The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-03-30

'S!eedDle Inc progress IN washing ma
chinery, that is here exhibited, would
make our grandmothers think that the
millennium had come. The baby washer,
as we call it, of this concern. is rather a
large child, whose place and uses will APP
pear 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 loadsat
time, and boiled by steam for several
hours, which takes out the dirt and
CLEANS 1T PERFECTLY.
1t Is then put through washings oft,
and preparations wonderful and curious.
The water used, we Judge, would have
increased the food Just about enough TO
have lifted Noah's ark from the snag on
Mount Ararat. Some of the wash tubs
are Of stone, and all are on a scale equal
IN magnitude to any of Col. Sellers
scheme for making millions. The loads Of
thread are put in and taken outOf boilers,
rlnsers, washers, dryers, and half dozen
other processes by machinery. Then,
after all this, it goes right back 10 those
huge steam boilers, and the same %hing
Is done over again. The dry room is
heated by seven thousand five hundred
feet Of steam pipe, ard can be regulated to
any desired temperature. After leaving
the Keeling department, the thread that
IS to be colored goes to the dye house, and
that which Is 10 remain white, TO the
bleach house. In the dye house is the
patent dying 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
stufIs, 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 Com
pany has q capacity of one hundred and
fifty thousand GALLONS per day. This is
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.
1t makes a man thirsty TO look at it, aud
Is absolutely free from any particles of
matter. by chemical test. The thread is
blued on a big scale, which gives that
handsome tint so greatly admired by the
ladies. Then il Is committed TO the ten
der mercics of the baby washer, which
are cruel, and goes through it ten times.
The baby Is built like the ordinary wash
ing machine, but each of the rollers weighs
a 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
the business thoroughly. This was former
ly done by the old fashioned FOUNDER and
barrel which our grandmother used to
.et us at when we were boys, before going
to school in the morning. Then IL Is
drawn through the rinser, which is a
simple and novel machine, continually
supplied with pure Artesian well water.
The thread passes over roller into the
water, comes up again over another roller
then down into the water, and up and
down, and out and in, and out and over
the reelsfinto the great boxes on wheels,
from which it is put into large water
extractor, a perforated hollow cylinder,
revolving several thousand times per min
ute, and then it IS transported to the dry
ing room. In this way five hundred heads
can be rinsed in four minutes which used
70 take an hour and a half After the
thread has come out Of the drying room,
COLORED OR UNCOLORFD,
it goes to the wareroOms, where it is
counted and put into packages TO be given
ont preparatory TO being wound upon
spools for the market. The thread hay
ing reached this stage of perfection, has
become very valuable and is looked after
with the greatest care. Tickets direct it
TO lis different departments and denote
its size, Equality, etc. The inspection
and testing of thread is one of the most
important features in its production, and
lar
after day with Clark's 90. n. T." Spool
Cotton. to know by what patient and con-
slant care the perfect smoothness and
OF the thread was secured. 1t j.
now taken to the hank winding depart
ment and wound upon large bobbins, when
it is ready for its last wind upon the spOols,
from which il is taken by the consumers
ior its thousand uses ofne cessity and util-
ity, from tying the rag on the boys whit
tied and bloody finger. TO the delicate
embroidery of the wedding garment.
THE sPOOLING DEPARTMENT.
The spo0lingroom i IA busy place where
spools of thread Of all sizes and colors by
tens ofthousandsa are wound every day, two
hundred yards on a spool. The self-acting
spooling machine is a marvellous piece Of
mechanism. The spOols are placed in an
iron gutter by the operator, when the ma
chine picks them up, puts them on shaft
eight at a time, winds the thread upon them
at the rate of three thousand revolutions
per minute, cuts little slot in the edge of
the spool, catches the thread in it, nips it
off, drops the spools full Of thread into
boxes below picks upeight or more empty
spools, places winds and drops them as be-
fore, and never makes mistake. The ma
chine. which is used in this countryOnlyby
TheClark Thread Company was exhibited
by them at the Centennial and with their
magnificent case of goods, was one Of the
great attractions among the many wonders
of the exhibition. From the spooling de-
partment, the spoiled thread is taken TO
THE wARERooM,
where the beautiful little label contain
ing the name number, etc, of the thread
is put on by girls. The quickest of them
will put labels on the ends of nine or ten
thousand in day. all of which have to be
mOistened by the tongue, placed on the
spool, and then struck with the hand to
paste it. Some of these girls work about
as quick as lightning. After ticketing,
the spOols of thread are put into boxes
of one dozen each. They are then ready
for packing. About twenty-five thousand
feet of lumber per month is cut at the
mills, in Michigan, to the various lengths
required, and all that is done here is to
put the boxes together. A private wire
runs from the works in Newark TO the
New York Office, and the line IS kept
busy in sending orders and transmitting
messages of the company. In the short
time we were there several large orders
came in from different parts of the coun-
try, and among them were some from
Maine, Texas, California, Wisconsin,
OREGON, etc. The Clark Thread Compa-
nv sends out annually vast quantities of
show cards, calendars, 'etc., some of which
are magnificent specimens OF the lithO-
graphic and printers art.
Is THIS FAIR COUNT
The number of feet of draft which
one pound OF cotton undergoes is one
trillion, seven hundred and seventy-two
billion, three hundred and twenty mil
lion, six hundred and thirty-fIve thou
sand, six hundred feet, or stated in
figures, 1.772, 800, 63j, 500, a distance
of 335, AZ ,5S2, miles. The follow
ing demonstrates the apparently in
credible statement :. The web of cotton
from which this immense length of thread
Is drawn is forty inches wide. 1t goes TO
the carder, where it is drawn to 4x120
equal to go feet. Then the drawing frame
increases it to 4S0x6, equal to 1850: the
lapper 2,SS0x2i, equal to $3.50; the
comber draws il out to q, 4SOx26, equal TO
los, 4S0; then it goes to the first head
drawing frame, where los, 480x6 equal 10
1,010, $3.50.