The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-03-22

owners, but the old state Of things il "dur
clar' gone" This trade and traffic. IL ma,
be fairly expected, will in few wears large
ly increase the wealth and intelligence O
the race in these localities.
THE SEA ISLAND COTTON
brings treble the price of inland. An acr,
will produce in the neighborhood of thre,
hundred and fifty pounds of seed cotton
which when glnned weighs about seventy
five pounds, or one TO FIVE. The negroes
without doubt will eventually grow ali tn,
cotton, as not one in five of the Northerr
men have thus far succeeded in their at
tempts. Let the reader remember that VIZ
have not looked at single piece of machin.
cry yet, and then calculate the number o.
people and the amount of wealth, these
works employ and produce, before we reach
the factory. The sail, the mine, commerce
and manufactures, all find employment tc
supply The Clark Thread Company'l
works, and when they stop the cotton may
bloom and fall unplucked, the coal miner
may starve on a bed of black diamonds
the sails on the rivers be spread to the
breeze no more, and the lathes in hundred
shops be left to rust in silence. The manu-.
facture of Clark's %. N. r." Spool Cotton
embraces the islands of the sea and pene.
trates the bowels of the earth, utilizing the
treasures of wealth on every hand, enrich
ing and blessing mankind at every STEP
from the womb OF ages to the spindles OF
Newark. We will now examine into the
immediate sources of the power which
drives the endless machinery of this vast
hive OF industry, with its sixty miles OF
betting and about seventy miles of steam
pipe for heating purposes.
WE ENTER THE ENGINE HOUSE.
itself large enough for an ordinary factory.
Here is a mighty production of human
brain and Drawn. In the presence of this
monster, with its majestic tread, one feels
his own insignificance and frailty. This
vast piece of machinery, moving silently,
save the sharp click of the improved steam
cut-otis, is equal in power to the combined
draft of six hundred horses, and is two en-
gines in one, usually termed double en-
gine. The fly-wheel travelling at the rate of
iorty-eight revolutions per minute and car
rying three huge belts on its surface, each
two feet wide, is seventy-eight feet in cir
cumference, twenty-five feet in diameter and
weighs thirty tons or sixty thousand pounds
The shaft is fourteen inches in thickness
the double cylinders are twenty-six inches
in diameter, with condensers, and stroke
of five feet. They were built by Corliss in
1874. One of the three belts on the tlv-
wheel is one hundred and fifty feet in
length. But even this double monster
could not run the works. 1t has a big twin
brother, and together they travel every day
for ten hours on their endless Journey, and
never get tired. They are wonders of power
and elegant workmanship, worthy of visit
from any one who wants to see the
BIGGEST PAIR OF TWINS
in New jersey. They are supplied with
steam from nine immense tubular boilers
and four large upright boilers, Corliss plan.
They consume twenty-five tons of coal per
day, which will give some idea of the
amount of steam necessary to drive the i'm
mense establishment. Besides these there
are three ordinary sized engines, made by
Watts, Campbell & Co., of Newark, in diff
ferent parts of the works. making seven fin
all, grand'total of nearly fourteen hundred
horse power. The young mountain of coal.
which looks enough to last the whole CITY a
year, is rebuilt by two hundred and fifty
ton boat loads, at brief intervals.
MANUFACTURING THE THREAD.
The cotton is brought in bales to the mix
ing rooms, when it is examined and placed
in bins, according TO the different grades.
ready for the scutching machines, which
open and beat the material, cleaning it from
the dirt and sand it contains in the bale.
After going through the scruching ma
chine, it comes out in the shape of roll,
like wall paper, comparatively soft, white
and clean. 1t is, however, really in a very
rough state, compared with the fineness and
perfection that is to be reached. Several of
these scutching machines are running con-
and their sound is like the roar of
a lightning express train, rs it whirs past
the platform where you stand. The first
scutcher is led with the bale cotton from a
hopper which let's it through into knives
set in large rollers, which revolve with tre-
nendous force, and lightning speed, picking
the cotton into small pieces, and passing it
by suction OF air, on to other rollers, be-
tween which it goes and comes out in the
shape OF web or clap" in large rolls.
Four of these rolls are then placed upon a
like the first and run together
through the same proces OF
PICKING AND BEATING AND CLEANING,
when 1t comes out again in the same shape
as before, rolled to exactly the thickness
which it is desired to make the "silver"
from which the thread yarn is to be spun.
What "silver" is will be learned further
on. The machine is so delicately set that
it regulates the thickness OF the web or lap
10 within half an ounce, in web of five
leet, weighing only twelve to eighteen
ounces After being put through three
machines in this way and coming
out with eight thicknesses of web or lap
similar to that produced by the first pro-
cess, it is ready for the carding machines.
This department is filled with Carding Ma
chimes, Drawing Frames, Lapper., and
Combing Machines, a perfect labyrinth of
betting, pulleys and machinery, the noise
Of which is like the roar of many waters
mingled with the clatter of thousand
wheels. One of the large rolls of web or
lap that came from the last .cutching ma
chine is placed on a carding machine
which takes and runs it
BETWEEN THE TEETH
Of large and small cylinder for the pur-
pose OF drawing out the entangled fibers
and laying them parallel orin the same line
oil direction and also to remove the small
pellicles or NOTES which may have escaped
The action Of the scutching machine. Al
Ter being treated in this way, comber or
ioffer takes the web from the small cylin-
der, which is now a delicate guaze; and it
IS gathered up and passed through a small
hole, say half an inch in size, after which
it is coiled in revolving can. The whole
process is one of wonderful delicacy, the
material being so finely worked that
breath of air would break it. This card
contains ninety thousand square teeth to a
DOT, or total of four million one hundred
md eighty-six thousand. On the carding