Principles of worsted spinning

Front matter

FHIL/IDELFHI/I

Clas8^'~7'7 Book 7^ Accession

BY THE SAME AUTHOR Crown 8vo. 6s.

Preface

The object of this book is not to give a mass of data of a type that might be used in circumstances fixed by arbitrary rules, but to attempt to formulate the principles that underlie the many complicated processes involved in Worsted Spinning.

Data and full particulars of up-to-date machines are given for each process, but they are there to show how far the writer's theories may be made to fit with facts, as they exist. The figures as they stand are those suggested by Prince Smith & Sons. They may be taken as an illustration of the fact that in this book there has been no attempt to make existing practice fit with theory, unless it can be done consistently. No one must ever look upon the figures or the theories as things of any value in themselves, but only as a means by which all kinds of men with different equipment, different means, may reach a common end.

The value of all theories will be most to those who check each one by observation, on their own machines ; for it is pointed out that those who prove that any well -accepted theory is quite incorrect will do themselves the greatest service, because they then will be in full position to avoid the errors of their neighbours.

If English worsted spinners wish to regain the lead that once was theirs, in every section of their industry, they must vi

PREFACE prepare to show more elasticity in their grasp of widely differing problems; and be prepared to treat each problem on its individual merits.

It is to simplify the work of those who take this view, that this book has been written ; for, like its predecessor, it is a first attempt to shape new lines of thought, along which those who wish to do so may reason for themselves.

The dearth of earlier theoretic work, regarding such obscure and difficult subjects as drafts and doublings in the drawing process, has left the author no alternative, but to put down his own conclusions on this head, based on the observations of one man — himself. It may be that they are not all correct. It is his hope that other thinking workers will now take up the quest, and put the trade in full possession of the actual facts. In less obscure departments of the trade, the case for and against the various theories is stated with as little partiality as possible ; and then as far as possible deductions made.

The greatest drawback to this system is quite obvious. In practice every well-known principle is overlapped by others, until the most important are hard to separate from those of lesser value ; and therefore when a group is analyzed until each separate theory stands alone (as in this book), the values of the various theories may be seen in strong perspective or out of true proportion.

From force of circumstance, it must be always true that such a work as this is never quite complete ; and from the fact that this is one man's single-handed work, it stands to reason that it must be marked by visible omissions. Of this, no one is ever likely to be more aware, than is the author. There is one answer only to the charge. The man who does not dare to write, until he feels his knowledge of his trade is quite

PREFACE vn complete, will go on gathering information all his life, and end by never writing anything at all.

Quite a long list of semi-scientific problems have cropped up during the preparation of this book, that are not even mentioned, because they still await solution at the hands of scientific men.

Of these, the principal is that relating to the production and effects of static electricity; but in addition there are some involved problems that concern the trade, and they, as mentioned under their respective heads, await solution at the hands of practical men.

All illustrations must be looked upon not as scale drawings, but as diagrams. In many cases they are drawn to scale ; but all are made to illustrate some point, or points ; and structural detail has been therefore made subordinate to perspicuity.

The number of the wheels in every train is accurate in every case, showing the principle of every calculation; but in some cases where the number of teeth in various wheels made calculations complex, they have been simplified in cases where such alteration could be made without affecting any principle. And that the book may be of use to those who do not understand our ounces, inches, feet, drams, yards, and pounds, most calculations have been made in both the metric and our own systems.

Por much important information of various kinds, as well as for all his particulars of drawing boxes and of spinning frames, the writer is indebted to Messrs. Prince Smith & Sons, who, with their usual courtesy, at no small trouble to themselves, have made out full particulars of all machines in the concise and very compact form in which they are presented under their respective heads.

viii PREFACE

These must in no case be confused with any of the calculations made from them. For those the writer is alone responsible.

To Messrs. Hall & Stells he also owes his thanks for information, as well as for the loan of various spindles and accessories from which six illustrations have been made, and for an illustration of their trap motion.

The firm of Messrs. Arundel & Co., of Stockport, were kind enough to send the necessary details of their patent winding frame; and Messrs. Lightowler and Keighley did the same regarding their extremely useful warping mill. The rollers illustrated in the Appendixes were kindly lent for the purpose by Messrs. Irvine Stott's Exors.

The following chapters contain only the barest reference to processes with which the writer is not personally acquainted. The firms here named are those with whom he was acquainted in his business days, and their machinery is therefore selected to illustrate the various processes, not because it is the only kind which does one type of work, but rather because its value and its various possibilities are well known to the author.

HOWARD PEIESTMAN.

Contents

CHAPTKK PAGE

I. History 1

II. Material and Qualities 24

Chapter I

The history of spinning has been written so often and so thoroughly that there is little place for the purely historical part of it here ; but it is probably worth while to point out the great antiquity of hand-spinning in all parts of the civilized and uncivilized world, and to show the relation of the different methods to one another, and their common relation to modern machinery.

One thing above all others must strike every investigator in this branch of knowledge ; we go to the East to discover the earliest records, if not the earliest traces of the arts of spinning and weaving, and we find that when our ancestors in these islands were content to cover themselves partially with skins, and to dye their bodies with woad, the arts of spinning and weaving were so perfect in Egypt that textures were worn which can hardly be rivalled by the finest productions of modern looms. We know, for a fact, that the robes of the ancient Babylonians were the wonder of all who saw them, and recent investigators are inclined to think that the arts of spinning and weaving in Egypt were derived from the

B earlier civilizations still further to the East. There is little doubt that in China and India these arts flourished to a similar extent, at least contemporary with those of Egypt, and if we go to India to-day we can see spinning and weaving under the same primitive conditions that existed in bygone centuries.

It is probable that we in Britain are indebted to the Romans for the introduction of cloth manufacture into our country, as we are indebted to them for many other arts, and here for many centuries, spinning and weaving dragged on an existence, in a condition little more advanced than in the countries of its origin., Perhaps nothing can show better the progress of this country, and the progress of the race, than the brains, which, within little more than a century, have evolved our modern industrial methods; for we are apt to forget that our great factories and all that they contain are developed from the germs that have lain dormant for more than two thousand years in the wooden spindle as it still is used in India.

As already stated, it is probable that the Chaldeans were the first people of whom we have any record, to use the arts of spinning and weaving. Records have been found which show that their cloths were of no mean quality, and it is probable that they were able to spin their wool and flax to fine counts, by the simple means at their disposal. In all probability they had nothing but the simple spindle, which was used in Egypt at a much later date, and probably, like the Egyptians, they weighted the head with a knob or whorle of gypsum, or other composition, to make it rotate longer. It is probable that the patriarchs of Bible history, coming as they did from Chaldea, were acquainted with the arts of spinning and weaving. They probably dressed in fabrics of linen or wool, presumably the latter, because we know that the tending of flocks was their chief source of riches. It is not until after the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, that any record occurs in the Bible to show that they made cloth for their own use. They probably learnt the art from the Egyptians, for we have it on record in Exodus XXXV. 25, that " the women who were wise hearted did spin with their hands."

In the same way that the Israelites were ordered to discontinue most of the practices which they had learned in Egypt, we find in Leviticus xix. that they were forbidden to wear fabrics of woollen and linen mingled, and this proves conclusively that such fabrics were in general use at that period. It seems pretty clear that the manufacture of flax and wool flourished side by side in Egypt, and that similar apparatus were in use in both trades. If we may judge from the contempt in which the Egyptians held the pastoral Israelites, it is probable that they did not rear sheep for themselves, even for the sake of the wool they produced, and we may fairly conclude that the Egyptians first used, for spinning, the flax which grew naturally on the banks of the Nile— particularly as garments of fine linen would be very suitable for such a hot climate.

In his book on " Dress," Strutt tells us that linen and woollen garments were in use amongst the Egyptians at a very early age, so we may conclude that they early found that the long wool, which seems to be the natural product of uncultivated sheep, was suitable for spinning and weaving on their rudimentary appliances. It is probable that some method of straightening the wool would be necessary before it could be spun, but they would naturally be acquainted with some kind of comb for personal use, and we may therefore fairly conclude that yarn of the nature of worsted was made long before any which resembled woollen yarn. There are four reasons for this : —

1. The wool was long ;

2. And therefore easier to comb than to card.

3. The idea and practice of combing are simpler than

those of carding.

4. The finishing of worsted cloth is simpler than the pro-

cesses involved in felting and milling woollens.

The Greeks and Romans seldom wore cotton or linen cloths, and only adopted silk very sparingly for the most costly robes. Robertson tells us that both nations dressed almost entirely in wool, and that they used two very different types of fabric. One of them, called densa, strongly resembled our woollen cloths, being felted and having a nap on the face ; whilst the other, called trita, was threadbare, and similar to our worsteds. A yarn made from shorter material and carded, must have been then in vogue for the heavier yarns and thicker cloths, whilst the older type, with longer, straighter fibre, was still being used for the finer textures and smoother surfaces. We may therefore consider that before the beginning of our era the spinning of combed wools existed as a branch of trade, distinct from the spinning and weaving of woollens.

No one can read through the history of industrial arts, either ancient or modern, without being struck by the way in which, again and again, processes have been invented simultaneously in different towns, countries, or even continents, and no more striking illustration of this fact can be cited than that revealed on the discovery of the New World. In his history of Mexico, Clavigero shows that when the country was conquered by Pizarro in 1529, spinning and weaving had reached such a state of perfection that cloths of exceeding fineness were made in the country ; in fact, so excellent were they that he concluded that the art of their manufacture must have flourished from remote antiquity. We have no reason to suppose that any intercourse had ever taken place between Europe and America prior to that date, with the single exception of the Northmen who crossed to Labrador by Greenland and Iceland in the tenth century. They gave in the Sagas far too clear a description of their visit, for us to suppose that they left any trace of their rude civilization when they quitted the country for good, a few years later. No one has ever been able to trace any connection between the Aztec races and their nearest Asiatic neighbours on the other side of the Pacific, and so we can only conclude that the spinning and weaving, in which they had become so proficient, were their own invention, with an entirely different origin to that which was practised in the Old World.

There is yet another instance of a very similar kind, showing that savage as well as civilized races have developed, if they have not originated, textile arts. In this case the proofs of originality are not quite conclusive, because we know that in very ancient times the Egyptians traded largely with the Carthaginians and Ethiopians ; but, nevertheless, it was a great surprise to explorers and to scientists to find, when they first had access to the great Haussa city of northern Nigeria, Kano, which lies south of the Sahara, that modern native fabrics of excellent texture and original woven colour design, were in daily use amongst the people there.

Fragile and beautiful as are the Decca muslins of the

Hindoo hand-loom, there is no reason to suppose that the yarns for them were ever produced with any other apparatus than the wooden spindle, suspended from, and turned by, the fingers, just as it was four thousand years ago ; and the only advance which has been made in India throughout that long course of ages, is the turning of the spindle by means of a rough and cumbrous wheel. No method of winding the thread automatically on to the spindle has ever been devised in the East. The continued use of such primitive tools draws our attention closely to the wonderful dexterity of the worker,

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.

and we can only attribute the marvellous delicacy of his manipulation to generations of habit and of practice.

The very earliest records left to us of the nature of the spinning processes used by the ancients, come from drawings on the Egyptian monuments, in which we see that they used a simple spindle of wood or even of plaited rushes, with a head of gypsum to give it more momentum when spinning. It is a convincing testimony to the unchanging character of Eastern customs, that the very type of spindle, which has been found buried in the tombs of Thebes, is in use in Egypt to day. The spindle is about 15 in. long, and from Fig. 1 it will be seen that no distaff was used by the spinner, the whole process being very elementary, although at that early date, there are figures shown, twisting two threads together to form a single folded yarn.

From that remote time to the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was no material improvement in the methods

Fig. 3.

employed for spinning. Fig. 2 is a Grecian representation of a woman using a spindle and distaff, and though the beauty of drawing shows a wonderful improvement in the condition of art, very little advance had been made in the methods of spinning. In the rude pictures of Saxon times we find the first real step in advance. That step is the use of a fixed distalT, and those who know how to spin by hand will at once realize how much more practical is the arrangement of the yarn and spindle in Fig. 3 than in Figs. 1 and 2.

After a most exhaustive search through all known sources of information, Mr. James was obliged to give it as his verdict, that the date and origin of the first one-thread wheel remained in obscurity, but he concluded that it has common origin with the rude teak wheel of Hindustan.

We know that in the seventeenth century, spinning on the Saxon wheel, Fig. 5, was a favourite occupation of the ladies of the time, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century three methods were in common use in this country.

1. The Rock, as the spindle and distaff were called.

2. The common one-thread wheel.

3. The Saxon, or treadle wheel.

(1) James thinks that the Rock was probably still in use in remote districts in England when he wrote in 1857, and it was principally used for worsteds. He says, " These Rock spinners drew out the thread from the end of a sliver of combed wool, and communicated the necessary motion to a rough kind of spindle, by twisting it between the right hand and the thigh, allowing the spindle to revolve when suspended by the thread, which the spinster gradually lengthened with her fingers. No just conception can be found of the delicate quality of the yarn produced by this primitive process."

It is well worthy of passing notice that although the Hindoos used a one-thread wheel for coarse descriptions of cotton yarn, yet for the finer sorts, the spindle, sometimes with and sometimes without the distafi", is employed, and thus full play is given to the delicacy of touch of the Hindoo women.

(2) The common one-thread wheel was used up to the end of the eighteenth century for spinning wool (Fig. 4). This apparatus was neither more nor less than the loose spindle above mentioned, mounted in a frame, and driven or turned by a belt passing over a large wheel or rim. Thus the spinner's hands were left freer than by the former method, to draw out the thread. The main advantage of the one-thread wheel evidently arose from its capability of producing a larger quantity of yarn. Spinning by this rude implement,

Fig. 4.

still to be seen in many farmhouses in the north of England, is thus described : " The operator, usually a female, laid hold of the wool with the finger and thumb of the left hand at a few inches distant from the spindle and drew it towards her, whilst she turned the wheel with her right hand. She then twisted repeated portions, and as they were twisted, she, guiding the thread with her hand, wound it upon the spindle." This description is too obscure to convey any definite idea of the distaff in regard to the spindle, but it is clear that the lo PRINCIPLES OF WORSTED SPINNING twisted yarn must be run on to the spindle, and therefore the first reference to the spinner taking hold of the wool a few inches from the spindle is difficult to understand properly.

(3) The Saxon, or " small " wheel is spoken of as being in use during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it contained two very important improvements upon the one thread wheel.

Fig. 5.

{a) The wheel received its motion from a treadle, so that both the operator's hands were free to draw the thread.

(6) The spindle was much more complicated. It carried a bobbin or spool, on to which the thread was wound by a flyer revolving with greater or less rapidity than the bobbin. The difference in the number of

II revolutions between the flyer and the bobbin regulated the amount of thread wound on to the bobbin, and consequently regulated the turns of twist per inch in the yarn (see Fig. 5).

Curiously enough, these wheels seem to have been reserved almost entirely for spinning flax ; but their interest to us is very great, because the arrangement of spindle, flyer, and bobbin were afterwards embodied in Arkwright's inventions. The only thing necessary to make a Saxon wheel into an automatic spinning frame, was some arrangement for drawing out the thread from the combed sliver.

It is worthy of the most careful consideration that the first patent to attain this end was taken out as early as the year 1687 by R. Dereham and R. Haines, ninety years before Arkwright entered his first claim. The wording in the patent index is very curious. The patentees claimed to have made " a spinning machine, whereby from six to one hundred spinners and upwards may be employed by the strength of one or two persons, to spin linen, or twisted thread, with such ease that a child of three or four years may do as much work as a child of seven or eight years, and others as much in two days as without this invention they can do in three days." Unfortunately, though Mr. Woodcroft made a very careful search at the patent oftice before 1853, he failed to find any vestige of specification beyond what is given above, and though it is supposed to have been a roller frame, there is no proof whatever to that effect.

The next patent was not taken out for sixty years, and although it was in the name of Mr. Paul of Birmingham, the invention was undoubtedly that of John Wyatt of Lichfield.

Writing in January, 1818, his son tells us that in 1730, or thereabouts, John Wyatt conceived the project of spinning by rollers, and in 1733 prepared a model about 2 ft. square, on which he spun thread in a room at Sutton Coldfield. Unfortunately, his means were inadequate to continue experiments, and he was imposed upon by Louis Paul, a foreigner, who contrived to obtain a patent for the invention in his own name. The specification shows that the inventor, Wyatt, had grasped the two great principles of spinning.

First, that of draft between two or more pairs of fixed rollers or cylinders, as he called them, such as are used in all worsted drawing and spinning machinery to-day.

Second, that of spindle draft, such as is adopted more or less in all mule spinning, and which is the root principle of the woollen mule. This he describes in a quaintly worded paragraph, and as spindle draft has a great bearing on some well-known defects in worsted spinning, it is worth while to draw attention to the first mention of it a hundred and sixty years ago. He says, " In some other cases, only the first pairs of rowlers, cilinders, or cones, are used, and then the bobbyn spole or quill upon which the thread, yarn, or worsted is spun, is so contrived as to draw faster than the first rowlers, cilinders, or cones give, and in such proportion as the first mass, rope or sliver is proposed to be diminished." There can be no doubt that this machine contained all the essential features of a modern fly-spinning frame, and Wyatt is therefore entitled to full credit for the invention of roller draft, unless some detail of Dereham and Haines patent can be unearthed.

Unfortunately, like almost all the great inventors, Wyatt received no reward for his unique ideas. He and Paul started a small spinning factory in Birmingham, where a machine was attended by ten girls, but it proved a financial failure; he was defrauded by Paul, became a prisoner for debt, and died in comparative poverty.

A larger factory, moved by water power, was opened by a Mr. Cave, in Northampton, and ran until the year 1764. It is deserving of notice, not because it proved profitable, but because the principle of a positive drag was used on the frames.

In the description of the Saxon wheel, the separate drive of the bobbin and flyer are carefully noted in relation to twist, and in this first factory of any size it is interesting to read, " The establishment consisted of several frames of two hundred and fifty spindles and bobbins. The bobbins revolved upon the spindle, each being moved by a separate wheel and pinion." This is, of course, the principle upon which all cone drawing is made, and we shall have reason to refer to its inception in a later chapter.

In 1767, a man named Thomas Highs, a reed-maker of Leigh, made rollers for the purpose of spinning cotton, and in the great trial as to the validity of Arkwright's patents in 1785, Highs proved that he had used a machine with rollers ; the front pair revolving five times the speed of the back pair. He also stated that he used it both to rove and to spin. This is, so far as we are aware, the first mention of any process coming between combing and spinning, and as worsted is distinguished by the numerous reductions through which it goes, in preparation for spinning proper, we may safely record this as another distinct step in the advance of the worsted trade. Thus, by 1767, we find that almost every principle involved in modern spinning machinery had been evolved, and if we can judge from James's history of the worsted manufacture, there is little reason to doubt that Ark Wright obtained knowledge of Highs's inventions from a man named Kay, a clockmaker, who had helped him to prepare his model, and that Kay afterwards prepared machines for Arkwright ; in fact, Arkwright never denied that he had made unfair use of the information derived from Kay. At that time, 1768, Arkwright was very poor indeed, but a spirit merchant, named Smalley, found means for him to set up his first machines in a house next to the Grammar School at Preston, and after perfecting them there, Arkwright took out his first patent in 1769. His two chief contributions to the improvement of the frame were the use of fluted bottom rollers with leather covered pressing rollers, and instead of only using two pair of rollers, he made his machine with four pair ; the two centre ones taking the place of what are now called carriers, or tumblers. In his second patent, 1775, he also introduced a single spindle stop motion, and the means to give a traverse to the bobbins. James says of this patent, " With the completion of Arkwright's spinning machine, a new epoch in the manufacturing history of this country commences. It occasioned a complete change in the old mode of manufacture, and rendered business transactions of a magnitude never before contemplated."

Many improvements were quickly added by other people. The present arrangement of driving, which is adopted in all worsted spinning frames, from a horizontal cylinder at right angles to the spindles, being early introduced. The name "throstle" was also given on account of the singing sound that these frames made when running, caused by the rotation of the numerous bands, wharles, and washers on the spindles.

James Hargreaves, who was a contemporary of Arkwright's, was the Lancashire weaver who invented the spinning-jenny. He is said to have derived his idea from seeing the wheel and spindle of a one-thread wheel continue to revolve after it had been accidentally upset, and the idea of putting a number of spindles side by side, suddenly struck him. He did not use rollers, but employed spindle draft to draw out the thread to the required fineness. It is true that his machine was a very simple arrangement, but his was clearly an invention in the true meaning of the term, and as his principle forms the basis of all woollen spinning, it is worth while to quote Mr. James again, in order that the reader may form a clear idea of the difference between the two processes. " He put eight rovings in a row opposite to eight spindles, the rovings being joined to the spindles, passed between two horizontal bars of wood forming a clasp which opened and shut somewhat like a parallel ruler: when pressed together this clasp held the thread fast. A certain portion of the roving being extended from the spindles to the wooden clasp, the clasp was closed and drawn along the horizontal frame to a considerable distance from the spindles, by which the threads were lengthened out and reduced to the proper tenuity. This was done by the spinner's left hand, his right hand at the same time turned the wheel w^hich caused the spindles to revolve rapidly, and thus the roving was spun into yarn. By returning the clasp to its first situation, and letting down a pressure-wire, the yarn was wound upon the spindle."