PRICE, -JfLSC (OVERSEERS BUREAU) FRANKLIN INSTITUTE LIBRARY PHILADELPHIA, PA. EXPLANATION This volume contains articles written in competition for one of the American Wool and Cotton Reporter's contests, and is a col- lection of practical suggestions which were sent to us by men engaged in all branches of the textile industry. There were four prizes offered as follows:— First prize, $ioo; second prize, $50; third prize, $30; and fourth prize, $20. The prize winners were selected by five judges, all of whom are at the head of well-known textile schools. Each essay was given a number and the collection submitted to each one of the judges. These five men then met in Boston and made the final choice of the four best articles, still dealing with these entirely by number. One of the principal reasons for offering prizes for articles on defects and suggestions was to obtain a volume which mill owners, superin- tendents and overseers could all use in bringing about greater efficiency in our textile industry. Many of the essays were written by mill over- seers w^ho seldom put their everyday problems in a form for publication, and the points brought out by many of these men are exceedingly valuable. AWARD OF PRIZES First prize, $100, awarded to No. 62, ''Warp Waste in a Cotton Mill," by Edward M. Henley, assistant superintendent, Erwin Mills, West Durham, N. C. Second prize, $50, to No. 104, "Better System of Dressing," by C. H. Chisholm, Manager, Department of Skilled I^abor and member of editorial staff of American Wooi. and Cotton Reporter. Third prize, $30, to No. 15 and No. 23 combined. No. 15 was entitled ''Saving the Dye Room Steam." No. 23 was ''Concerning Scouring Baths." Both of these articles were written by Harry Twigg, of Toronto, Canada. Fourth prize, $20, to No. 73, "Spinning Room Supervision," by W. C. Hall, 309 Rutger street, Utica, N. Y., overseer of picker, card- ing and speeder rooms. Harden Manufacturing Company. t Copyrighted, 1912, by FRANK P. BENNETT & CO., Inc. TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS cA Collection of Essays Describing Various Improvements Relating to the Manufacture of all Kinds of Textile Fabrics From the oAmerican Wool and Cotton Reporter PUBLISHED BY FRANK P. BENNETT & CO., Inc. NEW YORK BOSTON PHILADELPHIA WASHINGTON, D. C HONORABLE MENTION At the Judges' Meeting in Boston, special comment was made upon the unusual value of a large number of the essays, and in addition to awarding the four prizes, the judges wished to make honorable mention of the following: No. 77, "Remedying Finishing Room Defects," by O. P. Ireland, 734 Broadway, West Somerville, Mass., woolen finisher. No. 98, "Defects in Styling," by Don V. Messer, of Huntington, Mass. No. 16, "Old Cotton Machinery," by Joseph A. Fredette, Box 433, Arctic, R. I., spinner, Arctic Mills. No. 51, "Some Finishing Facts," by , , J. E. Dowd, Hilis^)0.'0, N. B., clcth,. ' finis'her. ^ , . No. 29, "General Suggestions," by S. P. Servai3. Jill Eiis-; W^ishingtoh street, Los Angeles, Cal. " No. 76, "A Needed Improvement," by O. F. Ireland, 734 Broadway, Wes'L Somerville, Mass. No. 22, "Stick-to-itiveness," by W. R. Smith, 510 South Boyban avenue, Raleigh, N. C, Caraleigh Mills. No. 58, "Defects* in Ring Spinning," by William Shaw, Jamestown Cotton Mills, Jamestown, N. Y. 1^6, 7?, ;:"Oefects in Modern Meth- odK"j by William Shaw, Jamestown Cotton Mills, Jam.estown, New York. Nc. 1 ' Tmpiovement in Mills," by Jkmes E. Leach, Lafayette, R. I. ANNOUNCEMENT We are pleased to announce that the judges who have been examining the articles submitted for our "Defects and Suggestions" contest have made their selection of the prize winners. The judges have made decisions without knowing the narhe of a single con- tributor, for all of the essays were re- ferred to entirely by number. There were four prizes offered for the best four articles on ''Defects and Suggestions," dealing with any feature of carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing, finishing or any other department in cotton, woolen, worsted or hosiery mills. The judges are all well-known textile men and they have given much careful study to each of ^the essays. The judges making the se- lection were: Fenwick Umple- by, Principal of the Brad- ford Durfee Textile School, Fall River; Charles H. Fames, Principal Lowell Textile School, Lowell, Mass.; H. W. Nichols, Superintendent New Bedford Textile School, New Bedford, Mass.: Thomas Nelson, Director of the Textile Department, North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Raleigh, N. C, and Wm. H. Dooley, Principal Lowell Industrial School, Lowell, Mass. SELECTED BY NUMBER. Copies of all the essays submittea were numbered consecutively and sent to each one of the above judges. The essays were compared by each judge independently without knowing any oi the authors' names. The judges then met in Boston and made their final decisions, still dealing with numbers entirely. At the judges' meeting in Boston all of these men made special com- ment upon, the unusual value of a large number of the essays, and in addition to awarding the four prizes, wished to make honorable mention of several others. In deciding upon the prize winners each of the judges considered first whether the suggestions offered were really new, that is, whether or not they opened up ways of obtaining more economical results in the particular branch of the industry described. There were many articles which sev- x^ral of these gentlemen commented upon most favorably, but on account of their subject matter being along lines already familiar, the original sug- gestions which were practical were given the preference. The essays were pronounced by ev- ery judge as unusually interesting and instructive and the many valuable ideas brought out by the contributors are worthy of study. The prizes have been awarded strict- ^ly on the merits of the essays regardless of whether the author con- sidered spinning, weaving, dyeing or other branches of the industry. The prize winning essays, however, cover both cotton and woolen manufacture and include dye house suggestions. 18843 FE^4WICK UMPLEBY. THE JUDGES FENWICK UMPLEBY [Principal, Bradford Durfee Textile School.] Mr. Fenwick Umpleby was born in 1852 in Huddersfield, England, and ivas apprenticed to Etchells & Apper- ly, machinists and manufacturers, South-Brent, Devonshire and Horbury Bridge, Yorkshire, 1865-1872. He v/as manager and traveler from 1872-1874, and superintondent for the same firm from 1874-1S77, and graduated from the Huddersfield Mechanic Institute in 1875. He was buyer of wool and raw materials, assistant manager and blend mixer for John Gledhill & Com- pany, Huddersfield, 1877-1879; super- intendent and designer for Hewitt, Haigh & Wilson, Antwerp Mills, Leeds, FJngland, from 1879-1881; de- signer for Robert Brearley & Sons, Queen Street Mills, Batley, England, 1881- 1885; winner of four annual prizes for designs and fabrics 1880-1881- 1882- 1883. He was gold and silver international medalist in 1884, and graduated from Yorkshire College in 1885.. and in this same year, received diploma from City and Guilds of Lon- don. By special arrangement he came to the United States to open up and systematize a new department of fancy dress goods and worsted cas- simeres, James Lees & Sons, Bridge- port, Pa., 1885-1887. He was de- signer at the Globe Mills, Utica, N. Y., 1887-1889, and at the Auburn Mills. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, 1889- 1891. He was head designer for the George H. Gilbert Manufacturing Company, Gilbertville, Mass., 1891- 1896, and first instructor and assist- ant director in the Lowell Textile School in 1897; 1897-1910 chief of textile design, cloth analysis and fabric construction, Lowell Textile School. He received a diploma from the International Correspondence School, Design and Ornamentation in 1904. He studied at Musee Beaux- Arts, Cluny and Ecole des Etrangers, Cours de Vacancies, et TAlliance Francaise, Paris, summers of 1900. 1902, 1904 and 1906; principal of the Bradford Durfee Textile School, Fall River, Mass., from 1910 to date. He is a Mason, Odd Fellow, Knight of the Golden Eagle, Son of St. George, member of the Fall River Chamber of Commerce, British Charitable So- ciety of Boston, and American Coun- cil for the Leeds University, Eng- land. CHARLES H. HAMES. CHARLES H. EAMES [Principal, Lowell Textile School.] Mr. Eames was born in North An- dover, Mass., November 17, 1875. He attended the public schools of An- dover, and graduated in the course of electrical engineering from the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology in 1897. Following his graduation, Mr. Eames was employed by the Light, Heat and Power Corporation, at Mil- ford, Mass., and later became superin- tendent of their plant at Lowell, Mass. From here he went with the Fort Hill Chemical Company as as- sistant superintendent, and for the following four years ser\ ed as elec- trical engineer for Stone & Webster of Boston. He was next elected secre- tary of the Lowell Textile School, and became instructor in physics, electric cal engineering, and mathematics. In 1905, upon the resignation of William W. Crosby, Mr. Eames was elected principal of the Lowell Textile School. Under his management the school has continued to carry out its purpose of broadening its curriculum, so as to afford a broad technical training for young men entering the textile in- dustry. H, W. NICHOLS. H. W. NICHOLS [Superintendent New Bedford Textile School.] Mr. Nichols graduated from Colby College, Waterville, Me., in 1895. For the next four years he worked through the different departments of the St. Croix Cotton Mills, Milltown, New Brunswick. From 1899 to 1900 he at- tended the New Bedford Textile School, and for the following four years had charge of the Instruction Department of the American Corre- spondents' School of Textiles. In 1904 he became superintendent of the New Bedford Textile School. OUR MASTER MECHANICS' SECTION A Master Mechanics' Section is included in our regular mid-monthly Construction Number of the American WooIv and Cotton Reporter. This supplement contains many instructive and original articles written by master mechanics, chief engineers and others employed in textile mills. While the subjects considered in this de- partment are of vital importance as effectin^^ more efficient mill management and are thus of interest to mill treasurers and agents, they are of unusual value to textile mill master mechanics, operating engineers, electricians and others connected with the power and mechanical side of the textile in- dustry. The Master Mechanics' Section is published monthly. THOMAS NELSON, THOMAS NELSON t Director, Textile Oepartment North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.] Mr. Nelson was born at Preston, Lancashire, England, April 24, 1872. His early training was received at the public schools at Preston, and at the Harris Institute. Mr. Nelson holds a certificate from the city and guilds of London Institute, for weaving and designing, and also a certificate cover- ing the same subject from the Preston Textile School. In addition to his training in Eng- land, Mr. Nelson took a special course in designing and fabric analysis at the Lowell Textile School in 1898. He has had practical mill experience at the Springfield and Alexandria Mills, both of Preston, England; at the Poneniah Mills, Taftville, Conn.; Mer- rimack Manufacturing Company, Low- ell, Mass; Harriman Manufacturing Company, liOwell, Mass., and the Blue Ridge Manufacturing Company, Peters- burg, Va. Mr. Nelson's experience in teaching includes one year as instructor in warp preparation and tower loom weaving at the Lowell Textile School; instructor in warp preparation, weav- ing and designing, at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Raleigh, N. C, 1901 to 1906, and he is now director of the textile department at that col- lege. He is a member of the Ameri- can Cotton Manufacturers' Associa- tion, the Southern Textile Association, and is the author of a practical book on Plain and Fancy Loom Fixings. In 1911 he was employed by the Tariff Board as a special agent. WILLIAM H. DOOLEY. WILLIAM H. DOOLEY [Principal, Lowell Industrial SchooL] Mr. William H. Dooley was born in Boston, Mass., February 2(5, 1880. He graduated from the Boston English High School as an honor man in mathematics in 1897. He is a grad- uate of the Lawrence Scientific School (S. B.) and the educational department of Harvard University. In addition to this he has taken spe- cial courses in technical subjects at higher schools of learning. Since he entered the high school he has worked during the summ^er in various me- chanical establishments, such as boil- er shops, power plants, machine shops, and cotton and worsted mills. This experience, coupled with his technical and educational training, places him in a unique position as an expert in industrial and technical education. He has acted in this ca- pacity of an expert for the Commis- sion on Industrial Education and the Massachusetts Board of Education at various times. He has made a thor- ough investigation of technical edu- cation and industrial work in this country and Europe. After graduat- ing from college, he taught school in the Everett, Fitchburg and Lawrence High Schools. It was while instructor in the Lawrence high school that he conceived the need of simpler textile education and established the Law- rence Industrial School. Later, he was delegated by the Massachusetts State Board of Education to establish a similar school in Lowell which he has charge of at present. The Prize Winners EDWARD M. HENLEY. Edward M. Henley was born March 10, 1879, at Randleman, Randolph County, N. C. He moved to Salisbury, N. C, at an early age, at which place he attended school six months in the year and worked in the Salisbury Cotton Mills* the other six. When about twenty years of age. EDWARD M. HENLEY. Winner of First Prize. he commenced to work for the Prox- imity Manufacturing Co., at Greens- boro, N. C, where he spent about eighteen months in beaming and weav- ing and was then promoted to loom- fixer, resigning after some time to attend school for a few months. WITH MACHINIilRY BUILDERS. Not long after this he was offered a position with the Whitin Machine Works of Whitinsville, Mass., which he accepted and filled for two years, later working with the Draper Co., Hopedale, Mass., and the Woonsocket Machine Works, Woonsocket, R. I., for several months. He then re- turned South and again accepted a position with the Proximity Mfg. Co. as second hand in their weave room. After holding this position for several months he resigned to accept a similar, but more lucrative, position with the ErAvin Cotton Mills Co., at West Dur- ham, N. C, being transferred about three years later to the large Erwin cotton mill No. 2, at Duke, N. C, to take charge of the weaving, slashing and beaming. Three years later he was promoted to assistant superinten- dent at the same mill, which position he nov/ holds. CHARLES H. CHISHOLM. Charles H. Chisholm left his native town of Selkirk, Scotland, for Canada when a young man, having al- ready attained considerable experi- ence in the Tweed Mills of that dis- trict. Beginning as a hander-in, he passed to the position of a warper boy and later became an apprentice mule spinner, adding to his spinning experience twisting on throstles and some card room work. In Canada his interests were divid- ed, and although holding responsi- ble positions in the mill, his chief activities were outside. Developing a keen interest in the technical side of cloth making, he moved to the United States, spending two years in the designing room of the Pioneer Mills of Pittsfield, Maine. He has held various responsible positions in many well-known textile mills, thus broad- ening his experience. Among these mills may be mentioned the G. H. Gilbert Company, of Gilbertsville, Mass., where he was employed for two periods of about three and one- half years each, in charge of dress- ing. At the Lyman Cotton Mills, Hol- yoke, Mass., he was in charge of both the coarse and fancy dressing department. In 1905 he took charge of the dressing department of the Arlington Mills, under J. W. Armitage, superintendent of cloth department, CHARLES H. CHISHOLM. Winner of Second Prize. resigning this position after two and one-half years. He then entered the service of a textile journal as man- ager of labor bureau and contributor, leaving that company after 15 months' service to take up the larger position he now holds with Frank P. Bennett Company, Inc., as manager of the De- partment of Skilled Labor and mem- ber of the editorial staff of the Ameri- can Wool and Cotton Reporter. HARRY TWIGG. Harry Twigg was born in Jed- burgh, one of the picturesque towns of the celebrated Tweed district of the south of Scotland. His father was in the dyeing trade there, also in the neighboring town of Galashiels; and later, farther north in Keith, from whence he ventured across the At- lantic with a view to leaving factory employment and going into farming. It had always been planned that Harry, his first-born, should enter "a profession"; but the lad's health prov- ing unequal to the ordeal of an ex- tended preparatory term, he took up his father's calling, and went to work eventually in a Kensington dye house in Philadelphia. From there he be- came dyer in woolen mills at St. Hya- cinthe, and Sherbrooke, Quebec. Later he returned to the States, and spent between two or three years in the West. Business becoming very dull in his HARRY TWIGG. Winner of Third Prize. own line of work there, he entered a western college for a short time, tak- ing selective studies in chemistry, science, and two other lines. He then became dyer for one of the factories in Cornwall, Ontario. Another move took him to the en- terprising town of Campbellford in the same province. During the last two years he has held a responsible position in the city of Toronto. W. C. HALL. Mr. Hall was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1867. About twenty-nine years ago he commenced his work on textile machinery, being employed as an erecting hand, setting up card room and spinning machinery. In order to get a thorough understand- ing of the cotton business, Mr. Hall decided to work through all the de- partments of some large mill, and therefore, began in the opening room of the Windsor Cotton Mill. In this department he was given various work, including testing the cotton and feeding the bale openers. He then worked for some time in the picker department, and after having consid- erable general experience here, had an opportunity to work in the card room. After spending considerable time in this department and obtain- ing experience in operating the card- ing machinery, and in grinding the flats, Mr. Hall was made second hand of the card room. He held this posi- tion for three years. ENTERED WASHINGTON MILLS. He left his position with the Wind- sor Mill, to come to the United States, and upon arriving in this country, ac- cepted a position in the Washington Mills at T-^awrence, Mass. Here he entered the belt department, covering rolls and keeping some of the driving belts in proper condition. He next became second hand of carding with the Ipswich Hosiery Mill, Ipswichs, Mass., and held this position two and a half years, and next went with the Pemberton Cotton Mills, at Lawrence, Mass. From this position Mr. Hall became overseer of carding at the Slater Cot- ton Mills, North Webster, Mass. He later became overseer of carding in a hosiery mill, at which plant he also had charge of the fine spinning. He held this position for about nine years, and was next made assistant super- intendent in erecting machinery and starting up a new yarn mill for this same company. A-fter putting in con- siderable time at a knitting mill in Valatie, New York, where he re- arranged and reorganized the carding W. C. HALL. Winner of Fourth Prize. department, Mr. Hall accepted his present position as overseer of card- ing with the Skenandoa Cotton Com- pany, Utica, New York. In addition to the exceptionally broad practical training which Mr. Hall has had in the mills-, he has com- pleted a thorough correspondence course in carding, spinning and plain weaving. Textile Defects and Suggestions THE WOOLEN CARD ROOM The changes that have been made in the woolem card room of late years have been in the wrong direction by dispeLnsing with the creel on the sec- ond breaker card and applying the Append feed to take the place of the creel, which in my experience is in the wro'ng direction to get good mixes and even yarn. It may pass mus- ter om coarse, heavy yarns, but it will not do for fine yarns as you can read- ily see that by so doing we have lost the evening and mixing part that we get from 'the creel, therefore we are liaible to have uneven mixes as well as uneven yarn from the direct feeding, and any good carder will bear me out on the above statement. But to run three separate cards tandem with five separate belts and keep them all in unison is a very hard thing to do. I still beMeve that every carder would be willing to apply the Apperly feed on the second breaker in place of the creel if he could get perfect results. We can get BETTER RESULTS by adding the metallic breast to the first breaker card with not less than a 16-inch cylinder. Then we could af- ford to couple the breaker and finisher together and dispense with one main driving belt and thereby produce a more even and stronger yarn. I am a firm bv^liever in three cards to the set, with the creel on the second breaker, but I prefer four cards per set vjith the direct feeds. There are other minor applianceis that can be used to advantMse on the different classes of stock that are mixed together, such as wool, shoddy and cotton, that make it necessary to use covers over the fancy, also cod ers over the traverse and gear parts of the Bates Apperly feeds, or I might say all Apperly feeds, so they will not g'et clogged with waste from flyings and cause the belts that drive them to slip. Now in regard to rub rolls and aprons, I will say that in my experience I .find that the rub rolls are bv far the best when you liave to maiie fine roving from wide rings. The apron rub is all right for rub- bing or condensing, but when you make fine roving, the lub rolls are the best, as they enable you to fill up the rings with stock enough to strip them easily and bring the roving out finer with the draft that we have from each roller, 11-13 or 15 rub rolls. I also find where the splice on the apron rub does not condense the stock prop- erly and causes THE ROVING to come out in flat places, that a care- less spinner can kill the very best of carders by allowing the (iarriage of the mnle to start out too quickly for the delivery from the rollers. Then again he can twist up the yarn faster than the carriage eases up and twist down more or less threads and then say that it spins badly when he himself is the cause of it all. Perhaps he has too much spun yarn that he does not wind on the bobbin that gives him too much ieng^th on the next stretch, as kinks of yarn are on the bare part of the bobbin and some of them will draw off and some of them may not. Then again he may have the top of the spindle too much below TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 6 the roller rdid because he fills the bob- bin too full he will have yarn on the top of the bobbin and then blame the carder for making unewn roving. In some cases carders are blamed and the fault may have been in the dye house, where the dyer has boiled all the life out of the stock and made it all into balls by coloring on the top of greasy stock and rolling it up in a circle dye- ing machine cylinder, which is all wrong. Then he blames the carder for not being able to make good from it. No. 1. FAULTS IN WORSTED MANUFACTURE. In the manufacture of worsted cloth" perhaps the greatest trouble is found in the coarse threads and slubs or bad piecings. This has been our observa- tion. Now without going into the mat- ter of how these defects are made, in detail, allow me to attribute the chief cause to the lack of teaching in our mills. If the overseers taught the oper- atives to do their work properly these defects would be reduced to a mini- mum. In Europe this teaching process is diligently carried out. The child comes into the mill as soon as old enough and begins at the bottom and is taught step by step to do its work properly and to detect any poor work- manship in the preceding processes. The drawer finds the poor work made in the combing. The spinner finds the poor work made in the drawing. The twister find the poor work made in the spinning and so on all through. A^DVANTAGE OP SYSTEM. With a system like this carried out it is clearly apparent that when the finished product leaves the mill it is pretty nearly perfect. When each operative knows that his work will be carefully scrutinized by the next in order to whom it has to go, he will try his best to send it along in the best possible shape. And with a mill full of help and overseers working along these lines I venture to predict that such a mill will make an enviable rep- utation for the excellence of its output. Now briefly where are the above de- fects made? And how are they made? In the drawing room the operative neglects to take out his piecings and they go along and are drafted in each operation and when they come to the spinning they appear as heavy roving and make coarse or heavy yarn. Again, sometimes the spinner lets one thread run into the other and instead of pull- ing it back allows it to go, after break- ing it off, and this makes another kind of coarse yarn. And yet again, some- times the spinner, when making piecings doe^s not take off all the lap but allows some of it to run down as yarn ; this is what is often called slubs and slugs and other names which seem to suggest themselves to the weavers. DEFECTS. These defects are woven into the cloth and in the mad rush for produc- tion the weaver fails to take them out and they come to the burler, who is there for the express purpose of taking them out. But a piece that has been mended is never quite equal to one that never needed mending. Now there is no real need of bad work getting through if all are doing their best to prevent it. If all work in unison, with a high standard of excel- lence in mind, they will certainly ap- proximate their aims. I would again emphasize the great necessity of hav- ing help patiently but firmly taught to do their work right. This can be done and should be. It is not tyranny to demand high standards. If we at- tain to them we can afford to pay for them. The skillfull, reliable operative is worth more than the slipshod one who needs watching about all of the time. The overseer who is the best teach- er is also the best man among a lot TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 1 of mill help. A good teacher is usually a good manager. Give me a man who can patiently show the operative how, a man who can do it with his own fingers; one who can demonstrate just what he wants his help to do. This man will succeed. The mill with such men will succeed. The help in such a mill will be contented and happy. Their motto will be simple excellence. No. 2. THE SOFTENING OF AN IRON BUFF. To the textile colorist the dyeing of iron ambers or buffs, as they are com- monly termed, is in general moi'e or less understood, but a brief outline of it he process appears to be the moist satisfactory way of giving this topic its true isignificance. The coloring is accomplished by first impregnating the material (yarn in this instance) with a solution of some iron compound, then oxidizing by a passag'^ through .some alkaline oxidiz- ing agent, usually sodium carboa'jajte (Na2C03) oir caustic soda (NaOH). SubseQuentt additions. to these baths, together with repeated passages of the yarn through the same, give the depth of shade required. The resulting color is, of course, an oxide of iron (Pe). The treatment, whicii is of a purely mechanical nature, admits of no con- siderable penetration of the fibre, con- sequently depositing the color upon the surface. Oils and soaps used as a wash tem- porarily soften the yarn and prevent harshness, and it may cause no par- ticular annoyance in the preparation of the warp for the loom, as the yarn may be in a partially dried condition. After becoming thoroughly dry, how- ever, THE DISAGREEABLE FEATURE of the coloring matter asserts itself. The constant jar of the looms causeiS a fine cloud of the oxide of iron (which is in reality iron rust) to arise, fioat around, and finally settle upon ma- chinery or any object within a radius of several feet, besides being constant- ly inhaled by those employed to oper- ate the machinery, who are compelled tx) remain in close proximity to the dust. The trouble is not alone confin- ed 'to tliis department, but is very €vi- dent in the finishing of the goods, where the harshness rather than the loose color is felt. While some ot the more modern methods of producing this color elim- inate this objectionable leature, ithe fastness of the dyed fabric is de- creasei^, for up to the present time I have bt en unable to find a color which would compare favorably with that ali eady mentioned, under the v.on- ditions to which awnings and similar goods are subjected. No. 3. MAKING BETTER YARN. When I pick up a textile paper, I eagerly look it over to see if there is anything ;n it about carding or spin- ning. If I happen to find anything treating on that subject, it is read and reread until 1 have it by heart. Most likely other carders and spin- ners feel the same. The only fault I find with most articles I have hereto* fore read, is that they do not go into details enough. When we read any- thing about the business we are en- gaged in, we are generally looking for information, looking for points as it were. Now I believe that it would be a good plan for all the card- ers and spinners to agree on the ''American Wool and Cotton Re- porter," and let eacn overseer write a series of letters for publication, giving as much information as lies in his power. I think it would be a great benefit to all of us, and I will 8 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. now give you my reasons for thus thinking. We will say that a mill has FOR A LONG TIME been running on a coarse grade of goods, using coarse stock. The man- ager sees a chance to make more mon- ey by making an extra fine grade, and decides to make samples of ten run double and twist. The carder gets it on the card, but the stock, being so much different, and requiring such a radical change in treatment, of course there is trouble, and the poor carder is at his wits ends, as they are hurry- ing him to get me samples througn. He claim's the stock is not fit for ten run. The manager makes enquiries and finds it is the same as they are using in another mill which has been making fine goods for a long time, and that they have no trouble whatever in mak- ing it go, in fact they call it excellent work. The carder in mill number one can not be made to believe ihis, and finally the manager of mill number one, who is a personal friend of the manager in mill number two, gets permission to bring his carder and let him see for himself how it goes. They go, but it is the managei instead of the carder that gets the surprise. The stock is practically the same, but everything else is different. The oil used in picking is different, the wire on the cards is many numbers finer, the rings on doffers are narroiwer. al- lowing the stock to cover them, leav- ing no bare spots, the diameter of the doffers is twice as large, allowing them to remain against the cylinder longer, and many other changes that I might mention. Eventually the card er in mill number one, would have worked out all of those changes him- self, but it would have taken time, and if he got the samples out it would be too late in the season to get orders ; there would be a lot of stock wasted, and altogether it would be a rather costly change to make. On the other hand, if mill number two were to change to coarse goods, they would meet with the same difficulty and per- haps worse, as I think it easier to change from coarse to fine than from line to coarse. But supposing there had been an exchange of letters in some textile paper, and that each over- seer had a scrap book in which he would paste any article that came in his line, and have an index so as to readily find the right place, and could see just what change would be re- quired, how much unnecessary ex- pense it would save. The manager could figure what it would cost him to make the required changes. He would have time to order his clothing and get a set ready for samples, and above all, he w^ould not suspect his overseers of lack of skill. THE MOST IMPORTANT as well as difficult step in the manu- facturing of a perfect piece of cloth, is in getting perfect yarn. You may get the most expert weavers, the most skillful finishers, but if the yarn is im- perfect you can not make perfect cloth. I venture to say that eighty per cent of the damages in cloth are due to imperfections in yarn. I think every manager should encourage anything that would tend to give them more perfect carding and spinning. Now in fancy I can hear some spinner (who perhaps feels as I felt twenty years ago) say, I can learn no more about mules or spinning. When I look back twenty years I wonder how I ever got by. And perhaps some manager will say, I am not fool enough to tell how I make my yarn. My dear friends it is just this, you hold four spades and a club, I hold four clubs and a spade. Neither hand is complete, but you give me your club and I give you my spade, and we are mutually benefited. Brother overseers what say you, will you join me and push this along. It looks good to me. T will start the bal^ rolling by writing a series of letters on spinning, winding, twisting, setting up mules, and other machinery. (I have set up a great many mules in TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 9 my time.) The making of all kinds ot silk twist, how to make silk twist on a mule; how to make knubby yarns of all description; the speed to run twisters to get best results: what causes certain castings on mules to Dreak frequently; and how to avoid It; Qow to stop mules from rebounding, and a great many other points of Inter- ast to spinners, and now there is an- Dther suggestion I would like to make. Why not start a sort of information bureau or Question box. in a space in the "American Wool and Cotton Re- porter," for asking and answering questions Something on this line: — B. D. L. Wants to know what causes his single size silk to cutY D. M. Wants to know what advant- age there is in running double rolls on silk twisters. I think there are a great many man- agers of mills who would be glad of this, as there are a hundred and one little thiings cropping up that we could help each other in. In order to start this question box I will agree to an- swer any question on spinning, wind- ing or twisting to any subscriber to thi's paper and it will cost him nothing but postage, and if possible next week I will send my first letter on spinning NO. 4. "THE LATEST IN INDIGO." In this day and time when the mat- ter of cost enters so very largely into the making of a yard of cloth, every manufacturer is on the lookout for the best article at the least cost. Over 50% of all colored cotton cloth is some kind of blue, and it is the concensus of opinion among manufac- turers that indigo blue is the best ar- ticle all round. Of course there are costlier blues and cheaper blues, but indigo averages up the best when you consider its fastness, and also the fact that the retail merchant is always satisfied when he gets an indigo blue dyed piece of cloth. In this country the indigo blue dye- stuff can not be bought any cheaper from one concern than from another, as the price of indigo is standard. So, therefore, the only way that a manu- facturer eould lower his cost would be in the manipulation in his dyehouse. The most common process of dyeing indigo blues, and the one which Is adopted in most cotton mills is to dye the yarns in single separate chains. These chains are usually from 6,000 to 10,000 yards long, and are composed of from 400 to 600 threads each, the number of yarn of course depend- ing on the class of goods they are go- ing into. This process takes from one to two whole days, (including washing) and is so long drawn out, that it takes care- ful watching during the ayelng so as not to have uneven shades, especially when the blues are going into a fine piece of chambray cloth. SCOTCH TUB SYSTEM. Now in some mills, where they are making fancy ginghams, they have what they call the Scotch tub system of dyeing, that is the yarn in the dye house is doubled down from 8,000 yards to 500 or even 250 yards long, and run through the dye vats in this shape. This process insures quick results, and fancy colors are dyed in one to four hours at most. For a long time dyers were of the opinion that indigo could not be dyed in this manner, as indigo is dyed cold, and it was thought that the dye would not penetrate the thick doubled mass of yarn enough to make an even shade. The writer was like the balance till he tried dyeing indigo in bulk, and am pleased to say that we have been dyeing 600 lb. sets, (including stuflang and washing) 10 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. in less than four hours, and our ma- chine is so arranged with long squeeze rolls and an extra delivery roll in front, that we can dye two 600 lb. sets at the same time on the one machine, when necessary, keeping both sets of warps apart in their passage through the vat. We had to dye it in this manner, as the warps came from the warpers to be dyed anywhere from 30 threads to 600 threads thick and also different lengths, so we had to double them up to facilitate dyeing. The writer was certainly surprised at the good results obtained on dark shades of 7%, and in such a short time as compared with the old process — 4 hours as against 2 days. VATS. Our indigo vats are 7 feet long, 2^/^ feet wide and 6i^ feet deep and are rigged up with removable sets of rolls at each end, with plenty of space be- tween the guiding pins, so the yarn can spread in its passage through the vat, and when it strikes the squeeze- rolls, the yarn has a spread of over 10 inches, which enables the dye liquor to be squeezed out good. The dyeing machine is fixed so we can slide all the upper rigging, (including squeeze rolls and frames in vat) along to other vats, and when vats are all in a row we can use one set of upper rigging on all the vats. Our squeeze rolls de- liver about 27 yards per minute, which is fast enough for this process. We reduce our indigo in bbls. — as follows: 100 libs. Badishe's or Metz's synthetic indigo, 25 lbs. solid bisulphide of soda, 6 lbs. zinc dust, and 25 lbs. caustic soda. This mixture makes 50 gallons liquor. We spring our vat with 8 lbs. bisulphide and 2 lbs. zinc dust, and add 7% of reduced indigo per 100 lbs. yarn, give set 2 runs', 1 hot wash and 1 cold running wash, and the re- sult is a very fine dark blue. Outside of the cost of dyestuff, which is the same under any process, our sys- tem is very much cheaper to work than the old way, as the writer has tried both and is thoroughly convinced of that fact. No. 6. SPOOLING. In considering improvements that ought to be made in cotton mill meth- ods, anyone who thoroughly under- stands the situation cannot help be- ing impressed with the necessity for some radical change in the handling of single yarns after they leave the spinning frames. It must be borne m mind that in this article I refer only to yarns that are going to be woven in the single. A spinner's bobbin does not hold length of yarn sufficient to enable us to warp a section beam from the same, consequently we turn to the spooling frame, and by winding the yarn from a number of small spinner's bobbins on a larger spool, overcome the difficulty. The cost of this simple operation, though, ranges from 20 cents to $1.15 per 100 pounds of yarn spooled. It was, in times past, considered necessary to run the yarn through an almost closed guide, which was sup- posed to take out the bunches, slugs, etc. In fact, there are some mills which use those guides to-day. The benefit derived from guides "on single yarns," however, is largely imaginary. For every slug or bunch which breaks at the guide, there are ten which not only do not break, but actually flatten out to two or' three times their origi- nal width. While there may be some mill men who doubt this statement, its correctness has been proved by tests, covering a very wide range of yarns. This being the case, THE ONLY ADVANTAGE gained in spooling is the additional TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 11 length of yarn given to the warper, and essential though it is that we get this extra length, the cost is out of all proportion to the benefit received. Here, then, is where the next great improvement in the handling of cot- ton yarns should take place. It is high time that some system was introduced to entirely dispense with the spooling frame. There are two ways in which this could be accomplished. First, by so 'improving the spinning frame that a bobbin would hold a length of yarn sufficient for one section beam, or secondly, by the introduction of an automatic warper, using spinners' bob- bins instead of spools, and having an attachment so that when a bobbin runs empty, it will be immediately replaced by a full bobbin, the same operation tying the ends together so as to provide continuous running. The valid objections to the first plan are so numerous that it would be folly to look for the improvement of the spinning frame in the manner indi- cated, and it is to the second prop- osition that we must look for the ul- timate success of any efforts to dis- pense with spooling. The perfection of such a machine is, I know, A STUPENDOUS TASK, But is far from being an impossible one. That it will prove too much for a generation that has already given us automatic looms, drawing-in ma- chines, and warp-tying machines, to mention only a few of the more prom- inent modern improvements, is unbe- lievable. One of the reasons, I sup- pose, why no sustained efforts have previously been made in this direction, was the almost universal belief in the efficacy of the spooler guides, but now that this belief, along with a lot of other old-fashioned notions, is passing away, there is no reason why an at- tempt should not be made to get out of the rut. Manufacturers, indeed, should bear In mind that the demand for almost anything only requires to be made known, and some enterpris- ing individual will come along pre- pared to supply their wants. No. 6. CARDING. In writing an article on carding let me start with the picker room, a most important room. First, I see that the burr pickers are in proper condition and have the fliers that throw out the burrs in good order. I get them planed when they get rounded and then set them close to take out burrs and all foreign matter. Then lubricate your stock well and pass through the mixing picker until all is thoroughly mixed. Then we start in the card room. See that the grinding rollers are properly covered, say with No. 8 or 9 emery. In covering, I first v/ind the roller or traverse grinder with stout twine, then put on all the glue (Le Page's) it will hold, then shower on emery and do not roll it, but let it get thoroughly dry* Then put in the lathe and with har- dened tool knock off high points and then size with a weaker glue. Your rollers are then fit for work. The dia- mond points of emery pass in between the wire and make the round smooth point so essential to carding. Have a creel between the first and second breaker and two cylinders in the fin- isher. If possible have a fancy on lick- erin put on very light and as close to the tumbler as possible. In doing this I never need to clean lickerins. Let the lickerin fill up full but have your fancy so it will keep the points clear. Keep the top feed roll full, the bot- tom clean and the stock will go to the cylinder all right. In grinding rings 1 grind until they are perfectly smooth, then clean up with a hand card and waste. Before starting the finisher I put on the ring strippers and let them strip rings as the stock comes through; in doing so I never have any trouble. No. 7. 12 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. WOOL SPINNING. As a mule spinner I spun sev- eral kinds of wool yarns from a few cuts to a pound to over 50 cuts. I spun for a firm which at one time ran over 20,000 spindles in wool yarns alone. The finest yarn was spun on mules built especially for that kind of work, with spindles from the whirl to the top not less than one-fourth inch, some of them more. It is a well- known fact among spinners that as the cops get full in spinning, the yarn has a tendency to rove off, thus making the yarn a little heavier and a little harder to extend. To obviate that and make the yarn more alike, we had on those fine mules A OATCH about five inches long swung on a pin fastened on the frame about two feet from the rollers, so that the fullfer rod caught it when the carriage was going in. Attached to that catch was a small chair ' connected to the slide, which drew the rollers into gear The result was when the carriage was In about one inch of roving it was drawn through the rolls, which enabled it to spin better, besides keeping the yarn more even. I don't know ihow a catch could be fixed onto a self-opera- tor. We had four of them, but the boss spinner man would not let any of the fine work go onto them. Wool filling spun lor fancy weaves should be tight drawn and well twist- ed and spun the same way as the warp. Wool filling spun for flannels should be soft drawn (not too soft), and spun contrary to the warp. The goods will handle softer and at the same time look closer weave. NO. 8. AMBITION. I have seen articles written on the questions of production, cost, manag- ing help, and in fact a great many things concerning mills, mill life and its works, but I remember seeing but few articles on the question of am- bition. Ambition is to a president, manager, superintendent or overseer as steam is to an engine, but, alas, it is so often the case that managers know so little of what they are trying to do. They put in old, out-of-date, worn out machinery. The overseer is forced to speed up beyond the capacity of such machines and is expected to produce products of equal quality and in equal quantities as the mill equip- ped with the very best and latest im- proved machinery. He is also ex- pected to produce it AT THE SAME COST as his most favored, but less competent brother in an up-to-date, modern mill. Will his troubles stop here? No, he is discharged. Man after man is tried, only to meet with the same or similar troubles. The manager takes orders for yarns, if it be a yarn mill, for we will say number 40's, when he is making twelves to thirties blends, while equip- ped only for tens to twenties white. The orders are for one, five hundred and a thousand pounds, which makes the cost of changing and production far more than the mill gets for the yarn, not speaking of the raw mate- rial. The yarn left on the spools, tubes, etc., is thrown around from place to place and finally thrown in with other waste from which the mill gets from three to five cents a pound. The result is that the overseers are changed time after time, the help be- comes disorganized, the mill loses TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 13 money and is soon in tlie hand^j ol! a receiver. THE REMEDY. Put in the best and latest improved machinery, hire competent men aa managers, superintendents, overseers, and then take orders for only largo quantities, especially where the differ- ence is great and requires a complete change. Watch your cost, watch your production, know what your profits are and if one of the overseers, or the su- perintendent, proves to be unworthy or incompetent let him go and fill the position with a good man who under- stands the business NO. 9. FAST COLORS. The fastest colors on the market to- day are what are known among dyers as "hydrbsulphite," colors that are dyed in a caustic bath with hydrosulphite. These colors are as near absolutely fast as can be pro- duced, and have been adopted by the United States government to be used in army uniforms, after being submit- ted to very severe tests. The dyeing of ithese colors on cot- ton yarn is very simple, especially when you use the Scotch tub system of dyeing and see that proper care is taken to have everything just right — :.nat is, warps thoroughly wet out, dye ))roperly reduced beforehand, and the neat of the dye liquor carefully attend- 3d to. In dyeing hydrosulphite colors on raw cotton, results depend very largely on the system under which the cotton is dyed. Of course, the proper way to dye those colors is to use the vacuum type of dye machine, as the dyestuff experts say that all air ought to be gotten out of the cotton before the dyestuff is put to it, and this type of machine is best suited for that pur- pose, because in this system the cotton is stationary, and the dye liquor is fore- ed through the cotton by means of pumps. Now, when a dye-house is rigged up with the Klauder-Weldon machine sys- t>^rr;, where the cotton is carried through the dye liquor and comes in contact with the air in its process of dyeing, — these conditions require a different method of dyeing hydrosul phite. On the VACUUM TYPE OP MACHINE these colors are dyed something like this. The cotton is thoroughly wet out at 180 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 min- utes, then cooled to 110 degrees, and then one-third of the whole amount of hydrosulphite that is to be used is added to the dye bath and run ten minutes. The color solution is made up in barrels at 110 degrees with caustic soda, and the other two-thirds of the hydrosulphite, and this solu- tion is then added slowly to the batli, and run 20 minutes at 110 degrees and washed free from alkali. The above formula will give beautiful results on a vacuum, type of machine, but when used on a Klauder-Weldon machine the result is something fierce. The writer was up against it in not having the proper vacuum machine, and had to do his dyeing in a Klauder-Weldon machine, and, after some experiment- ing, he obtained very good results by the following process: Boil the cotton one-half hour, then get the cotton thoroughly cold and add a solution of the dye and the caustic soda; run in this one-half hour and get the cotton thoroughly isaturated with the dye, then add the hydrosulphite very slow- ly and raise heat to 120 degrees. Be- fore the hydrosulphite s added the cotton has a very "sick" look, but as the hydrosulphite is added the color brightens up to the shade required. On the Klauder-Weldon machine, when you use the color solution and the hydrosulphite together, the cotton is one-third dyed and the other two- thirds is white, but when you use the hydrosulphite separately, after allow- 14 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. ing the cotton to take up all the dye, you get just as good results as on a vacuum machine, and the colors will stand all the usual tests. Tihe above may be of some use to dyers who think that those fast hy- drosulphite colors cannot be dyed on anything but a vacuum type of ma- chine, because most dyestuff salesmen claim it can't be done, but I say, ''If at first you don't succeed, why, suck a lemon," and applying the above phrase to my dyeing experiment, I would say that I expected a lemon all right, but was glad to receive a nice, juicy peach, that is, the color I got was a peach. In the above article the writer does not mention any particular dyestuff, for fear some one might isay that he was a dyestuff salesman, but I think the above formula will apply to most any of the hydrosulphite group. No. 10. BEAM DYEING. The art of dyeing may be traced back to the beginning of time, even to the first woman's dress that we have any knowledge of— ^the traditional fig- leaf of Eve in the garden of Eden. It is true than man's ingenuity was not called in to color that dress, but divine nature, whom no dyer can equal, col- ored it and colored it well. The writer is not prepared to say how fast the color of that fig-leaf was, nor what amount of twentieth century laundry washing it would stand, in comparison to these latter day feminine creations, but this he knows — nature colored that fabric, and it is to nature even nowa- days that the dyer and chemist goes to seek his coloring matter, for it is a well-known fact that most dye- stuffs find their origin in coal-tar, and old Mother Earth supplies the ingre- dients and the mind of man devises schemes and concoctions, which, when put into effect, almost rival nature In their brilliancy and beauty. Coming on down through the ages we read of the Tyrian king who sent King Sol- omon a man ''skilful to work in purple and blue and fine linen, and in crim- son," and we also learn from data on the subject that in the city of Florence, Italy, in the fourteenth cen- tury, there were over 200 dyeing es- tablishm.ents. (I wonder what sort of dyeing equipment they had.) And there are old folks living even now that wil] preach to you the beauties of Walnut bark, sumac-berries, dog- wood, and all those other old-fashioned colors, which they used to dye their jeans with before the war. We will not argue with those old folks on the subject of the fastness and staying qualities of their colors, but we must admit that the cost of labor compared to the quantity produced was some- thing fierce. Now it is not fastness of color that the writer wishes to harp on, it is the COST OF PRODUCTION that I want to speak of most particu- larly in this article. As the manu- facturer can get his dyestuffs at al- most any price to suit his taste, he very largely depends on the manipu- lation in his dye-lhouse to reduce the cost. During these last twenty years there has been more improvement in dyeing machinery and methods than has ever been known in the world's history. In the manufacture of cloth, competition has been so strong that these improvements had to be made in order to reduce cost in handling, and manufacturers are ever on the look- out for the latest wrinkles. Not many years ago we had the old-fashioned way of dyeing everything by hand, raw cotton forked in and out of a square tub by hand, yarn dyed in the hank by hand, and all this was done under the most filthy conditions and at enormous labor expense. It used to be that the cost of dyeing depended on the capacity of the man, now it all depends on the capacity of the ma- chine. Dyeing methods have taken TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 15 rapid strides in the way of improve- ment these last few years, and all wiil admit there was great room for improvement. Most dye-houses nowa- days are as clean as any part of the mill, having well-drained concrete floors, suction fans to carry off sur- plus steam, and everything conducted in a well-ventilated manner, s-o tlmt even the agent of the mill comes down into the dye-house once in a while, which he very seldom did under the old system, for fear of getting his clothes ruined, or being run over by a man with a truck in the dense steam. Nowadays, in dyeing, THE QUALITY depends on the dyestuff used, and the quantity depends on the machine, and the machine that produces the most in a given time, and eliminates cost be- to o o o o o o ooT^ lOQOOQOQQOJ fore and after the product leaves it- why, that is the machine the manu- facturer wants. Now, you take the maitter of dyeing warps in a cotton miJl. The yarn is usually made into chains on the warper, brought into the dye-house, boiled, doubled, dyed, split, and dried before it is ready for the beaming frame, and these various processes in the dye-house cost any- where from 25 cents to 50 cents per 100 pounds for labor alone; then it has to be beamed at a cost of about 60 cents per 100 before it is ready for the slasher. Now, what the writer is driving at in this article is to elim- inate a great deal of the above cost, by inventing a machine which I should call a **beam dyeing machine." Oops are dyed under pressure, yarn and cotton are dyed under pressure, and I isee no reason why yarn on a beam could not be dyed in the same way. My suggestion is this: these beams could be made of iron or brass just the size and shape of an ordinary wooden beam, but instead of being solid, have them made hollow, and perforated, and also open at each end, so the liquor could penetrate to the centre through the perforations. The centre shaft (a) could be re- moved while the beams are in the dyeing machine. Run the white yarn on to beams like the above, and take those beams and dye them just so in this machine, take them out and size them on the slasher and dry them all in one operation. This would save lots of dye-house labor and do away with the after beaming entirely. A mill on denims, ticks, or any class of goods requiring a lot of solid color on beams, would find this process of great advan- tage, and I think it could be worked successfully. The above may be a "Defective Sug- gestion," but it is suggestions you are after, and it stands to reason if you can dye so many other masses of ma- terial in solid bulk, why not beams, and if so, you can very readily see what a great amount of cost and labor it would eliminate. No. 11. COTTON CARDING AND DRAWING. The card room is one of the most, if not the most essential room in the mill, as it is on that the quantity of work done depends. The overseer of a card room should understand his business thoroughly, as he knows that the production of the whole mill de- pends to a great extent on him. It lies in his power to make either good or bad yarn. First, he should have the very best of competent help under him. I find that it is a mistaken idea with a good m.any superintendents and managers, that any class of com- mon help will do in a card room. It makes no difference how good a man 16 TEXTILE DEFECTS A^!D SUGGESTIONS. the overseer is, if he has poor help to contend with, he cannot turn out good work. Some claim that you can take green help and train them up to what you want. This theory will occasion- ally work, where you do not have more than one or two green hands to train, but when it comes to the majority of help being green, then I claim it will cost the mill more in the long run than if they had the highest paid com- petent help. There is a lot that can be said re- garding cotton carding. I could no doubt fill a large sized book, if I car- ed to go into all the details, but as it is only my idea to point out a f e^ of the worst and most important parts, I shall confine myself to the same. CARD GRINDER AND HIS DUTIES. The card grinder should at all times be a competent, reliable man, as the cards depend on him for good, smooth sliver. He can either put a card in good condition, or in less than one minute's time he can put the card out of commission so that it will cost the company more money for repairing the damage he has done, than would pay two good card grinders for six months. He should not only know when he has the cards ground properly, but should also know how to set it right after he is through grinding. Every one acquainted with cards knows how eas- ily the card grinder can (as we term it) hook the points, therefore, I shall not go further into this matter, but proceed to the drawing frames. The drawing frames are just as im- portant in a card room as the cards. The most vital thing to keep right is the weights. If we run with the ma- chine out of fix, so It will not stop when one strand is broken, we will make light yarn; this yarn coming to the weave room in warp will cause that particular thread to break more than those of the right weight, as there is the same strain on each warp thread, providing the weave is the same, and naturally the light thread, being the weaker, will break the most. This same LIGHT YARN, coming to the weave room in the shape of filling, will cause shoddy and un- even cloth on a plain loom where one shuttle is used. The yarn being finer will put in more picks per inch and cause thick and heavy places, making the cloth show shoddy. Of course, if all the ends on the drawing were light we could very easily bring them back to weight on the next machine, which Is the slubber's, or we could even let the yarn go to the speeders, and then bring the weight up; but where one end out of 10 or 20 is light, there is no way to rectify it, unless they were laid aside until there was enough to fill the next machine, but a mill on dif- ferent sizes of yarn or colored work, cannot lay the yarn back, as they only make yarn as they need it and cannot afford to wait. A poor overseer will overlook these small items, but a good, competent man, I claim, is one of the best and cheapest investments a mill can make, no matter how high a wage is paid. NO. 12. DYERS' SHADE MIXER. How often in our woolen mills does the superintendent, designer, or dyer want to see just how some lot of col- ored or mixed stock will appear when carded! How hard, too, is it to get a spare card to work it on! Then the card won't be clean, likely enough, and the result is unsatisfactory and slow. Trying the job on a "hard-card," bor- rowed from the card-room is too feeble and antedeluvian to be worth mention. Now, what has hindered manufactur- ers of textile machinery from getting up tsome little contrivance to do the job conveniently, thoroughly and with- out loss of time? Have they never thought of such a TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 1? thing? Do they know that ''there's money in the idea?" The necessary incentive to its success is all lying la- tent in the thing. See how many will want such a machine if it can be fur- nished at a reasonable figure? I submit a few SUGGESTIONS for such a machine. 1. It must be cheap, so that every mill may order one, and the larger mills more than one. 2. It must be compact; say with a short feed apron, a very few metallic or coarse wire covered rolls, then a simple doffer comb; the whole thing perhaps about one foot by two feet over all, even less. 3. Make it to run by either hand or power. 4. Must be easy to clean for suc- ceeding lots. Could it be made self- cleaning? 5. Must be able to make a fair mix by two passages of the stock through it, at most. T). Capacity, one to four ounces clean stock. Woolen stock to be run moist or dry; co'tton, dry. About half an ounce of stock will be more often wanted mixed, therefore the appliance may be of smaller size, or there may be two sizes built. NO. 13. MAKING ROVING. I would suggest what I consider would be a great improvement in the making of roving in the carding room of a cotton mill. I find in a good many mills in Fall River that the ob- ject is to put as much length on the bobbin as they possibly can, and doing so is often detrimental to the sliver on the bobbin. Now when you take hold of a rov- ing of 16, 18, or 20 hanks and press on it with your thumb and find that you cannot make any impression on it, it being as hard almost as a rock, you may come to the conclusion that to attain that end the sliver most certainly has been strained. Conse- quently, when it comes to run in the spinning machines, especially fhe mule, with its long pull from the creel, and the stopping and starting of the rollers every stretch, we find we have a great amount of rovings breaking back, and a good many of them are pulled in the roving so hard that you can scarcely find the end of the sliver to repiece it again. I notice in the roving frame, that the sliver, in most frames, from the nip of rollers to the spindle point, runs very taut, describ- ing a straight line, instead of there being a little sag from the two points, and again a roving of this description, which as been stretched in its making, will be sure to make uneven yarn and filling and also weak yarn. When you get this class of roving in the spin- ning machines (rings and mules), and you are required to spin numbers giv- ing a draft of from 12l^ to 13i/^ inches In the rollers, you cannot possibly ex- pect a good sound thread. With reference to the draft in the rollers, I would like to isay right here what I always contend, and it is this: that ten cd a draft ought to be the limit on any machine and on any stock, and on some stocks say 1 inch, 1 1-16 inch, and IVs, eight of a draft ought o be the limit, and a mill that has the preparation in the carding room to follow this process will lose nothing, but rather be the gainer thereby. NO. 14. ♦-M'^ SAVING THE DYEROOM STEAM. The old proverb that **A penny saved is a penny gained," finds ever increas- ing respect in the business world. Economy in production is a highly im- portant factor; and is usually well looked after by our textile mill men; 18 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. but it is our purpose to show if possi- ble that the dyeing department has scarcely as yet been seriously invaded by it. Dyeroom men of every class will readily bear me out in this state- ment. Aside from the marvellous ad- vances through chemical research, the attention given to improvements in their daily employment is most inade- quate. But few dyeroom owners have begun to realize the importance of their outfit; and how susceptible it is to intelligent reforms. It is not, however, the call of this general theme which now impresses me, but simply the consideration of one big, wide-open leak in dyehouses all the world over. Not many words are needed. The waste I refer to is along the line of steam. All dyerooms use it; and some in large quantities. In every dyeroom it is the heaviest item of expense, frequently exceed- ing the cost of drugs and dyes, or the cost of labor. Not a little is often wasted through sheer heedlessness; and more because of accidents of one kind or another. But aside from mis- use or accident, not any part of the entire supply of steam entering the dyeroom daily finds its PUDL EFFICIENCY expended. When we are through with a large kettleful of boiling water five to fifty times a day successively, what is done with it? It has cost in the aggregate a vast amount of money to bring up from a cold, an4 in our northern winters an all but freezing condition. What suitable disposition then do we finally make of it? Why, we run it down the river to raise the national temperature, to dirty the people's stream, and to kill off the people's fish. Civic corporations ob- ject occasionally to this gratuitous beneficence; but with little avail; and it usually continues until the law in- terposes with its peculiar powers of persuasion. Long before it reaches, if ever, this climax, our own self interest should have sought to put a period to a practice that is confessedly short- sighted and wastful. Seeing that these baths all cost a lot to put heat into, so to speak, why shouldn't we make some supreme effort individually or collectively to get the caloric back before we throw them away? There rests my point of interrogation. And so with scouring baths in a lesser de- gree, and with the heat passing out from drjdng machines for loose stock, and yarns, and fabrics. Why can't we make some heroic concerted endeavor after retaining so much of great value, and of which we require every work- ing day a further quantity? You may easily return to me my query for some practical reply. I know that the subject is a difficult one; but then we've reached the North Pole now, you know. There's a mint of money in this too. Now I am not an engineer, nor well up in physics and electricity, and the North Pole. I am only a dyer. Nevertheless, if it be but to furnish you something to think over; and even if you severely criti- cize, I am willing to put A FEW SUGGESTIONS before the meeting. First, as to heat within moist or almost dry air, in connection with the operations of drying raw stock, yarns and piece goods, I can state from actual personal experience that a considerable portion can be used over again in these processes them- selves; and some of it may be profit- ably employed to assist in freeing the dyeroom of steam. Possibly yet anoth- er portion of it, the cleanest and dri- est, might be used to help warm the mill work rooms in winter; and some not so choice to ventilate, and keep dry outbuildings, damp basements, and spaces under first^story floors. The country is full of rotary fans; and tex- tile plants would ifind it to their certain TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 19 advantage to install more of them. Their usefulness is unlimited. In many mills are decatizing apparatus; and from these much steam goes off to waste like the exhaust from the steam engine that in plenty of places still is thrown recklessly off into the outside world. Then there's the heat contained in washing and dyeing baths. That, of course, is a larger and HARDER PROBLEM. One thing to bear in mind at the out- side is that the use of machinery and standing baths is scarcely to be reck- oned with in dealing with the question. In some circumstances, and upon some classes of work, the savings are obvi- ous; but in dyeroom work of a gen- eral sort, the gain is barely appreci- able. Considerable is saved by em- ploying the single bath system of dye- ing wherever possible. The best types of our more recently built wool scour- ing machines also effect manifest economy. Many dye-baths might be used over several times, if only means were provided for pumping a chrome or logwood bath into an adjoining ket- tle for successive batches. The reflec- tions of years, however, prompt me to another line of thought. My idea has been to abstract the heat from these used ba'ths within storage tanks; and to utilize it anew in heating boiler feed water, and such clean fresh water as is called for in regular dyeroom routine, so as to do away entirely with any necessity for using cold water in either case. This would relieve the boilers immensely, it seems to me; and cut down the coal bill in a way that would make the whole plant smile. I have at least indicated the big leak, I believe. There may be a more simple solution than I now sug- gest; but is not the matter itself of sufficient hard cash importance to take hold of at once? And donU you think that **the cake" naturally falls in con- sequence? No. 15. OLD COTTON MACHINERY. There are a number of mills running old machinery at the present time, and to all appearances they will continue to do so for some time to come. It is the general rule to hear some of the overseers grumble about their old ma- chines, and find fault with their super- intendent, or the manager, and some others think the mill owners are to blame if they are called upon to do a little better with the old machines. Of course, we must admit that they can- not be made to produce what new ma- chines would, but in some cases they can be made to do pretty nearly as well, and the managers, superintend- ents or owners are aware of these facts. Therefore, it is left for the overseer to get there. When he lets himself to run old machines, he must expect trouble, unless he can make them go to suit those for whom he is working. Although a new mill equipped with new machinery is pref- erable to an old one with old machin- ery, the fact still remains that the old mill must run just the same, and suc- cess will depend very much upon the team of overseers in the mill. THE REMEDY. I would suggest that each overseer first look himself over carefully before finding fault with someone else. His maciiines may not be operating proper- ly, for want of repair, or poor repairing. He should not allow any of those good- enough-for-that-old-machine jobs to be done for him at the repair shop, for such work does not last, and besides causes other breaks, and thus loss of production. He should not use patch- ed parts, because they are old ma- chines; it costs more to patch a piece than to put a new one on. If after hav- ing looked his machines all over, and he finds them all right, but the work not running well, he should not say 20 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. "That old machine," but should look for the cause. If he fails to locate it in his own room, he should consult his brother overseers, and 1 think between them they will locate the trouble, and remedy, both for that and other trou- bles that would arise in the old mil', and thus carry it along to success, and perhaps new machinery at some future time. The secret of success with old machines is courage and grit. NO. 16. IMPROVEMENT IN MILLS. There are several ways which could be adopted that would be an improve- ment over the conditions of to-day, both for the workman and tne manu- facturer. It has been my experience to meet help of alm^ost all kinds, and I must say that nine-tenths of the help of to-day are very poor; they are care- less, thoughtless and selfish. Their main thought is night and pay day. I have seen help walk over bobbins, etc., and step on, and break them, and not even stoop to pick them up, and when asked why they did not pick them up, they would inform you quick- ly, "That's not my job." Now that's only a small matter, but even bobbins cost money. Occasionally, you will meet with a person WHO IS NOT AFRAID to put things right if he sees anything a little out of place, while he happens to be passing. Then he often hears the remark, "See the sucker;" some overseers even will tell him to mind his own business. Now, if this idea of things should suddenly die out, and everyone working in the mill should resolve, when going into work each day, that he would do a good day's work, and do it better than yesterday's, , the majority of superintendents and mill owners would hardly know what had happened. They would appre- ciate it, and be equally surprised, foi they have troubles enough of a charac- ter little known to the average mill hand, without being worried by the carelessness of their help, and baa work, which, apparently the best and latest improved machinery does not eliminate. There are troubles with the cloth buyers, who keep men to find fault with the cloth, men who, if they do not save their wages in claims, are apt to lose their jobs, as incompetent. These middle men or jobbers are a nightmare of the manuiauiurer. A MANUFACTURER keeps a designer who works hard, trying to find something which will be attractive and sell; when it gets to the buyer, he merely looks at it and casts it aside, with, "That's no good, that will never sell," or it may be tak- en, and the firm gets an order. When the buyer receives a piece of the cloth, he cuts a few samples from it, and mails them to several manufac- turers, asking what they will make that for. He will likely receive fig- ures which may be from i/4 to 1 cent a yard lower than the price of the original maker. Then he gets in his work. He commences to worry the first manufacturer, telling him if he does not receive a certain amount of cloth in a given time, his order does not amount to so much as the paper it is written on. That is what the manu- facturer has been in dread of, can- cellation. Now he must figure how it can be done, and decides on overtime or night work. Then arises another trouble, the help. They either don't care to work overtime, or a few "agi- tators" get together and talk strike for more wages. The consequence is a strike, which means delay and great loss. The manufacturer can't afford to pay more wages, for he has been ground down to where he can only make from 2 to 4 cents per yard profit on his goods, but of course the help don't know this; they really believe that the firm is making lots of money. TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 21 Then, instead of forming a good sane committee to tall^ over the matter with the manufacturer, they elect a few men, who FIRST GET DRUNK, then make an unreasonable demand, which could not be met under any circumstances, which, of course, is refused. Then in their state of mind they misrepresent the manufacturer to the people, which causes more de- lay and bitt^^r feeling, and, consequent- ly, cancellatioii. Now the manufacturers must do their share towards making conditions. They must try and make their help feel that they are part of the business; (it will be hard, I admit) they must encourage their help with little words of good advice, and make them feel that they are looking after their wel- fare. Take two superintendents: one, when he meets his help, has a pleas- ant face and a pleasant word as h^j goes through the mill, and when a mis- take has been made, he looks at tlie matter calmly, and encourages and shows the persons who have made the mistake how to avoid a second occur- rence, and in many ways, shows that he is a human being. That man will get very good results, and the mill owner who has such a superintendent will be successful. The other looks as though he HATED HIMSELF, as he goes on his rounds, and snarls and snaps at everyone he meets, and acts as though he were the only one in that vicinity who had a right to live. Follow that man through the mill, and you will find men who will cheat him at every chance. In the wool room you will find wool not properly sorted; picker work carelessly done; card room the same; spinning room making from 20 to 30 per cent more waste than it should, besides making bad work for the weave and dressing rooms, which all practical men know means loss of production; consequently less profits for the firm. Nine out of every ten superintendents of this kind are men who never had to earn their liv- ing in any part of the mill, and sup- port a family on what they earned. I have spent 20 years as A WORKING MAN, and have seen a good many conditions, and have worked in every department of a woolen mill, in this and other countries, both as a mill man, and while erecting woolen machinery, which gave me lots of opportunities to see things as they were. I am willing to concede the manufacturer all that is due him, and if all help would do their duty, the manufacturers would do all they could for their help; of this I feel reasonably sure. NO. 17. DEFECTS IN A MILL. I notice that the subject of one of the articles written under defects and suggestions i& ambition. Now, a man may be full of ambition, and still not be able to manage a mill, (I mean a woolen mill.) Ais a rule, managers and superintendents are designers and some of them know no more about managing a mill than a man from the picking room (not as much). To be a manager or superintendent a man should have a practical knowledge of every department in the mill, and know when he has overseers that know their business. Take the card room, for example. How many man- agers are using cheap wool oil od their stock, and thinking they are sav- ing money? I claim they are losing money, and lots of it. They don't get the strength in their yarn, it don't spin as well, or weave as well, therefore It comes back in waste. Then, again, look at the cards in TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. some of the mills that are called good mills, you will see some of the first breakers running with two or three workers, with half of the wire broken out, and half a dozen sheets on th3 cylinder with no wire in them; the second breaker the same, and some- times the finisher as well. How can you get quality or quantity with con- ditions like that? Sometimes it is the carder's fault, but if the carder can't get supplies to keep these things In shape, then I say it is the manager's fault. I could keep on writing for a day on just such things as that, for it will be the same all through the mill. No. 18. — COTTON CARDING. There are a great many changes nec- essary in the carding room of a cotton mill, in order to attain the strong- est of yarn, and to eliminate to a large degree, the unnecessary amount of waste done in every department in the mill. I know of a mill that has lately discarded its intermediate breaker, which, in the opinion of the writer, is one of the best moves that could be made in any cotton mill. This mill makes carded yarns as fine as 80s out of li^-inch stock, and the quality of roving and yarn is excellent. But it must be understood that more care and attention must be given to the fill- ing of the automatic feed boxes, and to closing the grid bars for dirty cotton, and to opening them when using clean cotton to attain an even lap in this sys- tem of picking. Sometimes when the grid bars are set closer together, a space is left between the feed roll, and the first bar; in this case an extra bar should be placed in this space, in order to receive any ben- efit from the closing; ui me Dars. Un- der this system constant watchfulness must be given to the cone belts, to see that the belt is not too light, in order that the belt shipper be allowed to move quickly, but to have the cone belt tight enough so that no slipping of the driving cone will occur. THE BREAKER BEATER should be of the ordinary blade type, and kept well sharpened, (but not to a knife edge) to open the cotton properly. The finisher lapper beater should be of the carding type to clean the cotton and straighten out the fibres, thus presenting to the card, fi- bres in a more parallel order. In the preceding system every working flat will do the same amount of comb- ing, and not depend upon the first flats to disentangle the fibres, as done In most mills, but to have every fiat do the same amount of work; that is, to have every flat remove the smaller and lighter impurities (impurities of too light nature to be removed by the ac- tion of the beaters), and do the same amount of combing. It will be found in this system that the fibres have re- tained their nature, owing to less beat- ing, for we do beat the cotton too much. On the card, set the licker-in to the cylinder with a 12-1,000 gauge; some set as close as 8-1,000, but this is wrong, because no combing takes place at this point, and by setting away the danger of injuring the wire and the cylinder, and puncturing the screen when a lap is allowed to run out, is not as great. For a print cloth mill, the card sliver should not exceed 50 grains per yard; the finished drawing, 60 grains per yard; slubber roving, 60 hank; in- termediate roving, 1.65 hank; fine rov- ing, 4.5 hank. If the above system is given a trial, it will be found that less waste will be made, and a more compact bobbin of roving, and stronger yarn. No. 19. TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 23 WEAVING TERRY TOWELS. The standard terry weave requires four harnesses and is drawn in 1-8-2-4. The harnesses are raised in the fol- lowing order: First pick, first and third and reed is held stationary; second pick, second and third are raised, and reed is pulled back; third pick, first and fourth harnesses are raised, and reed is again pulled back. The selvage threads are drawn in the third and fourth harnesses, ex- cepting three threads on each side of the warp, which are drawn in the sec- ond harness, all three in the same eye. This produces a kind of tape sel- vage, and hence, prevents the selvage from getting too tight. It is very important to have the har- nesses properly set in any kind of weaving, but it is especially so in this class of goods, on account of the two warps having such a great difference in tension. It is found ad'\4sable to give the second harness about one inch more lift than is given to the oth- er three to prevent these slack ends from sagging down into the shed. The bottom warp is run very tight, while the top one has very little friction on the let-off^ except in weaving fancy borders, which have a portion woven plain, without any loops. Then the friction is automatically increased at this time. In order to obtain THE BEST RESULTS we give the top warp only about one- half of a full size, but give the bottom one a fairly heavy size. This light sizing of the pile warp enables us to get an even, soft and regular loop. I wish to emphasize the importance of having a dry atmosphere in all terry weave rooms. When there is any ex- cessive humidity, the top warp rolls up with the bottom one back of the lease rods, and gives no end of trouble, r would recommend a humidity of about 60 per cent for terry work. The lease rods are put in quite dif- ferently from the ordinary method of leasing a four-harness warp. The back one is simply to separate the two warps. The front one is inserted with second and third harnesses up and first and fourth down. This work runs best without any temples at all, as the loops will continually give trouble when they are used. It is advisable to have an arrangement for lifting the take-up panel out of contact with its gear for the first two picks after a plain stripe has been woven, and the pile started again, or else thin places will occur at this point. In light pick goods of this sort it is very necessary to have an even and regular let-off motion. When using a friction let-off, be careful to keep rope or chain wiped off and free from grease or any other foreign matter. I find that No. 14s warp and No. 14s filling, using a No. 12s reed, four threads per dent gives best results. No. 20. COTTON SPINNING. We have different defects come up before us from time to time for dis- cussion, but I have never heard of nor seen any discussion of the subject of running belts through the floor from one room to another. There are two sides of the question to look at, from my point of view. We will assume I was going to build a mill for ring and mule spinning, and use steam or water power. The engineer, or architect would draw plans for driving two rooms with one line of shafting, and drive the frames upstairs, and the mules in the same room as the shaft- ing. What would be the result? In the first place, it saves a lot of belt- ing and shafting, also it saves a little oil. But does it save power? I don't think it does, for on account of running short belts through the floor to the spinning frames, you have a harder drive, as you have to keep your belts 24 TEXTILE DEFECtS AND SUGGESTIONS. tight. And in the second piace, your two rooms are not as safe in regard to tires and water where there are a iot of belt holes. Also we will assume, you are very particular about a certain kind of filling on your mules, and when the mule spinner is having his atten- tion drawn to some other thing, the ring spinner up in the room above may be cleaning or sweeping, and down comes a lot of waste right on the yarn that is being spun. It runs in on the filling, and gets in the cloth, and no- body knows where it comes from, be- cause he didn't see it. And another thing, supposing you have a fire in your spinning room, and you use quite a lot of water, WHAT IS THE RESULT? You get part of it down in the room below, and probably get the rolls all wet, and the leather stripping off, be- sides spoiling the yarn, all on account of belt holes through the floor. It is true there is little improvement with the belt guards, but they can't stop everything. The other side of the question is, should we get better re- sults from driving each room seperate- ly? Well, in my opinion, we would. In the first place each room would have just its own waste and sweepings from the floor. They would not get half of it down below from the room above, and what would be the result? Why, cleaner rooms, cleaner floors, cleaner machines, and last, and best of all, cleaner and better work. In the second place, you could regulate your humidity in each room to meet the re- quirements of the class of work you are running. Whereas, if you have a lot of belt holes through the floor, you are going to get humidity from the room above, as the pulleys up above draw it down from the room above, and then you wonder why the work runs better in one room than another. In my opinion there is little to say in regard to the advantage of running one shaft for two rooms, as I don't see much advantage myself. Perhaps some other readers of your paper could enlighten us more on the subject, as I am only one of the many readers, and that is my idea. And in my conclu- sion, I must say that I think better results could be obtained all around, both in good, clean, work, and clean help, besides being healthier for the operatives, and I might say it woula be a good deal better for the under- writers in regard to insurance rates, etc., as I think mills would be safer from fires, if each had the driving In their own room. No. 21. "STICK-TO-ITIVENESS." In looking through the "Defects and Suggestions" department of your pa- per, the writer's attention was called to an article headed "Ambition," and in a spirit of friendly rivalry, 'I would like to say to the author of that ar- ticle that ambition is all right as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough, and in the following article I will try and explain what I mean. It is true that ambition and "stick- to-itiveness" do not enter directly into the manufacture of cloth, but if the reader will stop and think a little, he will be convinced that those two qual- ities (especially the latter) indirectly save mill corporations a great deal of expense. The word which heads this article is a New England word, and is one of the strong characteristics of the New England people. " Stick- to-itive- ness" and tenacity are synonymous terms. Of course, we have all heard those expressions, "Stick to it. It will make a man of you," or "Stick to it, you'll be a man before your mother," etc.; and the little fellow thus admon- ished, stuck to it, and invariably suc- ceeded in doing what he intended to do. Some folks say that ambition is what impels a person onward and ud- TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 29 ward to the goal he desires, but in the writer's estimation, "stick-to-itiveness" has more to do with it than ambition. Ambition is nothing without GRIT TO CARRY OUT the project. Ambition will make a man want to do a thing, but he might con- tinue to want to do, and never accom- plish anything, and ambition might compel him even to make one attempt, and he'd fail, and give it up, but it is the "stick-to-itiveness" in a man's make-up that accomplishes things in the end. There is not a single Ameri- can citizen in any mill in this country but has the ambition to be something better than he is — why that is human nature ; but it is the ' ■stick-to-itiveness" that makes the overseers, superintend- ents and agents in our mill life. Most successful mill men can look back in their varied mill careers, and remem- ber the time when it was not ambition that carried them over the rough places; it was the sick-to-itiveness" that won the battle; that "try-again" in him, that got there. The "powers that be" in the office demanded certain things, and said so and so (naming some other mill) was doing thus and so, and asked why it could not be done here. Well, in some cases the over- seer would get mad, and quit, and in other cases the overseer would say, "We'll see what we can do," and pro- ceed to do it. A CASE IN POINT. The selling agent of a mill will send along a sample of cloth, and write that it is the kind of finish he wants on the goods. Well, the manager takes a trip down to the boss finisher, and says to him, "There, match that." Well, pos- sibly that boss finisher thought he was getting an A-1 finish on his goods, but when he examines this new sample, he finds his finish is not in it, so he pro- ceeds to experiment with his starch, his steam, his calendar, etc., and after sticking to it a while, he succeeds in matching the finish desired. in ^npth^r c^,sethe superintendent of a certain mill goes off on a short va- cation, and while away the crank-pin on his Cooper-Corliss engine proceeds to get hot, and all the engineer can do will not keep it cool. He stops the engine, cools it off, and works on it a while; starts it up, and it continues to heat. He worries over it for a day or so, then gives it up in disgust, and goes on a big drunk (took sick he said). The manager telegraphs for the superintendent to come back from his vacation. He comes back, and pro- ceeds to stick to it; and after worry- ing over it considerably, he finds the cause of the trouble, remedies the de- fect, and all is well. Many a man has had the ambition to do a certain thing, and after one or two failures in the attempt, has given it up in disgust. Another man comes along with that self-same ambition the other fellow had, but he sticks to it and succeeds. Of course, the writer of this article could go on and cite NUMBERLESS CASES of "stick-to-itiveness" that accomplish- ed things; cases that are fresh in our minds to-day. What got Cook and Peary to the North Pole? "Stick-to- itiveness." What caused the Wright brothers to be such successful avia- tors? "Stick-to-itiveness." Ambition is naught unless it is coupled with that grit that makes a man try again, and anyone who has ever worked in a cotton mill knows that it takes more than ambition to get there. Let me give you a case where "stick-to-itive- ness" and a little ingenuity worked wonders in a slasher-room. This mill in question was making fancy ging- hams, and a good proportion of the pat- terns called for double beam dobbie work. Now, for a while this extra beam had to be worked separately from the balance of the warps on the slasher; that is, it was sized in the dye- house, beamed by itself, and did not get with the other warps until it reached the loom. Now, to obviate 26 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. the extra sizing of this dobbie beam our superintendent RIGGED UP A CONTRIVANCE on the slasher, so it could be sized with the balance of the warps. On the front end of the slasher-bonnet he at- tached a roller, with forked slots at each end, in which was placed the small dobbie beam, this beam being held to the roller by means of leather straps and weights. Right out in front of this roller was attached a coarse reed through which the yarn was run to give it the desired spread, when it reached the dobbie beam a;bove. This whole arrangement was driven by a belt from the tin measuring roll on the front frame of the slasher. The above system allowed the dobbie-beam to get the same size and the same tension as the balance of the warps; therefore, it wove better, and also saved some slight expense. Another case in this same mill where some expense was saved was in the warper-room in the following manner: The capacity of the creels on a bowell ball warper Is about 600 ends; but it Is very seldom they are run up to their full limit, as most mills round here, when they want a 300 or a 400 end warp, cut the mill down to that amount, and run their warps accordingly, thereby les- sening the capacity of the machine one-third, one-fourth, or one-fifth, as the case may be. ONE METHOD. Now, in this particular mill that I speak of, the superintendent has taken off the two-prong traverse fork which is always sent with a Lowell warper, and substituted a four prong fork, and he is thereby enabled to run his warp- ers up to their full capacity in this manner. Say, for instance, he wants a chain of 350 ends for black; 200 ends for red, and 50 ends for yellow. He runs the entire 600 threads of his creel, and they are split into the re- quired size by this four-prong traverse fork, just before the yarn goes to the roll. These different sized warps run to- gether through this funnel, and make a solid ball, and are divided when they are wet out in the dyehouse. The above arrangement is not to be con- founded with the short traverse sys- tem, that is sometimes applied to Low- ell warpers. The Lowell short trav- erse arrangement only allows of mak- ing three or four chains of equal size, because when you try to make chains of different sizes, they build up on the roller very unevenly, while the ar- rangement we have allows the yarn of any size chains to be run together. ANOTHER CASE of "stick-to-itiveness," and I'm done. These last few years sulphur dyeing on raw cotton has been all the rage, and with it came its good qualities and its bad qualities. In our dye- house we dyed for some outside mills besides our own, and it necessitated running the dye plant day and night to keep up. One of our best customers wanted a great deal of sulphur black, and we had lots of trouble with fires in our Kitson dryer, especially when running on this particular color. The fire would burst out suddenly every time the heat would get beyond a cer- tain degree, and the fans would fill the whole inside of the dryer with fire, and sometimes it got outside and caused considerable damage. The whole mill, from the treasurer down to the fellow who ran the dryer, wrestled with the problem of how to prevent those fires or get them out the quickest when they did occur, and it remained for the superintendent to solve that problem. After ^'sticking to it" for a while, he evolved the follow- ing scheme: At each end of the dryer there is a drain pipe, running from the steam coil within. To each of these drain pipes he attached an extra piece of pipe and a valve, and elbowed it back into the dryer. While everything was running all right, of course, this valve remain- ed shut, but should the man on the TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 27 dryer smell any fire, all he had to do was to open these two valves quickly, and that live steam would pour into the dryer and smother the fire in an instant, before any of the cotton was even scorched. It was a very simple arrangement, but it saved the company many a dollar, and shows what a little "stick-to-itiveness" will accomplish. One other mill in our neighborhood had a sulphur black fire, and burned up its entire dye plant, and scared the management so badly that they quit the sulphur business entirely. They needed some of the stuff that heads this article. The above explanations may be crude, but I think anyone with a rea- sonable amount of cotton mill intelli- gence will understand them. No. 22. CONCERNING SECONDARY BATHS. I have been thinking for a day or two that I would send you an idea that often occurs to me concerning a de- fect in wool and worsted mill scour- ing arrangements, with some attempt to suggesit improvement. This is In- tended as a postscript or appendix to what I have written to you about try- ing to save steam and heat about tHe dyeroom. You know that there are lots of places where not only raw wool material is washed, but likewise yarns, tops, and cloth besides. In other plants loose wool and cloth is washed, while in others again only raw stock and skein stuffs. Well, what I was going to say is this: Each of these departments is confined within its own limits, with- out being related to the others. I would arrange them rather 'to work to each other's advantage, and ithereby save time and outlay to the firm. The generally accepted method is to wash yarns and tops in heated baths con- taining ammonia, alkali, or soap, or any two or all three of these, then to rinse in warm water, and finally to run the baths down the drain when we are done. It is much the same with pieces. When we have used the baths from our cloth scouring we run them down the river. The raw wool, how- ever, is very dirty, and though the bowls get exceedingly foul we endeav- or to use them as long as the sheep can get through the mud. Truth to tell, we are sometimes obliged for va- rious reasons to use them long after their highest usefulness has gone. Now, I believe w^e might have what we throw away in the first named branches of scouring to assist in do- ing better work and more of it with less trouble and expense in the last case. T would therefore suggest that, so far as can be contrived, all the al- kali, ammonia, soap, and warm rins- ing baths from the washing of worsted tops and from yarns be flowed over, or PUMPED INTO A TANK adjacent to the wool washing machine, or at least convenient thereto; from thence to be drawn upon without im- pediment or loss of time for making up fresh liquors. While it would be neith- er feasible nor expedient to secure all the scouring and rinsing waters from the cloth washers, yet I dare say our friends the finishers will bear me out in saying that the cleanest and choic- est of them could well be retained. It is to be remembered th^t not only are these baths softened and laden V7ith a certain amount of available detergent, but they are also above normal temperature, and often to an important extent. Besides this, they are not at all dirty in comparison to those within a wool washer. Surely, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTION^. then, there is a money investment in all these waste waters worthy of con- sideration. If we could use them af- terwards to cleanse our raw wools we might get the advantage of the heat and alkalies they contain in addition to saving time frequently spent in waiting fo>r steam heat when the gauge registers low on the boiler. Would it not, then, be a really good thing to arrange the departments as I propose? The expense involved would not be great, and when the sys- tem was once installed it would be practically nothing. With a tankful of these warm suds on top at the wool scourer's elbow, he could many times do better work without loss of time, or increased cost to his employer by run- ning off at least a large portion of the filthy liquid In his machine three or four times a day, replacing it with an equal volume from the cistern. The mere fact of some modern wool wash- ing machines being already equipped with bath replenishing pumps would make no material difference. I have now in mind a practical means of util- izing otherwise wasted and valuable latherr» and heated and softened rinse waters available for any kind of equip- ment. NO. 23. BAD WORK IN COTTON SPINNING. Bad work is not always the fault of the cotton. I have seen the best of cotton used, and the work turn out to be bad. I have 'also seen waste and strip- ping mixed with 25 per cent of good straight cotton, and made to run fair- ly well, considering the stock. There are a dozen or more places between the dyehouse and spinning room, where the staple of the cotton can be cut or injured to such an extent, as to cause bad work. As it is my intention to deal mainly with the spinning room, I shall run slightly over a few places in the other rooms, where and how good cotton can be made to run badly. Let us take the dyehouse first. If the man in charge of this department does not un- derstand dyeing properly, he can very easily make the cotton so hard that it will be very difficult to card. The dv- er can use certain chemicals that will make the best of cotton run badly. One way in which cotton is injured in the dyeing is by not using enough softener, or using enough salt to make the cotton soft. I could proceed from the dyehouse to picker room, and point out plac- es there, but nearly every one familiar with pickers knows how easily the fibre of cotton can be damaged here; also how to prevent the same; there- fore I shall proceed to the card room and point out a few important points there. First, see that the cards have NO SLACK CLOTHING, then see that they are ground and set perfectly; do not try to card too fast, in order to put through more pounds than will card properly; If you do, you are certainly injuring the staple. Next take the drawing, slubbers, speeders and intermediate frames. See that these are set right; do not overdraft them, for by so doing you are cutting the staple of cotton, which will result in bad work in the spinning room. Remember, if the work runs badly in the carding, it will do likewise in the spinning. Now let us go on to the spinning room and no- tice where bad work can be made. We will grant that the roving is delivered from the card room to the spinner in very good condition. There is no rea- son whatever why it should not spin well, providing the spinning frames are properly adjusted. Now, I wish to state as clearly as I possibly can, how TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 29 the roving can be made to run badly. I shall contrive to point out a few places that are generally overlooked. The first place where work can be made to run badly is in THE ROLLS, and the way they are set. ly you should be spinning cotton with a %-inch staple, see that the rolls are set so as not to overdraw this amount. In one place I have in mind, the spinner com- plained of the work running so badly that he had to double up the hands in order to make any headway. 1 knew that the roving was coming right from the card room; therefore, I had no hesitancy in telling the spinner that the fault was in the spinning frames. Upon examination we found that the rolls were set to take cotton with an inch staple, instead of % inch; this naturally made the yarn run badly. The second way where yarn can be made to run badly is by the top shells being allowed to run dry. This will act on the yarn almost the same as setting the rolls too open. It will cause fine places to appear in the yarn, and add over 50 per cent to the breakage. The third place is in the traverse rail, or as some call it, the ring rail, not being set right. There is what is termed a fast and slow speed to this rail. Now should this rail go down on the fast speed and come up on the slow, it will cause the very best of work to have a tendency to run badly. Always see that this rail comes up on the fast speed, and goes down on the slow, and you will find work runs much better. Of course, this is only an idea of how to set the rail. I could not explain thoroughly on paper just how to set it to be perfectly right, but will say that the speed of the rail should be evenly divided in order to attain good work. Watch these few points and keep your clearer boards clean, machines well oiled, and you will have good re- sults. NO. 24. SPINNING WOOL In the matter of spinning on woolen mules we will start with the roping as you get it from the cards, and qual- ity and quantity are the things re- quired. If the istock has been properly cleaned and oiled it will give the carder a fair chance to do his part, as you want the roping even and free from twists, and it is the boss spin- ner's business to see that he gets good roping, for often you will get imper- fect work because the card cleaners have not got round soon enough. The result is twisty and lumpy roping, and often a few spools made when the card is in that condition will make bad spinning and thereby lessen the pro- duction and make weak and uneven yarn. The boss spinner, then, has to watch for this and report to the carder at once. In changing to cotton or other short stock see that your roping is not too tight as it leaves the spool drums or you will have bad spinning. This may seem a simple matter, but it is not always noticed as soon as it should be. Another thing is to keep the rollers as clean as possible, as a little lump of grease or a piece of waste that has got into the journal and projects a lit- tle would keep lifting the top roller and allow the end to slip out. I have seen boys keep piecing up the same end time after time and never looking for the cause, which was as stated above. Have the roping the right weight so that you have good spin- ning, but not too light or you will not have good yarn. For medium work a draft of about 35 to 40 per cent Is right. If you have not ENDLESS SPINDLE BANDS on be careful about tying the other kind on so that they are not too tight or the mule will run heavy as well as cause tin rollers to break or slip at couplings. Do not have your drive belt too tight, as that causes the mule TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. to start up too suddenly and causes breakages. For coarse work, say from one run and heavier, I prefer a spin- dle 10 V2 inches above collar boards and 2V2 inch gauge, 24 ends to spool. Use paper tubes 9 inches long, as they are lighter than wood bobbins and re- quire no packing or any other encum- brance on the spindle and will allow of greater speed. The yarn wound under in doffing you lift up with the cop when the accumulation demands, and this is much easier than cutting off, which is generally a disagreeable job. Have the spinners on day work and keen sufficient help to hustle the doffing. The overseer knows as to the quantity each mule should turn off, so there is not much chance for a lazy spinner. Eternal vigilance is the price of success in spinning as in other things. No. 25. A DYEHOUSE DEFECT. T wish to say a word on the working of the dyehouse in cotton mills where there are some mistakes being made. The first thing for any mill to consider is hiring a dyer that understands his business, and any man that is a man will use his judgment for the interest of his company. Sometimes the super- intendent or manager will go to the dyehouse and find the dyer getting along all right. But the first thing you know the superintendent comes and says to the dyer, *'We will be bound to cut some of the expense in tnis room." **Well, how are you go- ing to cut?'' He will say by cutting a man or two out. As I have said, the dyer is getting along all right, so here goes the man or two, as the case may be. So they have cut on a small scale — one man. The dyer starts off with one man less than it takes to keep up his work. He finds his work getting behind, and after a while the mill Is right up with the dyehouse. So I will try to show you where the mill has lost more than it has gained. Take raw stock. On a small scale it takes three dyeings per day, 1,000 pounds each. The mill wants dark blue. The dyer goes to work and dyes 1,000 pounds of blue. By the time he gets that done he is out of brown. He empties the vat and starts Ms brown. When he gets that done he is out of black. Out it goes, in comes the black. Either one of those baths costs more than it would have cost the company to give help enough to keep his work up, cost more water, more steam, more dye- stuff, than if he could have had the time to keep a standing bath and use it. There are more wayis than one to save cost. Be sure you are right and then go ahead. No. 26. WASTE IN COTTON MILLS. The waste box should receive more attention than is usually given it. In a great many mills, especially in the South, more money goes into the waste box than is paid out in wages to all the overseers in the mill; money that was paid out for good cotton, and which should be turned back into the treasury of the company with a prof- it; instead, it is sold as waste at less than cost, hence, a loss. Few overseers realize the necessity of looking after the waste closely. Take the weave room, for instance, where the waste loss is usually the greatest; all wasted in this room costs the company more money than any other waste, because it has paid for the carding, spinning, spooling, warp- ing, beaming and slashing. All this added to the cost of the raw cotton makes an enormous amount. There are numerous ways to pre- vent this waste. We will first take THE YARN BEAM. The usual way to start the yarn on TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 31 this beam is to warp it. An improve- ment over this method is to fasten a piece of heavy cloth to the yarn beam, long enough to reach up on a level with the front roll of the slasher; have button holes in the end of this piece of cloth, into which tie the end of the warp; then start the slasher in the usual way. When a beam of this kind runs empty on the loom, all the warp waste you have is from the whip roll to fell of cloth (less than a yard) because, with the wooden beam cov- ered with cloth, the knots where the warp is tied to this clo^th (usually aibout four) will run up to the whip roll in weaving off before it is neces- sary for them to be cut out. This method of fastening warps to the loom yarn beam will prevent at least 50 pounds of waste per month on each 100 looms on medium counts and much more on coarse yarns. Another place to prevent the accu- mulation of waste is in the care and attention given THE FILLING, and in properly adjusting the filling motion on the looms. The weave room overseer should be constantly on the lookout for bad fill- ing, keeping the spinner and superin- tendent informed of the condition of the filling received daily, thereby pre- venting a lot of waste from bad fill- ing. Wherever Northrop looms, with the feeler motion or pick finder, are used, there should be a competent man to examine the feelers every day, for if the feeler does not reach far enough into the shuttle, it will knock out the quill too soon, thereby causing a lot of unnecessary waste to be left on the quill. With the yarn beam covered with cloth, as above described, and the overseer constantly on the lookout as to the filling, the percentage of waste ought to be very low. No. 27. DYEHOUSE DEFECTS. Water and steam are our best friends, and in some cases prove to be enemies. So when you have good water and plenty of real live isteam, they are the best help towards giving good produc- tion of the best quality. In a dyeing plant next in line comes the machines, such as dye ket- tles of various kinds. Of late, there have been many new inventions, but sitill we have quite !a number of the old defects cropping up at various times ; some in different forms have al- so come along with the new improve- ments, and together with the evolu- tion of dyes and drugs used, you must agree when goods such as pieces, stock and yarns, are in a good condi- tion on their delivery at the dyehouse, it is only with the greatest care that they are sent out again, in as strong and perfect condition as they were when delivered. Any way, we will start with a thought that all things are equal, for the desired results to be given. Having a plentiful supply of steam and water, entering the goods into the dye bath, whatever they be, at the va- rious temperatures required, see that they are given a proper and lengthy time to reach a boil. It is very difficult for some kettle or machine tenders to know whether the WATER IS BOILING or only bubbling, or at what rate of heat or temperature they are bringing it along. It is by picking out some diligent and intelligent man or men in the crowd of workers, and giving him a limited quantity of kettles to attend to, according to the quality of the goods and location of kettles, that satisfactory results may be reached. Have them strictly watch such ma- chines, and nothing else. Give ithem S2 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIO^JS. a Fahrenheit temperature glass, with instructions as to its use, and by ju- dicious treatment by overseers and second hands, those men will, in a very short time, be able to regulate the boils. They can be also got into the way you require them to be treated as to cool-downs which is another import- ant feature, also washing off when re- quired. 1 wish to suggest a quarter-inch by- pass in all steam pipes connected with dye kettles. This, in many instances, saves steam and accidents, such as a kettle boiling over, or boiling too hard. When boiling any dye products, the main valve is liable to be a little loose, and with pressure opens up up- on its own hook, so when a kettle is brought to a boil usually the quarter- inch by-pass will just keep it so, and the main valve remains closed, saving wear and tear of same, and an undue amount of steam being used. It also allows a second hand, having fed the kettle, to leave it with confidence for a given tim^e, as Tom or Dick will for^ get anything they are asked to see to when otherwise employed. This is also worthy of notice on SOAP BOILING TANKS. When once they are fixed, all engi- neers and pipers who I have had do such work for me, say, why did they not think of so simple a thing? Al- though not an entirely new feature, T will allow It is too much overlooked by all users of steam who are crying out for economy in the line of steam or coal. I now offer a suggestion for piece dye kettle boiling, cooling and wash- ing: Take, for example, a feed box taking an ordinary kettle, 9 feet by 6 feet, drafted from back to front of box, within 2 feet, having a capacity for 500 pounds of cloth, arranged for 12 piec- es or less. The feed box is 11 inches wide, showing four pipes, preferably brass, below the water line, to ensure long life against salts, acids and steam; they also are a great preventa- tive against rust spots. Two pipes are for steam, sizes 1 inch or % pipe may go in some cases, valves to each. Two pipes are for water, valves to each pipe within easy reach, size of water pipe li^ inches, with a quantity of 1^ or % holes, enough to insure a free flow of water. There is one steam pipe and one water pipe from right and left hand. The holes in the steam pipes are % to 3-16, two rows in each pipe, 6 inches apart, one line straight up the centre; the second line on a slight angle inwards to box. It will be seen, toy putting the holes 6 inches apart on the two lines inter- mediately, they will come within 3 inches of each other. In this way the sprays combine, making an average circulation or iboil. There are two ordi- nary plugs, one at each corner of box, also two overflow pipes at the back of the kettle for cooling purposes. THE COLD WATER entering in the 'box forces the heat to the back, thus calling for overflow pipes in the back, more usually found in the front of most kettles, as they cool off behind some by-sprays. This suggestion given ensures the cloth or yarn against cold water until such times as required. I further suggest a board. This ensures against streaks, etc., from any dyes having been im- properly dissolved, as all liquor newly added must then go through some water before striking the cloth, the board acting as a preventative against many troubles from additions. SUGGESTIONS. Set the pipes good and firm upon 3- inch by 4-inch blocks. This raises them up from the kettle bottom, and allows free access to clean any flocks or sediment from or around the pipes; also have the feed box at least 11 inch- es wide, and the rack of feed box stand 2 inches above the bottom of the kettle, to allow free drainage. This may appear a rather lengthy TiXTlLi bEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. ^3 article, but, desiring to make all de- tails as clear as possible, the writer wishes to say, should any explanations be further required, they will be given with the greatest of pleasure. No. 28. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. Part 1. All the readers of this paper have certainly noticed lately that in the building, the harvesting machinery, the automobile and the cotton and worsted machinery trades especially, the United States is foirging ahead of all nations. I think this country will lead the world in woolen machinery also and in the textile trade in gen- eral within a few years if we keep on doing our level best to improve our machinery and use the most modern ways to get the best possible work out of it. SHODDY MILLS. In rag picking, the bottom feed rolls of pickers ought to be twice as big as they are now in order, first, to get it as big as the top ones when necessary rags are wound around ithem; se-^ona, to get more hold on the ishort rags; third not to have the top ones pulling the rags any faster than the bottom ones; fourth, to be able to set the bot- tom ones as close to the heater as the top ones are when wound up with nec- essary rags. For returining to the feed apron, the flyings thrown back of the pickers should drop into a pipe as wide as the picker is, connect- ed by an elbow to a narrower one go- ing right over the feed apron near the picker's itop. Have a big fan for so many pickers connected with all the back pipes to blow those flyings right back over the feed apron through those pipes. WOOLEN MILLS. In the picking room boiling of oil and water' not over 170 degrees Fahrenheit should not be by guessing at it, as is done in some miKs. The emulsion should be used at once after boiling and none allowed to remain in the tank, otherwise the quality of the emulsion, the next time, would be doubtful, and cheaper looking goods are likely to be the resu'lt. In woolen mills using a good amount of shoddy, the picker man should examine the shoddy carefully and get acquainted with the kind and quantity of emulsion or oil they use on the rags of each kind in most of the shoddy mills to he able to figure out the proper amount of oil and water, or oil only, he wants on his mixings. On wool and shoddy and cotton and shoddy mixings a sheet should be fix- ed in front of the picker in order to have the whole stock drop in front of the picker and not allow the lighter stock to fly all around and have the shoddy only in front of the picker, causing an uneven mixing. Careless work in this department will cause trouble all over the mills. CARDING ROOM. The carding machines should be built with sitrippers and workers driv- ing outside of the frame. The present inside driving is a big draught pro- ducer, causes a loss of stock and time for cleaning up, a cause of fancy belts slippings and bad work all through the cards and often bad side ends on fin- ishers. There should be a screen waste saver in an endless apron under cards and garnett machines, the kind of screen seen on finishing machines in paper mills, and this apron running toward the back of the machine should deposit the waste over another cross narrow apron running toward the out- side of the machine where a small fan would suck it and blow it either back in the feed or in a duster or in any waste box. This combination of aprons could be used specially and profitably in shoddy carding, carpet mills, bedding factories, carpet com- forters, fiax mills, in all mills using 34 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. dry, dirty or short stock and in woolen mills generally. SPINNING ROOM. The steel tubes over faller wires in sections between each faller finger. Being lose over the wire they would be apt to prevent the breaking of ends in wear of wire when the mule backs in. There should be a small rod fixed on top of the carriage (back side of mule) in two sections, one on each side of the mule, driven by squaring band motion, catching broken ends, winding them around it, breaking chem a few inches from 'the rolls and so preventing the spinner from pick- ing them on the fly or oin the car- riage and from having coarse and soft ends wound up on the bobbins and showing up in the cloth. There should also be a casting with long slot, hold- ing an idle pulley, which could be moved in a minute against ithe beilts to tighten them up for a while when the machines run hard, in damp or cold weather especially. This pulley should be moved away from ithe belts as soon as the machines seem to run easier. In most mills all over ithe country they do not seem to realize that wihen it is possible to keep the yarn a few weeks they give a chance to the twis-t to set in, and that it holds its strength better on the loom and in the finish- ing room and makes better goods. A FEW HINTS. A monthly premium of $1 or so to every one of the help (especially those working by the piece), for regular cleanliness of his room and machines and for good work and behavior and good care of the waste, the judge to be the superintendent in small mills and the overseer of each department in big mills. TIhe good results of this scheme should pay largely in the long run for this premium's expemses. In mills where many foreigners and green hands are occupied, have the mills started up ten minutes earlier every morning and stop an hour earlier on Saturdays and let each overseer or a second hand stay an extra hour in the mills. Show tliem some good points about the work and teach them a few words of English as well. This, in my mind, should be a good way to make more skilful hands out of them and to Americanize them more quickly. Monthly meeting of overseers of each mill at the superintendent or agent's office to discuss topics concern- ing the mills. These topics should be chosen by the superiniteoident or agent at least two or three days before each meeting and each overseer should know them not less than one day be- fore the meeting. This would give every one a chance to express his own views and make these meetings very practical for the good of the mills. Part 11. I will now continue with a few mor^ suggestions regarding improvements to woolen machinery especially. It has occurred to my mind several times these last few years that some radical change ought to be made to perfect wool pickers, shoddy lumpers and card feeders, and for that purpose I would suggest the folllowing combinations: In front of each wool mixing picker or of lumpers in shoddy mills I would have two or three feeders connected to two or three one cylinder garnett machines. A pipe would take the stock from (the wool picker to the gar- nett machine feeders, and would be connected to the main pipe by a kind of a T, right between the picker and the garnett macihlnery feeders. The so-called main pipe would be the one the stock went through, from under the garnett machine combs to the stock bin or to the card room. The T pipe would permit the picking of easy card- ed stock without garnetting it. This combination would do away with cards, and metallic breasts, thereby avoiding chewing of easy carded stock; there would be no loss of time in the card TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 35 room to clean them, no rolling of stock wnen they get dirty, no loss of time, al- so by breast being choked up, especial- ly in shoddy mills. Two or three 61- inch garnetts could keep up to a 48- inch picker, thereby saving the cost of a number of first breaker b. easts. More garnett cleaning could be done also in the picker room without loss of time for the card's production, and better work done ail around. The carder could take care of the garnetts if nec~ essary, and space, so limited in some card rooms, could be saved in that way also. A grid under the garnetts would be practical also to save some waste. To overcome light and uneven feeds I would have A DOUBLE BOTTOM in the card feeder boxes, the top one made up of solid screen, distant about nve incnes from the spike apron, 12 mcnes or more higher than the present bottom one, and inclined down about three inches towards the spike apron. Between these two bottoms 1 would have an iron paddle moving back, and forth with iron, % inch wide, inch thick, smooth, flat fingers, seven inches long, two inches space between them, straight up and to be driven by the . feeder's main shaft at 30 strokes per minute. This paddle, in my mind, would overcome light feeds, bad work, loss of time, and spoiling of good stock, when there is not enough stock in the feeder's box to insure the proper amount of stock being delivered to the scale pan before it is knocked open by pressing the stock slipping down from the top bottom lightly against the spike apron, and insuiing a quicker delivery to the scale when there is not much stock in the feeder's box. There is no danger of the paddle being choked by the stock, as it would move freely be- tween tne two Doitomis. Tne dirt could drop down tnrough the top bottom, made up of a solid screen, and not in- terfere with the paddle which, being so fixed, would insure regular feeds as long as the stock lasts. A poor or dirty (splke apron is often the cause of uneven feeds, and this paddle would overcome such trouble, partially at least, by pressing the stock against it. Every carder knows that with the pres- ent system he has to get the feeder's boxes at least three-fourths full to insure even feeds. Many patent- ed appliances, quite interesting, have been tried lately by textile machine builders to overcome light feeds trouble, but none of them are the real thing. In suggesting the use of an iron paddle, I have also in mind to keep the comb from comb- ing out the long stock first in mixings made up of short and long blend, and also of having a man to watch the same feeder's box 15 or 20 minutes when a batch runs out. To prevent lumps and rags going through the card's feeders, chok- ing up the aprons, making un- even feeds, choking up the feed rolls, injuring the clothing, spoiling the stock, and reducing the quality and the amount of the work's production, 1 would have, near the top (back side) of spike apron an iron fan with four or five one-inch smooth, straight from blades, with a diameter of about isix inches outside of the blades, revolving backward, driven at about 150 turns per minute when the spike apron is running and hy it, set up just close enough to knock the lumps and rags off, and having a close fitting half iron sheet cover to make It throw the lumps and rags backward in the feeder's box or on some iron tray, and not forward, this being prevented by the half cover. A good, clean feeder's comb, set up close enough on a good, clean spike apron can dry most lumps and rags down, but how many patched up, old, dirty spike aprons are not running in a good many mills year in and year out, and combs set up away from the spike aprons because the latter does not do its work properly and in time, and in such a case lumps go through the feeder which the above fan would throw back in the feeder's 36 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. box. For this purpose part of the pres- ent feeder's cover could be removed to make room for this fan mthout any inconvenience to the istock in the box. Where a five or six-inch dickey is used on the first or second breaker, right over C centre of the doffer, I would suggest to have a two and one- half or three-inch one instead, and fixed under the fancy, set lightly in the doffer's wire, and with a No. 20 gauge to the fancy, to drive it by the doffer with a straight belt, and have it cloth- ed the isame way as the stripper, with wire two numbers finer than the dof- fer, and with same clothing as on the workers, except the hook of the wire, to be twice as long (leather clothing preferred). This way to set, run and clothe the dickeys, would shut the draft from the fancy, fsave some waste and cleaning up around the cards, keep the doffers' wire sharper, smoother and more even than with the old way of setting them. It would also give a chance to strip the doffers without tak- ing the dickeys off. ANOTHER WAY to prevent lumps going through the cards would be to have an iron roll, three inches in diameter, running for- ward as the cylinder, iset right under the centre of the latter, just cloise enough to knock the lumps or bits of rags down, this being done by two comb blades inserted in that iron roll, opposite each other, this roll to be driven by one of the istrippers. Sitill another way to break lumps would be to have a second tumbler, as big, clothed the same way, with the same wire, running forward, set just close enough to the regular tumbler to break any lumps and to the cylinder with a No. 24 Birmingham gauge, driv- en by the cylinder with a straight belt, and one-fourth faster than the reg- ular tumbler. Besides breaking any lumps, this second tumbler would save a good deal of waste drop- ping down from the bad or dirty tumbler by taking it to the cyl- inder. This second tumbler, of course, could be used only to break the lumps by setting It away from the cylinder. A grid or board under the i egular tum- bler is not recommended to save some waste, as when the latter gets dirty it rolls the stock between itself and the grid or takes it in inches to the cylin- der. Every carder knows that the tum- bler on the first breaker especially, gets most of the grease and dirt there is in the stock before the rest of the card gets dirty and a small roll, clothed with the same kind of clothing as the above suggested new dickey, running towards the cylinder, driven by the strippers and set in lightly into the regular tumbler, would be a good thing to keep it clean, smooth and sharp. Under the hanger, connecting double cards, a second one, set, clothed and run as the above second tumbler, would also save a good deal of waste. A (Serious trouble to overcome in woolen mills is uneven yarn caused by cards driving belts slipping on either one of the three machines where Ap- perly feeds are used or when either the first and second breaker are cou- pled up or the second breaker and the finisher. Every carder and woolen manufacturer knowis, of course, that A PARTIAL REMEDY for that trouble iis to use creels in- stead of Apperly feeds and overhead rovings driving from one card to the other, ibut this system is more expen- sive than with the Apperly feeds, as more hands have to be employed to watch the creels and handle the spools, and so creels are discarded in a good many woolen mills for this reason or for another. The European system of weighing the stock coming out of the first breaker feeding it evenly by hand to the second breaker, coming out of it on a lattice apron formed into a lap of a certain thickness which is handled to the finisher by skilled grown help is certainly a good way to make even yarn but it is not in favor in this coun- try for three good reasons which are; TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 37 Scarcity of iskilled hands to do such work, the greater number of them to be hired, that is, one person for each set of cards, and higher wages paid in American woolen mills. The latter system might be called individual drive card system and the slipping of belts is not an inconvenience for its regu- larity. Why cannot we do away witfi this cause of belts slipping by remov- ing driving belts altogether and keep our cards coupled up and use Apperly feeds more economically by driving each card with an electric motor (on the tioor, not on the ceiling) with an automatic starting box and a circuit breaker over each card, this in case of accident. To make this system pay, we must overcome, however, the following obstacles, at least partially, which are: Extra horse power in motors needed to start up the cards, gear or chain drive connected to each cylinder and no very noticeable slip- ping on the part of each motor and reduce the expense of such installa- tion to a price lower than it is now for any electric motor as the great number of them built would permit. A group of one or two sets of cards, all the machines side by side, driven by the same motor, might be practical also, and I think most of the textile machines will be driven in groups by electric motoris in our most pro- gressive American mills within a few years after some problems regarding electrical drive are worked out suc- cessfully. In finishing this article 1 desire to call the attention of all the textile associations of manufacturers and overseers in general, and of the wool- en manufacturers and textile machine builders especially, to the advantage of giving due consideration to most of all the new ideas and suggestions and comparisons made by all the con- testants of "Defects and Suggestions" for the good of all textile people in the future. The writer will be pleased to give any further information about any one of these suggestions to any readers of this paper interested in tiiem. No. 29. A FEW SUGGESTIONS. I wish to make a few suggestions as to the general conditions now existing in the southern cotiton mills, that is, a majority ot them. It seems that the one great object is to get a large num- ber of pounds through without enough atteintion to the quality of the prod- uct. You can rush it through the card- ing (and spinning departmentis. But when you do this to such an extent as to be detiri mental to the running of the yarn in the weave room, your rushing proeess stops, and all your bad work is shown up in the defects in the cloth. The first, and fair from least, cause fo'r defective yarn its the mixing of the cotton in the opening room. The cotton used in the mills is bought from different places, and grown on differ- ent kinds of so-ils, land under different conditioniS. And say, fo^r insitaince, you buy a 100 or 500 bale lot, graded as miiddling. Test the length of the staple in each bale by taking a small sample from each side of the bale, and 'see if you don't find some of the bales have staple from % inch to l^ inch longer than the reist. Theire may not be but very few in the lot. But it doesn't take but very little of the long istaple to make your work run bad, if you have your machine set up for shorter staple, or vice versa, tnd there are no settings that will turn out a good prod- uct from this mixing. Most mills have bad running work for a day or so, a lot of cockly yarn and uneven yarn, and then probably the work will run good for a w^hile, then bad again, and most of the time 'the trouble will be found dn the miixing room. WASTE. JNlo'st mills use more or less of their waste made in the carding and spin- ning departments, and where this is done great care should be taken to TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. ev-einly diisitribute it thro'ugih tthe mix- ing, so that dit will get thoroughly mix- ed with the cotton, so as -to prevent it from going through m buncheis. This is not looked after as elo'sely as it shO'Ulld be i;n the majority of mills, and Is tihei cause of a lot of bad running work. It is the "little things" like this that cause so much trouble in mills. While any one of the ''little things" alone wouldn't amount to very much, if you start at the open- ing room, and take them all up through to the finiished yarn, and put them together, yo'u have a "big thing." Anid as I said at the ibegilnning, the greateist evil is caused by overcrowd- ing the different machlneis, putting too much through the picker room ma- chinery aind cardis, thereby turning out a sliver full of foreign subistanees, such as motes and leaf, overspeeding and drafting, etc, and by this method it is impoisiSiible to turn out a first-class product. You can get the pounds this way, and get the inside' cost per pound down to a very low figure, but does it increase your earnings, or in other words, do you gain more iby getting your cost at the mill down thaoi you loise iby putting an inferior quality of goods on the market? If so, I am not fMe to isee how. But I notice the mo'st successful mills are the ones that pay more attention to quality. First get quality anid then all the quan- tity yoai positively can to maintain that isitandard. No. 30. WOOLEN DRESSING. In considering roomis and machines, where defects are made, we too often overlook the dresising room. The dressing of warps is a very important factor, as it is very easy to cause bad cloth by poor dressing. I ishall en- deaver to take up in detaiil, isome of the points that are overlooked in most dresislng rooms, buit wihicih cause a great deal of bad work, and said bad work is laid to all rooms instead of the dress- ing room, where it rightly belongs. First, it is the dresser's duty to see that the warp leaves his room in a perfect condition. In order to do so, he must ever Ido on the watch for broken ends, long knots and so forth. If dressing with a pin reel, care should be taken to iset up the pins right, then set the reel right, so that the yarn will divide evenly between the pins. Should one or more sections build up on one side, more than the other, the result will be section marks, which will show^ on the finis'hed cloth. When the first section of the warp is started, we use a full set of spools. This generally requires the weights to be set all the way out on the pad- dles in order to have enough friction to keep the yarn from running slack. These weights shoiuld be moved back a notch or more, om each and every section, in order to have the same tent ion on the yarn as at the start. This is overlooked by a majority of dressers, who never move their weights from start to finish, as long as the yarn runs well. The result is that each section after the first is reeled tighter than the previous, and not only stains the yarn, but causes more breakage in the weaving, also uneven cloth. Another VERY BAD FAULT, of most dressers on a pin reel is after making the first section of the warp, they continue with the next, and go straight across the reel until finished. This should be avoided by all means, as it not only causes streaky cloth, but forms uneven twills on each side of the loom. Should the cloth be a twill weave, this means that the twill will be fine on one side and gradu- ally become wider at the other side. To prevent this we musit first drees section 1, then push reel over and dress the last isecitiotn, and continue to build into centre from each end. In order to make this plain, will say we use 8 sections. First dress section 1, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 39 then dress secition 8, then iseotiom 7, then dress sections 2 and 3, then sec- tions 6 and 5, and the last section will be 4. By dresislng this way, you will overcome a lot of cook ley cloth, also ishades, -slack selveges and un- even twills, which are caused by the f(jrmer way of dressing. No. 31. MATERIALIZATION OF WASTE. The less waste you have in whatever business you have to execuite, the better for the business. Now any mill which has to handle worrstedis itn large or smiall quamities, at today's prices, which oan use up its own waste to advantage will benefit greatly when the inventory comeis to be taken. Take a weave room with 100 loomis, for 111- ustnation, weiaving woirsted warps. To miake perfect cloth you must have spare ends, or threiads, extra, in case of soft (twisted ithreads, islubby threads, knots, or lost ends, etc., so the safest way is tio have 10 or 12 threads run- ning out, to meet this emergency. Now leveiry time a weaver rums his warp out of say 2-36 woorsted of 560 yards ilemgth, bang! goes Intlo the waste l)in 75 cents to $1 woirth of waste warp. Say there were 25 looms a week on an aveirage lun o'Ut, that means $20 a week waste alo'ne. TO MAKE RUG MATS. Mx a spindle to ihold a 6 in. double headed spool, the same to be run by friction from bottom slhaft, to wind om the 12 spare ends or part that is not weaving into cloth on to the spool, as the warp lets off, the spool takes up. (spindle to be fixed under centre of warp beam. BEAMING. When enough spools, beam them on to a warp beam also a beam of 2-8 cotton. DRAW INTO HEDDiLES. 2 3 fl^iMtS^ 7^ pic WEAVING. Gotten ends weave plain, worsted rises every third piick, ito rise 1-2 of am inch higher than cotton, put under worsted, flat rod 3-4 of an inch wide, 1-4 of an inch thick, diamond cut at one end, release worsted beam by lever at fro'nt of loom, draw in the rod, weave three picks moTe, cut w or Sited with isharp knife and repeat. 36 inches wide, 72 inches long. No. 32. RAW STOCK DYEING. Wool and wool products are still very frequently dyed in the old style round tub, from six to seven feet in diameter, four to five feet deep, with false bottom six to eight inches for boiling space, and perforated grates of cast iron resting upon a wooden rim around the kettle bottom, supported by a centre round plate having four legs 40 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. or supports. For saving steam and la- boir have an inside pan or kettle that can be raised and deposited into an- other kettle. These inside kettles, as we will call them, may be made after the style of an extractor basket, 'but the hole should be in the bottom to take the place ol the perforated grates mentioned above. This basket may be made to fit inside the ordinary wooden kettle, just allowing space enough to be raised up oir loweired. It would rest upon a wooden rim which runb round the bottom of the kettle where previously the grates rested. Steam pipes may be left as usual or could be made to enter from the outside of the wooden or outer kettle. Each individ- aal dyer has his own ideas respecting the steam pipe arrangement of his ket- tles. My suggestion is a centre boil 1 or 1^4 inch pipe according to the size of the kettle. Where exhaust steam is used have a l^^ inch pipe run from exhaust main pipe, and fixed just like the line steam pipe, — viz., run to the centre of the kettle with a bend or elbow upon the same. These two pipes being laid side by side, one or both may be used and still have a perfect boil or circulation. This inside kettle should come even with the top of the OUTSIDE WOODEN KETTLE with a flange just wrapping over the wooden kettle. I will leave the hoist- ing arrangements to the engineer and go on to explain or suggest with the centre tubes arranged in line four or more in number, each the samei in size or in pairs. The 'basket or in- side kettles could be raised and low- ered into their respective places, sav- ing eonsideralble ihot water or steam. A mordanted batch could be lifted and deposited in the coloring bath and oth- er lots mordanited in the same bath as previous one ivlith a slightly reduced quantity of miordant that would be re- quired for an entirely new liquor, thus saving chrome and mordant. The same rule would apply in the coloring bath, as where the same shade was go- ing to be colored again, or a shade of similar nature, as dyes that exhaust entirely may be used, and without doubt these (products are now procur- able. You might maike an exclamation, how about washing off. Washing off is not required. Where an exhaustive dye lis used on wool rags, camel's hair, etc., where the stock is short or not of a nature to ibe handled with a fork, it may be cooled off to facilitate its being more quickly handled, in a spare kettle. Wools can be handled with a fork and are much better cooled off gradually giving better isatisf action to carders, especially if dyed by the cool air process. The saving of hot water and steam on stock dyeing machines is quite ANOTHER PROBLEM. Tanks may be arranged, but the protabilities are mixed solutions caus- ing more lo'ss than gain. The dyes and yarns have to be cool- ed off gradually; very little can be saved. On sulphur colors, such as blacks and other dark shades, standing kettles are used witli success when run in pairs side by side. No. 1 dyeing while No. 2 is washing off, and being emptied, the same liquor being used for each kettle pumiping same, one from the other, and making additions of dyes, etc., as called for. This SAVES CONSIDERABDE LABOR of forking the stock out and transfer- ring for washing. By having a false bottom or boiling space of isix to eight inches in above mentioned kettles all the liquor is pumiped out, then the stock can he thoroughly washed off in the same kettle, emptied out and is once more ready to receive liquor from No. 1. Sulphur colors should be dyed in a kettle entirely made of wood. All round wood kettles should rest solidly upon a good sound concrete base and if left about 33 inches from the floor to TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 41 the kettle top will be found to be the right height and also a guard against accidents. Some kettles I have come across have been set too low and should any of the help stumble they were in danger of falling in. Also they were too low for easy working. If set too high above the floor extra labor is entailed in many ways. NO. 33. MANUFACTURE OF UNDERWEAR. Under wear, as ordinarily mianufac- tured in kniltting aniiWis, iis ftrsit knlit on circular macihines as a long woven tube. This tube iis 'automataically wound upon la ispooil underneath or on top of ^the imadMne las fast as made. The producit is ispoiken of in the (trade as ''knit goods ion ithe rolUl." These rolls are of different widths (and vary in weigfhit all the iwiay up to fifty or sixty ponnds and over. They form the basis of our natlional output of wooilen and hallf iwool underislhirts and draw- ers. The wider roills are out in isuit- ablle lengths for sMnt bodiies, tihe nar- rower wldthis are isihiaped for 'sleeves and attadhed, itlhe neck being sewn straight acroiss to the sihoiulders, lieav- ing no opendng w'hatever for the pres- ent. A ooaiplle of long legs are ahorn ont and seamed on to a gusset piece, and pass for drawers. In this guise the articles are mendea, bundled into doziens, and marked with yarns of va- rious coloris Ito denote thelir particular sityles and sizes. They are' next sent to the lower regdons, wihere the scour- ers assort isuch as can be ihandleid to- gether, and remoivdng the bundle ties and tickets they tumible them into old- fashioned ''kicker" or hammer fulling sitookis, five or isiix dozien at a time, half on either side. In theise fulling mills they are run with soap, soda, ana warm water anywihere from twenty minutes to itwo hours, deipending on whether they are all wool or union goods. They are then irinised in the same macihines, and whizzed, and sent to the drying room, where they are pulled upon wooden formis, and placed in a heated chamber until dry. Finally they are again assembled in dozens, brushed or napped, and tied together, and moved to the FINISHING DEPARTMENT. Here they are trimmed to standard pi o'portionis and embelliisihed with sat- een, tape, and buttons, ready for the shipping room. If they are to be col- ored — ^scarlet, for example — as is sometimies thie eusitom, ithey are dyed after removall from the fulling stocks, and before they are hydro extracted and sent to the drying rooms. Such is a brief outline of ithe usual proicedure. That it is confessedly faulty in several particulars is, I believe, universally admlitted. The goods require tO' be cut twice. The first cutting is entirely unneces- sary and wasiteful. It is 'practised only in order to (separate the roll material into workable pieces. The time and skill expended upon this cutting, as well as the table room, are all to be placed to the wrong side of thfei book- keeiper's profit and loss page, as I hope to prove presenltlly. Then the material cut off in the trimming is largely pre- ventable. It is surprising to remark the wide, large pieces which are sihorn off the bottoms of underskirts alone, and the tops of drawers. Muc'h more than half of it might well be saved. Our super was jur '^rumbling to me a few days ago that pieces — double thickness — *were sheared off five or six inches wide sometimes. This, in short, means that much of its bulk in good, clean, istrong, usable yarn onght ito be conserved for legiti- mate uses rather than sient to the shoddy opener. Besides, when goods are cut in their unsecured, greasy con- dition, it is not always easy to dis- tinguislh between qiialMties or sihades which may be closely akin in general 42 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. appearance, and becauise of tills many blunders come about throiUgh the seiwiing toig either of pieces wMoh bear no business relationship to each oither. Last evening we isaw soime ililustra- tioms of this. One of the 'scourers showed me a pair of drawers with a light gray mixture doing duty foT one leg, and a still lighter one for the oth- er, wliile the gusset was wliiite. Sever- al sihirts, also, had ibodies of white and sleeves of a very ligiht browm gray mix- ture. The effect, of co'urse, was incon- gruous, and unmarketaible. Had the materiall first been miarked this mis- take could no well to ithe twist; hence, much of the fbrt is left outside of the yarn giving t a rough appearance. Cloth made fr^m such yarn has the same appear an c and is not so strong. Thie tube walls of cotton fibre are prepared to some extent with a peculiar waxy oil. The degree of this oil containied in the seed and fibre varies with the seasons, and with the degree of ripeness of the boll. The presence of the oil in the fibre and in the' cells is proba- bly one of the causes why an elevated temperature, especially for fine spin- ning, is necessary in the manufacture of cotton into yarn. As the tempera- ture falls, the oily wax tends to be- come stiff and gumimy and prevents the proper drawing of the fibre, while its presence among the thin laminations of the ioell wallls, gives a greater elasticity to the fibre and renders it less liable to sudden rupture. No. 35. 46 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. IMPROPER BOILING. Improper boiling is very often the cause of unevennesis in the color of a fabric, and too much attentiion can- not be paid to thiis detail, which al- though of minor importance still should be looked after with the greatest of care. Very often the man in charge of a kettle is careleiss, and starting the steam, turns his attention to some oither matter. On returning to his kettle in about half an hour, he finds that the temperature of the dye liquor has been raised to 190 or 200 degrees, in fact, almost to the boiling point. As a result the color will jump on unevenly, and continued after-boiling, should the fact of the too sudden rise in temperature be discovered, which is seldom, will not force the coloT on the cloth more evenly. Then again many men do not know when their kettle has ^started to boil. This is especially true with iso-called "green" help. I have known men to mark their kettle as boiling when the temperature really was not much above 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Of ten time un evenness will arise from TOO STRONG A BOILING, and if not uneven the color will be dull, much duller than if the kettle had been kept at a low, quiet boil. As a summary in boiling up piece goods, the help should be taught to bring their kettles up to a slow grad- ual boil in the time allotted for this purpose, and after the boiling temper- ature had been reached, to keep their kettle at a gentle simmering boll. They should not only be taught to do this, but should be ibr ought to realize the importance of it. Then, after a dyeing nas been com- pleted, THE QUESTION OP WASHING should be considered. In many instances, after the shade has been matched and the dyeing pro- nounced finished, a stream of cold H20 is opened into the kettle and in many cases allowed to play on the hot cloth. This should always be avoided as much as possible as the cold water striking the hot pieces (has a very stroing tendency to give the goods a harish and unkind feel, which is easily avoided by gradual cooling. In a prominent worsted mill in Rhode Island a device for uniform boiling has been tried with much suc- cess. In addition to the regular boil- ing apparatus installed in the kettle, there Is a brass pipe in the kettle which swings like a pendulum, contin- ually back and forth from one end of the kettle to the other. There is a small brass pipe joined to the end of the long one forming a sort of T. THIS SMALL PIPE is pierced with holes through which the steam obtains admittance into the kettle. The whole ming is worked very simply, the swing of the pendr lum-like pipe being controlled by a rod and small gear connected with the shaft running the kettle. The gear has a sliding arrangement in which the rod connecting the pipe can be so fixed as to control the length of the arc that the pendulum travels. This arrangement has been use with great success, and the mill before mention- ed is putting a blue worsted on the market at present which will soon become a standby among the trade for uniformity, levelness and bright- ness of shade. No. 36. IMITATION LEATHER. A very good imitation of leather can be obtained by treating cotton cloth with wood pulp, and the process is a veiy simple one, an ordinary single roll printing machine being used for the purpose The wood pulp is ob- tained by dissolving a paper made TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 47 wood pulp, with caustic soda and carbon bisulphide, and working the mixture up into a pasty consistency, so that it can be printed on the cloth. The cotton cloth is then introduced between the rolls and the wood pulp paste Is printed on the race of the goods as in an ordinary printing ma- chine. The cloth is then passed over drying cams, the back of the cloth ooming into contact with the cams. AFTER DRYING another layer of wood pulp may be applied in exactly the tsame manner as before, the cloth being again dried. In this manner any thickness desired may be obtained by repeatedly passing the cloth through the padding paste. After this padding has heen finished the cilo'th is a yeillowish brown in color and is ready for dyeing. An interesting feature now is the fact that the cloth, being padded wiith the wood pulp has la greater afflnity for the dyestuff than if it were cotton alone. The cloth may be dyed any shade desired in an ordinary jig dye- ing machine. The cloth being dyed, it is dried by passing over the cams, the back of the cloth being in contact with ithe cams as before, for if the face of the goods upon which the paste has been printed were to come into contact with the cams, there would be a strong tendency to stick. After the dyeing has been completed the cloth is put through the calender wnere the IMITATION LEATHER EFFECT is produced. The cloth is perfe'Ctly water proof and if a white or cream color is desir- ed. It will stand up to the most thor- ough bleaching without affecting the water proof quality of the fabric in the least. It is also very fast to light. This same paste may be used in con- nection with ordinary paper, the meth- od being practically the same as the treatment of the cotton cloth. After printing the paste on the paper, the paper becomes much stronger and may be dyed on a jig dyeing machine, as would oirdinary cotton cloth, as the boiling dye liquor will not affect the paper so treated with this paste in the least. After the paper has been dyed it may be calendered and also embOfSised, in this manner many com- binations being obtained. Or the color may be discharged and then the cloth calendered and embossed. In this manner it can readily be seen, that any combination of colors ox designis may be produced, the number being unilimited. The paper, all these operations be- ing finished, is wateir proof, fast to bleeding, and ordinarily fast to light. Should it become dirty at any time it may be scruhbed with a wet rag, without affecting the design in the least. No. 37. -4--*^ HOW ABOUT IT ? The process of drawing is in many respects the most important one in the production of good cotton yarn. It is the last process in which the in- equalities of sliver can be appreciably corrected. The modern draw frame is a marvel of simplicity and efficiency. Is this efficiency enhanced, or is it impaired by the introduction of a line of evener heads in place of a first line of draw frames? The evener head is an improved type of railway head, and is largely in use. It must then possess some merits, but are not those merits completely overshadowed by its de- fects, which are entirely absent in the drawing frame? In my opinion an evener yarn would result if these even- er heads were supplanted by a line of draw frames. The construction and position of the instrument of evening, the trumpet is, without doubt, entirely wrong. The trumpet cannot very well be placed elsewhere, and remain a trumpet, therefore that principle of 48 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. evening is entirely wrong. The trum- pet cannot be constructed of a suit- able material, that will remain unaf- fected by climatic conditions, for no such a material is available, though it might possibly be in the future; but we are living in the present time, not ithe future. I have seen the sliver underweigh 5 grains to the yard or more, on a frosty morning, and, sad to state, it is the rule, not the exception. If all of the head were not effected it would not be so ibad, but they all lare, and must be. There is much SHIFTING OF WEIGHTS before the weight is anywhere near normal, but the light work is going through all the time. After the room is warmed up, Uhe weigihts, as likely as not, will have to be shifted back once more. Some people will not shift the weights at all until two hours, at least, afteir sitantimg up foir this reason. This defect is totally absent in the draw frame, and is caused wholly on the evener head by the expanding of material and contraction of the hole forming the trumpet. Naturally the evener motion acted as if an extra bulky portion of sliver were passing through ithe trumpet. This is a very bad defect, and I think it overshadows by fiar any merits the machine may have. It is a very well known fact that the evener motion starts even- ing too late owing to the position of the trumpet, ibut this is not so serious. Some people argue that the evener head is great ON CARD SINGLES. My argument is, if card singles are conspicuous enough in their presence to require evener heads, new pickers are in line, or a new man to regulate, and take care of them. The powers of the draw frame to correct card sin- gle, and other inequalities are greatly underrated by any one advancing that argument. Just to illustrate the effi- ciency of th-e draw fram-e to correct card singles, and eliminate other in- equalities, I will give a very rude examiple, with an extremely light card single, a nearly imipossible single. The normal weight of the card sliver is 50 grains to the yard. Each draw frame has 6 ends up 'with a draft of 6, and producing 50 grain slivers. This practically impossible card single will weigh 25 grains to the yard, and will be fed to the first line of drawing with 5 normal slivers. The weight at the first drawing will be 25+ (5x50) =45.8 gr. G At the 2d with average slivers. 45.8+(5x5#) = 49.3 gr. At the 3d, with same. 49. 3+ (5x51) = 49.88 gr. 6 There would only be a discrepancy of 12 grains from the normal at the finish of the third drawing, with a card sliver of only half its normal weiight. This is not a theoretical ex- ample, ibut a very practical one, though rather rude. If (my side its wronig, Is the remedy to be a machine affected by climatic changes, and unreliability, or Ifs plain draw fralme of tsuffioienft efficiency? No. 38. LIGHTING A MILL. I wish to make a isuggestion. Now you take a mill that ihas poor light. It will give you all the bad weaving you want. You take a mill that has a light every isix looms and you can't help making bad cloth, because from four o'clock to six o'clock if you weave in the dark it is a waste for the company. A weaving room ought to have one light a loom. It will pay a company to do this. It is not only in cotton that you find defects but in the cloth. I have had experi- ence of this myself, No, 39. TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 49 PERFECTION IN COTTON SPINNING. The cotton manufacturer of to-day mu&t necessarily get the defects of his yarn out of the way and gain perfec- tion of quality if he wishes to succeed in his line of business and create a demand for his product. We will look more fully into the processes of manu- facturing perfect cotton yarns. In the first place wisdom should he used in purchasing cotton suitable for the yarn desired. It is a sad mistake for one to try to make perfect yarn from long and sihort sitapile coitton, as we have long since learned that they will not harmonize in an even diame- ter of the thread. Let the staple be as near one length as possible, and have the ibales oipened up and mixed in a large bin ait least two days be- fore starting the cotton through the machines in order that the fibres may assume their natural form. Very often we make a great mistake by putting unskilled help in the picker room as here we lay the foundation of what will eventually be our finished product, and every care should be taken to start right. THE HOPPER should always be kept about two-thirds full and the lap feed in on the inter- mediate, being careful not to allow any bad piecing that the evener can- not take up. Also on the finisher great care should be taken not to al- low any lap to leave the machine that ■does not weigh right. Here it is im- portant to have a good honest man at work. If pickers are thoroughly ad- justed and kept up to the standard the finished lap should be of first qual- ity. The card has a very important mission to perform. Think of what a card has to do, and it is so often wholly neglected by the one in charge. Every little deitail should be wajtched, as it is the little things that make the defects. I will not give any settings here as every practical man thinks he has the best. We noiw go to the drawing frame, where we find a num'ber of card sliv- ers running into one. We presume that so far in the process we have ob- tained perfection. And here are more of those little things, such as draft not properly divided, or too much draft, or rolls not spread to suit the staple, or calender rolls stretching sliver not weighted correctly, or rolls not oiled regularly. Any of these little things can spoil all of our previous efforts. But we will assume that all of these things have been looked after and we still have a perfect sliver and we take it to the sluibber in good condition ready for the first twist which should be as little as possible, and as light draft as you can do with, rolls speeded to suit the length of staple, always hav- ing the rolls weighted properly, ten- sion and lay just right. The same precaution should be taken with in- termediates and roving and jack fram- es. There are many thjlngis that put defects in yarn at these three ma- chines and if we do not move care- fully we will loise our perfection be- fore the product reaches the spinning frame. Very often THE SPINNING FRAME gets credit for defects that are made way back in the process l)ut not seen until it is reduced to a very tiny thread. But we presume the roving is sent to this department perfect and we do not want to spoil it here, after incurring the expense of the entire mill up to this point. As this is the finishing process we will examine our frames and see if the draft is not ex- cessive and if the rolls are set one- sixteenth of an inch wider than the length of the staple, if there is not too much weight on the rolls, and every roil weighted alike. All rolls that have defects should be taken 50 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. out at once. The spindles should be true, the rings set correctly, the thread guide straight with the spindle, the bands looked over very often and not one allowed ito remain that shows the leasit bit slack, the travellers working smoothly the bobbins fitting the spindles, everything working as it should. Let me say right here that the im- proved machinery for the manufactur- ing of cotton yarn is ample if properly set and cared for. Perhaps the great- est trouble we have to-day is to have it o'peraited right. Cleanliness from be- ginning to the end must be maintained if we wish good results. Also we see the many piecings, thousands of them every day, that, if made perfectly, would not make those heavy and light places that we see all through the pro'oess whicih should not be there and to o'btaln a perfect yarn we must get rid of them. T take it that aJll who are interested in these articles know something of the textile business, therefore, I Chave refrained from dealing with fixed rules and settings for the different machines in the processes. Every builder of textile machinery has for his motto perfection of the output of that ma- chine, and if tihe proper material is put in at the beginning and every part of the mill harmonized to suli the class of yarns desired, a perfect thread should be obtained. No. 40. WASTE SAVING. I have a suggestion to offer which has long been a source of much thought to me. It is a saver of time and material and would be a boon to the men who operate the machines. I am speaking of an automatic flock-box for fulling mills for heavily flocked goods and especially does it apply to goods of low grade, such as cotton warps and shoddy filling or union cas- simeres. Men who are accusitomed to this class of work know how hard it is to get the goods to take up the amount of flocks required to bring them up to desired weight when fin- ished. The class of goods is generally flocked after they have run perhaps an hour in the mills. The felting has begun and the lattice work of the fabric is partially closed. For exam- ple, we will say the fuller has to make up two ounces of weight to the yard on a piece of cotton warp thibet. He may be able to do it by using four ounces of flocks per yard if the flocks are good and the goods have not shrunk or felted too much. Otherwise it may take six or seven ounces of flocks to do it. This all depends on the grade of flocks and the condition of the goods at the time the flocks are applied to the cloth and hence the reason of so much waste flocks, more than half fall to the bottom of the mill and after the goods drag over them a few times they roll into pill form. After that the goods will not absorb them, so they are waste flocks which we either throw away or wash out dry and grind over with other stock mixed in. If an automatic box was put on, something that would open and shut alternately in this way — the box opens for 30 seconds and dusts on a small quantity of flocks then closes again for one or two minutes and repeats the operation until all the flocks have been dropped — there would be practi- cally no was/te. THE SAVING IN FLOCKS would ibe enormous, besides doing away with washing and grinding over. The flocks would be sifted on the goods so flnely and so little at each time the box opened that it would be all absorbed before the box opened again. There is a chance for some inventive mind to think up something that would do the work. My idea would be to make a box to fit on the back of the mill over the cloth; make TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 51 the box wide at the top and tapering down to a narrow opening at the hot torn and have a stiff brush on the out- side of the box close to the opening. When the brush is not in motion it would form the bottom of the box; when working the brush would re- volve, throwing the flocks sprinkler fashion on the cloth; but what is need- ed here is knowledge how to time the opening and closing of the box. With this device all the fuller would have to do would be to throw the flocks into the box and let the box take care of them. As it is now he throws most of the flocks into the mills and the cloth wafts it back into his face so that he has to swallow a little him- self. An excessive amount of flocks in the mills not only interferes with the felting but also dulls the natural lusitre of the flbre and again the fuller on this case of goods has to guess a good deal at the wei-ght. If he thinks the goods are not heavy enough he puts on more flocks until he thinks they are about right. Now with a box working perfectly after a trial set of goods the fuller could put so many ounces of flocks per yard into the box and depend on getting the desired weight every time. • No. 41. SPECKS IN FINISHING ROOM. The above has been tlie trouble ever s'.nce carding was invented. 1 find in making light and dark mixes that the light mixes are freest of specks and why? There are certain stocks with a sediment in them that the scoiuring machine does not thor- oughly reach and the dyeing process reaches and removes the same while the white stock does not go through this process. Now stain the white wool a very light bluisih itint which is easily washed off. The stain is of no use except to distinguish it from other iwihite atock. Is it the boiling procesis 'that removes the sediment? Of course the stock can be injured in the dyehouse but if properly taken care of it iwill come out all right. If the aibove is carefully looked after the stock is ready for the picker room. Now the bars that hold the teeth should be closed in not to allow the stock to wind around the bars. The stock winding around these bars, PARTICULARLY ON LONG STOCK, occurs when ithe lot is finisihed, re^ moved from the bars and put back into the lot in a sitringy and slightly felted condition. Now tliis should not be. Again, the lot is then blown through a tube to the card room. Now I have seen a careless man choke up the tube by heavy feeding and al- low the stock to revolve around until it was felted and stringy, which leaves it in very bad condition. To sheet up the lot I think is the best way. It removes the cause of the tube chok- ing and leaves the lots in better con- dition, especially large ]ots> Now a man wall write that the cards are old and antiquated, not up to date. Just so! Well, get busy, make it up to date as much as possible, get all out of it that can be got and you will find an improvement and when a firm sees this they will give the proper sup- plies to help on more improvement. No. 42. UNEVEN CLOTH. By uneven cloth is meant shady cloth and cloth with either thick or thin places. This is one of the hardest things to cQintend with especially in a weave room where the humidity is not under control. Most naturally the friction let-off feels the effect of the dampness more than the gear let-o#, although in some 52 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. cases the strap tlhaJt oheckis someiwhat tihe let-off oi the gear is influenced by dampness. Taken as a w^hole, the friction let-off is most certainly the best, that is, the rope wrapped around the beam head, or it may be a chain, an iron band, or a strip of raw hide. Two of the largest loom manuifaotur ers in this country prefer a chain fric- tion to a ro'pe friction, for the reason that the former is not ais subject to atmospheric cihangeis as the latter. The different let-offs mentioned give good results if proper attention is giv- en them, but if aJllowed to go moire or less as they please, they are the worst form of let-offs. A little powdered black lead will soon remedy a rope that has become sticky, this being A COMMON DBPEICT. French chalk is often used with very good results, but this is more liable to cake and become sticky with a change of atmosphere as comipared with graphite. Oil acicidentally dropped on the beam head would also give the French dhalk a tendency to cake and become sticky. Many loom fixers have been known to use oil on the beam head, claiming that it al- lowed the rope to slip more freely, but these same men have been seen to take great pains in wipiing off the oil under other oircumistanceis. Often- times uneven c'loith iis caused by the spike or gudgeon in the beam having sprung. This might be caused by hanging the beam on the floor, and when the yarn is drawn off, the un- even turn of the beam causes a corre- sponding uneven let-off of the yarn. Many times THE TAKE UP MOTION is the cause of uneven cloth. The ma- jority of take up motions that are on the two pick principle, that is, re- ceiving motion from the pick cam shaft, are comstruoted so that with a little change they can be made to take up two teeth at a time. Now un- der this construjdtion it is quite na- tural that the radhet gear has a little more play than whait is absolutely nec- essary to take up one tooth, because it is owing to the loss of a portion of a tooth by the check pawl, and a portion also by the take up lever that the motion only takes one tooth. The converging of these points and the using of the loss of space trav- elled by the take up lever and the check pawJl, enables the motion to take up two teeth. If the ratchet gear does not swing a little and work per- fectly free, then an uneven cloth can be expected, because instead of swing- ing back a little to meet the check pawl, the gear istayis in the position to which it is drawn by the take up lever, this occasionally causing two teeth to be itaken up. UNEVEN SPUN YARN makes a bad looking cloth, this being sometimes called a cockly cloth. Un- even setting of the harness will cause uneven cloth, that is, the harness not lifting equally at boith sides, or an uneven shed, one lifting higher than the other. Regarding this lasT defect, the fixer should be very careful in the starting of tihe warp to see that all is straight. Uneven cloth is often caused by the arm that supports the whip roll being worn and if there is much vibration of the whip roll, this has a tendency to raise a little out of the place that is worn, so that if the ends of the whip roll are w«rn unevenly and the roll moves around a little, it is raised higher up, uneven cloBh being the result. LOOSE PERFORATED TIN will sometimes overlap causing a thin place in the cloth. When the rocker shaft bearing is loose there is an uneven movement to lay when beating up. If ithe crank arm is loose, or one is slightly long- er than the other, the reed does not beat up evenly; a loose reed will also give the same result. Occasionally the guide roller will TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 53 come loo'se and turn, and if it has not been set istraighlt uneven cloth will be the result. If the dloth under the friction band is allowed to remain on too long, it becomes sticky and al- lows the beam to let off in jumps. Sometimes wihen attaching the fric- tion, the knot in the cloth is aJUowed to remain under the friction baind and this will cause la very uneven leit-off. And if THE FRIOTION DEVEIR is allowed to rest on the band or beam head, it will prevent the proper letting off of the warp. If a beam flange is broken, wihem the heavier side is paisising down, it goes down more quickly than When the broken side is passing down. This lis especially so when fancy cloths are being woven, and it is not uncommon to add a weight to the broken side to balance the beam. When the bear- ing for the sand iroller is worn, the roller jumips causing cloudy cloth. Sometimes the weight will toudh the floor, or the weight from a toip beam touch the lower beam. If the beam head is crooked w^hen it turns around it will touch the whip roll. If there is too much pull on the friction roller the cloth will be strained. If THE HARNESSES are not set level, shady dyed cloth will almost certainly be the result, because the siheds being lower on that side the cloth is a trifle thicker, the consequence being that there is a dif- ference in the absoTbtion of the dye- stuff. If one edge of the cloth is slack through the fault of the temple, 'Sihady cloth in dyeing will result. Some- times distinct cracks appear in the cloth, and these may almost invari- ably be found to be caused by islack yarn. This is especiaJlly so with cam work of four or more harneisises. As a summary it might ibe saJid (that un- even cloth might be caused by any one or combinatioms of the foSlloiwiing de- fects: laoe or eaiily ished, a sma:il shed or an uneven shed, odd or loose crank arms, a loose roicker sihafit bearing or a looise reed, uneven filling iworn whip roll, damp friction, broken beam flang- es, gudgeons, or t)eam ispikes bentt, the take up motion out of order, tin or sand roller bearing becoming worn or a looise perforated tin or tin roller, rope twisted around the beam head, friction lever resting on the band or beam head or a crooked beam head, uneven setting of the harness, and the gear let-off, in which there may be a number of defects. No. 43. DEFECTS IN YARN. It behooves all men in positions of responsibility to be alert and prepared for any condition that tends to make imperfect yarn and to forestall it if possible. Respecting future mill men, are the graduates of the textile schools the best men to put in posi- tions of responsibility? If so, w^hy? Mill calculations can easily be learned by men in the mill if they only would give a little time to it evenings. A correspondence course in textiles, or a special course in the particular- branch in which one is directly in- terested can be studied to advantage in one's spare time, and the informa- tion obtained can be put to practical use making the student a better mill man, a better thinker, and giving him a power of coneentration that he never dreamed of before. After mas- tering tihe.'sul)jects taught, he becomes a man that knows that he knows, whereas before ihe probably was not quite certain of 'lis knowledge or raith- ev knew but did not know that he knew. I thnik, all thing's eomsidered, the practical mill man with technical education In his partticular line of 54 n TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. work is preifeiraible to the textile school graduate with no experience other than what he ha.s learned at the school. I have in mind one of these graduates, who held a responsible po- siition, being shown a bobbin of cockled yarn. He did not know what it was nor the cause of it. Whether the successful sup enintein dent, or ov- erseer, is born to be such or not is a question. AS A MILL MAN the writer has always taken pride in whatever he had to do, whether it was miaking laps, or weaving cloth. His grandparents were both prominent mill men across the water, one of them being the proprietor of a small weaving mill, the o-ther being overseer of carding and spinning so it may or may not be in the blood. With the writer of ''Comments" I agree. A good overseer takes pride in his woirk, takes pride in his help, in the up keep of his room, in the produc- tion and quality of his goods wihether yarn or cloth, and it hurts his pride to have some either overseer, in the pi-esence of the isuperintendent and O'ther overseers, point out defects in his methods and if he has any back- bone ihe will naturailly resent it on the spot, and ought to. The writer once worked for a prominent cotton manu- facturing concern thaJt employs about 4,000 hands. This company was will- ing to help its employes in various ways. A brass band was organized among the help, the company advanc- ing money for instruments, music, etc., and giving them a hall free of charge to rehearse in. The band ex- isted for about five years. There were bickerings, petty jealousies, mis- understandings of all kinds, neglect of work and final disbanding and the company was the loser all through. Of course this is not always the case, but there are those that do not appre- ciate what is aone for them and again there are others that will re- sent any efforts that, to them, look like a re&raint of liberty iwhen It comes to what is known as welfare work. The writer of the article "Im- perfect Yarn" isbows up a great deal, every bit of which is met with, more or losis. The writer well remembers when he had to stop about forty frameis that iwere MAKING COCKLED YARN, every pound of which it was expected would ihave to go into waste. After the rolls were set for the longer staple the yarn was doffed and spooled and two threads of good yarn, and one of the cockled yarn were twisted to- gether for three-^ply and no waste was made in ithis particular case. Such articles as those mentioned and also the articles on belting, coal economy, boilers, oils, engines, etc., are What makes your paper valuable to the man inside the mill. No. 44. HARMFUL TO COTTON GOODS. AlthO'Ug'h pine cellulose is very sta- ble and not readily aittacked by micro- organiisims, impure cotton is very li- able to bacterial damage. It some- times becomes e\^ident in the form of spots, or colonies, or a diffuse growth, and occasionally the color of the cotton goiods may be entirely al- tered. Bacterial groiwth often causes tendering of tihe cotton fibre, and al- ways in the case of finished goods, destruction of the dresis, frequently accompanied (by a musty odor. Cot- ton may become infected during bleaching and finislhing at lallmo^st any stage, and wihen lonce infected, espe- cially with a spore forming organisim, the «ubseqiuent processes are often not isuflioiently drastic to kill the lat- ter, which lie dormant until the goods TEXTILE DEFeCTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 55 are stored and then foTim a fresh growth. THE BRINiOIPAL/ vjaUSES of infection are: 1. Impure wiater for isteepiing and other p'urpoises. 2. Inooimplete rem(o»vial of nitrog- enous oonistituents during so'da bioil. 3. Allowing goods to be about in a damp loomdition between the! processes. 4. Use of low grade starches and glues. 5. Careleiss istoring oif the flniisbed product. 6. Uncleanlinesis about the plant or building. Impure water. — Where suspioioius or polluted isurface or subsoil waters are used, mildew ifrequently results. The rapiidity with \\^hioh dresisimg mixtures sometimes sour is oiften traceable to this cause. Incompilete isodia boil. — ^An import- ant rule in isuccessful ibleacihing is a thoroiugh soda iboil. An incomplete boil not only leaves greasy matters, whidh protect the fibre from the ac- tiom oif chlorine, but nitrogenous bodies, which may subsequently cause trouble both directly and indirectly in that they render the cotton more liable to bacterial infection. A great deal of isco'ured ooitton contains as much as .3 per cent of nitrogen, and in every case of bacterial infection ex- amined, a high nitrogen icontent has been foiund in the cotton. CARE'LEiSS HANDIjING. The danger of allowing moist goods to lie about espeoially in warm weath- er is often not isufRciently realized. It is a common cause of mildew. Uise of low grade finishing mater- ialis. — In many cases price is the only factor whidh determines the iselection of flni'sihing materials, no regard be- ing paid to quality. But in the selec- tion of starches and glues quality shoulld be the chief factor. AliL, STARJCHES containing an undue proportion of water are liable to be mouldy wihen used, and those containing a high per- centage of nitrogen are also unsuit- able for many purpo>ses. Furtlier- more, many thin istarches which are often essentially mixtures of starch and dextrin, contain as much as six per cent of dextrose or other reduc- ing sugars, and gooids dressed with such istarcheis do not keep well. The following is an example of a thin starch used for goods, which after- ward developed mould: water, 10.4 per cent; dextrin, 20 per cent; dex- trose, 6.95 per cent; istarclh, 62.4 per cent; mineral matter, 25 per cent. Inferior glues in a similar way ow- ing to the large amiount of soluble nitrogen which they eontain, and the deli queis cent nature of the peptones are very liable to become mouldy. It is very rare to find mould w*here a good grade of glue 'has been em- ployed. EXAMPLES of good and bad glues used for cotton goods are: Good. Bad. % % Water 14.23 16. Ash , 1.33 2.35 Gelatine 78.08 66.25 Peptones 1.95 11.42 Non-gelatinous bodies 4.41 3.98 Careless storing of the finiisihed product iis sometimes responsible foa- the develoipment of ibacteiliail growth. This is often noticed in thoise that are miade for export to^ warm and damp climateis. AM cotton goods, however carefully prepared, contain numeroius organism's, land the condi- tion's of storing should alwajyis be such as wi 11 di s co urag O' thieir gr oiwi th . CI ea n - linesis, of course, is an important fac- tor. Occurence of mould is not infrequently found to be due to or- ganismis Indigenous to the louistomers premises, ^and does not recur after the application of sanitary conditions. No. 45. 56 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. HERRING-BONE STYLES. The crossing in both parts of an angled design or herring-boine effeci may be made equally decided in ap- pearance in two ways: First, by ar- ranging the yarns one thread cross- band, and one 'thread openband al- ternately; and secondly, by arranging for the twill in the yarn to oppose the twine in both sections of the pattern. The latter method is the one most used, the former 'being not very well adapted for the purpose, as it will not develop the make. According to the latter -method the warp yarns for an ordinary herring-bone effect would be ordered as follows: Eight threads of crossband yarn for the first seotion and eight threads of openband yarn for the second section. Such an ar- rangement of threads would cause the weave to be well pronounced in char- acter in the respective stripes, and woiuld be very suitable for pantings. Of course, any modification of this could be made according to individual taste, the main oibject, of course, be- ing to conform with existing condi- tions of style and to catch the eye of the fickle consumer. No. 46. MERINO YARN. All hosiery yarns should be even, elastic and soft twisted. Even, be- cause any unevenness such as knots, slugs or bunches, made in piecing, will cause holes all out of proportion to the size of the unevenness in the fab- ric. Elastic, because all knit goods should be elastic in every direction, and when stretched should return to their normal size and shape again. Soft twisted, because a hard twisted yarn is harsh and irritating to the skin and a soft twisted yarn has a more "kindly" feeling, besides being a more elastic yarn than a hard twisted. Hosiery yarns are mostly high grade yarns and require good material in their manufacture. A merino yarn Is a yarn having both wool and cotton fi- bres drawn and twisted together in its manufacture. The cotton fibres are used on account of its low cost and its properties as a conductor of heat. This yarn is composed of seventy- five per cent wool, twenty -five per cent cotton. The wool is from a good grade of territory grown wool and of a quality equal to a one-half blood. It has been combed and is ready for the balling head gill box, the first opera- tion under the French system of spin^ ning yarns. The cotton is of a good quality peeler cotton, combed and of the proper size sliver to be mixed with rhe wool at the back of the reducer. FRENCH SYSTEM. The French system consists of the balling head gill box, first drawing frame, second drawing frame, third drawing frame, reducer, slubber, first intermediate, second intermediate, rov- er, finisher and mule. Stock will stand a draft on the mule of eight, and a draft in drawing of four and two-tenths. Comb sliver equals two and one-half ounces for five yards. To spin 20s worsted: cxw Formula equals 18.3. d c equals counts to be spun. w equals weight in drams of forty yards of roving-, d equals draft on mule. 18.3 equals weight in drams of 40 yards number one's counts. Five hundred and sixty yards of number one's counts equals two hundred and fifty-six drams. Forty yards is selected as a convenient meas- ure of length. 256x40 . • . equals 18.3 drams. 560 18.3 Let c equal 20s, then equals weight in 60 drams of forty yards of 20' s counts. 18.3x8 Let d equal 8, then equals weight in 20 drams of 40 yards entering mule. But w equals weight in drams of 40 yards TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 57 of rovins;, hence substituting and solving, 20xw equals 18.3 w equals 73.2 dram roving. 8 2V2 oz. sliver for 5 yards equals 320 drams for 40 yards. Doublings for 9 operations of draw- ing. Formula. 320 I.og. of constant or the Log. of 43.7, + 2 7.32 Log. 4+4 Log. of 3 + 0 Log. of 2 equals Log. of 4.2 to the 9th power. Solving .623 equals .623 number corresponding to this los2:arithm is 4.2. iJoublings in consecutive order of machines equal 4, 3. 4, 2, 2, 2, 8, 3, 3. 320x4 Weight at end of first operation equals 4.2 304.7 drams. 304.7x3 2d operation equals 217.6 drams. 4.2 217.6x4 3d operation equals 207 drams. 4.2 207x2 4th operation equals 98.5 drams. 4.2 The cotton is mixed at this next operation, sliver Aveighing 67.72 grains per yard equal to P8..5 drams per 40 yds. 98.5x2 Weight at end of 5th operation equals 4.2 47 drams. 47x2 6th operation equals 17.8. 4.2 17.8x3 7tl: operation equals 14.1. 4.2 14.1x3 8th operation equals 10.25. 4.2 10.25x3 9th operation equals 7.32 dram roving. 4.2 SPINNING— FRENCH MULE. Spin 20s count with six and one- half turns per inch, using a twelve inch rim and gearing to give this soft twist. As it is necessary to remove all bunches made in piecing and to have an equal tension on yarn entering knitting machine, I wound the yarn from the cops on to cones, setting ma- chine according to the size of my yarn and this finished all preliminary proc- esses to knitting. KNITTING. This hosiery knit upon the George D. Mayo machine of one hundred and seventy-six needles is called seamless hosiery. The operation consists of first knit- ting the ribbed top on the Wildman ribber and transferring this top to the footing machine, the George D. Mayo, then it passes to the sewing machine, or looper, which loops up the toe and completes the stocking. The finishing of stockings is a short process consisting of washing, dyeing and pressing on the board provided for this size. No. 47. DOWN IN THE DYEHOUSE. The mianager came 'round half drunk and very ugtly this morning and made lots of trouble for us doiwn in the dye'ho'use. Did you no'tlce that phrase I made use of a minute ago? ''Down in the dyehouse." It isn't mine. I merely picked it up somewhere unconsciously like the resit, and became accustomed to it withoiut effort of mind. Where- ever I went through the mills it Was invariably used, and finally it set me musing. I began to reflect upon Its frequency and derivation and it wa?n't long bef OTe I felt it riling me; and I gave up the word in indigniation and shame. Just now I recalled it on purpose to call your atitenition to it. Why sihould it be forever, "down," in the dyeihouse? The dyer's realm is often in the basement; but not so always. Neverthele&s, wherever it happens to be, mention is always made of its being down. I have come to the conclusion that the saying is not indicative of loicality so much as of the half comceiaJleid, and half ad- mitted scorn with which the other rooms in the mill loiok askance at it. The oflice sitaff and the super have the same common point of view ma- tu rally as becomes the upper stratum. I don't know hoiw much the fem- inine por^tion of the hellp contribute to this view, but their sex, the dyer and his heilpers are always "down" in the dyeho'use. "DIRTY DYER FELLOWS." I nave noiticed, too, that all the 58 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. folks at any *idy kind of work around the mill ar^e in a similar cate- gory. They affecit to be greatly above workmen and a workroom that are scarcely presentable sometimes in business hours and full daylight. Even the expresfsman addresse's theim as, **You dirty dyer fellowis." There's the picker room hands — ^usually the moist smutty looking in the concern. They look upon themselves as arisitoc- racy alongside of the toilers, ''down" in the dyehouse. And wihat a lot of mischief they do make for us, sure. Their foreman is all the while car- rying complaints of us to the manager or boss carder. The stock is not ready for this batch, or the other; they are short of sudh a cotton or shoddy; or the miachines are all sitanding for something else. He may find a few uneven piaJtches in a kettle- ful of stock and make's that an occa- sion for more growling. A look or two of wooi may have chocked in the wool washing machine, and escaped notice and he will pick these out and dispilay them before the critical gaze of his superiors to show them how the white stock is **not half scoured." He will swear that he has ordered certain batches of current colors to be got ready for picking by some spec- ified date, and sitick to the state- ment despite the fact that he has forgot to even mention the matter and can produce not a shred of proof for his assertion. Then the manager will stride in, irate and vengeful. ''Here you will have fourteen looms standing idle by noon to-morrow, all for want of a little attention," and he will go on, and swear, and prance about like one crazy. The queer thing about it is that he appears always more inclined to beilieve the ingenious liar, than to take the dyer's word for it. When he or his men lift a sheet of wool to carry it, or when they take a few pounds out of one, and leave the balance in the bin the stock is left behind them spilled and scattered all over the place as far as t'ney go. Then the super is forever taking the dyer to task about his men on the wool drying machines. They don't tie up their sheets he claims. And so it goes on. CARDER FINDS FAULT. The carder, also, likes to find fault with the dyer's work whenever he can and is not above carrying tales. He is an ignorant old fellow but a crony of the manager's who thinks he can do nothing wrong. The two of them attacked the dyer moist un- mercifully not long ago because he was tendering the stock they cHaimed by an overdoise of heat in the dry- ing machinery. It was a marvel they did not also accuse him of "burning" it in the scouring, and in dyeing, but our dyer has conistanltly had so good a name for the careful handling of raw stock in both of these operations thait they judged it expedient to leave that out. When it was slhown con- clusively that the stock was aill right they dropped false accusations and al- lowed matters to rest. The next thing I heard wais that they had dis- covered eventually that all their diffi- culty in spinning arose from the roping from the cards becoming chilled on the mule racks alongside the north- east wall of the top spinning floor. When this fresh invention got abroad there was great merriment among the mill folks great and small. It has always been a puzzle to me to account for the bitter, unreasonable and un- derhanded hostility of those men. 1 happen to be aware that part of it is due to the dyer refusing to connect himself with a certain secret order in which a number of the men are in- tensely intereslted. An ignoble rea- son, surely. Notwithstanding, I can- not get rid of the conviction that a big share of it is owing to contempti- bie caste feeling. There's more or less of it everywhere — in these yere You Nighted States as well as in Hindustan. From the point of view of the card room and picking annex, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 59. it is perennially ''dowin" in the dye- house also. MACHINIST AND HIS GANG. One other social section of the con- cern, and I am through. The miac'hin- isit (or millwrighit) and his gang are very chary in conceding ordinary in- telligence or ability to the dyer's sphere. Our **fixin' man" is notorious within the factory gate as a genius who never does anything to-day that he can possibly put off till tomorrovv. You will therefore easily compre'hend that it is positive discomfort to him to be obliged to attend to defective steam and water valves and leaky pipes about the dyeing and scouring departments without, "the customary two weeks' notice," and right off, im- mediaitely, at once as must sometimes be the case. Neither are there any nice attractive mechanical contriv- ances there to catch his fancy and in- terest him; and unconsciously, per- haps, he resents going ''down" in the dyehouse among things smutty and prosaic. His carpenter assistants are not otherwise. Being for the most part a wooden outfit, the dyeroom frequently stands in neea of a fellow with hammer and saw and olane. Tliey get their tools wet and dirty there, you under stand, and once in a while, their feet, like the poor dye- room artisans themiselves and they come to have an not unreasoinable aversion to the place, consequently it is invariably "down" to the dyehouse for them also. NOT A FANCY SKETCH. Maybe, a few of you may get the notion that all this talk is just a clumsy attempt at the display of seic- tional ill will. You deem it a fancy sketch, overdrawn, and highly imag- inative — ^the disgruntled effort of some dispeptic man busily engaged in "chewin the rag." I am happy to be- lieve, however, that there are others who know better, and have realized what it means to spend a lifetime of honest activities and smothered am- bitions "down in the dyehouse." I want to tell you, gentlemen, that the dyeroom is not a department to be sneezed at. It's more of an im- portant adjunct to the mill than many of you credit. If it is kept "down," by reason of ignorance and a proper realization of its value you ought to be ashamed rather. Remember that it is only baseless prejudice that keeps it from being fitted up and valued at par with other sections of the plant. It's getting about time to give it that place of prominence which it deserves to occupy. No. 48. COMMENT. The above article is written by a more or less unhappy second hand in the dyehouse and is printed in accord- ance with our policy in recognizing that the second hand, no less than the overseer, is a recognized factor in the development of the textile industry. We desire to create a feeling through- out the United States that the men who make the textile industry here in the United States what it is, the great- est industry in the world, are not only the superintendents and overseers, but the lowly second hands who de- vote not only their energy, but their brains to their work, in what capac- ity they may serve. We advise the writer of the above article, however, to cheer up and get into a better mill. There are very few modern mills in the United States to- day in which the dyehouse is not con- sidered about the most important de- partment in the whole mill. The old time dyer can hardly compete with the modern dyer, as dyeing to-day is not merely a process, it is a science The American manufacturers have nor realized this as much as the German manufacturers, but it has been im- pressed upon them more and more ot late, until now the importance of the dyehouse is second to no other de- partment in the whole mill. This is attested by the fact that many of the mills in making improvements and bu'lding are paying special attention 60 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. to the construction of the dyehouse, great pains being taken in regard to the smallest detail, and it is a recog- nized fact that a good dyer is a man that is catered to by mill men, and can command a salary far above that of any other overseer in the mill. So you can plainly see that the expression ''dovv^n in the dyehouse" does not hold true where the mill is an up-to-date one, and where the overseers are men who are keeping up with the times, by reading and studying different con- ditions as represented by the different textile papers. CARD STRIPPING IMPROVEMENT. There are in some of our cotton mills to-day quite a few top flat cards. By this I mean cards of a smaller type than our modern revolving flat cards. Some of these have flats on both top and bottom, while others have flats on the top only. Figure A Shows Block From Side, Show- ing How Block Is Drilled for Pins. It is on cards of this type that I wish to suggest an improvement, that has been made in the stripping, which, I think, is done mostly by hand and when the cylinders are clothed with a coarse wire flllet makes it hard for the operator, as the lower flats have to be raised from the cylinder with a rack, and when stripped with a hand card, it is not always stripped clean. THE IMPROVEMENT. The improvement I would suggest is to strip them with a stripping roll as the revolving flat cards are stripped. I took a pair of old grinding stands Figure B Shows End of Block Cut Out for End Pin. used for grinding top flat cards, cut off the bottoms and made stripper stands of them, then bolted these Figure C, Showing Stand Attached to Block. stands to a block of hard wood, cut oval shape on one side, so as to rest on the arch, and had holes drilled to TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 01 fit the top flat pins as shown in Figure A. Figure B shows how the end of the block is cut to fit pins at each end. Figure C shows stand attached to block. The stripping roll is seven inches in diameter, with five inch pulleys for driving roll and is covered with or- dinary stripper fillet. the fact that the shaft extends out thir- teen inches, and the belt which drives the stripping roll has to be kept so tight it would spring a lighter shaft. Half inch round belting is the best for driving the stripping roll, as cotton banding, which is often used, stretches so that it is impossible to keep it tight. Figure No. 1 shows the roll in posi- Figure No. 1. The reason for the unusually large stripping roll was to get more wire surface, as I was carding heavy and it saved time by having to put the strip- ping roll on but once. The pulleys for the stripping roll are grooved, and the loose pulleys of the cards taken off, and have h groove cut in as deep as the stock will allow, on the outside edge of the pulley as shown in Figure No. 1, marked D. I used an extra heavy shaft, 1% inches in the stripping roll, owing to tion on the back of the card, the bot- tom strippers are set on flat (15), then a board laid across the bottom stripper to rest the flats on. Five flats are taken off and put on the board as shown in Figure No. 1, marked A. To strip in this manner takes three operators. One to piece up ends, start and stop the cards, and particularly to hold the belt on the loose pulley, so that the stripping belt will not be thrown off. The other two operators are one at 62 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. each end of the roll at the back of the card. STRIPPING STANDS. The stripping stands are kept on the stripper roll shaft and when the strip- ping roll is taken from the truck, the stands are placed on the pins as shown in Figure No. 1, marked B. The operator puts on the band, turns down the wheel as in Figure No. 1, marked C, until it just touches the wire on the cylinder, the other end being kept off until the brush is started; then after slowing down the cylinder, the opera- tor on the opposite end of the roll turns the wheel down on his side until it begins to clean the cylinder. When stripped clean, the roll is tak- en off and cleaned as is done on re- volving fiat cards, using a truck with a board having a stripper sheet tack- ed on it, put lengthways in the box made to carry stripper roll on. By the old method it took two operators two hours, twice a day, to strip 26 cards each. They are, by the improv- ed method, able to strip three times a day and are never over forty-five or fifty minutes stripping the 52 cards, and the cylinders are stripped much cleaner, and the cards work twenty- five per cent better. No. 49. MELTONS AND KERSEYS. Tlheise fabrics are very oflten confus- ed, not only by men ouitside of the tex- tiile business, but by th^oise who miake textileis a trade, and some explana- tion regarding both these fabricis might be of value. A me'lton is a fabric which hais been giigged and napped, then stheared and siteiamed and fiunther finished, but has ne feilt, while a ker- sey is a fabric thiat hias been fullled to a greateir or leiss extent and, as a rule, has much more body fthian a melton. The difference is found in the gigging, as kerseys get their dhiar'acteriistic fin- ish in the gig roiom, while meltons seldom if ever enter this detpai^tment of the mill, for the ohanactertiistic of a meliton is oppioisiite that of a kersey. Of course, there are many grades of kerseys, both fine and poor. A BIG MISTAKE is made in the steaming otf lower grades of kerseys, for instead of being an advantage, it is an established fact that the goods are aatually hsarmed by the process, as it tends to show up any imperfectionis that may exist more plainly. Of course, the water finish does not give as good and as per- manent a lustre as the steam finish, but St ill the faults may be hidden more or less succesisfully. Mannfaicturers of the lower clasis of kense^ns are well aware of the many differemt expedients resorted to in order to imitate the bet- ter class of kerseys other than the or- dinary, simpler water finish. But with a well constructed fabric it is an ab- solute necessity to bring out the in- herent lustre of the fibre by steam finishing, thus giving the fabric its ch arac ter i s ti c app ear an ce. BURLED THOROUGHLrY. Kerseys should be burled very thor- oughly and anything tending to mar the smoothness should be carefully re- moved, as the beauty of the finish depends on the degree of smoothness of the fabric. Very little mending is necessary on kerseys. Misspicks and missing threads should be sewn on the back of heavy-weight fabrics, for if this were not done, there would be a strong probability of a mark on the face of the goods. After burling and mending, the goods should be tacked, after which they are ready for fulling. This is usually done in the grease with a good bodied mild alkaline soap. FLOCKS. Flocks, if added in the right propor- tions and of the proper quality, produce a so'i.id, smooth fabric, as they help to fill up any crevices in the cloth. Flocks shoiuld be added in small quan- tities at a time and only after thei goods have commenced to felt. Afteir fulling TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 63 the goods are thomughly v^asheid and rinsed, and care should be taken that all soap is removed. When the goods are thoroug-hly cleaned, they are put on the rolling and st retching machine under great pressure. A com- mon occurrence is to unroll one roll of goods at a time in order to send it to the gig or napping machine. Now it can plainly be seen that unrolling one roll at a time does noit give uni- form handling of all the matenial, so that If all the rolls are unwound at about the same time, more uniform results might be expected. Goods should be handled so that aill will receive as nearly the same treatment as can be given them. They are now ready for gigging. In gigging, the old- est i&ets of tea sells sho'uld first be used, gi^adually working up to the better and newer teasels. NAPPING. But the napping miacihine is gradual- ly replacing the teasels, as for all ot- dinary purposes the gigging pro'cess can be saJtiisfactorily periforimed on nap- pers even on the fineist grade of work. Most fine goods are croppeid after the gigging or napping operatio'n has been finisthed o^r rather when about half fin- ished. The unnecessiary nap which has been raiised is now sheared so as to give the teasels a chance to do their work more effectively and thor- ouglily, and also to even up the fibreis that have been already raised, in or- der to give the fabric a smooither ap- pearance. The goods should not be sheared too low so that after finislhins: they will have a thin, open and hun- gry appearance. There are many dif- ferenit wiays of performing the gigging and napping and different finishers use different methods during this op- eraltion, Which vary more or less, but which give results that are satisfactory to the individuail. STEAMING. Steaming is the nex^t process throug^h will oh the kersey passes. The goods must be thoroughly cooled after steaming. They are then ready for dyeing, if piece dyes; but if yarn dyes, they are speck dyed, after which they are ready for welt gigging. Some fin- ishers carbonize their goodis after siteamftng, but thi's is only done wben circumistances require it. After the speck dyeing it is customary to give a bath of fuller's earth. When wet gigging is completed, the goods are firmly rolled up and allow- ed to stand over night and in the morn- ing they are extracted and dried, after which they are back burled. They are then steam brusihed and sheared, after which they are brusihed again and specked, providing this is thought nec- e'ssary. They are then inspected, and piassing the proper inspection, are again siteam brushed and pressed, and then are; given a final inspection, after which they are measured, rolled, pack- ed and ready to be sihipped. Ail of the proicesiseis above mention- ed in the finislhing of a kersey are done with the purpoise of bringing out to the fullest extent the lustre which is lying dormiant in the wool. With meltons, however, after fulling and waslhing, the goodis do not undergo any intermediate process but go at once to the steamer, lafter which they are carbonized, if neces'sary, and dyed. If a yarn dye, speck dyeing should not be omitted under any circumstances. The goods are rolled up on a stretch- ing and rolling madhine over night after speck dyeing, after iwhicih they are dried and siheareid. Sihearing of a melton is simiply for the purpose of cutting off lo'ng hairs. Then a light steam brushing follows, after which the goods are pressed, then slightly steamed. It has been found best to give this steaming on the preiss and to give a moderate presising. The goods are tihein inspected and measured, roll- ed, ticketed and packed, ready for shipment. No. 50. 64 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. SOME FINISHING FACTS. A former suggesitiom on flocking, in my opinion, is good as far as iit goeis, namely, tlie invention of an attachment to flock the goods to a certain amount more evenly and at a limiitod time stop; and, again, after a limited time, let on some more flocks. This, indeed, woiuld be very desirable, but to aocom- pliish this end woiMd require a com- plicated attachment wihich wduld re- quire muclh time and mioney to con- S'truct, and there is little encourage- ment for the finisher to sit up nig'hts burning the midnight oil evolving a p^rohilem that would add eflicdency to a fulling mill in order to save 2 or 2V2 ounce's of flocks per yard. BEGIN AiT THE ROOT. In my poor way, I wouLd 'begin at the root of the faibric to save the stock from being chafed off and wasted and an accompanying uneven sititching or fulling, as is the fact in a particular make of fulling mill which is in use in many mills at the present time and has been for many years. It has been the writer's priviilege to have had experience wiith many kinds of fulling mills since 1863, when a boy, up to the present time, handling all grades froim the loiwesit satinet up to the higliest woolens manufactured in this country and to my knowledge sold as foreign goods at $5 to $7 per yard. With the consitanit changes demanded oif the manufacturer of to-day and for the past few years, it has been a seri- ous problem for the manu^adturer to make goods to meet ithe demand of the buyer, who dictates the price which he will pay for the goods. The sample he selects in all proibaibllity is a high grade of w'oolen goods that costs from $5 to $9 per yard and the manuifaciturer is expected to imitate or copy those hig^h priced goods at about $1.25 to $1.50 per yard, w^hidh the manufacturer tells the buyer he cannot do, owlnig to the cost of wool, and the buyer tells him in no uncertain words that he cares littde what the goods are made from, but they must look like sample and wool. ATTEIMPT TO MAKE THE GOODS. Then an attempt is made to make the goods laiccordlng to ithe standard demanded by the buyer, and, in order to keep hiis mill employed in a time of little demand for goods, he under- takes to make the goods that he might be in a position /to keiep his organization together, oftentimes at a loss. And it was onice under such condiitions that the writer was forced to resort to an expeidientt of making a change in a part of the fulling so that the goods would be fulled with a suffiJcienit amount of sihrinkage and as little waste in dhaf- ing as possible and make them a de- siirable fabric for the price they were to be sold for. PATENTED ATTAOHiMENT. This the writer wais enabled to ac- compMsh by takiing out an attachment called discs and emibodying a patented attachment /that Is adapted to all grades and weights of woolens, allow- ing the greatest amount of shrinkage with the least waste in chafing the mill, being capable of fulling at least 400 yards to 600 in 10 hours and saving 2 oiunces stook to each yard fulled and requiring 25 per cent lesis power to run the mill with the improved attachment than It does with the disc, allow- ing the goods to be fulled more uni- formly from side to centre and centre to side than it is possible to full with the discs. This Is, I can assure you, no sm/alil matter, for in this process is emibodied the key block that holds up and gives good or bad results to the other pro'cesises, scouring, gigging, steam finisMng, and dyeing, as well as the dry finishing, and for this rea- son the writer would earnestly sug- gest to the manufacturer and finisher to give the fulling mill the attention it justly deserves. The attachment I have mentioned TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 65 has been in use for the past three years without any cost for repairs and is ,^ood for the next 15 or 20 years. This cannot be the case with the diisos. They become woirn to a point in about four months on low grade goods that call for a new set. Much more might be written on this parti cu)lar subject, but I am sure that the skilful manufacturer and finiisher will find ample matter for their con- sideration in my poor effort to suggest a means wheireby a better piece of goods can be obtained, with a net sav- ing oif $10 to $15 on every 400 yards of goods fulled in thiose mills. This In- deed is no dream. The facts are to be had at the mill where this change has been in actual existence for the past three years with good results. There is no danger of damage being done to the goods during the proeess of fulling, as there are no bolts or nuts to rust or break off and fall in with the goods and damage them during full- ing, which is a well known fact to most finis hens, and a very serious one^ as Off ten the goods are made worthless by tsuch damage. The patteirnis for the improved attachment are in the pos- session oif a well-known machine build- er and cian be made to order as soon as there is a demand for them from the manufacturer, and, while I might write very miuoh more on this subject, I trust that my poor effort at suggest- ing a matter of so much importance to the manufaaturer and finisher of the present time may be of some value to them. No. 51. ♦ » CRABBING. The object of crahbing a piece of cloth is to obtain a set of the fabric. The process consists in running the cloth through hoiling wiater, and in true crabbing only boiling water is used and no other solution of amy sub- stance. The craibhing is carried out by pressure, heat, and cooillng, and carries out a cleanisinig oiperatlon, the boiling water through which the cloth passes removing a great deal of ad- hering dirt and aniy impurities which the cloth miay have collected. It is essential thialt the fabric go into the crab in an absoilutely -smooth condi- tion, for if it did not enter the crab in thiis condition there would be a very strong ten,dency to form wiasher wrinkles. As soon as the cloth strikes the boiling water it immediately con- tracts, and when taken out and allowed to cool the setting operation com- mences. And it should be borne in mind that the longer the time given the fabric to cool, the more permanent will be the set of the cloth. Setting the cloth thus give/s an incretase in lus- tre, but should the cloth be cooled too suddenly it loises lustre and does not get as s^ood a set. On cheap grades of sergeis there is a strong tendency to lustre even with- out the craibbing and lafter cooling process, so that a gradual cooiling process would be folly. In a case like this the cloth is cooiled instantly, by pasising it through a tank of cold water. This coiunteracts the tenidency of a too ready lustre. On finer grades of goods it has always been neicessary to blow steiam in order to produce a good lustre. There are two distinct typeis of finish in crahbing, the hard and the' soft fin- iish. The hard finish gives a high lus- tre, and to produce thiiS the cloth is run through the crah with the top roll down, while to produce a soft finish there is little or no pressure on the top roll. DIPPERENT MAC'HINElS. Grabs are made in various forms with single, double and triple bowls. But the double crab is the most pi'actical and the one' most ex- tensively used. The single crah is used where there is not suffiicient floor space to permit of a larger machine, and the triple crab is ujsed only for 66 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. speoial gnacles of goodis. Originially the crabbiing pnoceiss wais oarried omt om cloise finisihed piece dyes almost entirely, but as ithe different manufajc- turers caime to realize the benefits to be derived from this process they came more and more to faovr it. All piec- e's of cloith that have become cockled or creased are crabbed, as the process has a strong tendency to remove these defects, and if not entirely removed, to remedy them quite a little. On cental n light- weigihit goods, scouring iis often done away with and crabbing substituted. The lower roll on a crab should have a bedding of burlap from one to two inches thick, and about twenty- five to thirty yards long, but the upper roll should never be covered with any ibedding, under any circum- stances. In loading the crab the top roll should be allowed to rest on the bottom roll for the first three or foiur laps in order to give the cloth a start. 'If loaded this way no difficulty is experienced in starting. The crabbing process in itself is very simple. The tank is filled up with water and this wat-er is then brought to a boil. If live steam is used, care should be taken that the first steam that enters the water should be clean, as there is a liiab'ility for rust to form in the pipe, which might be ejected into the water when the steam valve is opened, thus hurting the goods permanently if not laltogether ruining them. After the water has come to a boil, the steam is turned off and the cloth is immersed and wound onto the roll. About three or four minutes are con- sumed in winding the goods onto the roll, after which the plug is pulled out and the hot water allowed to run away. This is the process with a single bowl crabbing machine, and the principle is the same with any number of bowls. OF INTEREST TO FINISHERS. With cotton warp goods an interest- ing thing should be noted. In run- ning from the loading drum to the first bo'wl, by increasing the tension, the filling is thrown more to the face, thus serving to hide to some extent the ''union" appearance of the material. From the crab the cloth is run over a stretcher on to the steamer, which consists of a hollow roll, with very small apertures through whicih live steam is blown and forced through the cloth. There are usually about four men on a double crab, and in large mills where there are a great number of crabbing machines, there should be a separate steamer. A fancy worsted is seldom, if ever, crabbed. Different fabrics are treated in dif- ferent ways during the crabbing and steaming. For insitance, a panama 561/^ inebes in widith, is run 'tih rough the first bowl 'of boiling water with no top roll pressure, and run under a fair tension, onto the first roll. When this shell is loadeid the water is run away, and the cloth pas- ses through the secoind bo'wl onto the roll there under a very light tension. It is then run for four or five minutes in the boiling water with no top roll pressure after which it is run onto the steamer. After the crabbing the ciot'h will be found to have shrunk to 52% inches. It is then steamed for eight minutes at about three pound pressure, after which it is dolly wash- ed, and again crabbed in one bowl with iboiling water and no top roll pressure. There are VARIOUS METHODS for crabbing a lustre. The oiperation is as follows: The cloth is run through the boiling -w^ater in the first bowl under a fair amount of tension, with the top roll down all through the operation, with no extra weight on the top roll. From the first bowl the fabric passes to the second, where the same operation is repeated. Then the cloth passes onto the steam shell un- der a light tension, wherr is steam- TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 67 ed for jijbout t-en minutes at four pounds pressure. Tn crabbing Sicilianis, the operatioin is somewhat different. The cloth is run through the boiling water in the first bowl under a fair tension, with the top roll down and no extra weight. The operation in the second bowl is the same as the first. The cloth is then rolled onto the steam shell and is then treated to a second crabbing, by being passed back to the first crab, through the boiling water, under a fair tension, and with no top roill pres- sure, and then run through the second crab again, where the water instead of boiling should have a temperature of 180 deigreeis Pahrenheiit. The fabric is then run onto the sJteam shell where it iis steamed for eight minuteis at four pound pressure. As an illustration of the shrinking or contraction on the crab, a ceirtain Sicilian was 56 inch- es wide beifore crabbing, but after going through the first crab it was 52 inches wide, and when the second crabbing operation was finished it was 50^/^ inches in width. This shrinking in width, of course, gave the fabric a good set, which was the object of the crab- bing process. With Iitaliian's, w'hich arei used as linings, a very high lustre is required. The crabbing process is much the same as the methoid for crabbing lus- tres, except that a strong pressure is necessary in order to proiduce the high lustre, so eissential 'to this iform of goods. For goods that require a set, but in which no lustre is necessary, a con- tinuoius wet finishing machine is used, the cloth running through the four or five bowls in this machine the first bowl containing boiling water and the second bowl water aJt 180 degrees FlaJhrenhelt, and so on down !to the lasit bowl which has cold water. Often- times the first bowl in this continuous wet finisher is used as a mild soap- ing bowl. No. 52. KERSEYS, MELTONS AND BEAVERS. The card stripping improvement un- der suggestion number 49 in your is- sue of Fe'bruary 10, 1910, is good. The device can be used on woolen cards where short stocks are carded more particularly. The Davis & Furtoer peo- ple groved the loose pulley for this purpose some years ago. The device not only cleans but tends to keep the tooth smooth if adjusted and handled with care and right clothing used on stripper. Set stand 'bearings on fancy stands. It only takes a very few min- utes to adjust, clean and take down. Second, as to the article over signa- ture of number 50, same issue as above, I should like to see a melton sample shown to the trade and finished as stated if such can be secured. Would you kindly have the same mail- ed to me? KERSEYS AND BEAVERS. 1 have always taken a great interest in the finish of kerseys and beavers, particularly made from manipulated stocks. There should be to-day a great market for these goods of American make. For the average man an over- coat made from this fabric is far su- perior for durability, warmth and good styling at all times — none (better than a kersey finis'h garment. It is easy to keep clean and can be made to meet the pocketbook of all. In building this fabric we commence with mungo and short stocks of wool grading, se- lected and manipulated in the blend room, with full attention given in the carding room. Do not get away from the old system of carding; then from this study and apply the modern devices and attachments. With all this "Careful attention must be en- forced" and each blend carded on its merits, making each day a study in itself. Changing of conditions of the 68 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS atmsophere might throw this depar^ ment out, causing the spinning de- partment endless trouble. Many card- ers and spinners work together for their own interest. Product and qual- ity is a side issue. For a full under- growth and to keep away from that so-called hungry appearance on face finish of American goods, draft the yarn, not perhaps to the extreme limit but enough to make the yarn have a full woolly appearance. In so doing the kersey has its first start in a short, close, thick bottom. A GOOD RULE. A good rule and figure is to draft kersey yarn in the ratio of 10 to 15. This is an old time rule and stands good. With this at- tention the yarn does not need the unnecessary twist for weaving or strength as it is very elastic. With even work on the loom and a machine in every particular adjusted rightly, the fabric taken from a loom with the above attention has a good start for perfection In the finishing department. Careful inspection at this stage is nec- essary In the burling, sewing, etc, Fulling and gigging will be much more easily accomplished with the fabric made from yarn as above than other- wise. Aiso in steam lustering, with care on the part of the man in charge on a P. & W. steam lustering ma- chine, the finisher will be surprised with the results, when yarn has been given attention and study. Many er- rors are charged up to the finishing department that rightly belong to card- ing and spinning of the yarns. I will not go into details of each machine In departments. My princi- pal object is to induce those in charge, and who are interested in the fabric in question, to step to the carding and spinning departments to rectify many losses on sales of fabric. We might write pages of interest along this line that would apply to many fabrics in the woolen line. No. 53. HOW TO RUN A WEAVE ROOM. The first thing to do is to see that the cotton is opened one or two days before it goes to the pickers and cards. The carder must look after his work closely in order to avoid singlings or doublings, and send all the work in good shape to the spinner. You should require the spinner to give you the best yarn that can pos- sibly be made for the numbers you have to weave. Have all spooling and warping first class in every respect. That is one of the greatest troubles on a Draper loom. The spoolers will turn the yarn loo'se too quickly after tying a knot and it kinks; then, when it goes to the loom, it will draw out and stop it The man who has charge of the slashers should keep right in behind the warpers. Do not allow him to let any bad work go. Require him to run a good split warp with no loose ends or draw-backs. THE FIRST THING. The first thing I do, when I take charge of a weave room is to go over the room and see that all looms are level, next to see if all parts are ad- justed right, and harnesses trimmed to suit the goods I am to make. There are many different ways to set up your hoop rolls to suit different work. It is necessary to get good fixers and have them to do their work and keep up with it at all times. The weavers should stay in their own al- leys, watch the wor'k, keep all machin ery clean and properly oiled. Have all of your help to take care of all sup- plies and waste. Teach them to save everything just as if it were theirs. Show them that the idea is to get the best price for their work. BELTS AND THE HELP. Look after lall belts and keep them TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 69 tight. Have a man to clean all loom belts twice each week. Impress on the hands the need of being at their work on time and start- ing their looms when the whistle bio Wis. Treat the help in a friendly manner but not familiarly. Keep your loom fixers instructed at all times in the way to get the best results, and see that the instructions are carried out. All work together, and every thing will go along all O. K. No. 54. DEFECTS IN COTTON CARDING. To find defects, it is necessary that the overseer should be the centrifugal force that drawis everything to the centre of the room's welfare, then he will have a homogeneous service throughout the room, which will radi- ate a power that will keep the enitire force of help pointing out defects. ONE COMMON DEFECT. One common defect in a card room, which the writer claims is the basis of weak yarn, is to have a lap of cot- ton as it leaves the finisher picker con- tain fibres tangled, caused by a dull beater, thus not allowing the impuri- ties to escape. Keep your beaters well sharpened (not to a knife edge) in order to oipen the coitton properly. Take the beater O'Ut when dull and have it planed by one who knows how, and see that it is properly balanced before replacing. Cotton that is not properly opened will disarrange the wire on the card cylinder (especially if the cylinder is covered with rib-set fillet) with the reisiult that the wire will be raised and come in conltact with each working top every reivoliutdon of the cylinder, thus forming what is termed a hoiok on all high wires, w'hioh holds the fibres they act upon, and carries them around a se<3ond time or more, 'thus injuring and breaking them. PLOUGH GROUND WIRE. Anoither defect is hiaving the wire plough gro'und only on one side of tlie point, Which iis the case with most card clotiMng. If you are a skeptic on this point, examinei your wire with a proper g'lass, and you will be coinvinced by a glanee alt the point that you are getting only ome-half the benefit of ploug'h ground w^ire. Ajs we undersitand it, ploiugh ground wire is to be preferred, o^n accoiunt of its s'harp sides having a better oppor- tunity of holding the fibres until they are straightened whein ploiugh gro'und, but why give us only one-hialf the ben- efit? Surely, if one side is a benefit, plough grinding both sides is better. ALLOWING LAP TO RUN OUT. Anoither btid defect is allowing a lap to run out. Every overs eer sho'uld brand this as a crime, bieeause muoh damage is done' by this oarelessaiess, as it is liahle to blister the cylinder, and punoture the screen. Sometimes it will raise the edge of the filleit in such a manner as to allow some of the teeth to find their way under the clothing, thus raising the clothing and making a high place, dippinig into the fiats at eivery revoiliution of the cylin- der. Thiis trouble should be deiteoted by the overseer, or grinder, becaruise a streak of one or more inches wide will appear on the flats, owing to the cotton clinging to the injured points of wire of the flats, thus miaking a large amount of neps. A high place on the cylinder will also wetar ithe screens. A stop motion attachmemt to pre'vemt the lap from running out is the only remedy, and wo'uld save the otothins- and also prevenit the disarrangemenit of the settings, thus making better work. STRIPPING THE CARDS. Another defect is sWppin'g the 70 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. cards all together and having all the light work that thiis oiociatsio[ns running im togeither, at the baiok iof the first process of draiwing. Strip one-fifth of your cards every hour, and you will have much evener yarn. Another defect is one of running different lengths of sltaple w^th the same nose feed piiaie. The most imporJtant ploinit about a oard, when running different lengths of istaple, is the CHANGING OP THE PEED PLATE to accoimmodaite the length of the sta- ple run. The distance between the bite of the feed roll and (the point w^here the ooitton is freed by coming in ooin- tacit with the teeth of the licker should be ome-eighth of an inch longer than the average length of the staple. Some mills use long sitock and make weak yarn, on account of using a short nose plate, because the long stock re- mains gripped for a longer period than tihe shoi't 'Stoick, according to rthe length of staple. Thus, the longer fiibres are injured or broken, and a great deal of waste is made. This also prevents efficient work being done, causing a greater strain on the other working parts of the card. The setting of the feed plate from the licker is given by most writers and machine companies as 12-1000 to 20- 1000, but they give no reason for this alloiwance, and it is sO' misunders'tood that I deem it neeesislary to explain it here. Many conceive .the ideia that it Is the quality of the cotton that deter- mines the setting of the feed pilate, while it is the weight of the lap that should be considered. The tihicker the sheeit of lap the wider the settinig. Biut a carder will receive more benefiit from a light lap and the feed pl'ate sett at 12-1000, be- cause a heavy lap with wide settings offers facilitieis for the prioductiion of a lumpy sliver, making it possible for the licker to pluck large tufts of cot- ton at this point This is the reason why mosit miachine builders advocate getting the work from the card more rapidly, thus ensuring a shorter draft on the card, and removing the strain on it he points of the cylinder wire, caused by a long draft and bulky lap. A LIGHT LAP. A light lap enaibles the licker to take the fibres sufficiently loose, and permits a constiant attention at this point, while a heavy lap allows tufts of ithe coitton to escape, making the draft irregular and causing an uneven sliver. A light lap has many less fibres to be acted upon to the inch, thus the succession of licker teeth passing ithrougih the fringe of less fibres hanging downward causes much more of impurities to be extracted with less resistance, and makes a cleaner sliver at the front of the card. PROPER CLOTHING. Another defect is not covering a card with proper clothing. When cards are clothed, the quality of yarn to be run should be considered. For coarse work, the twilled fillet is pre- ferred on account of thei stronger edges. However, for medium and fine work the cylinder and doffer are usu- ally covered with rib-set fillet. Another defect lies in the use of metallic rolls. They are not given space enough between the rolls in most mills. In setting metallic rolls, there is one broad principle that must always be followed, as on all other rolls, that is, the distance hetween the bite of each pair of rolls must always exceed the average length of the staple being used, and that high speeded rolls re- quire wider settings than those having a slower speed. Then SETTING METALLIC ROLLS the distance determined by the length of the staple; should be measured from the bite of the roll and not from cen- tre to centre as on leather covered rolls. For one^inch cotton with a 60 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 71 grain sliver, the distance between the first and second roll, centre to cenitre, should ibe I14 inches. Tlhis will make the distance from the bite of each roll (first and second) 1% inches. Many carders conceive the idea that the bite of metallic rolls is at the bo't- tom of the centre flute, so they have the same distance between metallic rolls as on leather covered toUs, thus producing a stringy web and injuring the fibres. The top rolls are positively driven by the fiutes of the lower rolls mesh- ing with the flutes of the upper rolls. They revolve on coHlars which prevent them from coming into too close con- tact. If 'the collars did not keep the rolls partly separated, the fibres would be damiaged by the contact of the flutes. Thus it will be seen that the bite of the rolls is on the side, and not in the centre of the roll, also on the side of the flute, and not at the bottom. Another defect in the using of metallic rolls. is not having tihem properly weighted. Four- teen pounds is given as the proper weight on each roll, but thiis weighting gives very poor resMts. The flutes of the back rolls are of a coarser (pitch, owning to the greater bulk of cotton that comes under their action, and should be weighted with 18-pound weights. The third roll has 24 flutes, and should be weighted with 16-pound weights. The second roll has 32 flutes, and should be weigihted with 16-pound weights. The front roll 'has the same number of flutes as 'the second roll, but is weighted with a 12-pound weight instead of a 16-pound weig^ht. THtE REASON for this is that more weight is re- quired on the second roll to insure a fiirmer grip on the cotton, which is necessary in order to have a positive draft. Some prefer to have the heavi- est weight on the front roll, claiming that as this roll revolves at the highest speed, more weight is required in or- der to keep it steady. When a top roll jumps, whether it is a common or a metallic roll, the only remedy is to have the weights sus- pended by springs or strong banding, which will serve as a cushing, and the roll will run steady, if iproperly cov- ered, if leather rolls are used. Metallic rolls should not revolve over 450 revolutions per minute, and if kept within this speed, they will run steady. Another defect, is having a heavy finished dnawing sliver. I have seen carders running their finished drawing sliver as Hieavy as 70 grains per yard. There is nothing more detrimental to good spinning than a heavy finished drawing sliver. Never have your finished drawing sliver heavier than 60 grains per yard, in a print cloth mill. DRAFT. To make a good even compact rov- ing, have a draft of 80 on your card, making a 50 grain sliver, with the doffer itraveling 82 feet per minute. Have la draft of 4.70 on your ifirst head of drawing, making a 60 grain sliver. On your second head, have a draft of 5.35, making a 62 grain sliver. On your last head have a draft of 5.88, making a 60 grain sliver. It must be remembered that the above drafts are given for metallic rolls. The overlap caused by the meshing makes the ac- tual draft longer than the figured draft. A good rule is to add 9 per cent to the figured draft, to obtain the iactual draft. Make a .60 hank roving on your slub- ber, 1.65 hank on your intermediate to miake 4.50 fine roving. CANS. Having the cans lat the back of a drawinig emptying out together at each delivery is a defect that causes more uneven yarn than any other defect, and you, Mr. Reader, if you are a mill manager or overseer, go to your draw- ing frame and weigh a sliver when all the cans running into one delivery are emptying all together; then weigh the T2 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. sliver from fulll cans, and you will be convinced lat once, that what I have pointed out is true. The cans at the back of the frame should be arranged so that they will be emiptied at difCer- enit intervals. WEIIGHING DEUIVER'IBS. Another defect is weighing all the de- liveries of one head together, placing them on a measuring board, then cutting and weighing in a bulk. In this case the bad work of a single de- livery is not discovered — caused by a lap on the back rolls or the rolls not being properly oiled, or ,the weight hooks havimg been disturbed, or one of the deliveries not 'having the proper number of slivers at the biack. If the slivers are weighed separately and any of the above defects should exist, the sliver will be either too light or too heavy, and the rolls producing a sliver not of standard weight, should be giv- en immediate attention in order to lo- cate the cause. Another bad and costly defect is in not giving the top leather rolls proper care. Examine the flute of a front steel roll that bas run a few years, and you will find that the lead- ing side of the flute is dull, wbile the other is much sharper. Now imagine that unnecessary friction is caused by a worn saddle or a dirty roll, or by the roll not being oiled properly, and you will agree that the grain of the leather roll being rubbed by the sharp side of the worn flute of the front roll will wear the grain of the top leather roll enough to make it very rough, and cause the end to continually lap around the front leath- er roll (much more on the ring frame), forming a lap on one boss that will eventually cause the break- ing of the end on the other boss, be- sides spoiling many rolls. SETTING TOP LEATHER ROLLS. Another defect is having the front top leather rolls set on the centre of the bottom steel roll. Top leather rolls should be set a little forward of the centre of the bottom steel roll. Tbis will not only reduce the friction of the top leather roll, but it will also keep the leather roll in place and will not cause that backward and forward movement when the frame is started or stopped. SHARP BEND OP FLYERS. Another defect is the sharp ben a found at the head of most flyers in use, and also the sharp turn from the bottom end of the hollow leg to the presser of the flyer, which causes much friction or abrasion on the strand of roving. This sharp bend should be removed and the length of the hollow leg of the flyer should be cut away, so as to increase the length of the presser a distance below the hollow leg of the flyer, and so con- structed to convey the strand to the eye of the presser, and at the same time, have the proper number of turns wound around the presser. It must be seen that a new style presser must be attached to the flyer. BOBBINS. Another defect, found in most card- ing rooms, is having bobbins of dif- ferent diameters running on the same frame. This causes a great loss in produc- tion, because the surface speed of the front roll and the excess surface speed of the bobbin over the flyer should be equal, and if bobbins of different diameters are used, the relationship of the surface speed of the bobbin, and the surface speed of the front roll is destroyed, on all bobbins not having a proper diameter, thus causing some ends to become too tight, or too slack, mak- ing waste, and in many cases the bobbin is removed, thus losing pro- duction. When ordering, care should be tak- en to obtain the proper size of the bobbin by using calipers; also see that the top of the bobbin fits the spindle properly because if the in- side of the bobbin is too large, it will TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 73 shake and raise on the bobbin, break- ing the end or strand of roving. CREELING. Another defect is in creeling. Some carders allow speeder tenders to put in all full roving when creeling. The proper way to creel is to have a full roving running in with a half- full roving. This will preclude the possibility of two light ends running in together, because when the work begins to come in light and you creel all full roving doffed off the same frame, it will be seen that the re- sult will be very light and uneven work that will cause bad warping. FILLING BOBBINS ON SPEEDERS. Another defect is to not fill the bobbins properly on all speeders, this causing more doffing and more run- ning out in the after process. Have all your spindles leveled, and then set your lifting rail or carriage so that the shoulders of the bobbin will just touch the presser at the com- pletion of each traverse, and have a taper of 30 degrees on all full bob- bins. Bobbins not properly filled, re- quire more creeling and more creel- ing means more work and also more waste, because a certain amount of roving is pulled off each bobbin when creeling. Some overseers allow speeder tenders to cut a lea or two off the bobbin. Overseers should brand cutting off pieces A CRIME because this practice makes more waste, injures the stock and spoils the bobbins. A 4.50 hank roving having 2.54 turns to the inch, should make 3.15 sets per day of ten hours, or 9.3 hanks per spindle, or 33.12 ounces on the spin- dle. Now, Mr. Reader, if you have charge of speeders weigh one full bobbin of 4.50 hank roving, and if you find that it will weigh only a little over TO ounces, construct your bobbin as I suggest and your bobbin will then weigh 11 ounces. The average time for a 10 ounce roving to run out, is 51 days, (kinds of stock and speeds making the dif- ference) while an 11 ounce bobbin will run 6 days under the same condi- tions. Thus it will be seen, that this is a great benefit to the spinning be- cause less creeling means less work and less waste. And ring spinners will always fiock where there is less work, thus more help is obtained un- der the above conditions. ANOTHER DEFECT. Another defect is in not giving the top of the spindles proper care. When a speeder is doffed, the flyers must be removed on all modern frames. It has been noticed in various mills how the spindles' tops become in a bad state, due to the dryness of the spindle top and flyer. In some cases, the spindle tops and flyers will be found to have contracted rust. Spin- dles in such a condition make the surface of the spindle tops uneven in a short time, causing vibration, with the result that the flyers will work their way to the top of the spindles in the above condition, thus falling among the other revolving flyers, breaking them and in some cases breaking the gears and bolters. The flyers should be swabbed out every four weeks and the spindle tops should be oiled every Monday morn- ing. Once the above system is put into practice it will be found that the flyer bill will be greatly reduced, and the spindle tops always in good condition and free from rust. MOVING PARTS OF CARRIAGE. Another defect, and one that is most neglected is in not giving proper attention to the slow moving parts of the carriage. In most mills we flnd that pulleys supporting the chain and weight that balance the carriage clogged with dirt and not having been oiled for 74 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. weeks, also the slides in the same condition. When the pulleys and slides are in this condition, it causes the carriage to jump and also causes a dwell at the end of every comple- tion of the traverse, thus carrying unnecessary strain on the cone belt. The good workings of the bottom cone depends upon a small piece of belting, that is, the cone belt, and it should be the aim of all persons having charge of speeders to remove all unnecessary strain upon this belt. Imagine a speeder to have clogged pulleys, due to not having been oiled and cleaned, and also dry slides. Think of the unnecessary strain upon the cone belt thus causing friction enough to retard the bottom cone, also bobbins, thus destroying the re- lationship of the surface speed of the front roll and the surface speed of the bobbin, thus causing the tension to become slack. Again imagine the rack gear to be changed to increase the tension. This change will tighten the ends and the rail jumping from the want of cleaning and oiling, will make the tension irregular, causing the ends to be CONTINUALLY SNAPPING at the eye of the presser. Now im- agine a frame running in the above condition and the pulleys and slides to be cleaned and oiled. It will be seen that the unnecessary strain will be removed and the bottom cone will obtain its proper speed, and as the rack gear was changed to accommo- date this unnecessary friction upon the bottom cone, the ends will be strained and the rack gear taken off must be replaced. OILING. All slow moving parts of the car- riage should be oiled every Monday morning, even the links of the chain should get a little oil. If the slow moving parts of the carriage receive the proper care, it will be found that the leas will be wound on the bobbin more evenly, thus making the tension more regular, thus stopping that snap- ping of the ends when the set is nearly full, which is the case under the conditions described above. Another defect is in the DIFFERENTIAL MOTIONS now in use, because the bot- tom cone drives the bobbin gears, and as the steady working of the bottom cone depends upon a small piece of belting, much friction is caused throughout the set, thus affecting the tension. There is very little difference between the old differential motion and the so-called new differential mo- tion. All that can be claimed for the new differential motion, is that the large amount of friction caused by the bell gear sleeve running in the op- posite direction to that of the driving shaft is removed. Some builders have lately applied a stationary shell to sep- arate the shaft from the sleeve, mak- ing the old differential motion as good as any new differential motion on the market. Some builders claim that with their new differential motion, the bottom cone is no longer a driver, and they also claim that the friction on the driving shaft is removed by having both sleeves and periphery revolving in the same direction as the driving shaft. CONE DRIVEN. All new differential motions are cone driven, and if any person inter- ested doubts my statement, discon- nect a gear in the train of gears from the bottom cone to the gear driving the differential sleeve, and you will find that the differential sleeve will run in the opposite direction to that of the driving shaft. It will be seen from the above that on the new dif- ferential motion the friction is remov- ed from the sleeve and added to the periphery, also that the bottom cone is called on to hold the differential sleeve against the friction inside the periphery and at the same time drive the bobbins. Thus it will be seen that TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTJONS. 75 the new differential motions have noth- ing on the old differential motions, having a stationary shell to separate the driving shaft from the bell gear sleeve. BLAME DIFFERENTIAL MOTION. Some writers claim that machine builders would welcome any improve- ment over the method now in use, that is, to have a coneless speeder. This statement may be true, but most ma- chine builders, whom the writer has had the pleasure to meet, blame the differential motion — and they are right. What causes the work to run so badly on speeders in the summer time? The answer is the friction on the cone belt which affects the ten- sion. Now what causes this friction? It is the extra weight of roving that is wound on the bobbin, that causes this friction, because as the bobbins increase in weight, more power is re- quired to drive them, and the heavier the bobbin the more the friction. We have heard speeder men ask, why is it that slubber cones have a different shape than the fine speeder cones? Because the weight added at each layer on a slubber bobbin is much greater than on a fine speeder, owing to the hank roving being so much heavier. The only differential motion that will give a uniform tension throughout the set will be one wherein the cone belt acts as a governor only. After this is accomplished, the driving, be- ing on the inside of the periphery, will make it possible to have the periphery act as a collar for the reception of the differential sleeve, so that as the differential sleeve lags behind the periphery at the end of each comple- tion of the traverse, the speed of the collar over the differential sleeve will be increased in the same proportion as the weight is increased on the bob- bins at each completion of the trav- erse. It will be seen from the above that with such a device, as the bob- bins increase in weight, the speed of the periphery by the lagging of the differential sleeve is increased over that of the differential sleeve, thus balancing this increased weight at the completion of each traverse of the bobbin, and we have a uniform tension throughout the set. No. 55. DEFECTS IN WOOL CARDING. When I take charge of a strange room I look it all over carefully and see what shape it is in. I see if the grinders are in good shape. If not, I put them in shape to do their work rightly. Then take one set down, look it all over carefully, and see if the clothing is all right. Take out the workers and strippers on first breaker and see if they are all true. If not, take off the clothing and turn them up and replace the clothing. Never grind down the workers, that is, out of true. Take out tumblers and see if they are true and the clothing in good shape. Always keep tumblers on breakers clean and sharp. If allowed to fill up and get dull they will cause bad, uneven work by dropping stock. Set very close to the cylinder with 32 gauge. Set burr cylinder close to the tumbler. Clean feed rolls and set to burr cylinder. Look feed over and put in good shape. IF ON HEAVY WORK speed the doffer up and feed light in- stead of feeding heavy. On coarse work, if you grind too much stock in the card, it cannot card out in good shape. Grind all workers and strip- pers. Always grind light, as heavy grinding is bad and injures the card wire. We will look over the cylinder and doffer. See that the clothing is all tight and in good shape. Grind to a 76 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. good smooth point. Put card together, belt up. Have all belts tight and in good shape; then set card and start up and see that the feed boy keeps his feeds filled up but not crowded. Never let them run down. Keep them filled up all the time and you will get good results, the breakers working finely. Now take SECOND BREAKER and put in same shape. Speed doffer and feed light. It will card the stock out better and work on feed much nicer and if you change on fine work take speed off and feed heavier to make a gooa drawing and not too heavy, as light drawing is best. Now we will take the finisher and take out the rings. Put in the grinder and start up, and if the rings are shift- ed, as is often the case, lay out a good ring board and take up packing and run up rings nicely to the board and take some good fine card and run be- tween the rings, good and tight. Then put a coat of glue on top of card and that will harden the card so that the rings cannot move. Then put in leath- er packing, cutting splices carefully. Glue the spliced parts and put in two tv/o-ounce tacks and you have a nice set of rings. Put in grinders. Run slowly and grind very lightly until nice and smooth. Take a fine wire band card and some good wool and fill card and OIL WELL. Keep each doffer on for one-half hour and they will shed the stock nicely and evenly. Look over the condenser. See that drafts are all right. Keep aprons clean and in good shape. Nev- er allow aprons to gloss over and get hard as they will give you lots of trouble and work. Look over cylin- der on finisher. See if it is tight and perfectly true and grind very lightly. Take out the tumbler and grind to a good smooth point. Run slowly, set very close to cylinder, then look over leader. See if it is all right and in good shape; also feed rolls, as it is very important to have both in good condition. If boxes are worn, have them babbitted as it is important to set very close. Then put together, belt up, and set for the work you are on, and start up. Have carrier so that there is no strain at either end of feed. Take six ends of each end of spools and weigh them. If one side is heavier than the other, speed up spike band a little and weigh again. WATCH THE HELP very closely and see that they do the work in good shape and keep the room clean and neat. Avoid making waste. Have cards stripped and kept clean. Keep breaker tumblers clean and sharp and you will save one-fourth in waste. The less waste you make the less you have to use over and the work will be stronger and smooth- er. Follow this up and defects will vanish. Always have good fancies as they have lots to do in giving good work. No. 56. PICKING, CARDING AND WEAVING. I would start with the dyehouse and suggest two dye vats to do the work of one, as there is too much stock crowded into one dye tub to get it out even in shade. If such a plan was adopted, there would be less complaint about shaded goods in the finishing room. Next in importance is the pick- er house. A batch is laid down and the picker man instructed to get it through as quickly as possible or the cards will be waiting. It would be m.uch better in the end to let the cards stand an hour or two and have the batch properly mixr ed and picked before going to the card room than to have an endless amount of trouble afterward. PICKER HOUSE. In my opinion, the picker house is the TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 77 most neglected department in the mill, while it is really one of the most im- portant. Machine builders should put on their thinking cap and get out an improved mixing picker, one that will regulate the quantity of stock on the feed apron, so as to insure a more even mixing and eliminate all injury to the stock as it runs through the picker. One run through such a machine would give better results than two runs through the picker that is in use to- day. As the feed apron is loaded with stock, it is more of a chopping than a mixing process. How can a carder show good results when the stock is cut up and injured beyond remedy in the picker house before he receives it? CARD ROOM. In the card room there is a tendency to overcrowd the cards with stock, and, as a result, the roping is uneven, which makes uneven, rough, twitty and tender yarn. The spinning is bad with small production and an extra amount of waste^ bad spooling, slow dressing, poor weaving and imperfect cloth, with work accumulating ahead of the finishing room. The finisher is rushed with work and, as a result, he has to employ extra help or run over- time to catch up with his work. With all due respect to the finisher, he can never make imperfect goods from the weave room compare with goods made from stock which has been carefully mixed and picked and run through the cards without crowding". The card- ing machines of to-day have not suf- ficient carding surface. I believe that all carding machines should be not less than 60 inches in width. The first breaker should have two cylinders in- stead of one, the second breaker and the finisher one cylinder each, as at present, but larger in circumference so as to have more wire. Such a carding machine would certainly do splendid work, as the stock would be better pre- pared on the first breaker for the sec- ond, and the sliver from the second breaker as delivered to the finisher card would be in such fine carded con- dition that the roping from the finisher would be even and regular, and would spin better. There would be less waste and more yarn of a much better qual- ity. The yarn would be smoother and stronger. The spooler and dresser would take off more work with less waste, the weaver would have better production, and the goods on reaching the finishing room would be more per- fect. There would be a better skin on the face of the goods and thus they would take a better finish and the fin- isher would have a larger production with less help. WEAVING STAPLE GOODS. Regarding the weaving of staple goods, where the number of ends would not exceed, say 1,800, I believe it is possible for machine builders to make a creel to stand at the back of a loom to hold small spools so that the warp could be woven direct from the spools. Each thread would be a separate spool. The creel may be so arranged as to take up about the space of one loom. The warp would be endless, as when the spools would run out a boy could tie in and replace the empty spool with another full one. There could be a small space between the creel and the loom so that the weaver could examine the warp yarn. The threads could be put through a reed so arranged that a lees could be taken, if necessary, at at any time. This reed could be at- tached to the back of the loom, the warp yarn passing through this reed at the same width that the warp is set in the reed that is fixed in the lathe. The yarn after passing through the back reed could go over and under a number of rolls which could be regu- lated with a lever and weights on each side of the loom, which would regulate the tension on the warp yarn, so as to suit the number of picks that would be required to be woven into the goods per inch. Such a loom would not require any warp beam, dressing or spooling. The above is only a crude suggestion in which machine builders of looms 78 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. may find something for future develop- ment. No. 57. DEFECTS IN * RING SPINNING. The chief defect in a cotton ring spinning room at the present time is poor help. The demand of the manufacturer for the greatest possible production from his machines causes him, in the majority of cases, to lose sight of the fact that the help in this department, is much POORER THAN IT WAS years ago. This is noticeable, par- ticularly in prosperous times when the manufacturer is constantly calling for as much work as possible from his factory. This is. natural for the manu- facturer to do, as increased produc- tion means larger earnings, but in a good many instances this is carried to extremes,, and no doubt is responsible indirectly for the poor work from this department. This is especially true of our fine goods mills, where quality is supposed to be the main object in view. The only remedy for the above de- fect is that instead of increasing the speed of the machines to get more pro- duction, more machines should be put in. ANOTHER DEFECT common in a cotton ring spinning room is having the ring rail travel- ing too fast, or, in other words, not having the proper number of coils to the inch. The writer has in mind a spin- ning room where the ring rails were traveling very fast, the front roll making 98 turns per minute, runing 28s yarn and doffing every 5i hours. Since I visited the above spinning room, a change of overseer was made. and the new overseer is putting 66 coils to the inch on the bobbin, (which is the proper number of coils to the inch for 28s yarn, since the rule for finding the coils to the inch, is to mul- tiply 12i by the square root of the yarn (12 J times the square root of 28 equals 66 coils to the inch) ; speed of the front roll 114 revolutions per min- ute running 28s yarn, and doffing every 5| hours. It will be seen from the above, that more production will be obtained with the same amount of doffing, and that the saving in the spooling room is great. The overseer in charge convinced the writer that he gained five pounds of yarn in each spooler box, running through 3,400 pounds of yarn more, and at the same time not costing a penny more. Besides the above sav- ing, running your ring rail too fast will cause ballooning at each completion of the traverse of the bob- bin, on account of so sudden a change, causing the yarn to whip, thus break- ing a large amount of ends. TURNS TO THE INCH. Another defect found in most cotton mill spinning rooms, which causes bad warping, is not having the necessary number of turns to the inch in the yarn. Many tables are given for an approximate idea and many believe such tables to be exact, and they make their changes accordingly and let it go at that. The constant used for ring spin- ning is 4.75 multiplied by the square root of the number of yarn. It muBt be clearly understood that the above constant is not absolute, because some short cotton will take the twist better than longer kinds. Thus the inex- perienced should not accept such tables as exact, but employ the above rule to build the first bobbin. How- ever, with fair cotton running 28s yarn, the front roll should revolve 118 revolutions per minute, the spindles making 9,000 revolutions. Never run TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 79 your spindles over 9,000 revolutions per minute. CHANGING OF RINGS. Another bad defect is in the chang- ing of rings. Some overseers will al- low rings to be changed here and there around the room, which is one of the worst evils existing to-day in a ring spinning room, because you must have a different traveler for a new ring on account of its rough surface, and if new rings are distributed around the room, it will be seen that it is impossible to select the proper travelers to suit all rings. The only way to change rings is to order a half dozen or more frames of new rings and put all the new rings on a certain num- ber of frames, then pick out all the good rings taken off where the new rings were put on, to use about the room. As stated before, new rings require a different traveler from an old ring, but as the new rings become smooth, a heavier traveler should be used. Some overseers blame the carder for the yarn ballooning on a dry day, claiming the work to be light, when the real cause is in the new rings be- ing smooth, thus requiring a heavier traveler. BOSSES OF ROLLS. Another defect is having the bosses of the rolls of uneven diameter, thus causing some of the rolls to flute, also having top rolls too tight in the cap bars, which causes much friction, mak- ing very heavy yarn here and there around the room, besides causing much wear of both rolls and cap bars. Another defect is to set the top roll directly over the centre of the steel roll. Set it a little forward of the cen- tre of the bottom steel roll, and you will find that you will have less cockled yarn when the work runs heavy. A costly defect is in having some frames standing two or three days, or even weeks for repairs, or on account of shortage of help, without turning the rolls to prevent them from flattening, caused by keep- ing them weighted while the mill has been standing. When a mill has been standing two days, on the third day all rolls should be turned in order to save the leather covering from groov- ing, in some cases the leather cov- ering bursting on account of being flattened. A defect most common in all ring spinning rooms is to allow ends of weight levers to rest on the boards, and not have the weight resting in the proper notch cut in the lever. This is very detrimental to good spinning besides causing much uneven work. BANDING A CYLINDER. Another defect is in banding a cylin- der all on one side. When banding a cylinder, in order not to cramp it, tie a band on one side, then tie one opposite and so on until it is all banded. Never tie a band on a cylinder when stopped. Always band a cylinder when running in order to have the proper tension on the bands, and see that all the bands are of the same di- ameter. Another defect, common in a cotton ring spinning room, is in bobbins that fit poorly. The writer has in mind a spinning room where bobbins fit so poorly, continually working their way up to the top of the spindle, and be- came so troublesome that the speed of the spindles had to be reduced. Another defect that causes the wear- ing of the saddles, rolls and stirrups, resulting in unnecessary friction, is to allow the stirrups to rub the steel roll. WORN FLUTES ON FRONT ROLL. A defect that is much overlooked is worn flutes on the front roll. This defect causes irregular drafting, thus causing uneven yarn. The side of the flutes leaving the leather roll as it re- volves, if examined, will be found to be very sharp, and the least friction on the leather roll causing it to lag, gives the sharp side of the flutes the oppor- 80 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. tunity to cut the grain of the leather roll, making it rough, causing the end to lick up continually. I know of a spinning room where three quarts of oil saved 600 rolls a week. OILING FRONT ROLLS. To have a smooth top leather, have a boy who can be trusted to oil the front rolls every day. The oil should first be soaked in a small piece of waste, and then applied to the surface of the top leather roll under the sad- dle. If your yarn is uneven, take a front roll and have it refluted, and, after replacing, set all top leather rolls square with the front steel roll and see that all rolls are oiled properly, and you will find the yarn much stronger. LONG PIECINGS. Another defect that should be given attention is leaving long piecings when creeling 5 and 6 inches long. It should be remembered that piecing six inches long, allowed to run in at the back of a ring spinning frame with a draft of 7, will make a heavy end in front of 42 inches long. The only way to stop this defect is to obtain a piece of cloth containing such heavy lengths of yarn and explain to the help the harm done by this careless- ness. Another defect is to run guide wires not directly over the centre of the spindle, also guide wires that are grooved at the bearing point, these clinging to the yarn, and causing it to be continually breaking. WORN LIFTING RODS. Another defect is to run worn lifting rods that support the ring rails. This defect causes the ring to move later- ally, thus bringing the centre of the ring away from the spindle, causing unnecessary tension on the yarn. An- other defect is allowing waste to ac- cumulate around the bottom of the spindles, thus reducing the speed of the spindle, and preventing the neces- sary number of turns to the inch be- ing inserted in the yarn, thus making weak yarn and bad warping. CHANGING THE TRAVELERS. Another defect is not changing the travelers at the proper time. Some overseers never change travelers, but let them wear and fly from the ring. The writer knows of a case where this practice cost the company much money, because of broken traveler pieces having found their way to the cloth, causing much damage to the bleaching and dyeing machines, be- sides spoiling the cloth. Have a sys- tem of changing your travelers, and you will find that it will save your rings as well as prevent the above de- fect. No. 58. ■ * » COTTON SPINNING. Suppose we have a good grade of cotton to start with, and it matched up and was well carded, can we produce a first class quality of spun yarn? Yes! if all the parts of the spinning frame and the help are properly looked after. Every care should be taken at the spinning frame to produce a good even yarn or it will be a great loss to the company. We know it is a loss to pay from 12 to 23 cents a pound tor cotton and have it ruined at the spinning frame and thrown back for waste. CAUSES OF INFERIOR YARN. What causes bad, weak and un- even yarn? The rolls being too wide apart is one cause. Another is top rolls not being properly cleaned and oiled. Another is the thread guide being too far from the top of the spindle, which lets the thread strike the top of the bob- bin and stretches it. Another cause of weak and bad looking yarn is to run the travelers too light which lets the thread lash the separator. Most of the spinners set their rolls l-16th TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 81 of an inch wider apart than the cotton roll is supposed to be. This is all right. Do you know that? You have an even grade to set to. I find THE BEST RULE is to close your rolls up until you have a good strength, provided you don't get close enough to cockle, but if you should find some cockled yarn don't run and open up your rolls at once, but look around and see if there is not something else. See if the leather rolls are clean and have oil on them, then if you find cockled yarn it may be in the cotton. I find that it is a much better way to take out the back saddle for this trouble than to open the roUs wider. Taking out the back saddle and leaving the strength in the yarn and opening the rolls will in- cline to weaken it. Some times we do all this and still can not get the proper strength. Do we go back to the card- er? No! If we have long staple cotton we may have TOO MUCH TWIST in the yarn. Twist will make yarn brittle and it won't break well and will not have any strength in it and yarn that has no strength will break below standard. Another thing in twisting yarn too hard, if you are going to double and twist it to make a good, smooth, even ply yarn, run it with as little twist as will spin good and pull the spool on twister without breaking. THE TRAVELER. Take the travelers. There are a lot of different makes. Some are better than others for different numbers of yarn, but they will all give trouble and make bad work and bad running work travelers on coarse yarns should be watched, and changed about every two weeks or they are sure to affect the grade of yarn. In fine work travelers will almost change themselves by com- ing off when woven. If travelers have to be changed the overseer should stay near by and see that nothing is used to knock them off the ring. Knocking on the ring ruins the life of it very quickly. A worn ring will make bad work and cause the spinner continuous trouble. I find that a num- ber one flange ring is much the best for fine work; also, if you have not tried the flat toe traveler that has not been out long give it a trial. I think it is much better for the reason that it does not touch as much of the ring, and the life of the traveler is much longer and it is sure to lengthen the life of the ring. A very important point in spinning is to use every ef- fort to take care of the frame, the spindles and steel rolls. They should be looked after first. The only thing to do is to have them properly oiled. Look closely after the gearing of the frame to keep the work running as well as possible. Draft and speed have a lot to do with the running of the work. If running staple cotton, the draft should not exceed twelve on double roving, number 40 yarn being spun, 12 draft: speed of front roll should not exceed 120; the speed of the spindle should not exceed 9,500. I have found this to run very satis- factorily with a good product. No. 59. SPINNING RING FRAMES. This is most important. Poor leveling will cause the best of ma- chinery to run badly. After a machine has been properly leveled all moving parts should be found to turn easily. If they do not the cause should be investigated and remedied before starting up the frame. OILING. In starting up any machine the oil- ing should be given particular atten- tion. This applies to the recesses In the worm gear. The cylinder pully 82 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. and rolls, bearings, and particularly to the spindles. RING RAIL LEVELING. The rails should be leveled care- fully before any rings are set, and par- ticular attention should be given in seeing that frames are balanced prop- erly. You frectuently find frames bal- anced up with more weight than neces- sary. This adds to the power required for driving, and makes it difficult to depress the rails for doffing. SPINDLE PLUMBING. The rings should be set to the spin- dle at the bottom of the traverse, then run the rails up within one-half inch of the top of the bobbin and plumb the spindle to the ring by moving the spin- dle and not the ring. SEPARATORS. To prevent the separator rods from moving from their position have two pins, one on each side of the cap, fastened in the rod. This will save much trouble for the spinner. Separa- tors should be leveled to the ring rail while the traverse is at the bottom of the bobbin. TRAVERSE MOTION. The trumpets should be set evenly in regard to the rolls. The traverse should be run as long as practical. This saves roll covering bills. The BACK LASH LEVER, should not be found resting either on the weight lever or on the deck board, as this will prevent the trumpet rod from making its practical stroke. The weight levers should be leveled carefully so that the top rolls will re- ceive the same pressure from the weights. CREELS AND SKEWERS. Creel boards should be set so as not to show ends of skewers, and porce- lain steps should be used in creel boards. When yarn creels are not set properly, you will find broken back ends caused by friction on skewers. This also puts too much tension on the roving. No. 60. COTTON SPINNING. Please allow me first to bring to mind the fact that there used to be a tima when the young man never had a chance to be an overseer; the older man was always preferred on account of his long experience in the mill. Now as the world gets older we all get wiser. There is so much opposition in the world to-day in the manufacturing of cotton and woolen goods that there is a demand for younger and smarter men to take hold of the heads of these cotton and woolen departments to get all possible production and quality combined that can be got in the work- ing hours of the mill. The young man of to-day has, of course, the great ad- vantage of the older man of years past, by his technical education. A young man when studying in these schools and working 10 hours a day at the same work in which he is studying, is forced to use his brains and, there- fore, can not help but push himself forward. If he is a man of go and en- ergy, he is bound to reach the top of the pole. Now sir, I will take for my suggestion the subject of how to make good strong yarn. I will base my suggestions on counts ranging up to 30s, not taking the combers into consideration for these counts. TESTING THE STOCK. I will first suggest a few important points which should be carried out in the teslting of cotton when it has been received at the mill. Samples should be taken out from each bale and put in a separate parcel or small bag with the number in it correspond- ing to the number on the bale (it is better to take a sample from each side of the bale, as cotton bales, even when billed together often vary in quality, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 83 either from having been raised on farms of different sections or from in- efhcient grading by the cotton factor, or from intent to defraud, as cotton is not always what it is represented to be); these samples should be taken and tested and compared with the buy- ing samples, and if not up to the mark should be rejected, or at least not al- io vved to be put in where a good single thread is wanted. This testing should be done by the superintendent and the overseer of carding — the men who are looked upon as being capable of look- ing after this important matter. COTTON MIXING. After the cotton has been tested and is O. K., then comes the mixing operation. The marks are select- ed from the stock, and I would suggest that two or three bales of each mark should be put down. The mixes should be made as large as possible, to last a whole day or more if there is room to allow such mixes to be made. A great deal of care should be exercised in laying out these mixes so as to get them blended as evenly as possible, as it is this that helps ito get an even and strong thread and I would suggest that if these bales are fed into a hopper bale opener a small lay off each bale at a time should be fed into the ma- chine, taking one piece off each bale after another. By doing this we are bound to get them blended evenly. Of course there are several ways in which mixes can be made, but as it will take up too much time and space I will only mention (the most important and the one that mills are adopting to-day. The hopper bale opener, which is attached to the back of the hopper feeder and from there to the opener, all done auitomatically, is a fine arrangement and gives satisfac- tory results. COTTON PICKERS. Next come the laps from the open- er, and care should be exercised to see that these laps are of one thickness all across the lap, as the air current is liable to blow more cotton to one side of the cages than the other, making the laps thicker on one side than on \the other. If this should happen it will be impossible for the intermediate and finisher lapper to make a perfect lap and there- fore damage is done to the evenness of the yarn and to the strength of it right from the beginning. If the laps are not made perfect from these machines you cannot remedy them any- where else. Great care should be given to the intermediate and finisher or scutchers to see that your laps are all of a uniform weight, not varying any more than a quarter of a pound on each side of the fix- ed weight that your laps are , supposed to weigh. In order to se- cure good even laps it will be neces sary to give good attention to the scouring of the machines. The ma- chines should be scoured at least once a month, both the head and the regu- lating motion. The regulating motion should receive the strictest attention when cleaning, to see that all worn studs and bales are taken out. The V shaft, which the pedals rest on, should be well polished and black leaded be- fore being put back, also the pedals, without oiling them. Also have a drum strap of good quality and see that the fork is not too wide for the belt, a good width being about one- eighth of an i^nch wider than the belt itself. These belts, I find in my practice, are better cemented together than laced or put together with buckles. Care should be given to the beater to see that its blades are not too round or blunt; if this should happen the beater would not be able to do its work and there- fore would allow the cotton to pass without being properly broken up, making what I term small lumps in the laps that cause trouble at the card and damage to the wire. There is a beater on the market to- day that I might suggest which would 84 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. be Of interest to some who have not had any experience with this beater. It is beneficial to the evenness of the yarn and to its strength and is called the Kirschner Improved Toothed Beat- er, lit consists of three bars, carrying lugs, in each of which tempered steel teeth are fixed. These are made to vary in fineness and length according to the work required of them. It has the following advantages: 1. Better cleaning properties. 2. Laps more homogeneous and regular. 3. Lap always well made, cylindri- cal and with good edges- 4. Laps never sticking or felting behind the cards. 5. Better running of card on ac- count of cotton being more open. CARDS. After the raw material has passed through the opening and scutching machines the fibres are found matted together or lying in different direc tions, and they must first, as nearly as possible, be placed parallel to each other before they can be spun into a thread. From their tendency to curl, repeated brushing and combing is necessary, not only to place tue fibres straight, but to remove such as are short in length as well as the nips and any other remaining impurities. In the carding process the felted fleece delivered by the scutcher with the fibres crossed in all directions is combed out a great number of times so as to help to straighten out the fibres and to remove all impurities such as short fibres and all moss-like coverings of seeds. If these are allowed to remain in the sliver the yarn pro- duced therefrom will have a rough leei, so I would advocate that great care be given to the carding engine to see that it is kept in good working order at all times. The grinding of the cylin- der and doffer and fiats is the most important feature about the card. They must be kept in good condition. After the grinding of the card great care must be exercised in the setting to see that every part is set true all across. I find in my practice, that is, on a 45 inch card, meanir. *r 45 inches across wire, the following settings: Doffer comb .to doffer, 11-1000; dof- fer to cylinder, 7-1000; V plate, 34- 1000; stripping or percentage plate, 15- 1000; fiats to cylinder, 10-1000 at back, 9-1000 at front; back plate, 34-1000; licker to cylinder, 7-1000; feed plate to licker-in, 15-1000; top mote knife, 15-1000; bottom mote knife, 11-1000, cylinder screens, 34-1000. These set- tings prove very satisfactory. Of course, on narrow cards I would ad- vise setting the fiats and the doffer to cylinder and licker-in to cylinder clos- er. FLOCKS OR FLY. There are several other points which need attention to get a perfect sliver from the card. There are what I term as flocks or fly, which gather be- tween the cylinder and cylinder sides and beneath the doffer, and as the doffer revolves it keeps drawing in small portions and taking them along with the web. It is possible, too, for slack filleting to cause the same evil. NIPS AND CLOUDY WEB may be caused by improper or insuf- ficient stripping, grinding and set- ting. If these operations are not properly attended to you may expect to find raw and un- carded portions of cotton in the web, or if the various carding organs get too full of fiy or are too far away from each other, or the points of wire are in bad shape, you cannot get good yarn. DRAWING FRAMES. The drawing frame is the last ma- chine in which any extensive correc- tion of the unevenness of the sliver takes place except when combers or railway heads are used, but I will omit the latter from my suggestions as I will mention only yarns TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 85 ranging from Is to 30s. Drawing frames are simple but yet difficult to those who do not know how to adjust them and to draft them, to give a perfect sliver. A great deal of harm can be done in this machine if the setting of the rollers and the drafting of them is not done right. Drawing frames usually have six ends up at hack with six of a draft. I find in my practice that better results are ob- tained by having six ends up with about 51 of a draft, that is, total draft, and for intermediate draft, between 1st and 2nd, 2.82; 2nd and 3rd, 1.70; 3rd and 4th, 1.20, and for the setting of rollers I always take into considera- tion the weight of the sliver as well as the length of the staple. I would sug- gest the following settings for 1-16 inch cotton and 70 grain sliver with six ends up at back: 1st and 2nd rol- lers, 1% inches; 2nd and 3rd, li inches; 3rd and 4ith, 11 inches, and the rollers should be weighted as follows: Front top rollers, 20 pounds on each 'end of roller; 2nd, 22 pounds on each end; 3rd, 18 pounds, and 4th, 16 pounds, and the speed of front roller to be about 360 revolutions per minute. Drawing frames should be well looked after and should be scour- ed every three months, steel roll- ers taken out and cleaned well and the stands or slides should be exam- ined to see that none are loose or broken. All the leather rollers should be examined and the bad ones taken out. This, in fact, should be done every week, and the front line of rollers should be varnished as required. SLUBBING FRAMES. The next stage in the construction of yarn after the cotton has passed through the drawing frames involves the further attention of the sliver, but as the material has been drawn out almost as much as it is possible with- out breaking, a small amount of twist, as it is called, is introduced to allow the continued drawing out of the sliv- er. This double function of drawing and twisting is therefore the main ob- ject of all succeeding machines until the yarn is fully made. In order to secure good work from these frames they must be kept in good working order, clean, and all the top leather rollers kept in good shape. See that the ends, when frame is running, are not too tight; they should run slightly slack so as not to stretch the strand of roving when being wound on the bobbin, and also give attention to the closeness of the coils. The closer the coils of roving are laid together the harder will be the bobbin, but over- lapping must be carefully avoided, and I would suggest that you set the roll- ers for a 70 grain sliver to li-li, mak- ing a .48 hank roving. Speed of front roller about 185 revolutions per min- ute, speed of spindle, 590 revolutions per minute and I would weight the roller as follows: Front roll, 20 pounds; 2d, 16 pounds; 3d, 12 pounds; My suggestion will apply to the inter- mediate and roving frames only that the settings for the first be 1 3-16 to li inches for 1.15 hank out of .48 hank double. Weight of front roller should be 20 pounds; 2nd, 16 pounds; 3rd, 12 pounds. Speeder making 2.50 hank and 4 hank out of 1.15 hank double, I would set rollers li-li inches. SETTING OF DRAWING ROLLERS. In order to make this matter more clear to my readers, which is very im- portant in order to get good strong yarn, I will give a few facts in relation to the setting of drawing rollers. The distances from centre to centre of the rollers of drawing and spinning ma- chines depend on four conditions: Namely, the length of the fibres, the thickness of the sliver or roving to be operated on, the quantity of twist in the roving, and the amount of the draft. The first point is the most im- portant, that is, the length of the fibres. It is necessary to make the distance from the nip or centre of one pair of rollers to that of the next, slightly in excess of the mean length of the 86 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. Staple in order to avoid breaking by means of the pair running more quickly drawing a fibre that is still held by the preceding pair. It is equally as im- portant to keep the same distance from becoming too wide, which would allow the fibres to escape the influ- ence of the rollers and make draft impossible. It therefore follows that the longer the staple of the cotton and the further apart the line of rollers must be placed, the shorter the staple of the cotton and the closer the rollers must be with regard to the thickness of the material being drawn, the quan- tity of twist and the amount of draft. Each of these effects the setting more or less. A thick roving requires more open setting of rollers, a fine one closer setting. An extra quantity of twist in the roving also requires the distance of the rollers to be greater, while slack twisted rov- ing should have closer settings. The draft effects the setting on ac- count of the difference in speed be tween the successive line of rollers and it becomes necessary to adopt closer settings when a very large draft is introduced or more open settings for a very small draft. MULE AND RING SPINNING FRAME In order to produce a good yarn on the self-acting mule and the ring spin ning frame it will be necessary to ob- serve carefully the suggestions for the settings which I have just quoted above. The previous processes have cleaned the fibres and arranged them in suitable formation as roving and attenuated this roving until only one more process of drafting is necessary to reduce it to the size desired to form yarn, and at the spinning proc- ess this final attenuation is imparted and in addition a sufficient amount of twist is permanently inserted to give to the yarn the strength desired for the purpose for which it is intended. Of course, if you put too much twist into the yarn you will weaken it and vice versa strengthen it. As a rule, a multiple of 475 is used for warp twist but a greait deal depends on the stock you are using; a multiple of 450 may do for some cotton and then again you may have to use a multiple of 500. I would advise spinners to give this mat- ter their earnest consideration, as it is from these sources, such as setting, twisting and drafting, that we get good yarn from the spinning process. I would also suggest that on the ring frame, overseers give aittention to the setting of spindles and thread eyes and see that the rings are firmly in their places and that the ring travelers be changed about every six or seven weeks, ac- cording to the speed as they get worn and damage the yarn. The travelers must be very carefully graded to suit the counts of yarn being spun. Ring frames on medium counts should be scoured about every six weeks and all the bad leather rollers taken out. Care should be taken not to get oil on the leather rollers. Regarding the self-acting mule, there are numerous causes which will damage the yarn which must receive attention, such as (1), the various mo- tions being too keen; (2), the ratch and gain; (3), the weighting of the fullers being too excessive; (4), the spindle bend being too small; (5), the mule wanting re-setting; (6), the mule being out of square; (7), very dry and frosty weather; (8), the mule be- ing overspeeded, as to spindles; (9) the steel rollers and leather rolls being set at wrong distances apart; (10), the quadrant be- ing too keen and cutting the yarn; (11), carriage springing out by having the down belt too tight or by having too much hastening motion on, or by having a very slack rim band. It will be also equally necessary to keep the mule clean and free from all dirt and well lubricated, as there are numer- ous motions and need some looking after in order to get a perfect thread. No. 61. TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 87 WARP WASTE IN COTTON MILL. It is a well-known fact among cot- ton mill men that the amount of cot- ton which annually goes to waste al- ways will prove a prominent factor and play an important part in determin- ing the profits of every cotton mill on its finished products, and in this day of high priced cotton, and in many cases of inferior or unskilled help, it is more important than ever before that this question of cotton waste re- ceive the careful attention and earnest consideration on the part of the man- agement of every cotton mill. In dealing with this subject the writer will not attempt to discuss or call attention to all the many wa>s in which cotton may be, and often is, wasted in almost every process of the manufacture of cotton goods, because it would make this article entirely too long for the purpose for which it is intended. COTTON WARP WASTE. So, at this writing we will consider only the cotton warp waste that oc- curs between the spinning room and the weave room, and endeavor to point out causes and offer some suggestions that may be of help in obtaining a reduction in this class of waste. In most cotton mills, especially those on coarse and medium weight goods, warps are wound on balls or beams at the warpers in sets of from four to six sections each, and from five to ten thousand yards in length, the number of sections and length being governed by the number of the yarn and the number of ends the cloth is to con- tain; if, for any reason, these warp sections fail to run out even at the slasher, when they come to be size- ed, there will be a certain amount, of yarn wasted, such amount varying as does the length of the warp sections; hence it may be readily seen that if one section is twenty or twenty-five yards shorter than the remaining sec- tions of the set, there will be twenty or twenty-five yards of good yarn left on all of the section beams of this set except one, in other words, the length of a set of warps, when being run through the slasher and sized, can never be greater than its shortest sec- tion. In some instances the warpers are condemned, and the builders of these machines unjustly blamed for varia- tion in the length of warps, when the fact is, such variation may be due to any one of a dozen or more causes. In the first place, when warpers are installed, they should be properly set up with all parts correctly adjusted, with careful attention given to device for measuring warp and stopping ofC machine at the desired length, and after this, if the man having warpers in charge will give them a reasonable amount of care and attention, there will be but little trouble from this source. ON BALL WARPERS. On ball warpers care should be used in starting warps off, and all the wood- en rollers for winding warps on should be of the same size, perfectly round and free of splinters and projecting nail or screw heads, otherwise warps are liable to be snagged or torn a few yards from the end, and when these warps reach the beamer there is often a lot of threads broken and torn out of lease, making it necessary to pull warps over to the next lease string, which is usually from fifteen to twen- ty-five yards from the end, before warp can be laid in comb, ready for beam- ing, or turn warp over and lay in from the other end. In either case the amount of waste would be the same, as all the yarn between end of warp and place of laying in would be wasted. In most mills, having long chain beaming, lease strings are placed in the warp sections at the warpers every five hundred yards, to aid the beamer in keeping warps straight, and there 88 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. is also a lease string to run in at the end and one several yards from the end, to be used for laying in warp in case the first one should get torn out, or yarn become badly broken or tangl ed near the end before reaching beam- er, and it is this second lease string that we have reference to. Now it is an easy matter to see that in a set of warps in which there are, say, six sections, there will be six times as many yards of yarn wasted as may be cut off of one section at the beaming frame, for, as before stated, the available yarn in a set of warps can never be more than is contained in the shortest section of such set. FURTHER PARTICULARS. From the foregoing it may be seen that anything which has a tendency to cause irregularity in the length of the fractional parts of a set of warps is bound to cause an increase in the pro- duction of warp waste, and we might go further and say anything which will cause the threads composing the frac- tional parts of a set of warps to vary in length will also cause an increase in the amount of warp waste, but before taking this up we desire to call attention to other causes for some warp sections running out sooner at the slasher than others of the same set; when warps are to be dyed they are usually con- veyed from the warpers to the dye house by rolling them on the floor, or on trucks, and any carelessness on the part of those who handle them will result in many of the warps be- ing torn or snagged on splinters and nail heads, or in loading or unloadling on trucks, or any carelessness or in- attention on the part of the operatives in dye house will result in warps be- ing tangled and broken, usually by allowing warps to "wrap up" on some of the various rollers over which yarn has to pass during the process of dye- ing, resulting in having to cut out these tangled and torn places and re- ducing the warp many yards in length, or if these places are not cut out in dye house it is almost sure to have to be done when they reach the beam- er before warps can be run; so when we consider the fact that for every yard of warp lost in one section there will be a corresponding loss in each of the other sections of the set when it reaches the slasher, we can not but realize that warps can never be too carefully handled prior to the process of sizing. WASTE IN BEAMING. Beaming is usually paid for by the piece, or so much per thousand yards, and naturally most beamers will try to earn as much as possible, without always having due regard for the amount of waste made, or the quality of the work they may turn off, and many of them, if given a chance, where several threads are found broken at or near first lease string, will pull the warp over for several yards, cut off and lay in at second lease string, rather than take time to mend these broken ends, which should always be done, unless it is a very large break. Beamers are also inclined, when a break-out occurs, to run beam right on for several yards until all these broken ends come up perfectly straight, so that they can stand In front of beaming frame, pick the ends off straight, tie them in and get frame started as soon as possible; when this is done there will be several yards or rounds on the beam lost, with the re- sult that the ends composing this break-out will run out on slasher just so many yards or rounds sooner than remaining ends in warp section. There is a rack over beaming frames on which are suspended small spools of warp yarn, to be used in case of break- outs and loose ends, and the foreman should see that these are put to prop- er use, that there may be no reduction in the length of warp threads on sec- tion beam. All beamers should be trained to run as near as possible the same amount of weight on drums, that the tension on all warps may be the same; TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 89 it is well known among beamers that by weighting one warp heavy and an- other light, in beaming, there will be a difference of several yards in the length of these warps when they are finished, the one receiving the greater tension being the greater in length. A GOOD WAY. A very good way is to have each beamer run a full set of warps, in- stead of breaking set out among two or more beamers; there are seldom two beamers in the same room who run the same amount of tension on their warps, hence, when sets are divided between two or more beamers they are bound to vary in length, and run out uneven on the slashers. Another advantage in this system is that if beamer's name or number is placed on every tag which goes with the warp to the weave room, it is an easy mat ter to trace all bad work back to the one responsible for it, but when a set of warps is beamed by more than one operator there is no way of telling, after warp reaches weave room, who is responsible for inferior work, in beaming process. There are beamers who, if not watched, will lift warp out of comb several yards from last end, especially if there happens to be a few broken ends, and run it on beam in one solid strand, or just as it left dye house, and it can readily be seen that this part of the warp which has no ''spread" to it will have to be discarded before it can be started through slasher. We know of mills where it is in- sisted that as much yarn be run on sec- tion beams as they will possibly hold. In most cases we think this very poor policy, as when the yarn on a beam is greater in circumference than the beam heads, and beams are rolled around on floor before going to slash- er, there is almost sure to be some of the threads cut or torn when warps come to be sized, causing waste and much bad work, for beams heaped up on ends never start off and run so well on slasher as those with beams a little less than full; so, there is no doubt but that it would pay in the long run to have all warp sections made of such length and number of ends that the warp section when beamed will be supported on the floor by the beam heads and not the warp yarn on beam. WASTE IN SLASHING. So far as we have been able to learn, and we know such to be a fact in a great many mills, the amount of warp waste made on and between slashers and weave room is equal to, and often in excess of, the waste occurring be- tween warpers and slashers, and the greater portion of it may be traced to break-outs which occur while warps are being sized, from the fact that nine times out of ten when the yarn is broken or tangled to any extent, be- tween the section beam and loom beam, during the process of sizing, loom beam has to be doffed and a num- ber of yards of yarn pulled off, until all these broken ends come up straight, before it can be drawn or tied-in for the loom. Break-outs on the slasher, when they first start, consist usually of only a few broken ends, but if slasher ten- der is not watching his work closely, and machine is allowed to run on, even for a minute or two, the number of broken ends will rapidly increase and mat up against slasher comb, causing loom beam to wind on several yards of warp minus these broken ends, causing a number of yards to be pulled off, as above stated. There are various causes for break- outs on the slasher, but most of them can be traced to bad beaming and warping, such as loose ends, crossed places, small bunches of waste care- lessly thrown on beam and wrapped in yarn during process of beaming or warping, and high or low selvedges, causing ends to run slack and tangle on slasher. When loom beam is doffed from slasher, care should be taken to re- tain yarn in one solid sheet, just as it is wound on beam, when this is not done, or when warp becomes tangled 90 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. in any way, the yarn will have to be pulled off until it comes up perfectly even and straight before it can be properly tied or drawn into the har- ness; if this is not done warp will be crossed and cannot be woven. USE OF LOOM BEAMS. Loom beams should never be filled so full that yarn will rest on the floor, for while there may be something saved in drawing in by so doing, this small saving is invariably lost in waste and bad running work in the weave room. A good plan is never to allow warp yarn to touch floor from the time it leaves slasher until it is tied or drawn in. This can be accomplished by not filling beams quite full, or at least, not more than level full, doff them at the slasher on truck, carefully "tuck" warp ends and lay out with beam heads resting on floor; or if there is a rack provided to head full beams up in, while waiting to be tied, it is reasonably safe to run as much yarn on beams as they will hold. When a break-out occurs on slasher, operator usually doffs beam and lays it to one side until he can find time to pull off yarn and straighten up warp before allowing it to go to the tying- in machine. Now, it is a very easy mat- ter to pull off ten yards of waste when five would be sufficient, and this is often done, most slasher tenders, or at least many of them, had rather cut off and allow to go to waste several pounds of warp yarn than to take any chances on having to go to the weave room to look at their bad work. Hence, they are often over zealous in pulling back warp, where break-out has oc- curred, in trying to get up every broken end, and often pull off more yarn than is necessary; any yarn that is to be pulled off as waste after warp has been sized, should be done in the presence of the foreman of the room, AFTER SLASHING. After warp has been run through the slasher and sized, and goes to the drawin^-in frame or tying-in machine, as the case may be, to be prepared for the weave room, it frequently hap- pens that the outer rounds of yarn on the beam have been tangled or threads "rolled" by careless handling in such a manner that several rounds will have to be pulled off before warp can be tied or drawn in the harness straight, and, like the slasher tenders, unless the operators on these machines are properly instructed and frequently cautioned, they will pull off and allow more yarn to go to waste than is neces- sary. The writer will not attempt to give any figures in support of this article, for the reason that the conditions in no two mills are the same, and the figures that would apply to one would not apply to another; furthermore, all who are familiar with the manufacture of cotton goods, Vv^e hope, will be able to recognize the facts as stated, and will see that by giving due regard to things which we have endeavored to call attention to, there may be ac- complished a great saving in cotton and an increase in the earnings of almost every cotton mill. No. 62. -d-^^ _ MERCERIZING LIQUORS. The recovery of mercerizing liquors is a process, which is used to practical- ly but little extent in this country, but is used to a great extent abroad. Mercerizers can materially add to the efficiency of their process by in- stalling "Scott" apparatus for the re- covery of the chemicals used in mer- cerizing. As remarked before, in Europe it is the practice of the trade to do this, and manufacturers there save nearly all of the cost of chemicals that they formerly incurred before they used this apparatus. The caustic, by means above referred to, is won back from either piece, hank, or warp goods. Same is then purified and concen- trated up to strength again, ready for use in the mercerizing batli. No. 63, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 91 OFFICIAL NEGLIGENCE. I will not take up space here dis- cussing the inefficiency of help, man- agement of same, or setting and oper- ating of machinery, as these subjects are already being discussed ex- haustively, but will try to point out a few defects which cause a total or almost total loss of time, energy and money, but which receive little atten- tion from our overseers and man- agers, until they have cost hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars. I speak of the negligence of over- seers and superintendents in allowing guards, and blinds to remain off of dangerous places, dangerous belts and projecting set screws, not being boxed or covered, and not paying proper attention to shafting and pul- leys, allowing hangers, pulleys and couplings to become loose, and cause serious accidents. Several years ago I took charge of a room, and upon looking around my first day found several blinds off which covered dangerous gears. I had them all hooked up, and put in place with the exception of one which was broken beyond repair, so I went at once and ordered some. Two days later a seven year old boy lost his hand in that gear, and the manager wanted to discharge some one because the blind was off, but I called his attention to the fact that the blind had been off for five months, and that I had ordered some my first day on the job. OVERLOADED BELTS. Another time I called the attention of the manager to an overloaded 28- inch belt driving a 4J-inch shaft with bearings eleven feet apart. Of course, this was an awful strain on the shaft as the belt had to be kept as tight as a fiddle string. The man- ager wrote the mill engineer, and he pronounced the drive all right. A few months later the shaft broke bringing down about 10,000 pounds of other shafting and pulleys, and break- ing considerable other machinery, but fortunately no one was seriously in- jured. Counting the cost of replace- ment, and about fourteen days hold- up in production when the mill was making about $500 per day, it does not take much figuring t.o show that the loss was around $10,000 for this one accident, and it was very fortu- nate that the company did not have damage suits for twice this much. When the drive was replaced a 51- inch shaft with extra hanger in the centre took the place of the 4|-inch shaft with no hanger in the centre. Question, can any one suggest a bet- ter investment than it would have been to put an extra hanger in and prevented the above accident? On starting another room I called the attention of the nianager to the fact that a 2i-inch shaft in an eleven foot bay was not sufficient to carry six to seven heavy cast iron pulleys 400 revolutions per minute, but he answered that the shops that built those shafts knew what they would stand. He happen- ed to be near when the belt that drove four of the shafts was put on, and he certainly had a bad scare. Fortunately we were near the engine room and got the engine stopped be- fore it got up to speed, otherwise those shafts would have come down in about 30 seconds. The point I wish to make here is that the manager would often do well to give more consideration to such suggestions, coming from the over- seer who is working around such ap- pliances every day, and has a chance to learn from actual experience what such appliances will stand in every day service. Instead they often treat the overseer with disdain, and bow to the decision of the mill engineer who seldom sees the object of discussion except in blue prints. HOW TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS. To prevent such accidents I would 92 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. suggest that each, mill have a good man who can see things, (the master mechanic should do), go through the mill at regular intervals, say once each month, and look for everything which might possibly contribute to an accident, large or small, from the re- placing of a work bearing, to the re- arranging of a shaft or belt drive. These larger ideas should be put before the manager who should con- sider seriously any suggestion made by the one inspecting and give or- ders according to his decision. The one inspecting should have blanks for each department in which he should name any defect he should find in that department, sign and file one on the manager's desk as well as give one to the overseer of that de- partment. This would be an in- centive to each overseer who would strive to keep a perfect score. The inspector should also have re- ports showing what he has done to prevent accidents of any kind, this may be the strengthening of a guard rail, putting a locking device on some stop motion, or putting an extra light over some dangerous machine, or dark stairway, and many other things too numerous to mention here. I knew a boy whose neck was brok- en while looking over the guard rail of an elevator. If the guard rail had been a few inches higher this acci- dent would have been averted. An- other boy fell through an elevator shaft where there was no guard. A carpenter could have made one in a short time and there would have been no accident. Such accidents as these would surely be prevented, if there was a man looking for just such things, and these precautions will pay dividends in more ways than one. First you save life and limb; second, you save the labor of your people; third, the good name of your mill and fourth, damage suits for injuries. ANOTHER POINT. If the above suggestions are car- ried out the mills would not be com- pelled to carry liability insurance to protect themselves. It is very doubt- ful if it pays to carry liability insur- ance even now, with no special care given to safety appliances as a few figures will show. The American Manufacturers pay out annually twenty-three million dollars in pre- miums for liability insurance. The injured do not get more than forty per cent of this, and they will aver- age paying thirty-five per cent of this to lawyers for prosecuting their claims. This leaves less than six million dollars going to the injured while the balance, seventeen million dollars, goes to the insurance com- panies, and shyster lawyers. Why not save the greater portion of this seventeen million dollars each year by preventing all accident possible, and coming to an equitable, and ami- cable agreement without paying out in- surance premiums, and lawyer's fees. I believe that with good inspection most of our mills would save enough in replacements alone to cover all damages they may have to pay out for injuries, once the system is thor- oughly installed, and have the amount they are paying out now for liability insurance to add to the right side of their balance sheets. I do not mean to say that the over- seers or managers of cotton mills are slovens or dolt heads, on the other hand, I think as a whole that they are thoroughly alive, alert and progess- ive, but their time is largely taken up in getting the greatest number of pounds of good product possible, hence the need of an inspector who can concentrate his mind one or two days each month on the prevention of accidents. It may prove a good investment to print small slips upon which are in- terpreted in concise form the laws on "contributory negligence" ''risk of trade" and the fellow servant laws, and put one into each pay envelope until the people thoroughly under- TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SU GGESTI OlTs. stand their risks and rights, and there will be much less discord and legal procedure in coming to a settle- ment in case of injuries. Ignorance is the base of all contention. The hands will surely read anything they find in their pay envelope. The merchants have found this out, and find it a good investment to furnish pay envelopes to corporations upon which they can advertise their house. Would it not pay the corporations to thus teach their people their wishes in regard to themselves and their fel- low workers? I think it would. No. 64. ADAPTABILITY OF WOOL OILS. Since our former articles on wool oils, we are pleased to note the interest woolen manufacturers have taken in the selection of their oils for wool. The woolen business is better at the present time than it has been for some years, and it is really pleasing to see some of the nice fabrics that are be- ing turned out, both in design and texture. Quite a few of these are directly due to their selection of a wool oil suited to the fabric being made. There are quite a number of wool oils on the market, which we have no desire to criticise except for the fact that they are offered to manufacturers in one grade only, without a thought of the fabric to be made or the stock used in same. For instance, a stock composed of i blood wool would require a different oil than one made of | blood. One composed entirely of shoddy would require an oil different from either of the above. The size of yarn being made would also determine the qual- ity of oil used. IN THE KNIT GOODS TRADE. In the knit goods trade, a great many of our manufacturers prefer to run without an oil on their stock. By do- ing this, they do not get the real prof- itable results they should, as the amount of waste from the carding and spinning processes will run from five to seven per cent more than if they used a suitable oil. Their reason for doing this is that they are afraid that it will leave a bad smell on their goods or discolor them. There are few knitting mills but what either bleach their goods or in some other manner remove the natural odors of the fibre. The proper oil to use on knit goods is an oil that will not become rancid or smell, and in bleaching will entire- ly disappear. Such an oil will pay for itself many times over in the card and spinning room, in the saving of waste and better running work. A great many think they should not put oil on cotton. It is just as neces- sary to use a light emulsion of the proper oil on cotton, on the woolen system of carding and spinning, as it is to use it on wool. The clothing on the cards is kept in far better condi- tion. It will card out better and keep the rings and rub aprons in better shape. CARD CLOTHING RUSTED. It is a well-known fact that even in cotton mills where they are carding dry cotton, where a mill is shut down for one or two days and the weather becomes humid through rain or other causes, that the card clothing becomes slightly rusted. This is not noticed so much in a cotton mill as it is in woolen mills, for the fact that on a woolen card the work must be made directly in the roving to be spun on the mule. Where the rusting has oc- curred on a woolen card, through lack of proper oil on the stock, the stock does not clear itself from the clothing, consequently the work will be twitty and uneven, which is a very bad fea- ture indeed in any mill, especially In a knitting mill. I have great respect indeed for the good judgment and gentlemanly treat- 94 TEXTILE DEFECT^ AND SUGGESTION^. ment from the manufacturers and su- perintendents all over the country, and, without in the least taking the attitude of telling them what they should do, I canot help but say, that on account of their very busy work, they sometimes forget this important part of manufacturing. SELECTION OF OILS. The proper selection of oils to meet the needs of different kinds of stock is too often overlooked, and left to the picking room man to put the oil on the stock as he may deem proper. The carders are really more interested in this, or should be, than the picking room man, as the quality and amount of oil used will make a big difference to them in the proper carding of their stock to produce good and even yarns. There are men in the wool oil trade to-day that have spent their lives in the perfecting of wool oils for differ- ent grades of stock, and from their varied experiences in woolen and worsted mills throughout the United States and Europe, are very glad to meet any manufacturer and point out to him to the best of their ability a most suitable oil to use to meet their wants. No. 65. HINTS FOR SPINNING ROOMS. To have a spinning room run in a proper manner to get the largest pos- sible production with a minimum cost, there must be a proper system estab- lished and closely adhered to in order to get results. It is to be taken for granted that the card room has done its part right, and that the roving comes to the spinner properly carded and of such size that the yarn wanted may be spun without excessive draft. A draft of ten should not be exceeded on medium fine counts. Having the draft right, the twist should be uniform, or you will get cloth with an uneven appearance, caused by the different twist. It is a quite common practice for spinners anxious for production, to take out a little twist at times, when the work is running well, with the result, on fine goods especially, that the cloth has a wavy and uneven appearance. I have known of cases where, with a difference of 10 per cent or over in the twist, the yarn went into the same cloth. ONCE IN TWO YEARS. All frames should be leveled at least once in two years, and all spindles plumbed at least as often if you are turning your spindles 10,000 turns per minute, which can be done and have the work run well, but that is about the limit that any traveler will stand. All travelers should be changed be- fore they get sharp enough to cut the yarn or to fly off. If the spindles are turning 10,000 times per minute, four weeks is about the limit of profit- able use. Steel rolls should be taken out of the frames at least once a year and well cleaned, and the flutes carded out; the roll stands and the top roll cap bars should also be well cleaned. It is a good idea to have some one hand clean and oil the back steel rolls and the back top rolls at least once in two weeks, on fine work, and at least once a week on coarse work. Make a special job of it and do not eave it to the spinners, as some of them will skip this if it is left for them to do. CARE OF THE TOP ROLLER. Good care of the top rolls is one of the most essential points of good run- ning work in the spinning room. A great deal of trouble and consequent damage to the yarn may be saved by care in oiling, and this can best be done by a special hand to oil the front top rolls, as too much oil spoils as many, if not more, rolls than too little. When front rolls are not turn- ing over 120 revolutions per minute, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 95 If the saddles are oiled once in two lays, and the ends of rolls in the cap bars once a week, there should be no trouble; if a higher speed than this is used, the rolls should be oiled every day. The front rolls should be kept clean, and the top clearer boards should be cleaned at stated times. All under clearers should be kept clear of waste at all times. All back top rolls should be kept In good condition and regularly in- spected. It is a good practice to have the second hand of a room look over his rolls personally, in addition to the regular inspection, replacing all rough, uneven, and spongy rolls with good ones. Do not try to run bad rolls in the back or middle if you want good yarn. An actual saving in rolls can be made by keeping the back rolls in good con- dition, besides making a better quali- ty of yarn. CLEAN ROVING CREELS. All roving creels should be kept clean, and the lint should be wiped or mopped up with a small mop. The creels should never be fanned or blown out, as the lint will catch on to the threads and make bunches. This is still done in a good many mills and is the cause of much trouble, as it shows up bad in the cloth. Ring rails and separators should be cleaned regularly, and if this is done, it will prevent much of the loading of the travelers and save many bro- ken ends. ''Cleanliness is next to godliness'* and in a spinning room, the cleaner and freer from lint that you can keep the rolls, travelers, rings, separators and spindles, the nearer you will come to having a perfect running room. DO NOT UNDER TIME. Have la time for everything and have it done on time, and you can get 95 per cent of production, and deliver to the warper 97 per cent of the roving received from the carder in the shape of good yarn. This is about as well as can be done with carded stock; with combed stock, it can be improved upon somewhat. The spinner's waste, roving and stock, should not exceed two per cent, while the sweepings will be about one per cent. The yarn waste caused by slack bands, snarled and single yarn, should not exceed 1-100 of 1 per cent or one pound of waste to every ten thou- sand pounds of yarn spun. High speed does not necessarily mean large production, although exces- sive waste; but if every end is up and making yarn, it shows at the warper in production and quality. No. 66. CARDING TROUBLES. Old Town, Me., March 28, 1910. Ed. American Wool. & Cotton Reporter: I will endeavor to give you my ideas on defective carding. I think that a large percentage of de- fective carding is due to not having suitable cards to handle the class of stock we are running. For example, cotton and shoddy mixes which are short and nubby and have only three cards in a set; — it is next to impossible for the carder to do a good job, where- as if you give the same carder cards with four in a set, he can do a good job on pretty bad stock. Again, poor results are often due to poor work- manship, as we all well know that a poor workman can spoil the work of the best carder. My suggestion for the best method of carding is D & F four-cylinder cards, about 48 inches wide, 60 inches in diameter, with first two cards con- nected and third and finisher con- nected; with Kemp feed between sec- ond and third, and fitted with D & F double apron condenser, metallic breast and Bramwell feed for this first breaker; and with those properly ground, and set with proper care, you will have but little, if any, 4^ 96 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. fective carding. Often, poor carding is done with too harsh a fancy, other times by fancy not properly set or perhaps not speeded just right, but I think most times it is due to too stiff a fancy, — at least that has been my experience — and still other times, it is spoiled after leaving the cards, by the spinner not having his mules in shape or not having the proper knowledge of drawing yarn. I think the carder to avoid trouble should know how to draw yarn himself. No. 67. COTTON WARP SIZING. The last few years have given me much opportunity to see into many mills and observe the various meth- ods adopted in sizing cotton warps on the Slasher Sizing Machine. Some of the defects are: (1) Irregu- larity in sizing; (2) cros'sed threads behind the lease rods in the loom; (3) size shedding off too soon in the loom; (4) kinked threads in the warp showing in the pieces; (5) undue wear on heddles and reeds by sizing. My first point or defect is "Irreg- ularity in Sizing." This can be caused by not having the starches uniform in quality. It is important to keep as far as possible to one brand, and that one the best. I think a good many purchasing agents make a serious mistake in allowing a few cents per bag to influence them, es pecially when so important issues are at stake, for a few cents saved counts for nothing if the results from the loom are not right. MANY BLUNDERS. Many blunders are made by not cooking the starch long enough in the size kettle to get out the best it contains. Further, the deterioration of the cloth on the squeeze rollers has much io answer for in irregular sized warps. There is a very common rule of thumb way adopted by most boss slashers, of simply handling the warp when running in the slasher machine, and from their long experience in so doing, deciding from this practice the weaving quality of the sizing on the warp. This method is very unre- liable — for no man, I care not how long his experience may be of hand- ling a sized warp, can tell to three or four per cent how much isize there is on a warp, and here lies the differ- ence between a good or a poor weav- ing warp. The only reliable way is to have the first warp in each set weighed after it is sized and work out the percentage of size on it. Then get the weaver's report and if the warp has, say, 14 per cent of size on for that quality, make that the standard for all future lots of that quality by weighing every sized warp to ascer- tain it, and so on for each quality until a regular system gives uniform- ity to every warp that is sized. THREE QUALITIES. To get this uniformity, it is neces- sary to have three qualities of cloth for the squeeze rollers — coarse, me- dium, and fine — putting on the one necessary to get the proper percent- age of size for the results necessary for a good weave. Second — "Crossed threads behind the lease rods in the loom." This is often very troublesome to the weaver, causing many broken threads in the lease rods. The cause of this is in the slashing machine, by the slasher tender's expanding or con- tracting the reed to get the warp the right width on the weaver's beam: the six or eight threads in each dent roll over each other as they leave the reed and pass on to the weaver's beam; this is done several times in the running of each warp, thus causing the thread to be crossed all TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 97 the way along. The remedy for this defect is placing a half rod in the warp between the reed and the front rollers near the smoother rollers; this half rod will turn back the rolled threads every time, besides acting as an additional smoother. Other uses can be made of this half rod by putting a string in at the end of every warp, so that the twister- in could get alternate threads, and thus keep his warp straighter than by twisting from a fine reed only. Third — ''Size shedding off too soon in the loom." INSUFFICIENTLY COOKED SIZE. This is when the insufficiently cook- ed size causes the mischief. It may have got onto the warp and given the necessary weight for the percentage, but if it is not properly cooked, it immediately starts chaffing in the loom and commences to fall off. It is, therefore, very important that the size be boiled long enough in the size kettle to develop the ''gluten" from the starch and flour to stay on the warp until it gets through the heddles and reed- Fourth — "Kinked thread in the warp showing in pieces." There are at least two causes for this. If the spools are not all tied in full into the warping machine, -and some are full and others only part- ly full, the latter will overrun them- selves when the machine knocks off for a broken thread, and this slack will get onto the section beam and forward to the pieces. Another cause is by the spring inside the expanding warper's reed getting strained; this will make the dents irregular, caus- ing high and low places on the sec- tion beam, which will in turn run off slack and tight in the slashing ma- chine, causing additional kinks in the pieces. UNDUE WEAR. Fifth — "Undue wear on heddles and reeds" is usually caused by having too harsh a size on the warps. for want of more "softening" in the size, or from drying the warps too much. And my experience has brought me to the conclusion that cylinder-dried warps have a lot to an- swer for in this fault over air-dried warps. I am so thoroughly convinced that the hot air dried warp is so much superior, that I have found that weav- ers have noticed the difference and asked for the latter in preference. I think you will agree with me that when these five defects are overcome, the advantages to the weavers and loom fixers will be much increased, besides having a much better yard- age from the looms and a correspond- ing profit to the mill owners. No. 68. TWIST IN THE DRAWING. I received your copy of "Prize Es- says," and I consider that it contains invaluable information to any man engaged in the textile business. It is in no sense a text-book. It con- tains matter that cannot be found in any text-book. You might call it a com- pendium of textile lore from the inside. But a work of that description can never be considered complete. For instance, in all the articles on worst- ed yarn, there was a general same- ness; I did not see any idea given as to twist in the drawing, which is cer- tainly an important factor. The lower the stock, the firmer the twist ought to be, and whether the stock is low or fine, the carriers ought to be in and doing their duty. THE FOLLOWING IS WRONG. In the majority of worsted mills can be seen carriers taken out and put on the backboard of the drawing boxes. It is all wrong, they ought to be in, and where they are taken out to avoid hard ends, it is because the ends put up behind the box are un- 98 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. even, and the twist, running to the thin places, causes the ends to run hard and spoil rollers; and right here let me say that the fault of uneven ends in worsted-drawing is mostly caused by either having the stock too tight in the fallers, or the front draw- ing-off roller being too much below the fallers. If the ends are even, as they ought to be, it is surprising how much twist you can put in without hurting your drawing-off rollers. If the ends are not even, you will have spoiled rollers and bad work, no matter how soft a twist you have. A fairly firm twist is essential to good work in a worsted drawing room, and it may be con- sidered a fact that all carriers, both in drawing and spinning, ought to ue in and doing their duty, which con- sists in holding the twist during the drafting operation. Any worsted draw- er would laugh at the idea of putting stock through a drawing box without any twist in it, yet, that is what hpi does practically, when he takes out his bottom carrier. The writer used to work at a fairly GOOD-SIZED MILL. There were four spinners, and some times it happened that all four were spinning the same lot, say l-24s, and each individual spinner w^as allowed to put in as many turns as he thought proper. Between the four spinners, the turns per inch would vary from 11 per inch to 14 per inch, and they w^ere woven in plain weaves, indiscrim- inately. You can imagine the result. Some limes a spinner is called up to the perch, and he is accused of mixing filling, because of a heavy bar of filling across the cloth. He waxes indignant, and says it is mixed in the filling room. How can he spin two different counts on one side? But he can. THE REMEDY. If his top drawing-off rollers are not kept well oiled, if tney are per- mitted to get dry and wear them- selves to a tight, dry, gripping fit on the arbor of the roller, mat roller is liable to run slow, and I have seen 82s spun on a side that was supposed to be spinning 36s. It is easily seen, because both the bobbing and the roll- er have a light brown appearance, due to the friction. The remedy is to take out the brass and clean it out with a i-inch or i-inch round file. But, all the f^ame, many a spinner has been discharged because he did not know it. No. 69. THE ENGLISH AND METRICAL SYSTEMS. A standard measure of length ap- pears at first sight to be very simple, as being only a metal bar of almost anj length according to the unit of a coun try, and the comparison of differ ent standards does not seem to present any difficulty; but if we look into the matter, we will discover that the stand- ards are referred to as some natural, invariable length. We also discover that the comparison of one standard with another differs as given by reduc- tions carried to great apparent exact- ness. It has been said that one forty-thou- sandth part of an inch is supposed to be the smallest length that can be measured with exactness, with an ul- timate possibility of one-millionth part. It is also said that the temperature af- fects the length to such an extent that it is believed that the limit can only be reached at a standard temperature of eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit to avoid the effect of heat of the body. The metre is the ten-millionth part of the earth's quadrant, and the yard is the 36-39.13929ths of the seconds pendulum at London, England. It is TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 99 thought practically that the yard can- not be recovered from its natural basis with exactness. Probably three-fourths of the scien- tific world is conducted on the metric system. Machine and shop work in countries having adopted the metri- cal system for standard is regulated by the milo-metre. The English unit is the inch or fraction of the inch. To compare both the metric and Eng- lish systems, a person should under- take such a problem or example as finding the value of a third or a quar- ter of a mile, or the value of a pound in ounces, grammes, etc., and then do the same thing with the metrical sys- tem, and he will quickly discover the enormous advantage of the latter sys- tern. For example, to find the number of grains in one-half pound it is nec- essary to multiply 437.5 by 8, or divide 7,000 by 2; while to find the number of centigrammes in one gramme the point ' : moved tw^o places to the right. EXAMPLE. English. Metric. IG divided by 2 equals 8 1.00 gramme 437.5 100. centigrammes 8 350.00 grains in V2 lb. For a better and clearer explanation, take two examples in reductions. ENGLISH EXAMPLE. Reduce to feet and inches three yards and eight inches. 1 ft. equals 12 inches 1 yd. equals 3 feet S X 3 equals 9 ft. 12 9 108 plus 8 equals 116 inches METRIC EXAMPLE. Reduce to decimetres and centimetres three metres and eight centimetres. 3 X 10 equals 30 SO X 10 equals 300 plus 8 equals 308 c. m. In the metric system all the yarns are based upon the weight in grammes of 1,000 metres, which is considered the uniform standard unit of length; the use of decimals doing away with the more complicated fractions of the present English system. For the next example we will take a certain length of yarn that weighs 1,234 grammes, which can be easily reduced to kilogrammes, hectogrammes, dekagrammes and grammes in the fol- lowing manner: The number in the thousandths' place represents the num- ber of kilogrammes, the number in the hundredths' place represents the number of hectogrammes, in the tenths' place the number of dekagrammes, and in the units' place grammes. The weights given above could and should be read as follows: one kilogramme, two hectogrammes, three deka- grammes and four grammes. Thisf shows the great saving in both time and labor which could hardly be ac- complished in the English system. From the results given above, a rule for reducing weight and length in this system may be considered correct. EXAMPLE. I-Iow many grammes are there in 123 centigrammes? Centigrammes are moved two places from grammes; therefore, the point must be moved two places to the left. 123 centigrammes equals 1.23 grammes. Comparison of the English and metric systems as applied to cloth analysis. ENGLISH DATA. Fabric:— Covering (linen). 1 sq. in. weighs 2.2 grains. 34 threads per inch weighs 1.1 grains. 34 picks per inch weighs 1.1 grains. Width inside selvedges 25 grains plus V2 inch for selvedge. 2, 2 X 36 X 25 divided by 437.5 equals 4.525 weight of 1 yard of cloth. 437. 5)1980. 0f4.o25 22 1760 0 36 23000 132 21875 66 11250 792 8750 25 25000 3960 21S75 1584 1980.0 34 X 25 equals 850 threads in warp. 34 25 170 6S 850 100 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 34 X 7000 divided by 1.1 x 36 x 300 equals 20.0 counts of warp yarn. 36 36 39.6 39.6 300 11880.0 11880)238000(20.033 23760 40000 35640 34 7000 238000 43600 35640 7960 Counts of filling yarn are figured tlie same as the counts of warp yarn. 34 X 25 X 16 divided by 300 x 20.033 equals 2.262 weight of warp yarn in 1 yard of cloth. 20.033 300 6009.900 25 34 100 75 850 16 5100 850 1.9)13600.0(2.262 12019 8 378220 360594 176260 120198 56062 Weight of filling yarn in one yard of cloth is figured same as above. Proof:— 2.262 plus 2.262 equals 4.524 METRIC DATA. Fabric :--Covering (linen). 1 sq. d. m. equals 2.208 grammes. 134 threads per d. m. weigh equals 1.104 grammes. 134 picks per d. m. weigh equals 1.104 grammes. 6.S d. ra. wide inside selvedge. Plus .127 d. m. for selvedge. 6.35 X 10 X 2.208 equals 139.7 grammes in 1 metre of cloths. 6.25 10 63.50 22 1270 1270 139.70 G7 JWOfTx 1.1 5 equals 12.181 counts of warp j'arn in 1 yard of cloth. X 1.1 equals 5.5)6.7.0(12.181 55 120 110 100 55 450 440 10 The counts of filling yarn are figured the same as the counts of warp. 6.35 X 134 equals 850.90 threads in warp. 6.35 134 850.90 S50.90 divided by 12.181 equals 69.85 weight of warp yarn in 1 metre of cloth. 12.181)850.90(69.85 730.86 120040 109629 104110 97448 66620 5715 Weight of filling yarn is figured same as weight of warp. Proof:— 69.85 plus 69.85 equals 139.70 weight of 1 metre. No. 70. TEXTILE PAPERS. I want to say a few words in regard to textile papers which I will write as briefly as possible. I do not consider myself a very intelligent man but will say just what I think of textile papers. I think this idea of mill knowledge given through the different textile pa- pers one of the best things carders and spinners have, as we not only get the news from these papers but we get lessons on all textile work, written by TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 101 our best textile men. These lessons serve as a teacher to young men in- terested in the textile business and many times explain a point that one may be puzzled over. In such cases we find written by some good textile man explanations which are of great help to us. I think any intelligent young man can, by the use of these papers and working in a mill, become a first- class mill man. I also think that any young man who wants to become an expert in the line of textile work will find any first-class textile paper to serve as guide and a great helper for him. One may make a mistake in spelling, but I don't think any young man that wants to be a first-class mill man will make any mistake by paying two or three dolars per year for any first class textile paper. By the use of these pa- pers one can get the idea of so many good textile men on textile work. It is for this reason that I think it a guide and helper for the building up of the young textile men and, no doubt, all good textile men like to write les- sons on textile work that they may help one another. You may say when you read this over: well old boy, you have another think coming; if I have I will think it, and think this as well. So come on — carders and spinners — and write a lesson and do our best — and if we can't win in the contest, we may help some of the interested readers. If this letter appears in the American Wool and Cotton Reporter, please don't get the idea that these people asked me to write an article on textile papers and receive money for. such an article, for I am not. 1 wrote this article because it was im- pressed upon my mind to do so, and if you read this, I trust all you good mill men will agree with me. This is my idea of textile papers and I can't help it; as I said at the first of my article, not being a very intelligent man, I will do the best I can for my- self and the other cotton mill men. So I will close with best wishes to textile papers and all mill men. No. 71. DEFECTS IN MODERN METHODS. Whatever improvement we attempt in carding must be preceded by an ad- vance in the methods of the picker- room. The practice of having the card- er do the work of the picker in remov- ing the heavy impurities is wrong, in both theory and practice. All up-to-date carders have the fol- lowing objects in MIXING THE COTTON from a number of bales — (1) to make all mixings as large as possible, (2) to blend the cotton as much as pos- sible. As regards the first object — cot- ton cannot be worked as well when a tew bales are opened and fed into a bale-breaker as when a large mixing is made to last at . least five days, which allows the cotton to assume its normal condition. Regarding the sec- ond object — on all classes of cotton, the more bales you mix together, the evener the yarn will be. As each loi of cotton varies bale from bale, the mixing should be built up in layers, so that no two bales of the same mark will come together; this establishes an average quality of grade in the lot. Again — if cotton is allowed to stand a few days before using, the temperature and humidity in the cot- ton will be the same as the cotton in process, the yarn will not only be more even — but stronger, and there will be less waste; because even work will run through without much break- ing of ends. We find to-day in most new mills equipped with the so-called bale-break- er and automatic feed-conveyer sys- tem — the cotton used directly from the bale, that is, a bale is opened and fed at each breaker. The writer could not help asking himself while standing on the floor 102 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. of a picker-room having this new sys- tem — ARE WE GOING BACK? I think we are, because if the two ob- jects I have, I think, proven must be attained in the old system of picking to produce a strong and even yarn, why not in the new system? This new system is all right, only too much is expected of it. The only advantage that can be really claimed for it over the automatic boxes fed by hand is that it does away with help, and it should be understood that it will not remedy a faulty mix- ing. It is a system much misunderstood, and uneven yarn must be expected when a bale of cotton is opened and fed directly at each break- er; because cotton in such a state will not be opened by the action of the beater — producing a lap containing small tufts full of foreign matter; and consequently the carder is called on to do some of the work that should be done by the picking machines. Some overseers having charge of this new system claim that on ac- count of the cotton being so regularly fed automatically, the laps produced at the breaker are so even that if a lap runs out when four laps are run- ning four into one at the intermediate and finisher picker, very little varia- tion is noticed in the finisned lap and card sliver. In all systems of picking using eveners, there is ONE CHIEF CRITICISM that may be made, which is, that the evener motion does not act on the stock passing through it until at least a part of the uneven work it is sup- posed to correct has passed beyond its action. As all the irregularities in the lap are exactly reproduced in the card-sliver, and all dirt not remov- ed must be removed by the card, it is absolutely imperative for the complete success of carding to have good laps to start with. Suppose that four layers of lap are running four into one, and three lay- ers only are allowed to run through for one yard — we have a great length of light work from the card, because almost all cards have a draft from 80 tO' 100. For the convenience of calcu- lation we will assume the draft of the card to be 90. Agpin it is assumed that a part of the lap at the back of the card contains three layers. Then we have the following example show- ing the amount of light work a short length of lap will cause, that does not contain the proper amount of doub- lings — 90 times 36 equals 3,240 inches, or 65 yards of card sliver, that will cause light work in after processes, and also waste. Imagine 10 bales of fluffy cotton to be run through on five breakers, then 10 bales of wiry cotton run through, following the 10 bales of fluffy cotton — what would be the result? We would have cotton gaining at each process and cotton losing a^ each process. It is this gain and loss in the cotton that MAKES ALL VARIATIONS, because it is a double loss, as the light strand will lose twist and the heavy strand will gain twist. It will be seen that roving and yarn of a different diameter would be the result — which is the chief trouble in all mills; be- cause on a speeder the bobbin made from a heavy strand of roving will in- crease in diameter, and while the majority of bobbins on the speeder with the proper diameter and tension will run all right, all bobbins made from roving of a larger diameter will continually snap at the eye of the flyer presser finger and become more troublesome as the bobbins increase in diameter. This is owing to the fact that the surface-speed of the bobbin is greater than the surface-speed of the front roll, a condition that should never exist on any fly-frame. In the spinning we have almost the same trouble, because the yarn made from heavy roving will fill the bobbins in less time than the yarn made from roving of a proper diameter. This ne- TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 103 cessitates the stopping of the frames making heavy yarn until the bobbin making the right number of yarn is doffed. It would be a poor system to doff here and there about the room; so, as stated before, the only way to do is to stop the fr'ames where the heavy work is made, thus — besides making poor work — losing production. Some overseers having charge of this new system have some trouble at times with the CONVEYERS CLOGGING UP. This trouble is experienced in mills where the distance from the breaker and conveyers is great (especially if the distance is in a vertical direction) when using heavy cotton. The only remedy for this trouble is to instai a number 7 condenser instead of a number 9. This new system should re- ceive the same care and attention as the old system, because so far as re- gards the making of an even lap, it has no advantage over the old system; and I think the reader will agree that all bales should be blended together to produce a strong, even yarn in this system of picking as in the old system. THE "FANCY" PATENT. Another device that is misunder- stood by some carders and superin- tendents is a card attachment, called a fancy, that is placed between the flats and doffer in front of a card run- ning waste. I know a couple of superintendents who are now experimenting with their cards, and they really believe that it is making much stronger yarn. The up-to-date mill man knows that temperature and humidity have much effect upon the tensile strength of the cotton fibres, and the only device at the present time that will help the cotton to retain its tensile strength during manufacturing is a humidifier. Any device that will give a combing action to the fibres will injure them. The object of this new device or "fancy" is to remove all iseeds and neps from the cylinder, because when strips or waste of aiiy kind are run through a card, the cylinder and dof- fer quickly fill with seeds and other matter contained in the waste; and this necessitates the stripping of the card many times a day, according to the stock run and the amount of work the card will do. This device is sim- ply to keep the cylinder from collect- ing dirt, and it should be understood that no device can be attached to any machine that will make the cotton fi- bres stronger. This fancy revolves at a high rate of speed, and great care should be given when setting, because if set too deep it will injure the foun- dation of the cylinder fillet to such an extent as will require the re-covering of the cylinder. As this fancy consists of ordinary stripping wire, it can be seen that it will tear away any surface composed of cloth. One good rule is to set it so it will remove the stock on the points of the cylinder wire to show a space of one inch. Are we going back? — may well be asked in regard to these so-called new patented ^'differential motions", and my answer is — yes — the fact remains that there is no movement other than the old style HOULDSWORTH COMPOUND, that will give the b^.st and most per- fect wind without much trouble and undue breaking of cone belts. The winding-on arrangement connecting the spindle and bobbin together was pat- ented for the first time in the year 1823. Three years later, Mr. Houlds- worth patented his differential motion in January, 1826. Mr. Houldsworth at that time must have had in mind that two mechan- isms acting in combination were nec- essary in order to connect the spindle and bobbin. So one of these mechan- isms he gave us, which connects the spindle and bobbin together, is known as the differential motion; and the other mechanism consists of two uni- form cones, without concavity and convexity, the unequal rack being used at that time. We have improved 104 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. on the cones by making a concave upper cone end a convex bottom cone to obtain the intermediate speeds necessary to give a more perfect wind, since after years of study it was found that if a bobbin increased in diameter from 1 inch to 11 inches, the propor- tionate increase was one-ninth part of the total; but if the bobbin increased from 3i inches to 4 inches, the propor- tionate increase was only one-thirty- second part of the total diameter. It was clearly realized that the equal increase of one-eighth of an inch in diameter of the bobbin was only equal in addi- tion, and was very unequal in propor- tion. It is this inequality in proportion, resulting from equal increments of bobbin diameter, that had to be repro- duced in the outlines of the cones in order to obtain correct winding, and the result is a concave upper cone and a convex bottom cone. The cones are really like a continuous string of separate pairs of pulleys connected to- gether. In finding their true outline, each layer of a bobbin of roving must be considered separately, and the di- ameters of the cones figured for that layer alone, which gives the cones their peculiar formation — the most es- sential feature of the cotton roving frame. Another WONDERFUL IMPROVEMENT since the days when Mr. Greene and Mr. Houldsworth connected the spindle and the bobbin is in having the speed of the bobbin greater than that of the fiyer. When the contrary was true, the bobbin had its slowest speed when empty, and its greatest speed when nearly full or filled, the bottom cone constantly and uniformly increasing in the number or revolutions^ per minute between these two extremes. When the speed of the bobbin is greater than that of the flyer, the bobbin rotates at' its greatest speed when empty, and at its lowest speed when full. In this case, as the bobbin grows larger in diameter and heavier, the bottom cone decreases in the number of revolutions at every completion of the traverse, making the consumption of power more uniform. Regarding the ''differential motion", patented almost 100 years ago, it can be said that the motion was never im- proved upon, except in separating the driving shaft from the differential sleeve in order to reduce the friction, which was very great on account of the driving-shaft running in the oppo- site direction to the differential sleeve. Now, which is the best SPEED-REDUCING VALUE — the old compound or the new? Again, why do we use more cone belt- ing with the new than with the old motion? In regard to the first question, the high speed of the bottom cone of the new differential motion is not so much obtained from a higher speed cone as from the use of a train of gears between the bottom cone and the gear and the differential sleeve, which is of much less speed-reducing value than the Houldsworth motion. The sun gear on the old compound may contain possibly 100 to 120 teeth, while its substitute has between 30 and 35 teeth — ^this difference repre- senting a speed of the bottom cone in the new motions equal to about four times the speed of the sun gear of the old motion. Many believe the new motion to be the best because the differential sleeve revolves in the direction of the driv- ing-shaft, and its lowest axial revolu- tion is attained with the highest speed of the bottom cone. It should be un- derstood that a high speed of the bot- tom cone in the new differential mo- tion causes a low axial speed of the carrier gears inside the periphery, and when the bottom cone is stopped its highest axial speed is attained; be- cause the speed of the differential sleeve works against and checks that axial speed of the carriers inside the periphery, which results from the lat- ter rolling around the differential sleeve gear connected with the com- TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 105 pound. The above proves this — that the differential sleeve revolving in the direction of the driving-shaft is of no help to the cone belt; as on account of its working against and keeping the carriers inside the periphery checked, the differential sleeve would revolve in the opposite direction to the driv- ing-shaft if a disconnection was made between the bottom cone and the dif- ferential sleeve. As to the second question — the high speed of the bottom cone or the train of gears of the new differential motion makes the start of the bottom cone much harder than on the old motion; which causes the cone belt to SLIP ON THE START of almost every set, unless the latter is very tight, or belt dressing is added. Having the cone belt tight will weak- en it, and will wear it out in only a short time. When a cone belt breaks and the ends are pieced up again, some of the piecings will be dirty, and detected in the yarn and cloth. This cone-belt breaking is very bad for fine goods mills, especially where the yarn is sold in skeins. Some makes of frames have an auxiliary belt to pre- vent the ends from breaking — which they accomplish as a rule — but they are so neglected in most mills where they are in use that they are little valued. The writer has known reasonably good students who absolutely refused to admit that the new differential mo- tion is of much less speed-reducing value than the old differential motion, and that the high-speed cones or a train of gears to attain this high speed from the cone to the differential sleeve is the cause of so much cone- belt breaking — which is blamed on the quality of the belting. When I explain- ed to them the merits of the two mo- tions, as set forth in this article, they quickly realized their mistake. If the reader is a mill man and will follow the explanations in this article, I think he will agree with the writer that we are ^oing back — which is the cause of some of the troubles in our mills to-day. In closing, I wish to emphasize my first point, by repeating that the pre- liminary mixing of the cotton is ab- solutely essential, and any care be- stowed on this particular will be many times repaid in the card and spinning room. No. 72. SPINNING ROOM SUPER- VISION. I would like to say a few worvls on frame ring spinning — how to have a spinning room managed to get the best results at smallest cost. I think the overseer is held responsible for everything under his charge. It seemr! to me the overseer should train all his help, that their work is as important to the firm as his own. He should insist that the second-hand and sec- tion-hand keep every machine and all the spindles in the BEST RUNNING CONDITION. If the spinner has to piece the same end up more than two or three times during a doff, the second-hand should attend to it at once. If the roving is as good as can be expected, the roller may be bad, the spindle may be bent or out of plumb, or the ring may be off centre; sometimes the spinning bobbin is of a smaller diameter, the band being covered with waste making it larger in diameter, thus causing bad work. A small roller lap on bottom, middle or back roll, or top, middle oi back roll will cause ends to keep break- ing down. Those little things need looking after. UNEVEN YARN will be caused by neglect to oil the ends of top rolls and the middle bear- ings of the roll — or if the top roller ends get clogged with waste in their bearings, thus causing the roller to turn hard, sometimes almost stopping, 106 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. the same result will follow. Too long a draft and too high speed will cause work to run bad and produce weak yarn. If the train of draft gears is not properly geared, this will cause weak yarn. The train of draft gears should be set to mesh so that the teeth should just clear the bottom. If there is too much play from the gears not being set to mesh deep enough or the train of draft gears gets worn thin, thus causing too much back lashing, the middle and back rolls will tremble, and you will have weak yarn. If the gears are set to mesh too deeply, so that they grind, the top rolls will jump a little, thus causing thick and thin places in the yarn. Usually this breaks some teeth out of the gears and causes the frame to be stopped, with conse- quent loss of production, waste, cost of new gears, etc. Spinning frames should be scoured twice a year, and at scouring times all the covers on the gears should be re- moved and the gearing given a THOROUGH CLEANING. All the oil holes should be thoroughly cleaned out and worn studs or gears replaced with new ones. By so doing, the running parts will be kept in good condition, with resultant good work and large production. When scouring, have a few narrow strips of wood long enough to pass under the steel rolls and fasten with a bolt to the roller beam so as to hold them in position at one end. The front must be long enough to hold the three steel rollers. Plave notches in the strips for the rolls to rest in, then place the latter in po- sition and wipe them off with waste; then clean the flutes lengthwise with card clothing wire to get all of the dirt out. A stiff bristle brush is a very good thing to use, as it does not scratch the flutes. Spinning frames SHOULD BE LEVELED when they show any signs of being out of order. The longer they remain running out of level, the greater waste of oil and loss in production, with hot- ter bearings and very tight belts. All this causes a loss to the firm arising through neglect. After a spinning frame has been lev- eled the spindles should be plumed, the ring rail leveled and the lifting rods set to work freely. Don't have any more weight on the cross-shaft levers than is required to lift the ring-rail smoothly. If the ring-rail rises and lowers with jumps, it usually causes the ends to keep breaking down and makes a rough-looking yarn. DIRECTIONS FOR ADJUSTING. The top covered rolls should be set a little to the front of centre of bottom steel roll. The spread of the front and middle rolls should be set from 1-16 to 8-16 from centre to centre for mid- dling cotton, then the average length of staple of the cotton used. After the bottom steel rods are properly set for the yarn that is required to be spun from a certain length of cotton staple, take three leather-covered top rolls of the same diameter, place them in their position in cap bars; then take a small steel square — put it over the top rolls, and letting one edge of the square hang down over the front of top and bot- tom roll at one end of the base near the cap bar; then draw the end of the top front roller out until the front is flush with the front of bottom steel roll. Do the other end of the base of same front top roll in the same man- ner. Then turn the same three rolls over into the next set of cap bars; when in position set them the same way and repeat until all the top front rolls are set from one end of the frame to the other end. This will bring all of the front top rolls a little to the front of the centre of bottom steel roll; then set the middle and back rolls with gauges. In some spinning frames, the middle and back top roll cap-bars are so arranged that they will bring the rolls a little to the front, and cannot be altered, but the front top rolls can be moved a little to the front as desired, SJiQuld the middle TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 107 top roll cap bars be movable, use the same three rolls to gauge with. Witn the front roll set to the front of cen- tre of bottom steel roll, set the top, middle and back the same distance as bottom steel roll from centre to cen- tre. This will bring all the top rolls a little to the front, and you will havt? a fine line from one end of the frame and WILL WORK FREELY. If you put all the top rolls in a frame and set them all through, then draw a fine line from one end of the frame to the other over the centre of one lino of rolls, having me lino square over the centre of each end roller. At each end of the frame, you will find them to be zig-zag, because top-cov- ered rolls vary considerably in diam- eter. This is very bad for the work. Never use new rings on a ring rail with old rings on it. This usually gives trouble. New rings require a different size traveler; this usually makes a different size bobbin. A very good plan is to get rings enough for a few frames, then remove all the rings of the ring rail for one frame on filling yarns, if you have it, and replace them with new ones. Then use the old rings to repair the other frames that have been in use about the same time. Re- peat until they are all in good condi- tion and you will receive good results. Cleaning is a very important part of spinning. The top of the creels should have the roving and empty bob- bins all removed once a week (usually after the ceiling and shafting have been brushed down), and the top of the creels wiped off. This will PREVENT OILY SPOTS from getting on the roving — or any dirt, lint, etc., that always collects on the top of creels. The underneath parts of the creel-board where the screwers rest should be rolled out twice a week. The tread-board should be wiped off twice a day with waste — be- fore noon, and about 5 o'clock at night — and wiped off with a wiper every hour or two, especially for coarse work where middling cotton is used. Finer yarn requires a better grade of cotton, as the frame does not get so dirty and requires less cleaning. Separators, rods, etc., require cleaning or brushing off every day. Ring rails should be cleaned every day with a small brush — this prevents the fly or lint from blowing into the yarn when stopping and starting a frame. BANDING FOR SPINDLES should be kept the same diameter and the spindle whorl kept clean. A good band-boy is a very important adjunct tov/ards keeping a spinning room looking well. When there are spindles standing idle, it is usually the fault of a slack band-boy and section-hand. This means a loss to the firm. Slack bands usually make soft bobbins — which is waste. A band that is too tight puts more twist in the yarn. When twisted together with some ot the other yarn, it is cork-screwed yarn. Uneven weight on the rolls usually causes yarn to be heavy and light and poor oiling produces the same uneven result. Some rolls will turn hard while the others are turning right and the hard turning rolls will make the bobbin heavy, harsh and weak. Change your travelers often, do not leave them on until worn out. This helps to spoil the rings. CREELING AND DOFFING. Creeling spinners should be trained not to allow the roving to run off the bobbin and pass through the rolls, and when the spinner or creeler replaces the empty bobbin with a full one, he should not make a long piecing or wet the piecing. This causes bad work, and makes waste. The doffer should be trained to work carefully and quick- ly so as not to break off ends when doffing. Three or four ends are plenty to a frame of 256 spindles. I have had a, dolfer that would not average three ends to a frame the day out. The more ends the doffer breaks down, the more ^'V'aste there will be. 108 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. Top leather-covered rolls should be put in the frame so that the lap on the leather will not turn up in work- ing; the lap should follow the outside. Any cotton that collects on the bosses of the rolls should be removed imme- diately in order to prevent the rolls becoming injured, making cut and lumpy yarn. The roving trumpets should be set so that at the centre of their traverse they will be at the cen- tre of the boss of the top roll, and should not be allowed to become loose or tip over. The trumpets' roving holes should be kept clean; otherwise cotton and dirt gather there, causing addi- tional strain and draft on the roving before it enters the rolls, thus making rough and fuzzy yarn. REGARDING SADDLES. When the saddles are set on the top rolls the wrong way, it results in im- properly distributing the weight on the rolls. When the saddles are worn, they have too much bearing surface on the rolls and retard their movement to some extent, causing an irregularly drawn yarn to be made. The weight hooks should all be set in the same notch from the end of each weight lever, and every roller should have the same number of pound weight attach- ed to each weight lever hook. Should the top front roll bearing be- come dry for the want of oiling, its speed is reduced. This will produce yarn coarser than ought to be from one to four numbers. This also causes rolls to make yarn rough, lumpy, fuz- zy and uneven. The guide wires should deliver exactly over the tops of the spindles. Should they become worn by the thread of yarn running through them, ' they will chafe the yarn, and should be replaced with new wires. GUIDE WIRES. If the guide wires are not centred, they cause the yarn to chafe on one side of the bobbin, thereby causing the ends of yarn to keep breaking; causing extra work for the spinner, loss of production and extra waste. Travelers should not be allowed to remain running until they are worn so that they will keep flying off. When travelers get in such condition, they help to spoil the rings, and make the spinning go bad. No. 73. FILLING ROOM. It has often struck me that a small but useful part in the equipment of a weaving mill, whether cotton or wool- en, is very often neglected. This is a filling room, which, as its name im- plies, is a room wherein all yarn when ready for the weave room is kept. The door to this room should be kept closed, and no one allowed in but the person in charge. The weavers, when requiring filling, present their loom tickets at the window, and the proper yarn is served out to them. Now this may not appear to be as important as it really is, especially in a mill running a variety of yarns, but a little consid- eration will show us that the advan- tages are more numerous than they appear to be on the surface. MOST IMPORTANT ADVANTAGE. The first and most important ad- vantage is the reduction to a mini- mum ot mixed filling in the piece; should this take place in goods of a medium or high-grade quality, it means turning them into seconds, with a corresponding loss in value. Yarns that are near each other in number, or even the same number, de- livered by two different spinners, may appear to be alike, when seen in the chain or on the quills, yet when woven in the piece, a difference is directly discernible. Intelligent and well- trained help do not often make mistakes of this kind, still it is too much to expect them to be always on the alert, and the most careful of weavers are liable to slip up when the filling is left where they have to get it for themselves. A board taken TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 109 from the wrong pile is easy, and the mischief is done. Secondly, the superintendent is bet- ter able to regulate his filling than before; he need never be afraid of running TWO DIFFERENT LOTS at the same time, but can space out his orders as he wants them — so many orders or pieces on No. 1 lot, and so many on No. 2 lot; or, if he has two spinners, both delivering the same count of yarn, he can keep certain orders on one man's yarn, and certain other orders on the other man's yarn, and have some confidence that the pieces will be woven as called for. This enables him to tell in a moment, whose, or what yarn, is in any par- ticular piece that may be in question; whereas, in the old way, the piece may have been woven with either one or the other, and it would be almost an impossibility to say definitely what yarn was in the cloth. Again, it often happens that for some reason or oth- er it becomes necessary to CHANGE OVER a good many looms to a different fill- ing; this can be done much easier through the medium of a filling room than by having to go to each individual weaver, and tell him, personally, to change his or her filling at the end of the cut then weaving, relying upon their memory to do so. A note to the person in charge of the filling room, instructing him to change over certain looms, taking a note of the number of the cut where the change was made, is all that is needed. Thirdly, a filling room would almost eliminate the TENDENCY TO WASTE on the part of the weavers. If a cop or quill breaks a little too often, or runs a little too badly to please the weaver, he puts it among his emp- ties and it goes into the waste or is put on a fresh board, and some other weaver has the task of weaving up what the first one turned down. The attendant of the filling room could see by a glance at the board the weav- er brings back, when needing a fresh supply, whether he has woven off all his quills or not, and unless they real- ly are too bad he can insist on the same weaver using them up. There is an old saying, to the ef- fect that "too many cooks spoil the broth", which is very applicable in this case, the responsibility of having the right filling woven being on one, two or three hundred persons of different characters and temperaments, instead of ON ONE PERSON ONLY, devoting the greater part of his time to this duty. The expense would not be so great a consideration when bal- anced against the advantages men- tioned, as a bright intelligent youth would be perfectly able to keep a room of this kind in good shape; or if the mill was not large enough to warrant a separate room and attend- ant, then a space could be partitioned off and the quilling overseer put in charge of it, so long as the idea of keeping the filling together in the one place, and making one person respon- sible for the yarn woven was adhered to. Then again, a stock of the yarn on hand could be taken quicker and more easily, as all the yarn not actually in process — weaving, winding or quilling — would be in the one room, instead of some being in the weave room, wind- ing room, and other places — as is often the case. No. 74. CONCERNING TRAVELER. I find by being overseer of spinning for several years that all defects are not in the machinery. For instance, you will find a superintendent that wants to run his job and the spinners' also. This to my mind is one of the greatest defects ever met with in a spinning room or elsewhere in the mill. I have known of superintendents 110 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. who did not want the spinner to change his travelers except when there was a change in the yarn being spun. This is one of the greatest de- fects in cotton spinning in a mill with 40,000 spindles and with 40,000 bad travelers. The help cannot keep theij work up, and are consequently under a continual strain, making a great amount of waste for the company and a consequent loss. Where an over- seer can have his own way in matters of routine, and where he is in close touch with his work continually, he is the best judge of individual spin- ning room methods, and better results can be secured than where a superin- tendent tries to personally run all de- partments. An overseer cannot get re- sults with his help disorganized all the time. I have in the past met su- perintendents whose greatest ideas of economy was in the saving of trav- elers. Most any boy or girl in the spinning room can remedy these small defects, but they cannot prevent dis- organization under poor management. I have always found the greatest de- fects in the spinning room to be due to the interference on small matters by the management. No. 75. A NEEDED IMPROVEMENT. In considering defects in existing processes of woolen manufacturing, it would seem that none could be more serious than such as appear in the initial process of the work, causing trouble in every succeeding depart- ment, and finally, imperfect goods. We wish to call attention to such a de- fect, noting a few of the difficulties which arise from it, and suggesting, if possible, a means by which it may be remedied or overcome. The defect to which we refer may be found in every mill, and in many instances it has been the source of much trouble, and the most difficult to overcome of any within the whole range of the work; especially where medium and low-grade goods are made. It consists in the separation of the stock after it has left the picker, and is being deposited in the blow-room, preparatory to the carding process. A COMMON DIFFICULTY. Every carder who has had to do with a combination of long and short stock has met the difficulty, and every succeeding department, from the spin- ning to the finishing, has had to con- tend with the evil results that are sure to follow; and many have been the vain efforts to find a suitable remedy. Everyone who has had experience In the mixing of wool stock, preparatory to the carding process, knows the tendency of the longer and lighter por tions, in coming from the picker, to find lodgment in the extreme parts and upon the walls of the blow-room, while that which is shorter and heav ier, falls nearer the mouth or outlet of the picker, thereby undoing in part the work the machir.e is supposed to accomplish, namely, the unform blending of the different kinds of stock in use. The whole trouble arises from the volume of air produced by the high speed of the picker, by which the light stock is carried farther than the heavy; and though the utmost care may be exercised in the subsequent laying down of these extremes of stock, pre- paratory to running through the ma- chine again, the result is the same and equally as bad. When the stock is taken to the cards, some portions of the lot must contain an undue proportion of the shorter and poorer fibres, while other portions are comparatively better: and the result cannot be otherwise than irregular and imperfect work, carrying with it a multitude of evils all the v/ay to the packing room, among which may be mentioned bad work in the carding, uneven, twitty and tender yarn — light and heavy in TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. Ill spots, soft bobbins and bad work for the weaver, and cockled, rowey and tender cloth in the finishing. One great difficulty in contending with these evils is that they often come unexpectedly, and frequently come and go before their cause can be deter- mined, just as we might expect the irregular mixture would pass into the card. The work may be running all right, apparently, when all at once the self-feed gets a bunch of one of the extremes of stock, and the result is soon evident at the finisher; but the cause is not so easily distinguished. Sometimes the result is not notice- able at the finisher, but it will most likely show itself at some other point — and always too late to correct. LAYING THE BLAME. Maybe the carder finds his roping is coming too heavy, and before he has time to correct it, it corrects it- self — or possibly jumps to the other extreme. The spinner finds light and heavy yarn in the same set, and blames the carder tor what he was pow- erless to avoid. The cloth shows light and heavy places and other defects at the weaver's perch, which he is unable to account for; and the finish- er has cockles, shaded and tender goods, as well as other imperfections growing out of the difliculty. We do not contend that the imper- fections referred to are always caused by the defect in question; but we are sure that where the defect exists it tends to produce them. Carelessness in mixing may intensify the trouble, but the utmost care is not a guarantee against it, and it is an ever recurring evil where medium and low-grade goods are made, and not infrequently its origin is not discovered or suspect- ed. Various remedies have been de- vised, none of which ever aimed to do away with or subdue the force of the air coming from the picker, which is the real cause. The writer has seen an arrangement consisting of a hang- ing wind-break, made of wood, adjust- ed so as to turn the stock downward to the floor, instead of allowing it to be carried up and around the room. But this did not wholly overcome the trouble. A PARTIAL REMEDY. Another partial remedy is to have a small blow-room, with a pipe ar- ranged to convey the stock from the picker upward and then downward in- to the centre of the room. By this means all the stock is bound to be de- posited in one place; and the smaller the room the less the opportunity the light stock has to gei away from the heavy; and it is less inclined to do so than where it is blown upward into a large space. The writer was once troubled with rowey cloth, caused from this diffi- culty. The cloth was of cotton warp and a distinctly filling face — a five-har- ness Y/eave; so that the least varia- tion was Dound to show. After trying other remedies without success, we put three men into the blow-room- - one to keep the stock from accumulat- ing on the walls, and the other two to sheet it up as it came from the picker; and by this means we got compara- tively good results. This served to strengthen the idea already entertain- ed, that could the stock be kept as thoroughly blended as when it left the picker, the difficulty would be over- come. To accomplish this, tho effect of the wind must be overcOine, which would seem to necessitate some sort of arrangement to secure and hold the stock as it comes froi^ the ma- chine, and carry it away from the air current to be doffed; or better still, improve upon the machine to reduce the force of the air that the ordinary picker generates. This idea is partly carried out In the construction of the modern ma- chine, known as the Fearnaught, or SPUR-TOOTHED PICKER, which is well known as a most excel- lent opener and blender of stock. The volume of air produced by the opera 112 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. tion of this machine is so small, that the makers have been obliged to add what they term a *'doffer fan" at the outlet, to force the stock from the machine. Now, in place of this fan, some sort of doffer could be substituted, from which the stock could be delivered to a suitable apron, which in turn could convey it to the place desired. With the present cons.truction of the Fearnaught machine with the fan service, the same difficulty is experi- enced as with the old style picker; but by the removal of the fan, ana a carrying further of the carding ma chine idea already embodied in its construction, it seems as though sue cess might be attained, a multitude of evils avoided and much more per- fect work secured in every depart- ment of the mill. Our suggestion is that some means be adopted by which the stock may be delivered from the picker, on an apron or otherwise, free from the evil effects of the air current that accom- pany the operation of the present machines. We are not prepared to say just now how it shall be done; but refer to the Fearnaught machine, be- cause it demonstrates that the force of air is not necessary to the accom- plishment of the work; and the re- sult desired seems to be half accom- plished in its construction, leaving out the "fan doffer." No. 76. REMEDYING FINISHING ROOM DEFECTS. There is no department of the wool- en mill that encounters more defects than the finishing. It not only has to guard against difficulties -of its own, but a goodly share of its work con- sists in striving to correct and over- come defects that have had their ori- gin in the other departments. It is a veritable dumping-ground for many of the evils that accumulate from the scouring of the stock to the weaver's perch; so that it will be impossible to attempt to consider them all. We will, however, call attention to a few that are most likely to give the fin- isher trouble. The first to which we would call attention is that of DIRTY GOODS. To the uninitiated, it might seem that the fault for this defect must be in the scouring; but this is not always the case. It is well to bear in mind that the cleansing of the cloth really begins in the fulling mills, and when the fulling soap properly per- forms its functions, the grease and dirt are thoroughly loosened up, and are held in suspense by the soap, so that the scouring only serves to. com- plete the work already begun. But if the fulling soap fails to do its part, the heat of the fulling tends to set the grease and dirt, so that the scouring becomes more difficult. In such a case, the fulling soap should be looked af- ter to see that it properly performs the service required of it. It may fail to do its work on account of a lack of proper alkaline strength, or for the want of sufficient body, either of which should be corrected. Sometimes trouble arises from in- sufficient boiling in preparing the soap; and it may appear all right, but "goes to pieces", so to speak, in the fulling mill, running watery and be- coming ineffective before the work is finished. Any attempt to have the scouring make up for a deficiency in the quality of the fulling soap is get- ting "the cart before the horse", and should be avoided, as it tends to dirty goods and dull colors. When the cloth goes to the washer, all the foreign matter it contains should be well combined with the soap, and usually a greater part of it should be at once rinsed off with warm water; and when this has been done, sufficient scouring soap should be applied to create a good lather. After running about twenty minutes, TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. |w 113 it should be rinsed off until all the soapy appearance disappears; then complete the rinsing with cold wa- ter. If the goods are very hard to clean, a second soaping, following the rinsing with warm water, may be necessary; which should be deter- mined by the good judgment of the finisher. There is no safe rule for preparing either the fulling or the scouring soap. It depends very largely upon the condition and quality of the goods, the finish desired and the kind of oil used on the stock in the carding; and it calls for the careful study and good judgment of the fin- isher in charge. Following the proper adjustment of the soap, care should be taken to give suflft'Cient time in the soap and rinsing off to secure the desired results. Among the defects with which the finisher has to contend, it is doubtful if any are more serious or give more trouble than COCKLED GOODS. When there appear, the first thing for the finisher to do is to determine the cause, and whether it falls to him to correct them. Since they may be caus- ed almost anywhere from the picker to the loom, as well as in the finish- ing-room, it is not always an easy matter to decide who may be respon- sible. Among the things that may cause them may be mentioned uneven mix- ing of the stock; variation in the size or twist of the yarn; light and heavy places in the weaving; careless soap- ing and defective or insufficient amount of soap in the fulling process. Though the cockles develop in the fulling, ais already intimated, the real cause may exist in the cloth before it comes tO' the finishing-room, in which case the finisher cannot make the correction; but if it is found that the fault is in the finishing-room, then it is up to him to determine the cause and apply the remedy. If the cause be in the weaving or uneven filling, the cockles will show in a distinct line or bar across the cloth, corresponding with the irreg- ularity in the yarn or cloth, but if they are due to a fault in the finish- ing, there will be a lack of any regu- larity in their appearance. The ex- perienced finisher will be able to de- termine if he is responsible for them. If the fulling soap is of insuflacient strength, it will fail to thoroughly cut or isaponify the grease contained in the cloth, and thus cause the trouble. The alkaline strength of the soap be- comes exhausted before all the grease is overcome, and wherever it fails to cut the grease the fulling is imper- fect, and irregular fulling results. The remedy is to strengthen the soap so that there will be a thorough saponi- fication of all the grease the cloth contains. The trouble may also arise from a failure to apply the soap evenly, es- pecially if the cloth is quick to full. If certain portions become sufficiently wet, while other portions are deficient in moisture, the fulling will begin in these places first; and though the moisture may be afterward equalized, an irregularity is produced that the after-fulling may not fully correct. The same result may follow where an insufiicient quantity of soap is used, as the soaping should be thor- ough as well as uniform. The remedy is to apply the soap slowly, so that it may be evenly dis- tributed, and be sure that the quan- tity is sufficient to thoroughly and properly accomplish the work. Better still — use a soaping machine, which will insure good results, both as to quantity and uniformity. Another defect which is often ex- tremely troublesome, and more dif- ficult than any to entirely overcome, is that of ROLLING SELVAGES. Where this defect occurs in fulling, the extra warmth produced by the sides of the cloth being wrapped about and more compact in fulling ;j4 textile defects produces a firmer and heavier felt, as well as more compactness of the warp threads, so that it tends to produce a variation in shade *'from side to cen- tre", as well as heavily felted streaks along the sides of the cloth that are aifficult to remove. Ihis trouble is often the legitimate result of the construction of the cloth, though it may occur from other causes. Cloth having a preponderance of tilling upon either the face or back will always incline to roll toward the filling side; and though the trouble is reterred to as rolling selvages, cloth of this construction will roll, even though there be no selvage, and sometimes as it comes from the loom. A striking example of this is the fab- ric known as the Kentucky jean, hav- ing a cotton warp and wool filling; a five-harneiss twill weave, with four- fifths of the filling on the face, which often rolls so as to bother the shear- er, though it is neither fulled nor scoured. Since it is the necessary construc- tion of such cloth that causes the roll- ing, it devolves wholly upon the fin- isher to make the best of the situa- tion. Probably the best means to over- come the trouble is to use a tacking machine, and tack the selvages togeth- er, preferably with the filling side out, so that in their tendency to roll each is holding the other somewhat in place. The tacking may be done by hand; but the machine does the work better and more quickly. Another remedy is to open up the pieces frequently during the fulling, and to draw or shake them out — in fact, a persistent fight against the tendency is often all that will avail. A cloth having a tight selvage, or a selvage that will become tighter than the cloth while fulling, is bound to roll. However, a careful regulation of the tension and the construction of the selvage, so that it will at all times be slacker than the cloth, will avoid trouble. The leaving out of a thread of the AND SUGGESTIONS. ' !i ' (j selvage in weaving will sometimes cause an exposure of the filling, simi- lar to a float; which, shrinking more on that account, will start the rolling, and when it is once started, the extra neat generated by its being more compact than the rest of the cloth will increase the tendency to roll. As already intimated, in many cases the tendency cannot be gotten rid of; but a careful observance of the means suggested should avoid the evil re- sults. MILL WRINKLES constitute a defect caused by the cloth running in the fulling-mills in folds or wrinkles without change, un- til they become set by the felting, so that their effect is likely to show in the finished goods. This defect is most marked in heav- ily-felted goods, because of the length of time they have to run in fulling, their lack of pliability as the felt in- creases, and the better felting qual- ity of the stock used in goods of this character. Where these folds or wrin- kles occur in the cloth during the fulling, and continue unbroken for a length of time, the fibres felted togeth- er close up on the inner side of the fold, making it all the time more per- manent, and producing streaks thai are more heavily felted than the oth- er parts of the cloth. In the after-proc- esses these wrinkles and streaks are not only difficult to get entirely rid of, but in gigging or napping the cloth, an extra density of nap is produced from the extra felting at these points, resulting in marks upon some kinds of cloth that cannot be removed; es- pecially upon face-finished goods. If a machine could be constructed that would result in breaking up the folds in the cloth after it comes from the fulling-mill rolls, and before it en- ters them again, so that it would be constantly changing, intsead of run- ning continuously in the same folds, this difficulty might be overcome. Pending the invention of such a ma- chine, nothing can be done but to en- TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 115 (leaver to overcome the evil effects of the present methods. To accomplish this, our first sug- gestion is to avoid an extreme pres- sure upon the cloth, by an adjustment of the springs that regulate it, so that there will be just enough to steady the roll and keep it from bouncing up- on the cloth. The heavy pressure un- duly crushes the cloth and tends to set the wrinkles from the start, while a more gentle pressure will avoid it. Having attended to this, "overhaul" the cloth occasionally, drawing out the wrinkles and allowing it to cool somewhat, v/hich will give it a fresh start, with a probability of changing the folds every time this is done. By a careful study of the result, the fin- isher should be able tg determine how often this should be repeated. Another advantage is to remove the cloth from the mill altogether, when the fulling is about half done, and run the pieces in again — the opposite end first. All this calls for added time and at- tention, but the results attained are well worth the trouble. As already intimated, mill wrinkles are peculiar to heavily-felted goods; they sometimes occur, however, upon other kinds on account of a close or crowded condition of the warp. Worsteds or other goods made largely in the loom tend to this dif- ficulty, if fulled; and an over-crowded condition of the warp in any goods makes them more susceptible to the difficulty. No. 77. FILLING-ROOM. It seems to me that one of the most needed and most responsible departments in our mills is a yarn or filling-room. As a matter of fact, it is a department, which, if it has the right man in it, will add many dol- lars to the income of a mill by sav- ing it during the year. The cost of such a department is but little, compared to its economy, and can be started anywhere and increas- ed as business warrants it. The larger the plant, the more needful it becomes. The man who is in charge should be competent, systematic and particu- lar, always looking out for the inter- ests of his employer. He should be independent of any other department in the mill, and should receive his orders only from headquarters. He should also be able to know yarns so that every defect could be noticed. If he is such, the following lines of econ- omy will be carried out, and the consequence will be a marked de- crease of poor work throughout the mill — resulting in more and better cloth from the same amount of yarn, which, of course, means a reduced number of seconds. In the first place comes the matter of economy in the line of DEFECTS IN YARNS, which are: (1) Off-shade yarns; some of which may not be detected until samples are washed and compared with original samples. (2) Uneven dyeing; such as is very common in skein-dyed worsteds. (3) Uneven twist; coming from two or more threads of uneven yarn being put to- gether. (4) Mixed lots; which may oc- cur during transition cf stock from wool-room through to weave-room. (5) Uneven, light, heavy and doubled yarn; made either in carding, spin- ning, drawing or winding by fault of machinery or carelessness of oper- ator. (6) Poorly-wound yarn and soft bobbins; caused by fault of m,achin- ery or careless work. (7) Discolored and wet yarn; caused by straining or conditioning. (8) Rewound yarns; which may have more or less bad threads. One cannot imagine what loss is incurred by neglecting the above, and with the right man many of them can be averted, and the rest remedied to a certain extent by the use of a sorting and shading table. Next comes the matter of ECONOMY IN WASTE. Not an ounQQ of yarn should be wast- 116 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. ed, if possible, and this can be accom- plished by the use of a winder to wind up all poor bobbins, etc.^ and have them woven in the end of a piece where they should go, rather than scattering such yarn throughout the piece. Left- overs and odds and ends, if any, should be put away separately until called for either as substitutes or remnants. All yarns whether warp, filling, or pattern stock could be kept in one room in a systematic way, which would mini- mize the finding of odd yarns. This, however, is accomplished best by hav- ing everything under lock and key. Think of the risks and losses that are tolerated by having the yarn scattered throughout the mill, some of which is near a sunny window fading and some in a dark corner catching all the odd bobbins, and so forth. Last, but not least, is the saving of time and space. The man who has charge of the room can have the yarn so arranged that he can in a minute tell where a certain kind is, and so give it to the carriers or to whoever calls for it. All the yarn should be brought to him for storage and inspection and be delivered as needed. He should be in a position that would enable him to follow the lots through the mill and be able to know just when they will be ready for the weaver or whoever needs them. By such knowledge he can keep the weaver informed as to which warps to put in when a number are ahead. He should also be alert as to the needs of the weaver, so that his filling supply will not run short. By so doing, time will be saved and production in- creased. Headquarters could be kept informed by DAILY REPORTS. A stock sheet of yarn on hand could also be taken at a very short notice, which would show to all concerned just what yarn was on hand. Boughten yarns could be sent direct to the yarn room and weighed and reported, like- wise shipments made from there, if any. Another important item is that of having one lot of yarn completely finish a piece of cloth in place of having several pieces begin a new lot part way through the piece. To ac- complish this, a system of tickets could be used to furnish information at the right time. No. 78. STRIKING A LEASE ON A SLASHER. The advantages are so many in tak- ing a lease in the making of a warp that I think it would interest your readers to know how a lease is obtain- ed on a slasher running on fancy col- ored work. As an example we will take the following p9,ttern: Threads. 10 black 1,900 1 red 95 1 purple 95 1 yellow 95 1 blue 95 2 brown 190 1 green 95 1 pink 95 1 white 95 1 tan 95 10 black 30 (95 times) equals 2,850 Yarns are beamed as follows — black 2-633 thread, 1-634 thread: No. 1 fancy beam. Threads 1 white 95 1 green 95 1 brown 95 1 yellow 95 1 red 95 5 (95 times) equals 475 No. 2 fancy beam. Threads* 1 tan 95 1 pink 95 1 brown ; 95 1 blue 95 1 purple 95 5 (95 times) equals 475 PUTTING-IN SET. When placing the beams in the creel for dressing, place No. 1 next to the reed 3 black beams — then No. 2 (see Figure 3). We have got our beams placed, and now put in our lease rods TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 117 and get ready to twist in. There being two ends in each dent of the reed, both are taken simultaneously when twisting in. Now begin twisting in the pattern, which starts with ten ends Fig. 1. of black, taking them off the three black beams as follows: top centre, centre bottom, top bottom, top centre, centre bottom — which gives us ten black ends. We now take one end of each of the pattern beams five times, which completes the first pattern. We have 20 ends of black to twist this time and must remember where we left off, so as to start rignt and have the ends on each beam come out even at the finish. We left off at one centre, one bottom. Thus, we start, top bot- tom, top centre, centre bottom, and so on, until we get our 20 ends, then end off each of the pattern beams as before, five times. STRIKING LEASE. When we get all twisted in, we pull out all the lease rods, except the one in the centre black beam, where we keep one rod in to give us our half shed. We run the centre beam with a splitting rod all the way (see Figure 3). Then run the twists through the reed, and get ready to strike the lease. To do so, we proceed as follows: Take a lease rod, and run it through. Where the splitting rod is in the cen- tre beam, push it close up to the reed. Leave it there and take another rod with a string on the end of it (see Fig- ure 2), run it through the shed at the back of the reed, leave the string in and pull the rod out. Now take the rod we left at the front of the reed and pulling the reed over, raise the yarn on top into the hook that is in each dent of the reed (see Figure 1). Then put a rod under the yarn, push the reed over the other way and pass that half of the yarn past the hooks to the top of the reed, which gives us the other shed of the lease. We now take the rod and string as before, pass- ing the string through and leaving it there, and we have our lease complet- ed. Then start the machine and run the lease along a yard or two (first letting the rods down that were hold- ing up the yarn at the front of the reed). Next take the rod and string again, and put a string through the half shed to put in our splitting rod at the front of the machine. Start up the machine and run the lease strings through to the front. PASSING THROUGH RADDLE. When the lease strings are close up to the raddle take the flat rod, and putting the end of the rod between the string, (which is double), push it through and putting Fig. 2, it close up to the comb, place it edge- wise; then taking the rod and string, put the string through the front of the comb, and starting the machine a lit- tle do the same with the other string. 118 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. I ( ) and we have the lease completed. We now put the splitting rod where the last string is. Leave it in its place just at the back of th^ comb, and cut out the full warp. Pat in an empty beam, and the machine is all ready to run. As the sizing solution used is not more than a 5 per cent solution, and more frequently a 3 per cent, the size will not cake when the machine stops. No. 79. "OLD KENTUCKY JEAN." I note with much interest the varied ideas submitted in your prize essay contest, and as a subscriber to your journal, desire to submit for your con- sideration the following article on one of the oldest fabrics of the country as a basis — that is, the ''Old Kentucky Jean" — or filling face fabric. This fabric was the pioneer cloth for one-quarter of a century, until cheap union cassimeres were introduced by our mills to meet the modern ideas of the progressive farmer and mountain- eer of the South. Great strides havf been made by builders of carding and spinning machines, also looms — sucli as the Crompton & Knowles, etc., for producing fancy effects in design. It may be divulging a costly secret to some of your readers when I tell you that I find some of our mills, hav- ing replaced the five-harness SIDE CAM LOOM for the fancy head-motion loom, are only making the cheapest of cotton- warp striped goods with wool-card- ed filling, when without has been brought forward about % inch. To make this alteration, requires only a good file and A FEW MINUTES TIME. The stop-motion stand may be grasped by the bench-vise with the guard slide up to its highest set in its diagonal rivet slot, C. It may be best held that way with the slide fac- ing the fixer by putting a short piece of iron half an inch thick and five or six inches long (a wrench or piece of picker spindle will serve), against the slide between the rivet slots C, and also resting against the part of the stand which carries on its opposite side the knock-off casting No. 8. Don't put any more pressure on the vise than necessary to hold the parts, and there will be no danger of break- age if judgment and care is used in setting the castings. When thus altered, the stop-motion may be replaced on the loom and set high enough to make its action certain when the filling breaks, and there will be no more tearing of the cloth. Ihe spring from shipper-rod which throws up the guard, should, of course, strike no harder than necessary to raise it properly when loom is stopped. We think it would improve this stop-motion if the Knowles Loom Works would make this slight change in its design. No. 99. ^ » » ROUGHNESS IN GOODS. As a rule, when goods are exam- ined and found imperfect through be- ing shaded, the weaver is blamed fo^ the trouble, as it is considered poor weaving. Of course, some shades are caused by the loom, but not all, such as pickouts. When a weaver has had cause to pick out for an imperfection and does not get the proper tension on the warp when he starts up again, there is a bar straight across the piece from side to side, gradually shading off until the warp has at tained the proper tension, these shades differing sometimes. Shades are caused by the action of the warp beam If it is bent or a little out of line, or if the tension bands are not working right and the take-up or let-off are not correct, all of which can be fixed in a very short time; but if the piece still continues to be SHADED IN THE LOOM, it is not the weaver's fault. The filling must be uneven, and to remedy this, you must go to the pick- ing room. If the cards are in good running condition and taking care of the stock without throwing out too TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 147 much short stock at the sides of the cards, the trouble can be caused hy uneven mixing of the stock in the picking room. If the shoddy is too coarse for the wool or the wool too coarse for the shoddy, or if the per- centage of wool is too small to mix regular with the shoddy, the result will be uneven yarn, and this will cause roughness in the goods. The remedy for the above is a perfect blending of stock and not too small a percentage of wool and great care taken in the mixing up of a batch for the mixing picker. No. 100. FAULTS IN MIXING AND CARDING. There is one big mistake in the way some carders mix and blend their cot- ton. For instance, in some places they sample the cotton and then take three or four or any number of bales of different marks and mix it right in the picker, which I think is a poor way, as your bales may all differ in quality and staple, also in color. If the carder could only pay a little more attention to this thing, it would pay him. It seems to me that the biggest trouble in near- ly all of the cotton mills to-day is mixing and blending. The best method I know of, is to lay up a mixing as large as you possibly can to last a month or six weeks or more, if room will permit, the larger the better, as every small mixing causes some slight difference in quality and color. Not only is a small mixing bad in this manner, but where yarn is sold these variations tend to excite suspicion regarding the good faith of the producer to the customer. This suspicion will place any spinning at a disadvantage in the market, and tend to reduce the profits of the mill In laying down a mixing, the cotton should be taken from the bales and shaken loose upon the floor, covering an area suitable to THE INTENDED SIZE of the mixing. When a layer of the first kind of cotton has been put down in this manner, another of the second kind should be laid upon it, if the quantities of the different sorts are equal, taking care to have your layers about the same thickness. After this, the third sort should bo laid on top, and so on until you have used up all that should be included in the mixing. When you commence to put this through the pickers, start from the top of the mixing and pull down to the bottom and you get a little of every bale right through the mixing until ii is all used up. If you should happen to have one or two bad bales in the lot, it will hardly tell on the spinner if it is pulled from the mixing the way it is explained. A little skill and careful attention to this thing will bring better results all round. First, your laps will weigh out more even, which means a more even sliver from the card; second, you will get better sizings and m.ore even work from your drawings, and third, your slubbers will turn off better work and so on right through the whole mill, if the mixing is started right. Another bad fault is the card clothing in the carding room. It Is a recognized fact that the quality of yarn produced in a mill depends mor^ on the proper treatment of the material in the CARDING PROCESS than in any other. The cot- ton may be good and the carding en- gines the best, yet the prod- uct may be quite unsatisfac- tory. Cylinders and doffers are often covered with cards that have not been properly conditioned, wnen, though put on the cylinder tightly, they soon be- come flabby and loose, simply Decause the tem.perature of the room where they are working is much higher than the room from which they were 14S TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. brought. In order to prevent this, the best way to do is to expose all the cards that are intended to be nailed on for several days and nights, in a room about the same temperature as the room where they are going to work; in fact, a little higher tempera- ture will not hurt them, as I think it will make them lay on the cylinder bet- ter when they shrink on a little. They should then be wound on the cylinder or doffer under a moderate and uni- form strain, and after you have fast- ened each end they should be left alone for an hour or two before the intermediate nailing is done; by that time the cards will have fitted or bed- ded themselves into their ultimate po- sition. After this has been done, there will be a slight and uniform contrac- tion which will bring the card into its best condition for producing high- class work and ensuring durability. No. 101. THAT AUTOMATIC FLOCK BOX. Ed. American Woot-. & Cotton Reporter: The other week I had the pleas^ure of seeing my article recommending an automatic flock box for fulling mills discussed by **No. 51'* and then, in his poor way, as he calls it, thrown down and out as too much trouble and impractical. He says begin al the root of the matter and stop the goods from chafing. Now what has flocking goods got to do with goods chafing. I fail to see why **No. 51" should mention the box at all. He certainly gives no hint of how to flock the goods heavily and have them take U7ider the conditions I mentioned in my article. If he did this and handed us something that would remove the difiiculty I would certainly take my hat off to him. If he would write ai. article on goods chafing and give the cause or causes, it would be something beneficial to the trade. I know of several causes for goods chafing. I am acquainted with several makes of fulling mills and have made a special study of that department, and run fulling mills on all classes of goods myself. Here are a few of the causes of chafing: First, running too dry; second, draughts from windows or doors; third, short stock; fourth, goods shrunk or felted excessively; the last cause is irremedial, but draughts should be stopped either by clos- ing up the fulling mills or the windows or doors. But in any case keep a dipper and a pail of soap handy, and as soon as the goods begin to throw off, just sprinkle a very little soap on slowly so as to go all around the piece. This stops it for the time being and has to be repeated as often as it occurs. Now the best thing to do with a man who lets his goods chafe more than can be helped is to discharge him. Reverting to the flock box, *'No. 51" admits that it would be a good thing, but the midnight oil, etc., is against it. I would like to ask, did he ever see anything that was worth while that did not take study and work in its creation? Besides coming back to this chafing business, it would pre- vent the goods from wasting, by not putting in any more flocks than the goods require, which, by the way, is another cause of goods chaflng. No. 102. ^4--t^ • THE SUPERINTENDENT. As iron sharpeneth iron so does the countenance of man a friend; like- wise, as face answers to face in water so does the heart of man to man, there- fore, while we learn manufacturing by experience, which is the only way and the best teacher, however, exchange of thoughts and ideas is very beneficial and a wonderful help to th^ TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 149 industry. Regarding the subject Defects and Suggestions, or the best way to remedy trouble in a mill so that manufacturers may be more successful, a great deal has been said. The carding department has been well covered, as in fact have all other departments in the contest of over a year ago, and while it w^as clearly set forth then how to obtain the best re- sults in each department, nevertheless there are mills running to-day at a loss or barely able to exist. Since the trouble is not the fault of the foremen, as they have struggled and worked and exhausted their skill with the results unsatisfactory. Conse- quently we must look somewhere else for the cure of defects and the remedy that will bring success to those mills. Let me say here that a woolen mill differs greatly from a saw mill or a stone quarry. While politeness and TACT WITH PUSH, will run a store, and know- ing one or two things will run a stone quarry or saw mill, these qualifi- cations alone will not run a woolen mill. A superintendent wants them and more too. It is all right to go to a school and learn to be a designer but a superintendent must know still more. It may be all right to take a course of studies through a correspondent school to fit one for a superintendent but that is not sufficient. As I said before a true Knowieage requires experience. A superintendent needs to be a practical man in every detail, one in deed and in truth, and not a make-believe one. It has been my lot or misfortune to run up against quite a number of the latter. I firmly believe if there is one thing above another that a super- intendent should know it is HOW TO SELECT STOCK, tell its strength, and know what stock is adopted for different runs or grades cf yarn. When he knows this, one defect will be remedied which will pre- vent many more. He should know how stock should be handled and pre- pared in the picking room and place the supervision of that important part under one who knows. He should have a good thorough knowledge of carding, also of spinning, as well as of the other departments. Some one may say we get good practical men for their respective departments. That is all right, and it is the only thing you should do, but what can even such men do under unfavorable conditions. Some few years ago a superinten- dent was making some fine goods, and as he wanted a particular shade he used a few pounds of coarse wool. I told him it would make his yarn twilly and uneven. He thought it would, be all right, however. Some time later the boss weaver called me to the perch. I asked him in what lot the trouble was. He told me and I was not at all surprised to find that it was the very identical lot. Of course, I went to THE SUPERINTENDENT and told him. Then he was angry at the boss weaver because he called me to the perch. I know of several mills that have failed or shut down, because the management was lackine in knowledge and the owners did not know but that their superintendent was all right. If I wish to be personal I could give you the name of the owner of a 7-set mill, also his super- intendent's name, where I had the following experience. This mill was shut down the last time I heard from it, and the owner had told me his superintendent knew the business from A to Z. He was a very good designer and that was about all. The picker room was not under the carder, and as batch after batch came up to the card room, I would ask the superintendent what was the matter with the wool and he would invariably tell me that it was the best 150 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. he could buy. After a while I began to visit the picking room and the way the burr picker and mixing picker worked was surprising. I am NOT EXAGGERATING one single bit when I say on examin- ing the burr cylinder you or I could not tell but that it was a plain metal roll. It was as smooth as glass and not a tooth could be found. After that cylinder was fixed I need not tell you the results. Then I noticed the stock was unevenly oiled and I could hardly keep the weight right. Going into the picker room one day I found them oiling a batch of wool by making a layer of wool from 31 to 4 feet deep on the floor and then putting the oil on in proportion to that amount of wool. Some time after, the superin- tendent being away, the proprietor came to me to find out why the yarn was uneven. I told him if he would 2:et the picker man to take more care in oiling, I could give him better re- sults. He said a firm was trying to sell him an oiler and he had been told the same thing by them. Well, before the superintendent got back the gentleman told me the yarn was coming much better and more even. Now for another experience in the same mill. Mr. Samuel Came was the boss spinner and I was doing the carding and the work ran well and was very satisfactory. Mr. Came left and a new spinner took his place and the yarn got so bad that they actually tore up a warp of over 400 yards. Another time I was called down to see the work that was going bad. I went up stairs, found the machines working all right, took down two spools, and asked the girl what she was spinning. She said they were trying to make hard twist out of the wrong stock, and besides, the mule was not adapted for it, as the rollers were too light. Of course, I went to their superintendent and he had me send him the boss spinner. Matters were adjusted and I heard nothing more about the bad batch. Another time he called my attention to some good yarn and said, **that is not near as good stock as you are running." I looked at it and on the top of the pill was a bobbin with the lot number and date. 1 compared it with my book and found it was Mr. Game's spinning and my carding. I took that to the superin- tendent also, and after comparing the figures with my book he turned to me, and said, "you have a good case, get after him." I replied that it was not my business to get after him. He turned in his chair angry and said: "You and he fix that up. I am here to tell you." I surely did. I explained matters to the spinner, and as I had told him time and again he was running the carriage too fast for the rolls and drawing the yarn into thin places he had better put things back where he got them. I think that was THE LAST TROUBLE we had or at least that I heard about. Now let me say here there is no use in saying more along that line to point out defects. I could give you mill after mill with nearly the same experience which would convince any sane man that the defects are not altogether with the machinery as it is with the powers that be. Now if that superintendent had known his business none of the above defects and difficulties would have occurred for he could have been able to have detected the trouble. Time would fail me and the readers would tire if I were to tell of the diffi- culties and defects caused by poor stock, imperfections caused in the dressing room, finishing room, and the other departments, and continuing so on account of the head not being able to discover the cause and apply the remedy. When a superintendent is passing through the spinning room he TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 151 should be able to tell if the carriage is running too fast or too slow; and when in any other department he should be able to detect any defect that might happen to be there. A man on the bank is worth two in the ditch. Besides detecting defects in the different rooms, when examining a piece of goods at the perch, he should be able to detect the cause of the majority of defects that may appear. I remember one case where I went to do the carding. I was called down to be shown why they had exchanged carders. As the goods were drawn over the perch, the imperfections were pointed out. I readily showed them that the carder was not to blame, and I demonstrated clearly to the super- intendent boss weaver (he is now in charge of a 10-set mill), and finished that it was not the carder's fault. For instance a spool may have a bent spindle and it goes by jerks and will not run free, or for some cause one spool will run much harder than an- other. On running a section too close to the pins on the reel while dressing, a warp will make shaded goods as well as uneven gigging. Streaked goods can be made on the shears. Sometimes goods are hurt by steam- ing the bobbin to death. Yes, and I will say that the wool chopped up in the picker and card rooms will not finish up good in the piece. NOW WHAT IS THE REMEDY? A superintendent at the head who knows every detail about the business from the selection and testing of stock for the different grades of goods through every stage of its manufac- ture until ready for the case, a Napoleon in the business, and as Napoleon studied and acquainted him- self with all the details of his army, so a superintendent should be familiar with every detail about the mill, and I am not unconvinced that to remedy the defects a superintendent should undergo a rigid examination, more so than an engineer. No. 103. BETTER SYSTEM OF DRESSING. To weave woolen or worsted cloth and get it perfect, it is necessary that all parts of the preparations and dress- ing of warps be done in a proper and careful manner. The essentials in a well-dressed warp are, first, that each thread lay continually in a relative parallel position throughout the whole length of warp, and that no threads at any point cross each other. Sec- ond, that each thread is dressed of a uniform equal length, having neither tight nor slack places, but air threads of an equal tension. The first essen- tial is most easily obtained by using a fine front reed, set as close to reel as possible, and yarns reeded to a proper width to fill up space between the pins on reel without twisting reel head or piling yarn up on pins, and beaming with beam as close as pos- sible to reel. The second essential is much more difficult to obtain. Assum- ing that the yarn is of a uniform size and a good level thread, it will have to be spooled with an equal tension on each thread, and of a uniform •DISTRIBUTION ON SPOOL. Tight and slack threads, whether as separate threads or in groups of threads, are the source from whicL we have our greatest trouble in the weaving of cloth. The slack thread is not only woven out too prominently, but it does not carry it's share of the strain on warp in the weaving, and is really a heavier thread in the cloth The tight thread or threads are woven in under undue strain. This strain prevents the threads from appearing on the face of the cloth in proper weight; they are also covered up by the filling and neighboring warp threads, and a tight thread is really a finer thread, with insufficient twist 152 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. and will probably break a great deal in the weaving. Slack or tight threads in a warp are a common product of our system of dressing from jack spools. These de- fects may be caused in the spooling by a defective guide or faulty tra- verse adjustment, or through the jack spools not being properly washered, or waste gathering in pigtails, or by spoolers being equipped with imper- fect rollers, or rollers not weighted right, or yarn spooled with open roll- ers, or by threads being allowed to run out, making holes in spools, or by drums that are not of a uniform diameter, or by uneven yarn, or by each side of spool not being evenly weighted, bad jack ir^pool bodies or heads, or thread getting out of PIGTAILS IN THE SPOOLING. In dressing there will be from 10 to 18 jack spools used in the dressing of a warp, having 40 to 48 ends each. Each spool rests on the arbour at each end of spool, on the body of spool rests a paddle, which is weight- ed with an adjustable weight. This weight is adjusted to produce the right tension for spools of all sizes, and this is a very nice point, as there are no rules that can be laid down as to the weight suitable for spools of various sizes. The difference between the weight necessary to a full spool and the weight necessary to a spool only 10 per cent full, is very great, and the weight is determined by a guess; in other words, 10 to 18 guesses. To minimize the probable variation in tensions, the yarn is run through a drag roll, but this is bad of itself, as it again produces a variable condi- tion in the take up of reel, and gives us high and low sections; in other words, tight and slack groups of threads, and, again, if broken spools are used, if it is to the quarter, third or half of spool, we again require the operator to use his best judgment, properly speaking, his best guess as to the adjusting of weight. There are few dressers who can dress a warp under these conditions, without slack or tight places, and again we have the running of bobbins from the floor fill- ing, or twist bobbins, with IRREGULAR TENSION. When a warp is on the reel there is little that can be done to modify bad conditions of dressing. The spools in the rack may not have been run uni- formerly weighted, some spools run tighter than others, tight threads on spools allowed to run in, side threads piled up run slack on to warp, broken threads allowed to run till piled up on spool, on being tied up the thread con- tinues to run slack, the numerous de- fective conditions that are likely to develop under the jack spool method are allowed to continue, and there is no remedy after warp is once on reel, therefore, the remedy for the defec- tive dressing is the elimination of the jack spool system. I would suggest to the reader to go into any dressing room, running on dry work, and put his hand on top of section yarns as they pass through the head reed, and I will venture to say in most every test he makes he wiU find tight threads, and by looking un der the reed he will see sagging threads, and if he will stop the ma- chine and pull back the reel a few inches, he will then get a better illus- tration of the varied CONDITIONS OP TENSION of the different threads in the warp. The above test could not be made on a sized warp, to advantage, as the size stiffens up the threads, and, to a certain extent, eliminates contrast of tension, but this does not minimize the different conditions of yarns in warp, nor will the imperfections made by tight and slack threads be less ap- parent in the cloth. This is one of the reasons why we cannot make a fabric on this side of the Atlantic to compare with the imported cloth. In the older countries dressing is TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 153 done from cops, bobbins or spools, each thread being separately wound. It is the simplest method, and gives by far the best results in perfect dressing. The principal disadvantage is in the productive value of each ma- chine and operator, in that particul- arly with cops and bobbins there is a great deal of time used in tieing in bobbins, as each bobbin or cop con- tains only two ounces or less of yarn, also the large space occupied by bob- bin or cop creels. To eliminate this decidedly unsatis- factory condition, and with a view to establishing a more perfect condition in the dressing room, where fancy woolens and worsted and plain wool- ens are being dressed, the following method of dressing is suggested. It embodies the best of the two systems, the perfect control of each individual thread, with its simplicity in arrange- ment of design and ease with which yarn can be handled and dressed, and also economy in the preparation, bv winding instead of spooling, and the economy in the dressing with the tubes that contain 150 PER CENT MORE YARDS than could be put on a jack spool. By taking advantage of the tube winding system to revert to the single thread tension system so prevalent in Europe, and so productive of good re- sults, and by using the tube in a V creel, irregular tension is completely eliminated, and the delivery from a tube is uniform in the unwinding from the full tube to the run out. The tube has no head to intensify the strain, as it unwinds to a small size as in the case of the spool, and i^ contains about twice as much yarn. For instance, a 4-inch tube 6 inches long, contains 2 pounds of yarn in woolen, worsted or cotton. This, in itself, cancels the disadvantage as to cost of labor and production, before mentioned. A 32-inch jack spool will hold not more than 33 pounds of woolen yarn. When spooled, 40 threads to the width, there will be about eight tenths of a pound per single thread. The cost to wind on tube is some 33 per cent less than to spool on jack spools, and winding can be done froTD skeins as well as from bobbins. This would save over a cent a pound in worsteds; in fact, the cost of jack spooling fancy worsteds will be about IJ cents per pound, and skein spooling 1 cent. Whereas, tube winding will not cost more than 1 cent per pound, effecting a saving of 150 per cent, or 2i cents per pound, to prepare worsted yarns for dresser. A V-shaped frame will take up more room than the jack spool creel pres- ently in use, but it seems that any in- genious mechanic could construct a stand that would meet all require- ments and occupy much less room, but the question of space is of small con- sideration when compared with the great advantage of the system. A V creel, suitable for dressing a 6 x 4 inch tube, holding 644 tubes, will extend 111 feet 19 rows, 16 spools each row, uprights 7 inches apart and 5 inches between steps, 322 on each wing. In this method there will be NO CALCULATING number of threads to the spool or for length, nor scheming out pattern spools for every warp, nor exceptional skill required in the spooling of yarn. Yarns for grounds, such as black, blue, brown, grey, etc., will be wound to 2 pounds net, tubes and special yarn to size* of tube wanted, package of a given size can very easily be esti- m.ated. There will not be any call to pick a pattern as the tie-in in the creel will determine the design, and can be ef- fected much quicker than the jack spool method. A tie-in of a fancy pat- tern, taking 500 threads, need not take more than one hour, that is, if every thread has to be tied out, but this is a feature in the tube dressing that saves time in very many ways. You may find that a great deal of yam 154 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. (tubes) will be found in its proper place, although the pattern in design and section in threads are radically different, which will effect an economj in time of tying it. Friction is to be avoided as much as possible in handling yarns made of. wool, as repeated friction gives an un desirable polish to the wool, par- ticularly in the case of worsted yarns The skeining of the yarn, in addition to jack spooling in the preparation for dressing, over-works the yarn, and is, to a certain extent, detrimental. The conditions are aggravated when winding up the pieces at the end of each lot of yarn. This is done with a great deal of STRAINING AND FRICTION on the yarn. The ease with which the tubes can be used under every condition is, in- deed, very satisfactory. For instance, at the close of a lot, the pieces on hand can be wound on to a warp tube or on to filling bobbins under the same favorable conditions under which it is first wound. In addition, the tube can stand a great deal of rough usage and not be in any way impaired. On the contrary, with an ordinary spool you may drop it on the floor and break one of the heads off and you will find it difficult to save the spool of yarn from becoming waste. Among the many good points the tube has, not least of these is its uniformity of resistance in un- winding. It is the same at the bottom as at the top. This has been proven in many ways, and can easily be un- derstood when you consider that there are no heads to retard unwinding. Spool heads act as a sort of balance wheel, and would be all right if the yards of yarn unwinding did not in crease the velocity of the spool, but an empty spool of IJ inches hub would have to revolve 4 times to 1 of a full spool of 5 inches in diameter, or in other words, a 5-inch spool in a warper running 36 revolutions speed, that Is 54 yards per minute, spool would re- volve 123 times when full, but on the unwinding of the last layer of yarn on spool, the spool would run at a velocity of 492 revolutions per minute. The above suggestions are BASED ON ACTUAL TESTS. The statements made as to actual cost of spooling jack spools and winding tubes, are in accordance with actual conditions. For example: The pay for spooling 4 run yarn Is 20 cents 100 holes of 40 threads per spool. A hole is 60 yards in length of 40 threads, therefore, 60 yds. x 40 threads equals 2,400 x 100 holes, equals 240,000 total yards 4 run yarn contains 6,400 yards per pound; by dividing 240,000 yards by 6,400 equals 37.5 pounds; costs 20 cents to spool, or .533 cents per pound. To figure a drum winder to ascer- tain production per operator, speed of machine 150 yards per minute. Ascer- tain yards on bobbin from which yam has to be w^ound, divide by yards per speed, multiply quotient by 4; product will be spindles one operator can run. The cost of winding 4 run yarn would be figured as follows: 2 ounces 4 run yarn equals 800 yards divided by 150 speed equals 5.33 x constant 4 (J of m.) spindles per operator 21.32. Following are the pounds production of one operator per hour. Spindle speed 150 yards one hour. Production 900 yards 10 hours, 9,000. Divide by 6/i0'0 yards per pound of 4 run yarn equals 1.496 per spindle x 22 equals 30.9 pounds production of 10 hours per one operator. In this effort made to set forth the advantage of using tubes in prefer- ence to jack spools in dressing, fancy worsted and fancy and plain woolen, the points kept in view were first, that the present method is decidedly bad, and that now the original reason for TEiXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 155 its adoption, economy and production, does not exist. In the tube winder better econ- omical and practical results are ob tained, together with the very best re- sults in dressing, in which all the aforesaid essentials are met. When these reforms are effected we will cease to hear of the superiority of imported cloth. No. 104. ■ -#-»-^^ BELTS AND BELTING. One of the numerous things, and perhaps the most formidable one that a textile worker hesitates to do is to sit down and write to some textile paper of the numberless propositions that he may have stumbled over dur- ing his many years of practical expe- rience in the textile industry. Appar- ently, he is satisfied, and thinks it advisable to interest in such matters the textile school graduate who ia more competent along such lines, and finds it no diflftcult task to find a rem- edy for any trouble that may exist. Having read with considerable pleas- ure, an article in your issue of Sep- tember 7, on ''The Use and Abuse of Belting", I feel that I should be acting- the part of a drone in the textile bee- hive, should I fail to add a little more dope to the belts in question. While the writer on the use and abuse of belts gave us many useful hints In regard to their care, 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 equip- ment and 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 ma- chines, and what follows will be along lines that men may think for them- selves. Your Chicopee correspondent, who is, beyond question, a practical man. seems to be laboring under the impression that the one great cause of overload is due to the fact that ^iood, competent belt men are not em- ployed. It seems to be A WELL-ESTABLISHED RULE for those higher up to shift the responsibility to the shoul- ders of those lower down, thereby throwing a cloak over their own inef- ficiency. Power and its transmission is holding the attention of dreamers and thinkers, and a large per cent of the overload is not the lack of ability on the part of the belt man, but a lack of knowledge or horse sense on the part of the superintendent. The idea that a belt one inch wide, with a speed of 1,000 feet per minute, transmits one-horse power. Is very misleading. A belt should be wide enough to bear safely, and for a reasonable length of time, the great- est tension that will be put upon it. This will be the tension of the driving side. The safe tension for single belts may be taken as 60 pounds per inch of width. The tension on the driving side, however, does not represent thr force tending to turn the pulley. This force, or the effective pull, is the difference in tension be- tween the driving side and the slack side of the belt. The tension on the driving side depends on three factors, the effective pull of the belt, the coefilcient of friction between the belt and pulley, and the size of the area of contact of the belt on the sm^aller pulley. That your readers may clearly un- derstand how to find the horse power, or the safe load that a belt should carry, it is necessary to explain how the arc of contact is found. THE ARC OF CONTACT in degrees, or a fraction of the circumference can be deter- mined, practically, as follows: Stretch a string over the two pulleys to repre- sent the belt, if there be no belt on. 156 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. Then take another string, wrap it around the small pulley, and cut it off so that the ends meet. This represents the circumference of the small pulley. Now take a third string, hold one end at the beginning of the arc of con- tact, as shown by the string stretched around both pulleys; wrap it around the smaller pulley, and cut it off at the end of the arc of contact. The length of this last string represents the length of the arc of contact. We now have the proportion: The length of the string representing the circumference is to the length of the string representing the arc of contact as 360 (the number of degrees in a cir- cle) is to the number of degrees in the arc of contact. Whence, the number of degrees in the arc of contact equals the quotient nbtained by divid- ing the product of the length of the arc of contact and 360 by the circum- ference of the pulley. I give below a table that will be found accurate in finding the horse power. Allowable effective Arc covered by belt. pull per Fraction of inch of width Degrees. circumference. in pounds 90 250 23-0 1121/2 312 27-4 120 333 28-8 135 375 21-3 150 417 33-8 1571/2 437 34-9 180 or over 500 38-1 Not recalling at this time any de- partment that would surpass the spin- ning in the abuse of belts, and the unnecessary waste of power, I will en- deavor to the best of my ability to show where the cost of that depart- ment in maintenance is increased. Tn practice, it is common to suppose that if the total drafts and doublings of two drawings are so nearly alike the result may be regarded as equal. And likewise, if TWO SPINNING FRAMES have the same twist gauge point, or constant, the horse power neces- sary to drive the frames would be equal, no matter what the difference may be in the train of gears. It is a universal law in the application of machines that whenever there is a gain in power without a corresponding increase in the initial force, there is a loss in speed. This is true of any machine. In the first place, let us suppose that in both frames the size and number of revolutions of the cylinders are the same. On frame No. 1, we place a six-inch driving twist pulley on the cylinder, a 15-inch driven twist pulley and a 215 front roller gear. On frame No. 2, the driving twist pulley is 11 inches, the driven 22 inches, and the front roller gear 268. Now, the belt speed on frame No. 1 would be 3.1416 X 429 = 673.5 feet per minute. The 12 belt speed on frame No. 2 would be 3.1416 X 429 = 12.35 feet per minute. It 12 will be seen that the number of revo- lutions of the front roller in each case is the same, which would be 429X11X80 429X6X80 = 64 revolutions and — 64 268X22 215X15 revolutions. With the same twist change gear, say 80, the gauge point in both cases would be equal, and consequently, the number of turns would be the same. The arc of contact on the smaller pulley, frame No. 1, would be with centres two feet apart in each case. 360 X 8.60 — i64.2degree?. 18.85 The arc of contact on smaller pul- ley, frame No. 2, would be 360 X 15.81 = 164.4 degrees. 34.56 The horse power of the belt, frame No. 1, follows: two-inch H. p. = • 36.6X2X673.5 33000 Horse power, frame No. 2, would 36.6X2X1235 equal: h. p. = 2.7 h. p. 33000 When long lustre wools have been TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTiONS, 157 spun on frames, with low belt speeds I have known belts to have been drawn tight enough to constantly have kept the stud in a sprung condition, destroying the belts and CAUSING UNNECESSARY FRICTION At the present time, so-called well-managed firms are lagging these small pulleys with leather, and with what results? The crown of the pulley is destroyed; the surface of the pulley becomes uneven: the belts rub against each other, or against the front roller gear. As the covering wears away, more twist is inserted than is required, with a cor- responding decrease in production, and the driving belt is taken up with the expectation of bringing the roll- ers up to speed, adding more frictioii to the bearings of the main shaft. If this driving twist pulley be changed, for one newly covered, a decrease in the number of turns takes place. When yarns are required that will burst or spread, with as little twist as possi- ble, every spinner can form in his own mind the amount of two-ply yarn that would be made during the sum- mer months, and also the amouat of hard twisted yarn from belts slipping with low belt speeds. What receives very little consideration is this fact, that while it may be said that the belt speed remains the same, any in- crease in the change gears indirectly decreases the belt speed, also its pow- er, and to make it more clear, we will compare with a combination of pul- leys, fixed and movable, or BLOCK AND TACKLE. We will suppose that there are three movable and three fixed pulleys; therefore, there are six parts of the rope, not counting the free end; hence, if the movable block be lifted one foot, the free end remaining in the same position, there will be one foot of stock in each of the six parts of the rope, or six feet in all. Therefore, the free end of the rope must move six feet, in order to take up this slack. Hence, one pound at the free end will support six pounds at the other; or, in other words, the force multiplied by the distance through which it moves equals the weight multiplied by this same distance. No. 105. A QUESTION OF POWER. The object of this story 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 make clear another of many compli- cated things that one runs across in a spinning room. The impression that many overseers entertain is that by decreasing the number of revolutions of the main shaft, with a corresponding increase in the diameter of the pulley, the horse power of the belt would be in- creased, and a better drive obtained. It is only by comparing notes that men are able to reach some common end, so let us reason this out to- gether. Any increase in the area of a pis- ton, the mean effective pressure, length of stroke, or the number of revolutions of a steam engine would INCREASE ITS HORSE POWER. Any increase in the number of rev- olutions in a line of shafting would increase its horse power, while a de- crease in the number of revolutions, with a corresponding increase in the diameter of the pulley, would lower the horse power of the shaft, while the horse power of the belt would remain unchanged. No matter what the num- ber of revolutions of the shaft may be, if a small pulley be on the shaft it is held responsible for any slipping that takes place. I have known men to reason it out in this manner: If a larger pulley was substituted for the smaller one, there would be a larger 158 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. surface covered by the belt, and conse- quently, a much better drive would be obtained. Not having seen this matter explain- ed in the American Wool and Cotton Reporter, or the true meaning of the word horse power, permit me to do so in as simple a manner as possible. Taking, for example, a worsted spin- ning frame with the following dimen- sions: Revolutions of shaft 300 Pulley on shaft 20'' dia. Pulley on cylinder 14'' dia. Wheel %" dia. Diameter of cylinder 10" dia. Speed of spindle would be: 300 X 20 X 10 = 5,714 revolutions 14 X 75 per minute. If the spindle speed of 5,700 was necessary for any given stock and counts, we will allow it to remain, but at the same time increase the power of the belt, also the shaft. The speed of the belt in feet per minute would be: 3.1416 X 20 X 300 = 1,570 feet 12 knowing that in this case the belt passes over idlers to the driven pulley on the cylinder. The arc of contact with the smaller pulley would be 180 degrees, or half the circumference. The effective pull per inch of width in pounds would be 38.1. Therefore, the horse power with a belt speed of 1,570 feet per minute would be for three- inch belt: 1750 X 38.1 X 3 — 6 horse power 33000 Assuming that a 2-inch steel shaft is making 30'0 revolutions, its hors<3 power would be: 300 X 2 X 2 X 2 ^ = 28 horse power, 85 if power be taken off between bearings. Increasing the pulley on the cylin- der from 14 to 16 inches would require 343 revolutions of the shaft to revolve the spindles at the same rate as be- ^ 300 X 16 tore: = 343 revolutions. 14 343 X 20 XIO — g speed of spindles. 16 X 75 With the shaft making 343 revolu- tions per minute the belt speed would be: 3.1416 X20 X 343 — 1,796 feet per minute. 12 Its horse power would be: 1796 X 38.1 X 3 = 6.2 horse power, 33000 And the horse power of the shaft: 343 X 2 X 2 X 2 = 32-horse power. 8S By tnis simple variation, apparently, the driving power of the belt is chang- ed from 6 to 6.2 horse power, while that of the shaft was increased from 28 to 32 horse power. It is to SIMPLIFY THE WORK of those who take the view, as stated above, that I have undertaken to shape new lines of thought, along which those who wish to do so may reason for themselves. If the worsted spinners in this coun- try wish to gain the lead in every section of their industry, they must prepare to show more elasticity in their grasp of widely differing problems, and be prepared to treat each problem on its individual merits. A question put to several overseers of worsted spinning whether or not any increase in the twist change gear would have any effect on the power, would bring forth the answer, no. It is well known in the spinning room that slippage of belts takes place more frequently when low numbers are spun. Leaving out of the question the addition of car- riers, the extra weight on the press rollers and the extra power to draw out the longer staple, does it require additional power to drive the frame considering only a change in the twist? TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 159 Knowing that the continued product of the force and the diameters of the driv- en wheels equals the continued prod- uct of the weight, the diameter of the drum that moves the weight and the diameter of the drives, let us see how this works out. AN EXAMPLE. Taking, for example, the same di- mensions given before: Pulley on cylinder 14" dia. Twist pulley on dia. Driven twist pulle> "^1" dia. Roller end gear 268 teeth Chanere gear 80 teeth Hub on F roller gear 4" dia. We will suppose that the roller end gear has a hub 4 inches in diameter, and we leave off the weight of the rolls entirely, and use the hub of the gear for the purpose of raising some weight from the floor. Now sup- pose that we apply one pound of force to the belt driving the frame, how many pounds w^ould be raised by the hub of the gear, if a rope be fixed to the weight and passed around the hub? SOLUTION. 1 X 14 X 22 X 268 = W X 4 X BOX 11 1 X 14 X 22 X 268 W - - 23.4 lbs. 4 X 80 X 11 In turning this around we could say what force would be necessary to raise 23 pounds: F X 14 X 22 X 268 = 23.4 X 4 X 80 X 11 23.4 X 4 X 80 X 11 F = 1 lb. 14 X 22 X 268 Apparently, any decrease in the twist gear, the force applied to the belt re- maining the same, a greater weight would be raised. This is only another example in proving to those concerned the necessity of high belt speeds and also one of numerous things in the textile industry that receives little at- tention when the overload question is considered by experts. It is a much disputed question which side of the belt should be run next to the pulley. The more COMMON PRACTICE, it is believed, is to run the belt with the hair or grain side nearest the pul- ley. This side is harder and more liable to crack than the flesh side. By running it on the inside, the tendency is to cramp or compress it as it passes over the pulley, while if it ran on the outside, the tendency would be for it to stretch and crack. The flesh side is the tougher side, but for the reason given above, the life of the belt will be longer if the wear comes upon the grain side. The lower side of the belt should be the driving side, the slack side running from the top of the driv- ing pulley. The sag .of the belt will then cause it to encompass a greater part of the pulley circumference. If the upper side of the belt is the driv- ing side, the belt will fall away from the pulley, consequently, a smaller circumference of the pulley will be covered, and a tighter belt required, adding unnecessary frictioi;i on the bearings. Much having been said in regard to horse power, it may not be out of place to make even this more clear. The usual period of time considered when calculating the power of an en- gine is one minute, since 33,000-foot pounds of work per minute is equal to 1-horse power, the horse power is ob- tained by dividing the work done in one minute by 33,000. Putting it an- other way, we would say that 33,000 pounds raised one foot every minute equal 1-horse power. The counts to be spun and the draft being given, to find the weight of 40 yards of roving or any number of yards required for weigh- ing it would be necessary to use the following method: 560 — — Yards in one hank D — Draft 256 — -— Drams in one pound C ~ Counts 160 TEXTILE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 560 12 Yds. 46.8 256 30 Drams 8.5 By using the constant for 40 yards, which is obtained in this manner: Now we find in this case that 46.8 yards of roving must weigh 8.5 drams, and if 46.8 yards weigh 8.5 drams, forty yards would weigh 256 X 40 18.3 560 we have 18.3 X 12 8.5 X 40 • =n 7.3 drams nearly. 46.8 - = 7.3 drams for 40 yds. 30 The Mill Share Market NE of the elements which gives a sureness of perma- nency to mill share investments in New England is the present thorough understanding of climatic conditions. The same help is at least 25 per cent more effective in cotton manufacturing in New England than in any other part of the United Stales. We have a feeling of personal pride over the broad market for textile mill shares, and the same com- bination of mechanical, chemical, commercial, financial, and sociological departments of this journal, which has created the present broad market for mill shares, affords equal in- formation to the investor in mill shares today. American Wool and Cotton Reporter Produced Upon Honor FRANK P. BENNETT & CO., Inc. PUBLISHERS 530 Atlantic Ave., Boston 2 Rector St., New York Who's Who— And Where Among Mill Officials and Overseers The above is the title of a popular Department which appears every week in the AMERICAN WOOL AND COTTON REPORTER, and which contains weekly from 40 to I 00 new personal items respecting changes and other information about mill officials and heads of departments. These paragraphs are incidental to the work of keeping up to date our card index of the men in authority who do the buy- ing for the textile mills of the United States. There are 30,000 of them — not mills, but men who manage the mills. The AMERICAN WOOL AND COTTON REPORTER is somewhat jealous of this branch of its work, because there is nothing like it elsewhere in the United States, and because of the labor and experience necessary to keep in constant touch with these 30,000 buyers for the textle mills; but such insufficient statements have been recently made respecting the purchasing agencies of the textile industry, that we are now putting these 30,000 names into a directory with addresses and occupations. The next edition of this "Directory of the Men Who Make the Textile Industry*' will also contain the financial statements of leading mills as well as detailed information regarding every mill in the United States. Another new department will be The Textile Buyers' Economist. It will be the names and addresses of all supply houses and equipment manufacturers to the Textile Industry. This book is already in preparation, and while its price will be $3.00, it will be furnished gratis to new subscribers and advertisers of the American Wool and Cotton Reporter FRANK P. BENNETT & CO., Inc., Publishers BOSTON NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA WASHINGTON The Mill Share Market Since the recent decline in cotton, the margin between the raw material and the product of the cotton mill has become more satisfactory than at any time within twenty-five years, with two or three brief exceptions; hence we advise our readers to watch the Mill Share Market, and the only way to do this thoroughly is to read the AMERICAN WOOL AND COTTON REPORTER. Here is one of a thousand similar instances showing our exclusive facilities for determining mill share values. A leading cotton manufacturer who dropped into our Boston office, a very successful man, reminded us of the first time he called here more than twenty years ago when he was a common weaver, restless and ambitious, moving from place to place, and almost despairing of securing the opening for which his intelligence and experience fitted him. Eventually he found himself and gained his present enviable position in the manufacturing world, and ihen he learned that those hard and seemingly barren years were the fruitful seedtime of his subsequent experience. Our information respecting every detail of textile manufacturing is derived from weekly consultation with several of the 25,000 men who make the textile industry of the United States, and whose names are on file in this office, together with statements of assets and liabilities of all the textile mills whose stock is obtainable for investment. American Wool and Cotton Reporter FRANK P. BENNETT & CO., inc., Publishers 530 ATLANTIC AVE., BOSTON 2 RECTOR STREET, NEW YORK Textile Newspaper Circulations From ''Advertising and Selling''' s Directory of Trade, Technical^ Mechanical and Engineering Papers for November, 1911. Circu- Xame of publication. lation. American Silk Journal American Wool and Cotton Reporter 11,000 Conadian Textile Journal 700 Cotton 5,854 Fi])iG and Fabric 6,500 Mill News 6,000 i'opsplts' Textile Journal 5,800 Textile American Textile Manufacturer 3,000 Textile Manufacturers Journal Textile World Record 6,279 This circulation is very natural because the AMERICAN WOOL AND COTTON REPORTER is the only newspaper covering the textile industry of the United States. The reason why no other equally good source of information exists respecting every phase of textile manufacturing is because we have upon our editorial staff experts in every department of manufacturing and mill management. Our mechanical engineers are constantly in- formed respecting questions of construction and equipment; Our overseers and superintendents are familiar with the conduct of all processes in mills; our costfinders and designers keep in constant touch with the output of every textile mill; our market reporters know how every variety of fabric is selling and what mill produces it; personal acquaintance keeps us positively informed as to the human element in the management and the relations between manu- facturers and heads of departments. The AMERICAN WOOL AND COTTON REPORTER is the one source in the United States from which such information can be obtained. Our Cooperative Textile Handbook, of which the second edition is now about to be published after twelve months of active and expensive preparation, contains not only a complete directory of every textile mill in the United States, but allso statements of assets and liabilities, a classified list of the names and occupations of 25,000 overseers and other mill officials. American Wool and Cotton Reporter FRANK P. BENNETT & CO., Inc., Publishers 530 ATLANTIC AVE., BOSTON 2 RECTOR STREET, NEW YORK 308 CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 3 3125 00060 4666