The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-03-28

looked at a single piece OF machinery yet,
and then calculate the number Of 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 to sup
ply The Clark Thread Company's 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 a hundred shops be
left to rust in silence. The manufacture of
Clark's 90. N. T." Spool Cotton embraces
the islands of the sea and penetrates the
bowels of the earth, utilizing the treasures of
wealth on every hand, enriching and bless
ing 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 machin-
cry of this vast hive OF industry, with its
sixty miles OF betting and about seventy
miles of steam pipe for heating purposes.
WE ENTER HI 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 insignifcance and frailty. This
vast piece of machinery, moving silently,
save the sharp click of the improved steam
cut-offs, is equal in power to the combined
draft of six hundred horses, and is two en-
gines in one, usually termed a double en-
CINE. The hy-wheel, travelling at the rate
carrying three huge belts on its surface,
each two feet wide, is seventy-eight feet in
circumference, 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 IL stroke of i've feet. They were built
by Corliss, in 1871. One of the three belts
on the ny-wheel is one hundred and fifty
feet in length. But even this double mon
ster could not run the works. 1t has 4 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
a visit from any one who wants to see the
BIGGEsT PAIR OF TWINS
in New Jersey. They arc 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
mcnse establishment. Besides these there
are three ordinary sized engines, made by
Watts, Campbell Il Co., of Newark, in diff
fcrent parts of the works, making seven in
all, agrand total OF nearly fourteen hundred
lD,.o oN,n Tn,n III mountain NT nNo1
which looks enough to last the whole city a
year, is rebuilt by two hundred and fifty
ton boat loads, at brief intervals.
MANUFACTURING II 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 scutching machine,
it comes out in the shape of n roll, like wall
paper, comparatively soft, white and clean.
1t is, however, really in n very rough state.
compared with the ~tineness and perfection
that is to be reached. Several of these
scutching machines are running c%ontinu-
ally, and their sound is like the roar of a
lightning express train, as it whirls past
the platform where you stand. The first
scutchcr is fed with the bale cotton from
a hopper which lets it through into knives
set in large rollers, which revolve with trc-
mendous 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 4 web or clap" in large rolls.
Four of these rolls are then placed upon a
machine like the first and run together
through the same process of
PICKING n BEATING AMI CLEANING,
when it comes out again in the same shape
as before, rolled to exactly the thickness
which it is desired to make the "sIiver"
from which the thread warn is to be spun.
What a " silver" is will be learned further
on. The machine is so dclicately set that
it regulates the thickness of the web or lap
to within half an ounce, in a web OF five
feet, weighing only twelve to eighteen
ounces. After being put through three
scutching machines in this way and coming
out with eight thicknesscs OF web or lap
similar to that produced by the first pro-
cess, it is ready for the carding machines.
This departm mt is filled with Carding Ma
chimes, Drawing Frames, Lappcrs, and
Combing Machines, 4 perfect labyrinth of
betting, pullcys and machinery, the noise
of which is like the roar OF many waters
mingled with the clatter OF n thousand
wheels. One OF tn. large rolls of web or
lap that came from the last scutching ma
chine is placed on a carding machine,
which takes and runs it
BETWEEN THE EET
of a large and small cylinder for the pur-
pose of drawing out the entanglcd ibers
| and laying them parallel or in the same line
of direction and alsv to remove the small
p~ellicles or notes which may have escaped
the action OF the scutching machine. Al
ter being treated in this way, a comber or
dofcr takes the web from the small cylin-
der, Which is now q 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 a revolving can. The whole
process is one of wonderful delicacy, the
material being so finely worked that a
breath of air would break it. This card
contains ninety thousand square teeth to a
foot, or a total of four million one hundred
and eighty-six thousand. On the carding
machine is a little joker that works like
some old man, raising the wire covered flats
from the teeth of the carder, which it cleans,
and throws off the particles of dirt and
coarse cotton left on them. Six of the
TIN A N CALLED CARD sLIyERs,
in which the roll is wound are now taken
to another machine called a Drawing
Frame and run together into one "sliver."
These six are 81. light that when they are
passed together through a hole and made
one, they fall into another silver and are
then no larger than .onc of the six from
which it was made, although they have not
yet been twisted at all. Fourteen of these
cans full of slivcrs are placed at the " Lap
per" and run between two rollers, making 4
new web nine inches wide and half an inch
thick, which comes out like the original
roll from the scutching machine that takes
the cotton from the bales, only that now it
is soft and delicate as is possible to conceive,
weighing only one hundred and forty-fvc