The Story of the Cotton Plant Part 10

In order to increase the uniformity of the roving or strand of cotton, the ends from two of the slubbing rovings are conducted together through the rollers of the machine.

There are three pairs of these rollers, acting on the cotton in every way just as described for the drawing frame.

Although two rovings are put together behind the rollers, yet the "draft" or drawing-out power of the rollers is such, that the roving that issues from the front of the rollers is about three times as thin as each individual roving put up behind the rollers. This drawing-out action of the rollers need not be further dilated upon at this stage.

The points which demand some little attention at our hands, are the methods and mechanism involved in twisting the attenuated roving, and winding it upon bobbins or spools in suitable form for the next process.

Image: FIG. 18.--Intermediate frame (bobbin and fly frame).

As regards twisting of the roving it must be distinctly understood that when the attenuated strand of cotton issues from the rollers of the first bobbin and fly frame, it has become so thin and weak that it can no longer withstand the requisite handling without being seriously damaged. Hence the introduction of "Twist," which is by far the most important strength-producing factor or principle entering into the composition of cotton roving and yarn.

Without twist there would be no cotton factories, no cotton goods; none of the splendid and gigantic buildings of one description or another which are found so plentifully intermingled with the dwellings and factories of large cotton manufacturing towns!

In a sense it is to this all-powerful factor of "twist" that all these buildings owe their existence, since it would be practically impossible to make a thread from cotton fibres without the a.s.sistance of "twist" to make the fibres adhere to each other. Hence there could be none of that wealth which has caused the erection of these buildings.

This is true in a double sense, since we have both the natural twist of the cotton fibres and the artificial twist introduced at the latter processes of cotton spinning, in order to make individual fibres and aggregations of fibres adhere to each other. What is termed the natural twist of the fibres may average in good cottons upwards of 180 twists per inch, while the twists per inch put into the finished threads of yarn from those fibres may vary, say, between 20 and 30 twists per inch.

In all the fly frames, therefore, this artificial twist is invariably and necessarily put into the roving. As the cotton leaves the front or delivery rollers, each strand descends to a bobbin of from 8 to 12 inches long, upon which it is wound by special mechanism. As in Arkwright's frame, this bobbin is placed loosely upon a vertical "spindle," and upon the latter is fitted a "flyer," whose duty it is to guide the cotton upon the bobbin.

The primary duty of the spindle is to insert the "twist" which has been shown to be so necessary to give sufficient strength to the roving.

Let any reader of this story hold a piece of soft stuff in one hand while with the other hand he rotates or twists the roving and he will have an idea of the method and effect of twisting (see Fig. 19).

Without going into minute details we may say that the practical effect is that, while the roving is held firmly by the rollers, it is twisted by means of its connection at the other end to the rotating bobbin, spindle and flyer. The twist runs right from the spindle along the 6 to 12 inches of cotton that may extend from the spindle top to the "nip" of the rollers, thus imparting the requisite strength to the roving as it issues from the rollers. The mechanism for revolving the spindles is by no means difficult to understand, simply consisting of a number of shafts and wheels revolved at a constant, definite and regulated speed per minute.

Not only is it necessary to provide special apparatus for twisting the cotton at the bobbin and fly frames, but also very complicated and highly ingenious mechanism for winding the attenuated cotton in suitable form upon the bobbins. Indeed it is with this very mechanism that some of the most difficult problems of cotton spinning machinery are a.s.sociated.

Although the cotton at this stage is strengthened by twist, yet it is extremely inadvisable and practically inadmissible to insert more than from 1 to about 4 twists per inch at any of these machines, so that at the best the rovings are still very weak.

If too much twist were inserted at any stage, the drawing rollers of the immediately succeeding machine could not carry on the attenuating process satisfactorily.

This winding problem was so difficult that it absolutely baffled the ingenuity of Arkwright and his contemporaries and immediate successors, and it was not until about 1825 that the difficulties were solved by the invention of the differential winding motion by Mr. Holdsworth, a well-known Manchester spinner, whose successors are still eminent master cotton spinners.

This winding motion is still more extensively used than any other, although it may be said that quite recently several new motions have been more or less adopted, whose design is to displace Holdsworth's motion by performing the same work in a rather more satisfactory manner.

In these pages no attempt whatever will be made to give a technical explanation of the mechanism of the winding motion. It may be said that it was a special application of the Sun and Planet motion originally utilised by Watt in his Steam Engine, for obtaining a rotary motion of his fly-wheel.

Sufficient be it to say that this "Differential Motion," acting in conjunction with what are termed "Cone drums," imparts a varying motion to the bobbins upon which the cotton is wound, in such a manner that the rate of winding is kept practically constant throughout the formation of the bobbins of roving, although the diameters of the latter are constantly increasing.

The spindles and bobbins always rotate in the same direction, but while the revolutions per minute of the spindles are constant, so as to keep the twist uniform, those of the bobbins are always varying, in order to compensate for their increasing diameters or thicknesses of the bobbins.

The delivery of cotton from the rollers is also constant and the mechanism required to operate them is exceedingly simple.

A vast number of details could easily be added respecting the operations performed by the bobbin and fly frames, but further treatment is deemed unnecessary in this story.

CHAPTER VII.

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT SPINNING, AND EARLY INVENTORS.

There can be no better ill.u.s.tration of the truth of the old saying, that "Necessity is the mother of invention," than to read the early history of the cotton manufacture, and the difficulties under which the pioneers of England's greatest industry laboured.

The middle years of the eighteenth century act as the watershed between the old and the new in cotton manufacture, for up to 1760 the same type of machinery was found in England which had existed in India for centuries. But a change was coming, and as a greater demand arose for cotton goods, it became absolutely necessary to discover some better way of manipulating cotton, in order to get off a greater production.

"When inventors fail in their projects, no one pities them; when they succeed, persecution, envy, and jealousy are their reward." So says Baines, and it would appear, from reference to the history of the cotton industry, to be only too true. Certain it is, that the early inventors of the machinery for improving cotton spinning did not reap the advantages which their labours and inventions ent.i.tled them to. They ploughed and sowed, but others reaped.

Among the most celebrated of the early inventors, the following stand out in great prominence--John Kay, Lewis Paul, John Wyatt, Richard Arkwright, Thomas Highs, James Hargreaves, and Samuel Crompton.

When and how spinning originated no one can say, though it can be traced back through many, many centuries. Several nations claim to have been the first to discover the art, but when asked for proof the initial stages are greatly obscured by impenetrable clouds of mystery.

For example, the Egyptians credit the G.o.ddess Isis with the discovery, the Greeks Minerva, the Chinese the Emperor Yao. It is related of Hercules, that, when in love with Omphale, he debased himself by taking the spindle and spinning a thread at her feet. This form of work was considered to belong only to women, and by spinning for her in this position he was thought to have greatly humiliated himself.

If Hercules were back again, and could stand between two modern mules and see the men and boys engaged in spinning hundreds of threads _at once_, no doubt he would wonder, just as we do to-day at his fabled feats.

It is not difficult to imagine that very early on in the world's history the twisting together of strands of wool and cotton would force itself upon the attention of the ancients. If the reader will take a little cotton wool in the left hand and by means of the first finger and thumb of the right take a few cotton fibres and gently twist them together and at the same time draw the thread formed outwards, it will be seen how very easy it is (from the nature of the cotton) to form a continuous thread.

What would very soon suggest itself would be something to which the thread, when twisted, could be fastened and, according to Mr. Marsden (who supposes the first spinner to have been a shepherd boy), a twig which was close at hand would be the very thing to which he could attach his twisted fibres. He also supposes that, having spun a short length, the twig by accident was allowed to dangle and immediately to untwist by spinning round in the reverse way, and ultimately fall to the ground.

He further adds, the boy would argue to himself "that if this revolving twig could take the twist out by a reversion of its movements, it could be made to put it in." This would be the first spinning spindle. The explanation is probably not very far wide of the mark.

A weighted twig or spindle would next be used, and as each length of spun thread was finished, it would be wound on to the spindle and fastened.

As it would be extremely awkward to work the fibre up without a proper supply, a bundle of this was fastened to the end of a stick and carried most probably under the left arm, leaving the right hand free, or in the belt, much in the same way as is done in some country districts in the North of Europe to-day.

The modern name for this stick is _Distaff_, a word which is derived from the Low German--_diesse_, the bunch of flax on a distaff, and _staff_. Originally it would be the staff on which the tow or flax was fastened, and from which the thread was drawn. The modern representative of the spindle with the twisted thread wound on it is the "_cop_," and the intermittent actions of first putting _twist_ in the thread and then _winding_ on the spindle, have their exact counterparts on the latest of the self-acting mules of to-day.

Image: FIG. 19.--Twist put in cotton by the hand.

It may be interesting to note that St. Distaff's Day is January 7th, the day after the Epiphany, a church festival celebrated in commemoration of the visit of the Wise Men of the East to Bethlehem. As this marks the end of the Christmas festival, work with the distaff was commenced, hence the name, St. Distaff's Day.

It is also called "Rock Day," rock being another name for distaff.

"Rocking Day" in Scotland was a feasting day when friends and neighbours met together in the early days of the New Year, to celebrate the end of the Christmastide festival.

The reign of Henry VII. is said to have witnessed the introduction into England of the spindle and distaff.

In process of time, the suspended spindle was superseded by one which was driven by mechanical means. Over and over again, the spindle, as it lay upon the floor, must have suggested that it could be made to work in that position, viz., horizontal. And so comes now a contrivance for holding the spindle in this position.

Mr. Baines, in his history of the cotton manufacture, gives a figure of an old Hindoo spinning wheel, and it is extremely likely that this very form of machine was the forerunner of the type which later on found its way into Europe. At the beginning of the sixteenth century what was known as the Jersey wheel came into common use. This machine is shown in Fig. 20.

Lying to the left hand of the woman in the ill.u.s.tration is a hand card.

This consisted of square board with a handle, and was covered by fine wire driven in, so as to make what was really a wire brush. By means of this, the spinner was enabled to prepare her cotton, and she did with it (though not nearly so well) what is done by the Carding Engine of to-day, viz., fully opened out the fibres of cotton ready for spinning.

Having taken the cotton from the hand cards, she produced at first a very thick thread which was called a _roving_. This she wound on a spindle, which was afterwards treated again on the wheel a second time, and drawn out still more, and then having the twist put in, it was made much thinner into so-called yarn. Only one thread could by this method be dealt with at a time by one person, but the main operations carried out on the old spinning wheel have their exact reproductions on the mule of to-day, viz.:--Drawing, Twisting and Winding.

Image: FIG. 20.--Jersey spinning wheel (after Baines).

But still the process of evolution went on, and following quickly on the heels of the Jersey wheel is the Saxony or Leipsic wheel. Here for the first time is seen the combination of spindle, flyer and bobbin.