COTTON MANUFACTURE.
The process is as follows : The winder successively fills her skewers with cops of yarn, places them in the skewer-rail a, draws the threads between the guide-wires in the knee-board, and, taking a bobbin in hand, attaches the thread thereto by tying it to the yarn already upon it, or upon the empty barrel ; then places the bobbin upon the revolving spindle, when the thread is drawn into and through the cleansing-brushes, and the lump-detector behind the brush, which stops anything the brushes have been unable to arrest, by breaking the thread. From here it passes upon the bobbin. The yarn is placed in layers upon the bobbin, by means of the traverse rail. The filled bobbins are placed in receptacles, whence they are carried to the warpers.
When the winding is done from yarn in the hank, which is generally the case in using bleached, dyed, or printed yarns, the skewer rail of the above machine is replaced by reels.
Warping.—In simplicity, this process almost equals the preceding one. But carelessness here has worse results than in the winding process. Threads dropped in warping are missed in the weaver's beam, and are often difficult to replace. When replacement is impossible, the cloth is siderably damaged. A few years ago, good warping depended entirely upon the carefulness and quickness of eye of the attendant, and, owing to the frequent lack of these qualities, much inferior work was the result. In order to obviate this, endeavours were made to supply the warping-frame with an automatic) stopping apparatus, to operate whenever a thread broke. The first machine in which this was effectually accomplished was the invention of Singleton, of Darwen; it has become known as the self-stopping warping-frame. Figs. 556 and 557 show elevation and plan of this machine, which is made by Howard and Bullough, of Accrington.
The following brief description will enable its operation to be easily understood. It contains the following parts : a, treadle ; b, friction, or driving-pulley ; c, friction-plate ; d, drum-shaft ; e, drum ; f, drop-rollers; h, ledge on slide-bar ; i, slide-bar ; j, bracket ; h, weight ; 1, treadle-lever ; nip rollers ; z, drop-wires. The creel having been filled with bobbins, the threads are drawn through the reed, passed over the large roller, under the rollers f, over the intermediate one, and are next carried over the two succeeding rollers, whence they descend to the beam, which, however, to admit of the more easy explanation of the working parts of the machine, has been omitted from the illus tration. Over the point of contact of the two last rollers, the drop-wires z are hung upon the
threads. These wires are in shape like the following figure n.
The arrangements for work being complete, the treadle a is pressed down, which brings the friction-pulley b into contact with the friction-plate c, which sets the drum e slowly in motion, and brings the drop-rollers! into their working position. Further pressure upon the treadle, raises the ledge h upon the slide-bar, until it reaches the point where it is pressed upon the bracket by a spring. By these means the friction-pulley and plate are brought into such close contact as to drive the machine at its required speed. As long as the threads are unbroken, it continues in opera tion. Immediately a fracture occurs, the drop-wire z falls between the nip-rollers m, causing the front one to be pressed outwards, carrying with it the lower arm of the lever n, which Pushes the slide-bar i out of its position in the bracket ; this, falling, separates the driving-pulley and friction plate, and thus stops the machine. The response to the drop of a wire is extremely quick. The drop-wires are suspended in position on the threads, over the nip-rollers, and are arranged in three slots, extending across the machine. Sinking into these grooves to almost the extent of their depth, the wires bring the threads into contact with the top of the frame, causing them to act as " self flukers," or automatic scavengers, which prevents stoppages, or defective work, from an accumula tion of loose fibres. The nip-rollers being placed at about 3-5 in. below the drop-wires, the machine is not stopped by a bobbin temporarily overrunning the beam, and causing slackness of the thread. The length of yarn run upon the beam is accurately measured, and shown upon an index plate. This is necessary to avoid waste, which would arise from working together beams of different lengths.