Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-06-17
How BrOadcIOth is Made.

\ the following comprehensive summary ei
the various processes by which wool ID
made into broadcloth:
1 1g g The better to manifest what wooden is
not, let us see what cloth is. y Stage by
] stage from sleeps back to gentleman's
back, we will trace it's history. 'The wool
being shorn, goes to the stapler's, and by
him is sorted. It is neither long nor short,
and, forythe cloth manufacture, if wool be
not moderately short, it must be shorten
ed artifcially. 1t is next well oiled and
spun into thread or yarn, then woven into
a tissue that will be cloth by-and- by,
though long way distant from cloth
when it leaves the weaver. The tissue, if
examined at this stage of Manufacture,
would display its threads just like mad
am 'systuH gown does. "A coat of this ma
terial would be thread bare all over, de-
| spite its newness. Before this material
can become commercial cloth, five chief
| things will have to be done to it. Its tex
ture must be closed; it must be shrunk-
that is to say, itmust be cleansed nap
| must be put upon it; superfuous nap
must be shorn off; finally, it must be hot
pressed. First, as to closing or shrinking.
! If we bear in mind what has already been
stated about the duality of felting pos
sessed by wool, due to the presence of
certain saw-like teeth, the reason of
shrinkage will be understood. To accom-
plish this is the fuller's task, and he goes
to work as follows: He takes the mate
rial to be shrunk, vets it, soaps it, and
submits it to the full-mill for consider
able time--seyen or eight hours-under
which operation the shrinkage is effected.
| The fulling machine is an engine SO con-
triVed that,certain heavy piles or, ham,
4 mers are brought to bear upon the tex
ture, already soaped, wetted, and laid in a
i trough. The hammers are so Hxed'in the
machine that not only do they fall. upon
the texture with heavy thtlds, but at the
same time turn it about, each stroke be-
ing delivered on fresh portion. Now,
bearing in mind the saw.like teeth, and
the quality of felting, what happens win
easily be understood. The wool fbers
are well soaped, as we already know, and
but for their serrations all looking one
way, they would slide upon each other in
various and irregular directions. Practi-
cally, however, they can only slide one
way y-namely,s with the roots foremost.
| The result is that the saw like teeth catch
the wool fibers shorter, whereby the entire
tCAuH1C 10 eli uuh, duIi, VI CouioO3 plVpOI-
tionately closed up and thickened. This
clears away the soap, by means of
fuller's earth and water, the fabric remain
ing still in the trough, and still wrought
upon by the falling hammers ior piles.
Being taken from the fuller's mill, the
shrunken material has next to be dried.
This is done by hanging it on tenter hooks
stuck into the margins Of the texture at
convenient distances. obviously, this is
an operation that would admit Of consider
able deceit in dishonest hands. The wet
fabric might be injuriously stretched -
made broader and longer-to the pfeju-
dice of material Formerly the exact
amount of stretching to be used was regu-
lated by act of parliament, so important
did the matter seem. Well, our material,
woven, fulled, and dried, is not cloth yet,
though considerable way advanced on
its road to cloth. 1t has no nap, so the
next process will he in imparting nap to
it. Let US suppose, now, byGwayH of intro
ducing the nap -imparting process, that "a
piece of our material having been laid fiat
on a board, a Cat gets on it and scratches
it, Puss would get a sort of nap on our
material, though she would dealwith it
somewhat roughly. If the scratching
effect of cats claws were such as the
cloth-worker required d,hemightimitate the
operation by some sort of wire-tooth ma
chinery. Altogether too violent it would
/ be; for, although nap is really scratch
ed up out of the threads this is effected
by little hooks incomparably finer than
the claws-of any cat-finer than any hooks
mans Ingenuity has enabled him to de-
wise, the agent used by clothiers of o-day,
] as by the Romans, being the hook-like
growths of the Dipsacus fttlI0Duas, or full
lers teasel. This plant, in growth, is
something like thistle, though, botani-
cally, it differs from thistle. 1t bears
| round heads, each about the size of small
apple, and studded all over with fine
| hooked protuDerances. Many of these
easel-heads, being packed together and
] bound up tight on a fiat surface, make a
sort of comb, or currycomb, and this was
the invariable way Of picking teasels for
use in cloth manufactured once. They
may be also packed on cylinder, but
however arranged their use in getting up
nap out Of threads will be obvious.
Caused to rub against the incipient cloth,
they scratch out little odds and ends OF
WOOL ard produce hairy surface. One
stage further, then, our woven material
has advanced on the road to perfect cloth,
but it is not cloth yet. The nap just
! scratched up by the teazel- hooks is of all
lengths, within certain limits. The man
ufacturer wants an even length, which he
.accomphshes by shearing,, Next follows
hot pressing, which being done, we regard
the cloth as made o-9' i
1 ev tla fr .ts ii ~.
THE Commissioner of Indian Affairs