The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-03


 weeks.
 The ceremony of transferring the body
 of Emil Zola to the Pantheon in Paris
 will De held this week.
 
 Indeed many American spinning and
 weaving mills have found 1t absolutely necessary to do something to make their
 filling weave even fairly well. Most of
 them have resorted to 'steaming" the
 cops and bobbins. This Is a quick but
 otherwise objectionable process destroy
 ing as it does the waxy covering of the
 fibers not permitting the moisture to
 penetrate the thread thoroughly, and not
 infrequently developing stains in the
 cloth woven from filling so treated.
 As to the percentage of gain now con
 sldered permissible 1 find the opinions of spinners and weavers vary as between one
 class and another, and like differences
 of opinion also exHt between individual
 weavers and individual splnners. As near
 as ] could gather and, neglecting extrem-
 ists on both sides, from tn per cent
 represents the general view. Taking the
 average as per cent-and l feel sure
 that this Is reasona ble-our spinners will
 quickly be struck with the fact that their
 British competitors gain more from "con-
 ditioning" than they (Americans) pay
 their commission houses for selling their
 product and guaranteeing the payment of
 the accounts. In 20,N0 spindle mill mak-
 ing POS 2-ply, worth, say. 9 cents pound,
 this per cent conditioning on produc-
 ton of 2M pounds per spindle represents
 an annual gain of s33,750.
 The Modren Process.
 Taking up the various methods employed
 to obtain the desired end, l shall neglect
 the old-fashoned ones. which consumed
 two to three weeks time to regain even
 1 per cent, and take up the later and most
 approved systems. Modern Lancashire
 spinning mills almost without exception
 place their conditioning room in the
 basement which usually measures from
 GH2 to ' feet from the floor to the under
 side of the supporting beams. The floor
 is concrete, absolutely level and water tight. In the concrete bricks are laid on their flat faces and the edges of the upper side are leveled to avoid knocking pieces , off when moving about. The sides are also concreted all around up to few
 inches above the upper line of top faces
 of the bricks; thus the entire floor forms a sort of immense, somewhat shallow trough. The trough is filled with water
 up to about half an inch from the top
 of the bricks, which naturally absorb the
 liquid in enormous quantities. It would be obviously inconvenient to have the
 operatives work with their feet in the wa ter. For that reason it's level Is never
 allowed to rise quite up to the top faces
 of the bricks. Thus damp but not wet floor is always existent. Some degree of heat is provided by an Installation of steam heating pipes to accelerate evapor- atfon and to prevent freezing in winter l was permitted to closely examine such q cellar in a mill built about a year ago The manager said that the yearns Gall in cop form) gained per cent in three days adding that at first they tried | sa- 4I.. IL .ls 1 at all answer the purpose. The water is run off the floor every week or two to prevent stagnation The yarn is taken to the cellar in cane baskets and to hurry | the process water Is played on the cops i through a nozzle with a finely perforated | ''rose' attachment, the whole aim being | to get the desired percentage of moisture | into the cells of each individual fiber of | the thread as quickly as possible without ! rsking, however, sending out the yarns 1 with the water present merely as me- 1 chanical deposit on the surface of the 1 threads, which would quickly evaporate. Some other factories use an apparatus | which consists of a long wooden trough | from ten to eighteen feet long, three to 1 four feet wide and three to four feet | deep. Cops, skeins, etc., are laid in this | in layers, a thick wet jute cloth being | placed between each layer, and the filled l trough also covered with a wet burlap or hessian By this arrangement the l yarn can absorb between and 10 per l cent in twenty-four hours. the percent age depending on the depth of each layer l and degree of ,dampness on the inter- | vening cloths.
 Subsequent Handling. Each system has its advocates, but the | first one described is In most general | use, although the efficiency of the latter | is certain. After single yarns in the cop | or on the bobbin have been conditioned, | but must be afterwards spooled and then l warped in the same mill and sold on warper's beams. some of the regained | moisture Is unavoidably driven off by | the heat of the work room. Seeing that | 1t would not be practicable to "condi- | ton" heavy and tightly wound beams, | the loss is partly compensated for by | passing the sheet of threads after it | leaves the reed, and measuring roll over 1 a cloth-covered roll revolving in a trough | of clean water.
 l A practical spinner or weaver would ! at once conclude that the practice de- | scribed would be open to serious abuse. | This is so, but the presence of any percentage of moisture above that gen | eraly accepted as being honest to both | spinner and user and serviceable to the material is readily detected effective pun | ishment being at the same time handed
 out to the wrongdoer. To illustrate, ] inspected one mill built but few years | ago which. in spite of the unusual gen 1 eral trade prosperity, has never paid a | dividend. Inquiry on the Exchange in | Manchester disclosed the fact that, in | the beginning, at least this concern had | earned a reputation for unheard of heavy | loss in weight after its yarns reached
 the purchaser. In spite of all their later | ef-orts, the unenviable reputation had not been lived down long enough to enable | t0 al al In a ion ] have held from the beginning.
 1 If no more than per cent is added, I 1 was told time and time again that this | amount would be retained. as it belonged | to the fibre and was present when the | spinner bought his cotton. 1t Is not pos | sible to arrive at any other conclusion but that foreign buyers have for a gen. ! eration or more bought yarns so treated i and if we are to compete in a close mar | ket we cannot afford to give our com | petitors 6 per cent start, already handi- l capped. as we are, by their present hold l on the trade and our own entire exclu- | sion therefrom.