is well and favourably known in the textile industries
as a writer of excellent text-books in connection with the cotton
trade.... In this book he has succeeded in doing the work, avoiding on
the one hand intricate mathematical problems, which are discarded in
practice, and on the other giving clear and simple rules for making all
the calculations required in the spinning and manufacturing of cotton
goods."--_Textile Recorder._
"Hitherto the books published on weaving calculations have lacked
the thorough instruction which characterises Mr. BROOKS’S brochure,
and many cotton students will find it a decidedly useful guide. The
chapters on cloth and yarn calculations will be found decidedly useful
and interesting. Mr. Brooks is to be congratulated on placing before
the trade a _vade mecum_ of considerable merit."--_Textile World._
"This is one of the most useful works connected with cotton
manufacturing that we have ever seen. No overseer or any one having to
do with calculations in a cotton-mill should be without it."--_Boston
Journal of Commerce, U.S.A._
"The author of this book is well known for his excellent work on
‘Cotton Manufacturing,’ which deals very fully with all operations
involved in the industry. These calculations will also be found
extremely useful to those for whom it is intended. It has been
carefully written, and should have a place on every weaving
bookshelf."--_Textile Manufacturer._
&c. &c.
ASA LEES & CO.,
Limited,
Soho Iron Works,
OLDHAM.
_Address for Telegrams_--ASA, OLDHAM.
Constructors of
ALL KINDS OF MACHINERY
_for_
_Preparing, Spinning & Doubling_
COTTON AND WOOL.
NEW AND IMPORTANT TECHNICAL WORKS.
THE “STUDENTS’ COTTON SPINNING,”
By JOSEPH NASMITH,
Associate Institution Mechanical Engineers; Member Manchester
Association Engineers; Editor of “Textile Recorder;” Author of “Modern
Cotton Spinning Machinery.”
"A book which, viewed as a whole, is admirably adapted for its
purpose."--_Manchester Guardian._
"‘The Student’s Cotton Spinning’ is a work we can unhesitatingly
recommend."--_Textile Manufacturer._
"The information is derived from the most modern sources, and will
be found of permanent value to those connected with the cotton
industry."--_Industries._
"The work appears to cover the whole field, even to the minutest
detail."--_Manchester City News._
"Its pages abound in practical hints."--_Wool and Cotton Reporter_
(Boston, U.S.A.).
"The book should be in the hands of every wide-awake manufacturer and
spinner."--_Boston Journal of Commerce._
"A volume which will be found valuable, not only to the student,
but to the men who know something but want to learn more of the art
of spinning and to study the subject in a practical way."--_Textile
Record_ (Philadelphia, U.S.A.).
"After careful study of the work, our reviewer is of opinion that it is
unequalled by any other book of cotton literature."--_Indian Textile
Journal._
"The book we cannot recommend too warmly, not only to students,
but also to all technical men, and spinning managers engaged in
practice."--_Oesterich’s Wollen und Lienen Industrie._
The Book contains 448 Pages and 100 Illustrations, and forms a Complete
Handbook on the subject. =PRICE 6s.=
By the same Author.
“MODERN COTTON SPINNING MACHINERY,”
ITS PRINCIPLES AND CONSTRUCTION.
232 Detailed Drawings of the Latest Types of Machines.
_Price 15s., delivered free in the United Kingdom._
"The best and most complete book extant on the machinery employed in
cotton spinning."--_Textile Manufacturer_, September 15, 1890.
"No student or spinner should be without it."--_Textile Manufacturer_,
October 15, 1890.
"Cannot fail to be the standard authority for many years."--_Textile
Recorder_, November 15, 1890.
"Has the essential merit of attaining what it aims at--namely,
completeness."--_Manchester Examiner and Times._
"A work of great value to all who are interested in the manufacture or
use of cotton spinning machinery."--_Manchester Guardian._
MANCHESTER: JOSEPH NASMITH, 61 Barton Arcade.
Established 1791.
JOHN WHITELEY & SONS, Limited,
BRUNSWICK MILLS,
HALIFAX, ENGLAND.
Manufacturers of Card Clothing in Mild, and Hardened and Tempered
Steel Wire, for Cotton, Wool, Worsted, and Silk, with Round, Flat,
Flat-to-Bend, Angular, and Convex Wire, Plated Wire, Music Wire, and
GROUND NEEDLE POINTS.
PATENT SPECIAL
POLISHED _PLOUGH-GROUND_ CARD CLOTHING.
The Sides of the Teeth of the _Plough-Ground_ Card Clothing made by
JOHN WHITELEY & SONS, Limited, are so smooth that it is being used
extensively on the Finest Cottons. We shall be glad to furnish Users
with enlarged Micro-Photographs illustrating the remarkable smoothness
attained.
IMPROVED TAKERS-IN AND DIRT ROLLERS.
Card Tacks. Gauges for Setting Cylinders, Doffers, Flats,
&c. Flats Re-cut and Clothed with Whiteley’s Patent Clasp,
Ashworth’s Methods or Lead Rivets, and Trued, Tested, and
Ground ready for use.
WHITELEY’S IMPROVED TENSION MACHINE FOR MOUNTING FILLETS.
NEEDLE-POINTED STRIPPING ROLLERS, BURNISHING BRUSHES, SPIRAL FLAT
STRIPPING BRUSHES.
CARDING ENGINES CLOTHED, GROUND, AND STARTED BY EXPERIENCED MEN.
_Samples and Estimates on Application._
JAMES BRIGGS & SONS,
LION OIL WORKS,
BLACKLEY, MANCHESTER.
MANUFACTURERS OF
ALL CLASSES OF OILS
for
MACHINERY,
SPINDLES AND LOOMS.
OILS
for
MARINE AND STATIONARY ENGINES.
OILS for SHAFTING, CYLINDERS, AND VALVES.
_As Used by some of the Largest Mills, Steamships, &c._
Cable and Telegraphic Address--“SAMOHT, MANCHESTER.”
GEO. THOMAS & CO.,
28 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER,
_ENGINEERS, CONTRACTORS, and EXPORTERS of all Classes of MACHINERY and
ACCESSORIES, &c._
N.B.--Representatives in all the Industrial Centres of the World.
MACHINERY for SPINNING and WEAVING Cotton, Wool, Worsted, Flax, Hemp,
Jute, Silk, &c. BLEACHING, DYEING, PRINTING, FINISHING Textile Fabrics.
Steam Boilers, Steam Engines, Economisers, Turbines, Mill
Gearing, Electric Lighting and Gas Plant; Hoists, &c.
Ironwork for Mills from A to Z--Fireproof, &c., Roofing and
Patent Glazing; Heating and Ventilating Apparatus.
Paper, Rice, Sugar, Ice, Flour, Oil, Chemical, Distillery, Iron
and Steel Plants.
Portable and Permanent Railway Plant, Rolling Stock,
Locomotives, Steam Ships, Steam Launches, Dredgers, &c.
Hydraulic Machinery and Tools.
SOLE MAKERS AND PROPRIETORS OF THE
PATENT UNIVERSAL YARN ASSORTING BALANCES.
British Patent, No. 6,703, 1886. U.S.A. Patent, No. 380,826, 1888. New
Patents, No. 15,454 1889, and No. 9,264, 1890.=
_N.B_.--These Balances or Yarn Testers (indispensable to
Spinners, Manufacturers, and Merchants) indicate the Counts of
Yarn in small lengths, or from bits of cloth, in either Cotton,
Woollen, Worsted, Linen, Jute, or other Fibre.
“SIMPLEX” BALANCE.
[Illustration: Scale, 4/5ths full size. Price 30s. complete]
[Illustration: Scale, 1/5th full size. Price 65s.]
_Crown 8vo. Paper Covers. One Shilling._
Weaving Examination Questions.
CONTENTS.--Six Years’ Weaving and Pattern Designing
Questions.--Lists of Examiners, Rules of Examination, &c.--The
Syllabus for Study in each of the following Subjects:--Woollen
and Worsted Cloth Weaving, Cotton Weaving, Linen Weaving, Silk
Weaving, and Jute Weaving.
_Post Free, 1s. 1d._
C. P. BROOKS, THE MOUNT, BLACKBURN.
BOBBINS, TUBES, SKEWERS, SHUTTLES, &c.
WILSON BROTHERS, LIMITED.
Cornholme Mills, TODMORDEN.
Telegrams--WILSONS, CORNHOLME. Telephone, No. 7.
ORIGINAL INVENTORS AND MAKERS OF STEEL AND BRASS PLATED
BOBBINS AND TUBES.
We make a speciality of =Light Cardroom Tubes= with small diameters
for fine counts. We have excellent facilities for cutting, seasoning,
and partially preparing both Tubes and Bobbins before turning. We have
large stocks of regular sizes always seasoning, the process occupying
from two months up to two years. We are thus enabled to guarantee
=exact and uniform diameters=.
We are the largest makers of =Ring Twist Bobbins= and =Ring Weft
Pirns=. Every Bobbin is carefully balanced. =Rabbeth Ring Twist
Bobbins, with Wilson Brothers’ Patent “G” Shield=, are the strongest
Bobbins in the market, and capable of resisting 50 per cent. more
pressure than any other protected Bobbins, and 150 per cent. more than
Bobbins without metal Protectors.
=Warping and Winding Bobbins= fitted with =Wilson Brothers’ Patent
Flange Binders= cannot open at the Joints, and are so made that it is
almost impossible for them to be broken with ordinary usage.
We have put down a plant for making =Wood= Bobbins and Skewers =Damp
and Steam Proof=. We Enamel Rabbeth Ring Twist and Ring Weft Pirns,
also Lancewood Cop Skewers, so that Yarn can be conditioned on the
Bobbin or Skewer without damage.
_THE OLDEST JACQUARD MACHINISTS IN THE WORLD._
DEVOGE & CO.
Works--SYCAMORE STREET, OLDHAM ROAD,}
City Office--15a YORK STREET, } MANCHESTER.
MANUFACTURERS OF ALL KINDS OF
JACQUARD MACHINES.
Single-Lift, Double-Lift, Double-Cylinder, and Compound Jacquards;
Double-Shed Jacquards; Lace Jacquards; Wood Machines for Hand-loom;
Jacquard Dobbies; Driving Motions; all kinds of Wire and Wire Work;
Lead and Iron Wire Lingoes; Comberboards and Slips; Glass, Brass, and
Steel Mails; Couplings and Leashes; Harness Thread; Springs, &c., and
every requisite for Fancy Weaving.
NEW PATENT LENO JACQUARD.
JACQUARD HARNESS BUILDERS.
_ALL KINDS OF HARNESSES, INCLUDING PATENT EXPANDING HARNESS._
NEW PLANT RECENTLY ERECTED FOR BORING COMBERBOARD SLIPS.
MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF
Card-Cutting Machines.
Piano Machines to cut from design; Table Repeaters, with Vertical and
Railway Presses; Card Cutting Plates and Punches of every kind; and
Devoge’s celebrated Self-Acting Repeater, which cuts 40 Cards per
minute.
_Illustrations of three of our Machines may be seen on pages 123, 124,
and 128 of this work._
An Illustrated Circular will be sent on application.
JAMES WALMSLEY & SONS
(ESTABLISHED 1848),
Leather Curriers, Strapping Manufacturers, and Mill Furnishers
WORKS:--AVENUE PARADE,
ACCRINGTON.
MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF
ROLLER SKINS,
SINGLE LEATHER BELTING,
DOUBLE LEATHER BELTING,
GREEN PICKING BANDS,
OAK-TANNED PICKING BANDS,
LEATHER PICKERS, LACES,
BUFFALO SKIPS AND PICKERS,
LOOM FITTINGS, &c.
And all other kinds of =LEATHER GOODS= used in the Spinning and
Manufacturing of Cotton, Woollen, Silk, or Jute.
Telegrams--“Abbey, Accrington.”
Telephone--No. 23.
JOSEPH CASARTELLI,
MANUFACTURER OF ALL KINDS OF
_INSTRUMENTS FOR USE IN MILLS, MANUFACTORIES, ENGINEERING WORKS, &c._
[Illustration]
NEW MICROSCOPE CLOTH COUNTING GLASS OF HIGH POWER, suitable for
counting all Cloths and Coloured Borders.
FOLDING CLOTH COUNTING GLASSES, English and Foreign Measurements, of
_Guaranteed Accuracy_
_PATENT IMPROVED RICHARDS’ STEAM ENGINE INDICATORS AND SPRINGS._
PRESSURE AND VACUUM GAUGES, ENGINE COUNTERS, THERMOMETERS, HYGROMETERS,
PYROMETERS, &c., &c.
_Illustrated Price List Post Free._
43 MARKET STREET, MANCHESTER.
Established upwards of Seventy Years.
SIZING INGREDIENTS
AND
FILLING MATERIALS
Used by Sizers, Manufacturers, Finishers, &c.
Solid and Liquid Chloride of Zinc. } _Pure_
Chloride of Calcium and Magnesium. } _Anti-Septics._
China Clay, French Chalk, and Barytes.
Epsom and Glauber Salts. Hard and Soft Soaps.
Paraffin, Spermaceti and Japan Wax.
Sizing Grease, Composition, and Tallow.
Cocoa Nut, Palm, Castor, and Olive Oils.
Soluble Oil, Oleine, Glycerine, and Glucose.
Soluble Blue, Colours, and Irish Moss.
Sago, Rice, Tapioca, and Wheat Sizing Flour.
Scotch and Foreign Farina. Dextrine and Gum.
Maize, Wheat, Potato, and Rice Starch.
Gum Tragacanth, Gelatine, and Bone Size.
SOLE MAKERS OF LANCASHIRE ACME SIZE.
SOLE AGENTS FOR THE GLOY MANUFACTURING CO.
STOCKS KEPT FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY.
Shipping Orders Carefully Packed.
A long experience among Sizers and Finishers often enables us to
materially help our clients to get at results they specially want.
For Prices, Samples, Particulars, &c., apply to
ADLEY, TOLKIEN, & CO.,
Chemical Manufacturers, Drysalters, and Produce Merchants,
NOVAS CHEMICAL WORKS,
Paterson Street, BLACKBURN.
Telegraphic Address:--"ADTOLCO, BLACKBURN. Telephone No. 184.
Manchester Royal Exchange:--Box 40 and Pillar 12, every Tuesday and
Friday.
London Office:--14 to 20 St. MARY AXE, e.c.
London Works:--Penton Street, PENTONVILLE, n.
Established 1843.
Telegrams--“KERSHAW, HOLLINWOOD.”
JOSEPH KERSHAW & CO.’S
_NON-CONDUCTING COMPOSITION_
IS pronounced by practical Civil, Gas, Mining, and other Engineers, and
a large number of Firms who have tested its value, to be the =Best=,
=Most Durable=, and =Cheapest Non-Conducting Material= in the market,
effecting a considerable saving in fuel by preventing the radiation of
heat. Saves cost in a few weeks. Will not burn. Numerous Testimonials,
and over Nine Thousand References.
Some idea may be gathered of the saving effected by our Composition
from the fact that in scores of cases extending over a period of twenty
years, where concerns have been worked by four boilers, after being
coated with our Composition they have been enabled to work the concern
with three boilers, and allow one to be at rest.
Will Last Twenty Years. Does not Shrink.
Awarded Certificate of Merit at the Industrial and Art Exhibition,
Manchester, 1880. The only Award given in this Department, after a
severe competition with other competitors, and Honourable Mention
at Manchester Smoke Abatement Exhibition, 1882. See page 182 of the
Official Report of the Smoke Abatement Committee, held at Grosvenor
House, Grosvenor Square, London, on Friday, July 14, 1882, under the
Presidency of His Grace the Duke of Westminster, K.G.
ASBESTOS COATING, SILICATE COTTON OR SLAG WOOL COATING.
WHEEL GREASES.
LOCOMOTIVE AND WATER WHEEL GREASES.
Rope Driving Composition.
Black and Brown Banding Compositions.
RED, BLACK, AND OTHER COLOURED VARNISHES.
DETERGENT COMPOSITION,
For Removing and Preventing Scale in Steam Boilers.
Lead Ore. Engine and Bolton Polishes. White Curd Soap.
White Soft Soap, for Cop Bottoms. Soft Soap. Belting Syrup.
White Lead. Oxide and Other Coloured Paints.
_In Extra Strong Casks for Exportation._
GREASE, VARNISH, COMPOSITION, AND SOAP WORKS,
HOLLINWOOD, near OLDHAM.
HOWARD & BULLOUGH, Limited,
ACCRINGTON (England),
MAKERS OF
Cotton Spinning and Manufacturing
MACHINERY
Of the most modern and approved principle, with all Brackets and
Seatings milled by Special Machinery to Standard Templets.
_SPECIALITIES_:
ANGLO-AMERICAN OPENERS AND SCUTCHERS.
New Patent REVOLTING FLAT CARDING ENGINE,
With =rigid= bend--110 Flats--43 working. Over 6000 Cards at work.
DRAWING FRAMES, with Electric Stop Motion.
Reliable--quick--not liable to get out of order. Already applied to
over 35,000 deliveries.
SLUBBING, INTERMEDIATE, & ROVING FRAMES,
With Patent Differential Motion, Patent Cone Lifting Motion, Patent Cap
Bars, and Patent Method of Balancing Top Rail, &c., &c.
We have applied Electric Stop Motion to over 200,000 Intermediate
Spindles with marked success for the prevention of “Single.”
RING SPINNING FRAME.
THE LARGEST MAKERS IN THE WORLD.
Over 4,500,000 Spindles supplied.
RING WEFT FRAMES.
References given on application, comprising leading and extensive mills
where the Weft Ring has entirely displaced the Mule.
RING DOUBLING FRAMES,
Made on either the English or Scotch System,
For Ordinary Doubling or for Sewing Cottons.
COMPOUND SIZING MACHINES.
One 9 ft. Cavity Cylinder and 3 to 7 Fans.
=Howard & Bullough’s Air-Drying and Cylinder Sizing= Machines
of all sizes from 3 ft. to 9 ft., in Tin and Copper, with
some or all of the following improvements, are found in all
countries wherever Cotton Manufacturing is carried on.
=Hitchon’s Patent Safety Compound Friction Motion= for coarse
or fine counts.
=Hitchon’s Patent “Self-Traversing” Yarn Beam Presser.=
=Hitchon’s Patent "Self-Expanding and Contracting"= Double
Roller Yarn Beam Presser.
=Hitchon’s Patent Adjustable Measuring Indicator=, will mark
any length of yarn from 1/4 to 200 yards or metres (REQUIRES NO
CHANGE WHEELS).
=Hitchon’s Patent "Self-Regulating"= High Pressure Size Boiler.
=Hitchon’s Patent Yarn Relieving Motion= for size box.
=New Patent Light Running Beaming Machine= (“Improved
Singleton”), with Patent Self-Stopping Measuring Motion,
adjustable for any number of yards.
This machine has so rapidly superseded all others--our own six patents
included--as to be practically the =only one recognised in the market=.
HOWARD & BULLOUGH, Limited,
ACCRINGTON, LANCASHIRE.
Accrington is distant from Manchester only 20 miles. Frequent
trains run daily from Victoria or Salford Stations on the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
[Illustration: Paris, 1878.]
[Illustration: London, 1885.]
Attend Exchange, Manchester, every Tuesday and Friday, No. 10 Pillar,
One to Two o’clock.
ESTABLISHED 1863.
Practical Experience in Weaving and Loom Making for 36 Years.
HENRY LIVESEY, Limited,
BLACKBURN,
MAKERS of LOOMS
For Weaving Printers, Shirtings, T Cloths, Domestics, Linen and Sail
Cloths, Double Lift Dobbies up to 40 Shafts.
Makers of the Improved “Slasher” Sizing, Cop and =Ring Winding= and
Self-stopping =Beaming= Machines, =Plaiting= Machines, =Looming= and
=Drawing-in= Frames, &c. =Drum= Winding and =Spooling= Machines for
Coloured Yarns, =Hydraulic= Cloth Presses, &c., &c. Makers also of
=Bobbins=, =Tubes=, =Shuttles=, =Pickers=, &c., &c. Loom Sides Planed
and Cross Rails cut to exact length.
[Illustration]
CRANK and TAPPET SHAFT BUSHES, also BEARINGS of PICKING SHAFTS, with
their respective SEATINGS on Loom Sides, are Planed; these improvements
secure more solidity in build of Loom, and thereby effect a great
saving in wear and tear, require less power, and give more uniform
working with greater speed.
[Illustration]
_Illustrated Catalogues on Application._
Plans and Estimates furnished for every description of Weaving
Machinery.
Transcriber’s notes:
In the text version, italics are represented by _underscores_, and bold
and black letter text by =equals= symbols. Superscripts are represented
by ^{} and subscripts by _{}.
Missing or incorrect punctuation has been repaired. Inconsistent
spelling and hyphenation have been left. This book uses both high level
and standard "." in decimal numbers.
In the html version, dittos have been replaced by the repeated text so
that text alignes for easier reading.
The following mistakes have been noted:
p. 12. Egyptain changed to Egyptian.
p. 18. Symbol [C] represents a C rotated by +90deg.
p. 25. Symbol [V] represents a large V symbol.
p. 56. Labels, 31, 133 and 156 - 162 are missing.
p. 85. Symbol [T] represents a large T.
p. 86. similiar has been changed to similar.
p. 93. tranferred has been changed to transferred.
p. 109. thus-- changed to :-- to match next paragraph.
p. 153. For the calculation on actual size at the bottom of this page to make
sense, 2600 should be 26000. This has been left unchanged
Adverts. p. 13. Telegraphic Address:--"ADTOLCO, BLACKBURN. Telephone No. 184.
has no closing quote, this has been left.
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