The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-04-02
WHOLE NO. 873
SPINNERS AND WEAVERS.
ALL THE WAY FROM THE PICKER TO
THE CLOTH-ROOM.

Work i'm a Lowell SIiIl-A Peep at the
Processes of Manufacturing Cotton
GOods-Combing, Drawing and Spinning
Out the Raw Material-Weaving.
The writer presented himself at the office
Of one of the Lowell mills and requested the
privilege OF inspecting the processes OF manu-
featuring cotton goods The permission was
finally given, the only condition being that
the mill should not be named.
"To begin with the first process" said the
agent, who kindly accompanied the writer
through the mill, ave win take in the picking
room. The picker is, as you see, something
like hay cutter, only instead of cutting the
cotton it simply beats it by means of knives
set i'll a cylinder which revolves. The OBJECT
is to open the matted humps of cotton and
clean the fibers."
This was the "opener picker" Each ma
chine was tended by man, generally
rench-Canadial, whose duty is to break up
the cotton, which comes in firmly packed
bales, and throw pieces of convenient size
upon the endless apron leading into the ma
chine. On all sides were great bales of cotton
not yet opened, and a snowdrift OF opened
cotton lay on the floor near each of the ma
chimes. Upon the other side OF the machine
is fan arrangement and a long shute by
means of which the loosened cotton is blown
over wire screen, through which most of
the sand and other foreign substances fall,
until the light flakes come to the "fnisher
picker" The cotton comes out Of
the inisher picker in a filmy sheet
Of uniform thickness, and is wound
upon a roller. The picker beater makes
from 300 to 1,600 revolutions per min
ute in performing its work, and the fan
rather more.
CoMBED OUT DRAWN OUT, SPUN OUT
From the finisher picker the Flaps" or rolls
Of partially cleaned cotton are taken to the
"breaker card" This consists of brush Of
wire teeth upon cylinder three feet in di-
asneter, revolving at the rate of 125 times per
minute and coming almost in contact with
another system of similar cards. The object
of the card is to still further clean the cotton,
and to "comb out" the fiber and remove any
knots or Jumps which may have remained in
it. After passing around on the large cylin-
der of the machine the fbers are taken in q
fine fleece by the teeth of a smaller cylinder
called "doffer," and from the doffer this
fleece is taken by the "dofPer comb" and
formed by means of tin funnel into an end
less ribbon.
After going through the breaker card the
lap Of cotton is taken to the "fnishar card"
which finishes the process of cleansing. The
cotton comes out in a light and feecy ribbon
as BEFORE and these ribbons from many cards
are united at the railway head" By means
of the drawing frame" and the "inisher
drawing frame" number are united and at
the same time drawn out at greater length,
by that means securing great uniformity in
the ribbon of cotton Following the drawing
frames come the "speeders," coarse and fine,
by means of which, successfully, this process
Of drawing out at greater length is continued.
Two machines for spinning are employed
the "ring frame" and the 'mule" The ring
frame is from twenty to thirty feet long, and
contains from 100 to 275 spindles, according
to circumstances and the nature of the work
required. The spindles are placed at the
sides, and the bobbins from which the rowing
is drawn, are placed upon a rack above. The
spindles make each from 8, 600 to 5000 revo-
lutions per minute.
Samuel Crompton, an Englishman, was the
inventor of the mule. His invention consists
in a railway movement by which the rowing,
or incipient thread, is alternately spun anG
wound upon the spindle. As the muls
runs out the rowing is drawn out and
twisted into thread, and then as it
runs back the continued revolution of the
spindles winds up the thread. Each mule
originally carried only about twenty five
spindles, but now they are sometimes built to
carry over 1900, and are still operated by
single spinner. Each spindle makes from
4,5O0 to I, 800 revolutions per minute.
"It's as good as walking match said q
mule spinner, who happened to be idle for
hat
that mule for while, and see how he will
walk The mule runs out five feet seven
inches, and is about 100 feet long. It makes
about five trips in and out every minute; and
he has to follow it pretty much all the time
With all his walking, up and down and back
and forth, for ten hours day, it amounts to
about twenty-five miles,
MADE READY FOR THE sHUTTLEs.
The yarn which is spun on the mules is
wound on the "cops," and is ready for the
shuttles of the looms. The yarn spun ON the
the ring frames, which is used for the warp,
has number of processes yet to pass through.
First it is taken to the "spooling" room,
where by means of machinery the yarn is
transferred from several bobbins to one
spool. The spools are then taken to the
"warper," machine suggestive of stage
driver holding the reins over the backs of
couple of hundred horses at once. The frames
are arranged in wings to contain from $50 to
400 spools, and the yarn from the spools
passes through comb and over a roller,
through another comb and then is wound up
on the "warper beam" The warper has
SOFT of automatic conscience. The drum re-
wolves at the rate of thirty or forty times
minute, but if anything goes wrong, as if a
thread breaks, it Immediately stops, and
nothing can start it until everything is set
right again.
After the warping comes the "slashing,"
process of sizing or starching, which is per-
formed by means of large system of rollers,
size vats and steam cylinders. The final pro-
cess in preparing the warp for the loom is the
drawing in," or placing the separate threads
Of the warp In position between the fine cords
Of the aharness." This is an operation alike
trying to the eyes and the patience.
If the spinning department was noisy,
there is no word to describe the assault which
the weaving department. make upon the.
sars of the visitor A good-sized mill has
!, 600 or 1900 looms, and these are colonized ,
IN certain parts of the mill, where each loom
tries to drown the noise Of all the rest.
aI want you to observe these atomizers,"
,aid the agent, IN stentorian tones that
sounded amid the rattle of the looms like
,ar-away whisper each atomizer consumes
\ quart of water in an hour, and in this room
here are 200 OF them. Two hundred quarts
If water will go a good way toward purify
ng the atmosphere, even in room OF thiz
ifzen
Packed as closely as the foor space would
allow, the looms were arranged upon long
anes, through which the operatives passed in
their duties Each weaver had
rom four to eight looms under her care. Her
work. consisted chiefly in replacing the empty
ops in the shuttles, and in repairing broken
breads Cor. Boston Globe
/
Girls Who Are Chasing Chimera.
Ii is said that there are no less than 600
.-serican girls studying singing in the city
: M.lA,. alone, all with the hope of becoming
rhine donne and rivaling Patti. Paris is not
a hind in its quota of the like London has
onle dozens, and Germany is full of them.