Of ..111:11 Slabbing, The prepared stripes of carded cotton are then brought to the slubbing engine, where they are formed into a thread of very loose texture and little twist.
The slubbing engine consists of two pair of drawing rollers, between which the prepared stripes of carded cotton are drawn out to the required fineness, they then pass downwards into tin cylinders, which revolve with a velocity proportion. ate to the twist to be given ; at the top of each cylinder two very small roller* are placed, which are made to turn round by bands passing down the sides of the tin cylinder, over small pullies, to a fixed wheel at bottom; these small rollers draw down the narrow stripes of cotton into the cylinders, and the centrifugal mo tion distributes them equally round the sides of each cylinder in a long hollow roll, which is taken out a door at the side of the cylinder, that is fastened with a hook and loop.
The slubbing is then rolled on bobbins, by hand, by children or women, by a very simple method, which both prevents its breaking, and causes it to be rolled on the bobbins with equal tightness in every part. The bobbin lies on the top of a narrow cylinder of wood, that just fits in between its two extremities, and which is about eight or ten inches in diameter: a wire is passed through the bobbin into the frame, each extremity of which has a vertical groove, that sustains it in its place ; the cylinder is turned round by a winch, and as the slubbling rolls on the bobbin, still turns it round with equal velocity, as it is against the surface of the rolled cotton alone that it acts.
The Spinning Frames. When the slub bing is rolled on the bobbins, it is then prepared for spinning, and brought to the spinning frames for that purpose ; where the bobbins are placed in rows above the frames in a sort of vertical rack prepared for them, and are kept in their places there, by thick wires which pass through them, on the points of which they revolve as the slubbing is drawn off them by the spinning apparatus, which consists prin cipally of three pair of small rollers, which draw out the slubbing to the pro per fineness, and of the fly and bobbin which gives it the due degree of twist, and rolls it up when spun. The three lower rollers are of steel, fluted or grooved longitudinally at small intervals, and are about an inch diameter. The upper rollers are of wood, with iron axles, and are covered first with cloth and then with glove leather, and rubbed well with chalk. Every steel roller is di vided into as many intervals, of about an inch and a half long, as the number of threads to be drawn by it amount to, which is seldom more than six. The co vered rollers are in lengths of two of those intervals, and each press on two of the slubbings ; the extremities of their axis move in pieces of iron with vertical grooves, that admit them to press down ward freely, but prevent all lateral mo tion ; the middle of the axis, as well as the ends, are turned in a lathe, and from it, by a hook, depends a weight that press es it against the steel roller that lies be neath. Springs are used also to give the
same pressure, and where they can be regulated so as to give exactly the same pressure to each roller used, are prefera ble to weights, which, from the number wanted, are a considerable load to the floors of the spinning mill, and by all get ting into a vibratory motion when at work, very much shake the building. The steel rollers have, at their extremities, small toothed wheels of brass, which are con nected with other wheels, and pinions at the side of the frames, so regulated by the number of their teeth, that the se cond roller goes round faster than the first, and the third faster than the se cond. The covered rollers are each moved by the steel rollers- oh which they press, and by this means the slubbing is drawn out twice successively before it passes to the fly. The spinning part for each thread consists of a spindle placed vertically, which sustains the fly and the bobbin. The fly is a steel wire, bent round from the top of the spindle, so that a small ring at its extremity may be about an inch and a quarter from the spindle outwards, and the length of the bobbin below its top, to which it screws on by a small ferule : through the ring the twist ing slubbing passes to the bobbin, whose office is merely to roll up the twist as it is spun by the swift revolutions of the spindle ; the bobbin is about three inches long, and is perforated longitudinally, so as to permit the spindle to turn round freely Within it. That the twist may be rolled up equally on every part of the bobbin, it is necessary that the bobbin should be moved up and down on the spindle with a slow motion ; for this pur pose all the bobbins in the large frame rest on a horizontal bar of wood, moved -up and down by two arms suspended on centres that receive this motion from the revolutions of heart wheel, or wheel of an oval farm. The weight of each of the bobbins prussing it on this bar pre vents its being turned round by the spin dle, and this resistance causes the fly to wind the twist on it by degrees, gently pulling it round in proportion as the cir cumference of the bobbin exceeds the length of twist spun in each revolution of the fly. The six spindles, which answer to the six divisions of the steel rollers, are turned round by bands, which pass round an horizontal drum, the axis of which ascends upwards, and gives motion to the fluted rollers by a pinion on its top ; this axis receives its motion from other bands, which :.pass to large drums turned by horizontal shafts, running the whole length ofthe spinning rooms, which ultimately receive their motion from the water wheel, or other primary moving power.