When the wool has been combed either by hand or machine, it is transferred to the braking frame, the object of which is to open out any fibres which may have escaped the action of the combs. In this machine the wool, after passing between rollers, is exposed to the action of a kind of endless comb, travelling round two rollers distant from each other ; and the arrangements as to relative velocities are such, that the wool becomes somewhat drawn out as well as combed parallel, and leaves the machine in the form of a roll or narrow belt, The sliver of wool proceeds to a large bobbin or cylinder, round which it is lapped into a continuous roll. It is then passed a second time through a breaking-frame, having teeth finer and more closely set than the former. The soft woolly riband is then subjected to the action of a machine analogous in principle to the drawing-frame of the cotton ; the object being to extend the length, diminish the thickness, and equalise the number of fibres of the sliver. Hitherto the woolly fibres are merely slightly coherent, without having any twist ; but they are now passed through a roring.machine, preparatory to the process of .spinning. The working parts of this machine are slightly shown in section iu the annexed cut. The wool-carding or sliver passes beneath a roller y, towards a cylinder e, the surface of which is studded with points or teeth. The wool, after being acted on by these teeth, passes between the pair of rollers A, where it is pressed by the upper roller being urged downwards by the weight c. Of these rollers the upper one is of wood covered with leather, and the under one of iron, fluted parallel with the axis; and the rollers being made to rotate faster than the feeding-roller P, it necessarily follows that the sliver of wool becomes elongated to a state of still greater tenuity while passing between them. It is then caught by a second pair of rollers a, kept In close contact by the weight u; and as these rotate still more rapidly than the former, the sliver is still more elongated, until its thiekuess is so small that the fibres can scarcely cohere. But in order to give them the requisite coherent strength, they are slightly twisted by the bobbin and fly o, that beautiful contrivance which is so extensively adopted in the textile manufactures. One fork or leg of the rotating flyer o is hollow or tubular, and down this tube the delicate cord of wool passes ; then, by the rapid rotation of the flyer, the wool or roving becomes wound on the spindle of the bobbin concentric with the flyer. The straight or rectilinear motion of the roving while approaching the flyer, combined with the circular motion at the flyer itself, imparts a twist to the roving, sufficient to enable it to undergo the process of spinning.
The spinning of the worsted bears so close a resemblance to that of cotton, as described in COTTON 31ANUFACTUIIE, and SPINNING, that reference to those articles will suffice to convey a general notion of the process. When spun, the worsted yarn is wound on a reel, and is thence made up into hanks of 560 yards each. Then hanks receive denominations according to the number of them which go to a pound, and the yarn derives its name in like manner : thus, No. 24 yarn has 24 banks to the pound. In some instances the hank is reckoned at 840 yards. The banks are tied up into pounds ; the pounds are com bined into bundles; and the bundles are made up into bales of 240 lb& each, ready for the market.
Here terminate the operations of a worsted-mill ; for the dyeing of the yarn, and the weaving into the various kinds of textile fabric, lead us to other departments of industry. [llvesea ; WEAVING.] The worsted manufacture, like that of woollen, has been marked by the introduction of many new machines and proceases within the last few years. Two or three of these may be briefly noticed. English wool is becoming less and lees fitted for cloths, and more and more fitted for worsteds. Moreover, a length of staple, necessary under the old process of combing, is less needed under the modern. From both of these causes any kind of English wool, from three-inch staple upwards, is rendered available for one or other of the numerous kinds of worsted manufactures. Carding-machines in great variety have been adopted ; and the chief inventor, Mr. Lister, made an attempt in 1855 to overturn the patent-claims for many of them, but failed in a court of law. Messrs. Croft and Steel's machine, introduced at Keighley in 1857, has a number of combs, each forming a circular segment ; they aro fixed to the outer ends of radiating arms carried by a hori zontal disc, which rotates on a vertical axis. The combs, while rotating, pass in front of a feeding apparatus, and have a peculiar combing motion given to them by means of cranks ; they advance and retire, rise and fall, and rotate, all at once. Each comb takes its proper quantity of wool from the feeder, and carries it round to the drawing-off roller. There are circular brushes to clean each comb after its passage, and a hot chamber in which the teeth are warmed. The great increase in the facility of machine-combing has been one cause of the more rapid advance of the worsted than of the woollen manufacture. Another is, that the fly-spindles, which so late as 1b48 only made 2S00 revolutions per minute, are now driven at the enor mous velocity of 6000 revolutions. Another is, that while woollen cloth, from its great width (often 9 feet before being milled), cannot be woven at more than about 50 picks of the shuttle per minute, worsted weaving is often conducted at the rate of 160 picks. So groat is the facility now offered for the use of cotton in mixed goods, or stuffs and worsteds, that out of 100 pieces of all kinds, taken indiscriminately from those produced in the Bradford district, it is estimated 95 have cotton warps; while the total weight of the whole produce is supposed to be two-thirds wool and one-third cotton. One of the curious novelties of recent years is Messrs. Saunders and Smith's process for utilising the grease resulting from the various &comings and washings to which the wool is subjected. Iron pipes convey the greasy water to a tank, whence a pump draws it up to other tanks, where it is beet& by steam to l60° Fehr. Certain chemical substances are added, by which the creamy and is converted into a scum and a sediment, with a liquor between them. The liquor is drawn off as useless. The scum and the sediment, nearly alike in composition, are drained in bags of matting, pressed forcibly, and made to yield an oily fluid. The fluid is used in making stearine, soap, and other saleable chemicals, while the refuse oil-cake is sold as manure. The patentees supply all the additional apparatus, besides buying the greasy wash at a stated price, Creash, or wool-waste so saturated with oil as to contain more oil than wool, is eagerly bought up by farmers as a powerful manure.