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

intermediate 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 mighty production of human
brain and Drawn. In the presence of this |
monster, with its majestic tread, one feels
his own insigniicance and frailty. This
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 double en-.
gine. The hy-wheel, travelling at the rate
of forty-eight revolutions per minute, and
carrying three huge belts on its surface,
each two feet wide, is scventy-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 a stroke of five feet. They were built
by Corliss, in 1874. One of the three belts
on the 1J-whecl is one hundred and fifty
feet in length. BuS even this double mon
ster could not zgn the works. 1t has 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 ono who wants to see the
BIGGE-- PAIR OF TWINS
in New Jersey. They are supplied with
steam from nine immense tubular boilers
and four large upright boilers, ,Corliss's plan.
They consume twenty-five tons of coal per
day, which will give some idea of the amount
of steam necessary to drive the immense es-
tablishment. Besides these there ere three
ordinary sized engines, made by Watts,
Campbell & Co., of Newark, in different
parts of the work, making seven in all,
grand total of nearly fourteen hundred horse
power. Tho young mountain of coal, which
look enough to last the whole city year, is
rebuilt by two hundred and fifty ton boat
loads, at brief intervals.
-IANUFAcTURING THE THREAD.
Tnc cotton is brought in bales to the mix.
i-Groons, when tits examined and placed
| i bins, according to the different grades,
rcaoy for tho 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 machines
it comes out in the shape of { roll, like wall
paper, comparatively soft, white cad 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 continu-
ally, and their sound is like the roar OF c
lightning express train as it whirls past
the platform where you stand. The first
scutcher is fed with the bale cotton from
hopper which lets it through into knives
set in large rollers, which revo1ve with tro-
mendous force andlightning speed, PICKING
the cotton into small pieces, and passing is
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
machine like the first and run together
| through the same process of
PICKING AND BEATING AND CLEANING,
when it comes out again in the same shape
which it is desired to make the "sliver" !"
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 to
within half an ounce, in 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 thicknesses of web or lap similar to
that produced by the first process, it is ready
for the carding machines. This department
is filed with Carding Machines, Drawing
Frames, Lappers, and Combing Machines, 3
perfect labyrinth of betting, pulleys an6
machinery, the noise of which is like the
roar of many waters mingled with the clat
ter of a thousand wheels. One of the larg,
rolls of web or lap that came from the las
scutching machine is placed on cardins
machine, which takes and runs it
BETWEEN THE TEETH
of large and small cylinder for the pur
pose of drawing out the entangled fiber
and laying them parallel or in the sam
line of direction and also to remove tn
small pellicles or notes which may have es
capped the action of the scutching machine
After being treated in this way, combe
or doffer takes the web from the small
cylinder, which is now a delicate gauze
and it is gathered up and passed through
small hole, say half an inch in size, afte
, which it is coiled in a revolving can. TIL
whole process is one of wonderful delicacy
the material being SO finely worked that
breath of cir would break it. This car
contains ninety thousand square teeth to
foot, or a total of four million one hur
| dred and eighty-six thousand. On tn
! carding machine is a little joker that work
like some old man, raising the wire covere
flats from the teeth of the carder, which j
cleans, and throws off the particles of dir
and coarse cotton left on them. Six of tn
!, TIN CANS CALLED CARD sLIvERs,
: in which the roll is wound are now taken t,
another machine called Drawing Fran
and run together into one "sliver." Thes
six are SO light that when they are passe
together through a hole and made one, the
fall into another silver and are then n
larger than one of the six from which it wa
: made, although they have not yet beel
twisted at all. Fourteen of these cans full
of slivers are placed at the Lapper" an,
run between two rollers, making a new we
nine inches wide and half an inch thick
which comes out like the original roll fror
, the scutching machine that takes the cottol
= from the bales, only that now it is soft an,
: delicate as is possible to conceive, weighin
, only one hundred and forty.fve grains t
the yard, nine inches wide. 1t now goes il
rolls to q wonderful little machine, a Frencl
= Invention, first introduced in this countr,
{ by The Clark Thread Company. Iti a re
fined carding machine. the product of whisl
is as much superior in fneness to the 1arg
carders just described as the most elegan
silk goods are to
!, THE CoARsEST COTTON CLOTH.
tits called the French combing machine an
, is only used by the best thread makers, as
! is very expensive and while it makes tn
thread superior in quality, it adds twent
! per cent to the cost of manufacture. Six o
the rolls of webbing are now passed togethe
through the combing machine between tw
; rollers, and combed by innumerable stee
teeth to the fneness of gossamer and tn
. thinness of a spiders web. 1t passes on, i
gathered into one soft round" " sliver" again
goes through the rollers once more, when
is coiled into cans, as before, with a loss o
, | twenty per cent. on the material which com
! posed the web when it was put on tn
: French machine. 1t lis texture SO fine an,
: soft that one cannot but wonder how it bear
its own weight. After the last process, si
of the slivers are again put through tn
t same process reducing them in size si
s times, and adding that to the length. Thi
!, is repeated three times, and each time the
q are coiled into cans. The last silver
e the same size and weight as when tn
process began, although doubled fou
hundred and thirty-fve thousand, four hur
}. dred and ffty-six times. The last cans ar
q now taken to
n THE FIRST SLUBBING FRAME,
10 from which cans they are passed throug
e rollers, then twisted to about the size of
f lead pencil, and wound on bobbins, all b
1 the same machine. From this they go
: the second slubbing frame, where one hur
d dred and two spindles on each machine AZ
e winding yarn from two hundred and fou
e bobbins, which came from the first slubbel
o | two throada hoiuu uoupd nnop opa s~oo