New-York tribune., 1901-08-25

ners are all men. and the carders are nearly all
women.
The unions. with the exception OF the Spin
ners and the Loom Fixers. hold their meet
ings and have their Offices IN n we'll lighted and
plainly but comfortably furnished room in the
Campbell Building, known as Textile Hall This
Is also the headquarters Of the Textile Council
The loom fxers. Of course. meet in their own
building, while public hall is rented by the
mule spinners when occasion requires.
The process OF transforming raw cotton into
cloth is interesting. The bales go directly
from the wharves TO the picking room OF the
mill. In this department they undergo three
separate stages of treatment The cotton is first
run through picker. which roughly loosens 1t
and removes the coarser dirt it may contain.
This machine is called the opener. An interme-
diace machine continues the process, refining
and smoothing the mass and the f1nisher suffi-
ciently loosens il TO permit il to go TO the cards
In the carding room there are no less than ten
operations. The cotton is first fed into the card
ing machines which loosen the mass and start
the fibre lying in one direction The doubling
machine improves the trend OF the fibre and re-
fines the mass. The ribbon machine draws out
the somewhat clumsy rolls that come from the
doubler and increases the length of the roll at
the same time reducing its diameter materially
Ihe product or the ribbon machine Is then
combed. By this process the short fibre, amount
ing to about a fifth of the weight, is extracted,
and only the long fibre is left in the thin roll,
composed of several larger rolls drawn together,
which it deposits nicely coiled in tall cylinder
Three drawing processes follow in succession. and
when the original roll, no thicker than finger
emerges from the last Of these. IL is considerably
smaller, looking something liz a fluffy cord.
The next operation is stubbing, which is a com
bination Of drawing with the first twist the fibre
receives. Then given the first intermediate
twist and the second intermediate twist, after
which the coarse thread goes to the jack frame
where IL is twisted still more and drawn down
considerably smaller The jack frame is also
known as a ring spinning machine, the twist
being a instead a SDin0l6
The thread is now ready for the final spinning
Which reduces its size lengthens 1t and twists II
hard. This is accomplished with the mule spin
ming machine, which has hundreds of spindles
that revolVe a high rate of speed carriage
receding and drawing out the yarn as II Is twist
ed and then returning and winding the thread
on a bobbin for the loom shuttle There is
thread for every bobbin In the sixty feet
Of width Of the machine, and the bobbins as
close together as they can be arranged without
interference These shuttle bobbins are steamed,
after which they are ready TO supply filling TO
| the loom. The warp goes directly from the ring
spinner to the spooer which winds ii spools
from which it be easily transferred TO the
beam OF warping machine. The beams
sent to the slasher tenders, who size the warp.
after which girl threads II into the reeds of
loom and. thus harnessed. 1t is ready to be
woven. The weaving, which is the same in gen
eral plan ordinary hand loom, is per
formed automatically and rapidly on the i'm
proved machines and ends the work of the mill
The cuts, the rolls of cloth called are
bleached, printed otherwise treated in estab-
lishments apart from the mills. The looms and
spinning anu CdrulNB HldcHlues IN the highest
class mills are imported from England.
The homes Of the mill workers diverse
as those OF people in other walks Of life. The
more thrifty occupy neat detached cottages not
few of which are owned by their tenants. An
other class prefers TO live in three and four
family tenements, and still another, the foreign
element, seeks large buildings divided into two
or three room apartments OF the cheapest kind
and lives no better than the East Side thousands
OF New-York The old Borden Block and the
Chase cottages, tenements, the only
groups OF buildings in Fall River erected espe-
cially for mill tenants of the less thrifty classes