If burling is preferred, this should be carefully performed, all defects or holes being well drawn up by the fine drawer or mender, after which the lists should be wet and pressed with a het iron to impart a smart finish.
Brushing and steaming on the eteam-brushing mill now succeeds as a preparation for the second hot pressing.
This is a repetition of the previous pressing process, the cloth being again placed between heated prese-plates, and subjected to pressure for 5-10 hours, after which it should be refolded and pressed ag,ain for a eimilar length of time.
If, at any of the preceding stages, eatisfactory results are not obtained, the process ehould be repeated.
After having been well pressed, the finishing touch is new given by the cloth being polished with a moderate pressure of steam on the steaming apparatus or mill, which leaves the article in a, merchantable state, only requiring making up for delivery.
Cloth manufactured by the foregoing processes properly performed, and finished as directed, will be lustrous to the sight, soft and pleasant to the touch, and of a durable quality. The nap will be short and perfectly laid, so that dust will not penetrate it but lie on the surface, and admit of easy removal by brushing ; it will not readily absorb water, neithe,r will it shrink when wet, nor show rain-spets from a shower. When being made into garments, it will neither ehrink with wet nor under a hot iron, and will long present a new appearance. When it begins to fade, the freshness can easily be motored by sponging and brushing.
Cloth is sold by the running yard, width is stated in inches, the substance is ascertained by the weight, and the quality by a gentle pressure of the hand of a competent judge when being drawn over the surface.
Worsted.—The second great textile industry founded upon wool as its raw material is the worsted manufacture. As observed previously, the wools of commerce are divided into two great classes : clothing wools and combing wools, otberwise short wools and long wools. The former at one time were almost exclusively used in the woollen trade, and the latter in the worsted trade. Owing, however, to the improvement in machieery that has been accomplished during the past 20-30 years, this distinction has to a great extent been obliteanted. The invention and
developrnent of the combing-machine has enabled manutscturers to comb any free, firin-stapled, clothing wool, having a staple of 1 in. and upwards. Fine Botany yarns are now commonly spun and used in the worsted trade. On the other hand, combing wools are quite se frequently used in the woollen trade.
The essential distinction between woollen and worsted yarns (Fig. 1466) will be found in the arrangement of the fibres peculiar to each class of yarn. In the woollen yarns, a, the fibres are purposely entangled and crossed, and all drawing is avoided, in the preparation, in order to leave undisturbed the natural curvature of the fibre, and this arrangement is endeavoured to be preserved through all pro cesses to the spinning, for the purpose of affording the greatest latitude to the action of the felting quality of the wool. In worsted yarns, b, the ob ject of the preparation is to obliterate as far es possible this felting disposition, and secure the parallel arrangement and elongation of the fibres. Hence the differences in the processes, which Fig. 1467, illustrating the method of spinning worsted, renders clear, when compared with the spinning of woollen yarn on the mule.
Wool intended for manufacturing into worsted is soiled as described previously, though not usually into as many sorts. The short wool tech nically called " brakes " or " shorts" is carefully taken nut. The material is then ready for scouring, by which it is freed from the yolk and grease. It is next partially but not thoroughly dried, as when being prepared for woollen yarn, often net being placed on the drying-stove at all, but simply put through the pair of squeezers or pressing-rollers as it passes out of the scouring-bath, whence it is conveyed to a carding-machine much like the scribbler or first carding-engine in the wool set. Here it is opened, cleansed, and carded, by which it is to a certain extent relieved from its grosser impurities as well. From this machine, it is doffed in the ferni of a rope sliver, and wound into a bell, for the supply of the combing-machine.