placed in a direction parallel to the intended length of the yarn, is entirely lost. In this process, also, the advantage of plying, which we have noticed as taking place on the lapping cylinder, is omitted.

When the rowans are perfected by the mahogany cylinder, they are taken up by children, and placed upon the feedingcloth of a machine called the billy, or roving-billy, the operation of which is called roving or slubbing; but the latter expression is now but seldom used, except in the manufacture of woollen. This machine is in its construction and action very similar to the mule, as is the feeding-cloth to that described in the machine called the picker and batter.

The feeding-cloth lays in a slanting position, and the rowans are placed upon it so that they can pass lengthwise in the direction of its action, and be delivered over the upper roller between two pieces of board which possess a capability of clasping and again relieving them. The rowans are then attached to revolving spindles, which have an advancing and receding motion similar to the mule or drawing-frame. By this revolution and recession the spindles perform the operation of spinning and stretching; and at such intervals as the spindles are stretching and twisting, the feeding-cloth stops, and the clasps seize hold of the roving, and detain it till sufficiently spun and twisted, when it relieves it in order to allow a fur ther portion of the rowan to be fed. The roving having by this means received a certain degree of twist, is built on a spindle in the form of a cop, as in mule-spinning, and is then taken to the machine called the jenny.

The operation of the jenny is nearly the same as the rovingbilly; the only material difference is, that the cops of roving to be spun are fixed upon a moving carriage, which has clasps to hold the roving while in the act of being stretched and spun into yarn.

Having now concluded the process of jenny-spinning, it will be seen, that drawing and plying, the two essential requisites for producing fine yarn, by placing the fibres parallel to the length of the twist, are wanting, and that fine yarn, in consequence, cannot be produced; but the fibres in this process being placed in a direction more across the length of the twist, give to the yarn a rich fulness which renders it preferable for the weft of heavy goods, for which it is esteemed.

Water-spinning differs both from the mule and jenny spinning; but the carding and drawing machines are the same as those used in the process of mule-spinning. When the cotton has passed through the carding and drawing machines. it is

carried to the spinning-frame, which is upon a different principle to the mule, and, indeed, is more closely allied to the bobbin and flier roving-frame.

One of these spindles is represented in fig. 406. A, the bobbin, brought from the roving-frame; B C and E guides for the yarn to pass through; GG G three pairs of rollers to perform the office of drawing; and H a flier, formed solid, and having at the end of one arm a small twist like a corkscrew, through which the yarn passes. By the revolution of the flier the yarn receives the requisite degree of twist, and is wound upon the bobbin, which, by the movement of the seat I I, on which it rests, has an upward and downward motion, in order that the yarn may be received upon it regularly. The guide C has a slow reciprocating motion in the direction of the axes of the rollers G GG, by which the roving is moved over the surfaces of the rollers, so that the parts wear uniformly.

In water twist-spinning, the operation of stretching is not introduced. The motion is transmitted from the first mover to the drawing and roving frames by means of bevel-wheels, placed on the end of the frame. These wheels communicate motion to the rollers, which have spur-wheels upon their shafts, adapted to give motion to each other by intermediate wheels, which give to the lower rollers motion in the proper direction. The spindles receive their motion from bands communicating with the drum K, represented by the dotted lines. This construction of a water spinning-frame is called a throstle, and the difference which characterises it from that properly called the water-frame is, that the cylinder K runs through the whole length of the frame, and gives motion to all the spindles at once; whereas in the water-frame the spindles are moved by an upright pulley, communicating motion to only one set of six spindles, which is an advantage, as the motion of one set can be stopped without stopping the motion of the whole. But as the water-frame is far more expensive than the other, it is a matter of doubt which ought to be preferred.

The several sorts of yarn have each their peculiar destination. The yarn from mule and jenny spinning is taken from the frame in the form of a cop; that from water-twist is wound upon a bobbin. The yarn from water-frames possesses much regularity and strength, and is mostly used for the warps of heavy goods, such as fustians and strong calicoes. If the yarn has to be packed for the market, it is reeled upon á frame consisting of six horizontal bars supported on an axis parallel to each other.

This frame is represented in section, in fig. 407. AA AAAA the horizontal bars; B the axis; and C the bobbin from the water-frame. The dotted lines represent the direction of the twist. These reels are of a suffi eient breadth to wind off about 50 cops, or bobbins, at the same time.

When the reel has made 80 revolutions, a small bell that is connected with the machinery rings, and warns the attendant to stop the motion of the reel. The portion thus wound is called a lay, and seven of these lays wound upon the same reel constitute a hank, which is taken from the reel by causing one of the horizontal bars, supplied with a hinge, to fall inwards. The circumference of the reel is a yard and a half; consequently the hank measures 840 yards. The size of the twist is expressed by stating how many hanks go to the pound weight: thus, the yarn called N° 100 is that which takes 100 hanks of 840 yards each to weigh an avoirdupois pound. Yarn can be spun upon mules as fine as 200 hanks to the pound; but in water-twist and jenny-spinning it seldom exceeds 60 or 70.

The plan of the buildings in which the cotton-spinning machinery is placed, is generally in the form of a parallelogram, of a length proportionate to the extent of the manufacture carried on therein, and about thirty feet wide. In the best constructed mills, the carding and other preparatory machines are placed on the lowest floor; the mules and stretching frames on the next; and so on progressively as the machines improve the fineness of the yarn. The mules, jennies, and water-frames are placed with their line of spindles across the building; and the card-engines have the axes of their cylinders parallel to the long wall of the building. Four or six rows, breakers and finishers, are placed alternately.

The steam-engine, or first mover, is placed at one end of the building, and the motion is communicated by a horizontal shaft running the whole length of the building, which transmits the motion to vertical shafts with bevel-wheels, which wheels transmit the motion to horizontal shafts in the upper floors.

WOOL MANUFACTURE.

THIS well-known staple is in the process of the manufac ture divided into two distinct classes, long wool, or worsted spinning; and short wool, or the spinning of woollen yarn.

ON WORSTED SPINNING.

HAVING by means of machinery accomplished the formation of a thread of cotton, the application of the principle to

The

other fibres would naturally follow; and although some difficulty might be expected to occur in adapting the rollers to different staples, yet this was soon overcome. The methods of forming threads from long wool and from flax, by the hand, were very different, yet each was spun from the middle, not from the end, of the respective fibre. In hand-spinning, the pluck, that is, the portion plucked from the sliver or combed wool, was placed across the fingers of the left hand and from the thick part of it, the fibres were drawn, and twisted, as the hand was withdrawn from the end of the spindle, to which it had been previously attached. revolution of the wheel, effected by the right hand, conveyed by a band to the whirl, or pulley on the spindle, produced the requisite twist to give firmness to the thread; and by a very gentle motion of the same wheel, the thread being brought nearly perpendicular to the spindle, it was wound upon the spindle to form the cop. From this it was transferred to the reel, and became a hank, of a definite length, but varying in weight with the thickness of the thread. In this state it was transferred to the manufacturer to be converted into the different fabrics of shalloon, calimanco, bombasin, &c.

A few years after the introduction of cotton machinery, an obscure individual of the name of Hargraves, previously unknown as a mechanic, who had been long employed by Messrs. William Birkbeck and Co. at Settle, in Yorkshire, in the management of a branch of the worsted manufactory, attempted to spin long wool by means of rollers. He constructed working models of the necessary preparing machinery, and of a spinning-frame, by the assistance of persons accustomed to the construction of cotton machinery, and succeeded so completely, as soon to induce his employers to build a large mill for its application. By degrees his plans became known to the trade, and many large manufactories have subsequently been erected for this purpose. Contrary to the earlier anticipations on this subject, it has been found, that mill-spun yarn answers better for the coarse as well as the finer fabrics, than that produced by the hand, which it has entirely superseded.

The first process after the wool of the fleece has been properly sorted, as it is termed, and washed, is combing. This is either done by the hand or by machinery, invented for that purpose some years since by the ingenious Dr. Cartwright. The object of each mode is to arrange the fibres as much as possible parallel to each other, which, as they have

a somewhat tortuous form, and are of considerable length, requires them to be frequently drawn from each other by the exertion of the strength of the wool-comber or the machine. In this state they form a bundle of fibres about six feet in length, called a sliver, and this being laid upon the stretching or drawing frame, constitutes the commencement of the preparing process. The wool passes through several pairs of rollers of which the first and last are of course the essential ones, the intermediate moving with equal velocities, and consequently serving merely to conduct the skein: this is received in cylindrical cans; and three such skeins being passed through another drawing-frame, and stretched in their progress, become fitted for roving, the last step in the preparatory processes. Allowing for the difference in distance of rollers and weights, which on account of the length and adhesiveness of the fibres of wool, are both necessarily greater than with cotton, the description of the bobbin roving machine already introduced, will be sufficiently explanatory. Spinning, the concluding process, is effected by means of two pairs of rollers moving with unequal velocities, and intermediate auxiliaries.

The loosely twisted thread from the roving bobbin, E, fig. 408, is slowly carried forwards by the holding rollers A, a, and supported as it proceeds by the two pairs, C, c, and D, d. It is then drawn between the rollers B,b, and having been thus brought to a proper thickness, is twisted by the flier L, fixed on the top of the spindle, through which at K it passes: it is then taken up by the bobbin M, which moves round with the spindle its axis, although not equally quick. The ultimate thickness or size of the thread is determined by the difference of velocity in the holding and drawing pairs of rollers; that is of A, a, and B, b, which in their operation evidently imitate a pair of hands. The celerity of the three pairs of rollers nearest to the back of the frame is equal; consequently no stretching takes place amongst them. The upper rollers of the first and last pair are pressed down upon the lower, by weights, F, G, much heavier than H, I, which are supported by the axes of C, D; these being only required steadily to carry forward the skein, and prevent the remote ends of the fibres of the wool from starting, whilst B, b, are pulling their other extremities. The front rollers belonging to one division, or box, as it is commonly termed, are represented in fig. 409, where the drum, which moves the spindles, and by a bevelled pinion at the top of its axis conveys motion to the rollers, is also shown. The pinion on the right extremity of the roller, acting upon a train of wheels properly adjusted, imparts the required relative motion, in succession, to the rollers beyond.

SHORT WOOL.

SHORT Wool is wrought into the finest cloths for personal wear, and is spun in a manner similar to cotton, as described in jenny-spinning.