The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-03-22


minute twisting hundreds of threads on each |
machine. After being twisted two threads |
ogether, making one hard thread, three of
he latter are again run together on bob |
Din, the same as in the first cop winding de-
oartment. Three of these are now twisted
ogether, making six strands, and
THE PROCESS OF TWISTING THEM
is exactly the same as the one last described.
1t is known as the finishing twisting, depart
ment. When the thread comes from the
finishing twisting department, it is inspected
with the greatest care, by skillful persons,
and put through several tests before passing
the reeling department, to be wound in
skeins for the bleach house. The machines
in this department are very curious, and
daily turn out vast quantities of thread,
which is packed, and given a thorough
ticket to the bleach and dye houses. They
measure off the thread into skeins of an
exact length and size, and when they have
reeled off Just the right amount OF yarn,
always stop, and unlike some kind of warm
ers, they never forget ito tell the same story
without variations. Again after coming
from the reels,
THE THREAD is CAREFULLY INSPECTED,
the work employing several girls, who take
all the rough and imperfect thread from the
hanks. After this second inspection, we
find it next in the bleach house. The
interesting departments of this vast estab-
lishment, although not the most agreeable.
The progress in washing machinery, that is
here exhibited, would make our grand
mothers think that the millennium had come.
The baby washer, as we call it, of this con.
Germ, is rather q large child, whose place
and uses will appear later. After the thread
is sent from the inspection department to
the bleach and dye houses, it is unpacked,
counted and put into large tanks, immense
loads at time, and boiled by steam for sew
eral hours, which takes out the dirt and
CLEANS IT PERFECTLY.
It is then put through washings oft, and
preparations wonderful and curious. The
the flood just about enough to have lifted
Noah's ark from the snag OF Mount Ararat.
Some of the wash-tubs are of stone, and all
are on scale equal in magnitude to any of
Colonel Sellers's schemes for making mil
lions. The loads of thread are put in and
taken out of boilers, rinsers, washers, dry
ers and half a dozen other processes by
machinery. Then after all this, it goes right
back to those huge steam boilers, and the
same thing is done over again. The dry
room is heated by seven thousand five hum
dred feet of steam pipe, and can be regu-
lated to any desired temperature. After
leaving the reelipg department, tt thread
that is to be colored goes to the dye house,
and that which is to remain white, to the
bleach house. In the dye house is the pat
ent dyeipg machine, used only to dye black.
1t does the work far better than by hand,
and is equal to the labor of more than a
dozen men.
ALL CoLoRs OF THREAD
are made, and the quantities of soaps, dye
stuf1s, and other material of the kind used,
are immense. Eighty thousand gallons OF
water are consumed daily in the bleach
house alone, and one of the artesian wells
of The Clark Thread Company has capa-
| city of one hundred and fifty thousand gal.
Ions per day. This is a remarkable well,
sixteen feet deep and eight feet in diameter,
of which Professor Maynard, the New York
chemist, said it produced the purest water
| he ever saw. It makes a man thirsty to
look at it, and is absolutely free from any
particles of matter, by chemical test. The
thread is blued on big scale, which gives
that handsome tint so greatly admired by
theladies. Then it is committed to the
tender marcies of the baby washer, which
are cruel, and goes through it ten times
The baby is built like an ordinary washing
machine, but each of the rollers weighs s
thousand pounds, and as the thread passes
through the water into the washer
THEY HOP AND JUMP
and pound with antics queer, but it does thu
business thoroughly. This was formerl.
done by the old fashioned FOUNDER and bar
rel which our grandmothers used to set us a
when we were boys, before going to schoo
in the morning. Then it is drawn through
the rinser, which is simple and novel ma
chine continually supplied with pure arte
sian well water, The thread passes over
roller into the water,tcomes up again owe
| another roller, then down into the water
and up and down, and out and in, and out an
up over the reels into great boxes on wheels
from which it is put into a large water ez
tractor, perforated hollow cylinder, revol1
ing several thousand times minute, an
then it is transported to the drying room
In this way five hundred heads can be rinse
in four minutes which used to take an hou
and half. After the thread has come ou
of the drying room,
CoLoRED OR UNCoLoRED,
it goes to the warerooms, where it is connie
and put in packages to be given out pre-
paratory to being wound upon spools fo
the market. The thread having reache
this stage of perfection, has become YER
valuable, and is looked after with the great
est care. Tickets direct it to its differen
departments, and denote its size, quality
etc. The inspection and testing of threat
is one of the most important features in it
production, and it would surprise the lad,
who sews day after day with Clark's"O N
T." Spool Cotton, to know by what patien
and constant care the perfect snoothnes
and regularity of the thread was secured. !
is now taken to the handwriting depart
ment, and wound upon large bobbins, whel
it is ready for its last wind upon the spools
from which it is taken by the consumers fo
Its thousand uses of necessity aud utility
from tying the rag on the boys whitfield an,
bloody finger, to the delicate embroidery G
the wedding garment.
THE sPOoLING DEPARTMENT.
The spooling room is busy place, wher
spools of thread of all sizes and colors b
tens of thousands are wound every day, tw
hundred yards on spool. The self-actin
spooling machine is a marvellous piece O
mechanism. The spools are placed in Al
iron gutter by the operator, when the ma
chine picks them up, puts them on q shat
eight at q time, winds the thread upon ther
at the rate of three thousand revolution
per minute, cuts little slot in the edge o
the spool, catches the thread in it, nips
of, drops the spools full of thread int
boxes below, picks up eight more empt
spools, places, winds and drops them as be
fore, and never makes a mistake. The ms
chine, which is used in this country emily b
The Clark Thread Company, was exhibite
by them at the Centennial, and, with thei
magnificent case of goods, was one of tn
great attractions among the many wonder
of the exhibition. From the spooling d,
partment, the spoiled thread is taken to
THE wARERooM,
where the beautiful little label containin
the name, number, etc., of the thread, is pr
on by girls. The quickest of them will pr
labels on the ends of nine or ten thousan
in a day, all of which have to be moistene
by the tongue, placed on the spool, and the
struck with the hand to paste it. Some
these pirls work about as nuick es I; uhtnin,
After ticketiDg, the spools of thread are pl
into boxes of one dozen each. They are the
ready for packing. About twenty-five thol
sand feet of lumber per month is cut at th
mills, in Michigan, to the various length
required, and all that is done here is to pr
the boxes together. A private wire rur
from the works in Newark to the New Yor
Office, and the line is kept busy in sendin
orders and transmitting messages of th
company. In the short time we wero ther
several large orders came in from differer
parts of the country, and among thel
| hoiu ~