The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-08-12
ELECTRICITY SPINS
AND WEAN ES.
More Than Half IA Million Electrical
Horse Power Used in this
Country in the Textile
Mills

Fully eight per cent of the total
wealth of this country is invested in
the electrical industry and its kin
dred enterprises 1t requires half a
million electrical horse power to
turn the wheels in our great textile
industries aside from the steam and
water power used
Today electricity spins the threads
and the same power Weaves them III
to various fabrics for our use. There
are many reasons why electricity IS
the ideal power for textile mills.
Foremost is the ease with which Il
can be transmitted from the power
plant to the various spinning ana
weaving departments, Electricity
can be easily carried to any of-the-
way corner without a particle OF
loss. To transmit steam or water
/ power by long shaftings and belts
always results in fully 20 per cent
/ loss of energy Electricity gives bet
ter individual control and allows the
various machines to run or remain
idle without affecting the others. 1t
permits of individual drive, motor
for every machine, which time has
| proven is the only ideal way OF dry
lings machinery. Last, but not least,
electricity makes it possible to har-
ness the distant water power and
bring this cheap energy to the tex
tile mills.
The first textile mill to be driven
throughout by motors was Installed
in Columbia, S. c., and started IN
April. 1894. 1t is interesting to re
mark in passing that not one-hal-
of the motors, which have been n
use for 7 years, have been repaired,
and on the other half the average
repairs will not exceed $50 per mo-
/ tor for the entire II years.
/ The textile industry employs
/ over 100000 horse power in motors
of which the General Electric Com
pany has furnished some $4,000
horse power Inashuch as the total
power used in all textile mills Of all
sorts and kinds is 900, 900 horse
power fully Is per cent. of the pow
err used in the textile mills is by
motors. Thus, Lowell has over go
600 horse power in motors; the
Pacific Mills in Lawrence in the
cotton and worsted departments are
employing over l0,400 horse power
while the Arlington Mills are using
over $4,000 horse power, and the
Amoskeag mills in Manchester are
employing over $4,000 horse power
in motors The American Wooden
Company used motors aggregating
/ $4,000 horse power, OF which "a
/ 600 horse power is in Lawrence.
The utilization of this form OF en-
/ ergy is not confined to New England
alone. as NoEth Carolina has $4,000
! horse power. and South Carolina
81. 0O0 horse power in motors alone.
The first installations We're made
because of convenience in location.
That is to say. the mills and power
house would each be located at such
a point as to best serve the purpose
Of power generation and cloth mar
lfacturer, respectively. Water
powers hitherto inaccessible We're
Utilized The advantage of sudiyis-
on permitting the measurement of
.he~ power consumed in the different
machines, and the detection of eH-
cessiye power required on any ma
chine appealed to the early users
of this system But it is in other
dtrecti ms that we must look for the
reason of the very large increase
during recent years. Seven years
ago the average size motor used in
textile mills was - horse power.
while today it is % 2-3 horse power
This has been brought about largely
by the adoption OF what is termed
! individual drive" This is, each
machine is driven by it own particu-
/ lar motor The General Electric
Company has furns shed for this pur-
tpose over 500 motors for pickers,
1900 for spinning frames and twis-
ters, and about 5000 motors for the
looms of various kinds The chief
reason for the adoption of the indi-
yiduaI drive is because the mauufaC-
turer is able to obtain more uni
form and higher speed, and conse-
quently greater production and a
better quality of product
70 illustrate this statement a test
was recently made between two mills
owned by the same manufacturers.
spinning the same numbers, using
the same grade Of cotton, and III
other ways as nearly identical as it
possible for two mills to be. One
Of these mills was driven by group
motors of rs horse power and 100
horse power capacity. The other mill
was driven by horse power ami
y horse power motors directly
connected to the spinning frames
The results were determined, not b..
hank clocks, but by weighing the
yarn, and it was found at the end of
three weeks that the average out
put of the individually driven frames
exceeded the similar frames which
We're driven by large motors through
shafting and betting by 12S per cenJ
The Germans and Swiss are fan
ahead of Americans in the adoption