MACHINES.
To increase the beauty of their appearance all woven fabrics are sub jected to certain operations collectively known as " finishing." Cotton goods, however, require very little finishing to be made ready for the mar ket. Damasks, ginghams, shirtings, etc., after leaving the loom, are only starched, calendered, measured, and rolled. With many woollen fabrics finishing is the main process in their manufacture. Kerseys, beavers, broadcloths, doeskins, tricots, and similar fabrics (technically known as " face-finished " goods), are subjected to many different processes, such as washing-, fulling, gigging, drying, dyeing, brushing, steaming, measuring, and folding, before they are ready for market.
Process: serves for pecu liar manipulation of cloth (woollens) by means of which the run of the threads is concealed and the thickness considerably increased, though at the expense of length and width, thus imparting to the fabric in a high degree the property of retaining warmth. The manipulation consists in a thorough kneading in soap-water, and is based on the property of sheep's-wool, when softened and warmed, to contract spirally and then to "felt" by the effect of the kneading manipulation. The German machine shown in Figure 5 (pi. 4S) consists of a trough with smooth sides lined with wood, the bottom being semicircular. In this trough a block—the so-called "beater" or fulling-stock—oscillates to and fro like a pendulum, receiving its motion from the horizontal driving-shaft by means slide-rods. The fabrics to be fulled, being thoroughly moistened and irregularly folded together, are placed in the trough on both sides of the beater, and receive the above-indicated manipulation by receding before the beater and after mounting on the inner side of the trough falling again in front of the beater, thus executing- a slow circu lation. Only fabrics of sheep's wool can be fulled, hut similar machines may be used for washing linen and cotton goods. Figure 2 (pi. illus trates a cloth-washing machine, and Figure i a fulling-mill. Both are of the latest American make.
is "gigged " for the purpose of raising the nap evenly over the fabric, or, in other words, to produce a velvet-like face and back.
The nap is raised either by means of the teasel (pi. 4s, I, the dried flower-head of a plant, Dipsacus fidlonum, specially cultivated for this purpose), or by means of fine steel wires. The teasels are set side by side in rows one, two, or three high, according to their size, in wooden or iron frames, technically known as "slats," which, after being filled with the teasels, are fastened to the periphery of the main cylinder of the gig. The position of the slats can be reversed so that two portions of the teasels may be utilized. Figure 3 (b1. 49) illustrates an " up-and-down " gig, by which the direction of the running of the cloth can be changed, and NVII1C11 is so arranged that there can be one or two applications of the cloth to the cylinder. In operating the machine the cloth winds on small rolls, which lie against the cloth-beams, and can therefore be handled on the rolls. The operator can reverse the nap by allowing the cloth to run entirely on the lower roll, and then by taking it from the lower cloth-beam and putting it against the upper cloth-beam.
77ii !lire (p1. 5o, fig. 2) consists of a skeleton cylin der on whose circumference revolve fourteen card-rolls in their respective bearings, while suitable frames and guide-rolls are provided to carry for ward the cloth. As the cylinder revolves in the direction in which the cloth travels, each one of the card-rolls comes in contact with the cloth at five different points. If, however, these rollers were not subjected to some action other than the mere revolution of the cylinder, there would be no napping, for as the cloth presses upon the cards and the cylinder carries them forward the friction of the cloth causes the rolls to revolve on their own axes in a direction opposite to the motion of the cylinder; con sequently, as the points of the cards are bent in the direction in which the cylinder revolves, they have no action upon the cloth. But by an arrange ment of cones, pulleys, and belts this reverse action is controlled at the will of the operator, and may be varied almost indefinitely.