Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-03-28
TIE CoARSEST COTTON CLOTH.

| THE CoARSEsT COTTON CLOTH.
1t is called the French combing machine
and is only used by the best thread makers
as it is very expensive, and while it makes
the thread superior in quality, it adds TWEEN
ty per cent to the cost ofmanufacture. Six
of the rolls Of webbing are now passed to
gether through the com Ding machine be-
tween two rollers, and combed by innumer
able steel teeth to the hneness ct gOssamel
and the thinness of spiders web. il
passes on, is gathered into one soft round
silver" again, goes through rollers oncs
| more, when it is coiled into cans as before
with loss of twenty per cent. on the mate
| rial which composed the web when it was
| put on the French machine. 1t is texture
so fine and soft that one cannot but wonder
! how it bears its own weight. After the last
process, six of the slivers are again put
through the drawing frame, making one
| silver no larger than any Of the six from
| which it is drawn. Then six of these last
| are put through the same process reduci &
them in size SIX times, and adding that to
the length. This is repeated three times,
and each time they are coiled into cans.
The last silver is the same size and weight
as when the process began, although
double four hundred and thirty-fivs thou
sand, four hundred aud fifty-six times. The
last cans are now taken to
K,
from which cans they are passed through
rollers, then twisted to about the size of 8
lead pencil, and wound on bobbins, all by
the same machine. From this they go to
the second slubbing frame, where one hun
dred and two spindles On each machine are
winding yarn from two hundred and four
bobbins, which came from the first sluhber,
two threads being wound upon one spool.
The next Or intermediate slubbing machine
winds upon one hundred and seventy-six
spOols, from three hundred and fifty-two
bobbins, which came from the second Stub
Der. The next and last is called the rowing
machine and fills two hundred and forty
spools, which came from four hundred and
eighty bobbins, from the intermediate Stub
bling machine. By this repetition of doub-
ling and twisting the yarn is fast becoming
strong and hard. We now follow the yarn
called rowing" to tbs self acting "mule,"
which makes eight hundred and forty
threads of yarn from sixteen hundred and
eighty bobbins. This wonderful machine,
two of which ara operated by one man.
draws out the yarn and twists it from six
teen hundred and eighty spools, when it
comes away, and on its return winds it on
eight hundred cops (spools) making the
last number of thread yarn. We now come
TO
THE THREAD MILL,
which is distinct and independent depart
ment. The cotton yarn comes here, and
first goes to the cop winding machines,
where it is rNn from the cops, through deli
cate balances, over soft felt ground, upon
bobbins two threads together upon one.
From the cop winding department. the bob
bins go to the Singing department where
the two threads that were run together on
the spool, in the cop winding department,
are twisted and spun in one thread. The
thread, as it is unwound, rms through
water, and rapidly over glass guides, and
the bobbin which receives it revolyes five
thousand times per minute twisting hun
dreds of threads on each machine After
being twisted two threads to gether, making
one hard thread, three of the latter are again
run together on bobbin, the same as in
the first cop winding department. Three of
these are NOW twisted together, making six
strands, and
THE PROCKss OF TWISTING THEM
is exactly the same as the one last describ-
ed. 1t is known as the finishing twisting
department. When the thread comes from
the finishing twisting department., it is
inspected with the greatest care, by skillful
persons and put through several tests be-
fore passing the Keeling department., to be
wound in skeins for the bleach house. The
machines in this department are very curl
Gus, and daily turn out vast quantities of
thread, which is packed, and given
through 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 yarn
ers, they never forget to tell the same story
without variations. Again after coming
from the reels
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
bleach and dye houses are among the most
departments of this vast estab-
lshment, 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 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 ont the dirt and
CLEANS IT PERFECTLY.
1t is then put through washings oft, and
preparations wonderful and curious. The
water used, we judge, would have increased
the flood just about enough to have lifted
Noah's ark from the snag on Mt. Ararat
Some Of the wash tubs are of stone, and all
are on scale equal in MAGNITUDE to any of
Col. Sellers schemes for making millions
The loads of thread are put in and taken
out Of boilers, rinsers washers, dryers and
half 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 hundred feet
of steam pipe, and can be regulated to any
desired temperature. After leaving the
reelng department., the thread that is to be
colored goes to the dye house, and that
which is to remain white, to tbs bleach
house. In the dye house is the patent dye
ing machine, used only to dye black. It
does the work far better than by hand and
is equal to the labor of more than dozen
men.
ALL COLoRs OF THREAD
are made. and the quantities of soaps dye
stuffs, 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 remarkable we'll,
sixteen feet deem and eioht feet in diameter