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them analyzed.

One of those that has been mentioned here today contained sixty per cent. of water, and when urged to try another lot of it I notified the parties that, Maine being a prohibition State, we did not need to import any water. We have settled down to the use of dressine, and find an actual gain in product by its use. It causes the size to penetrate better and leaves the yarn smooth and nice. We use potato starch and cook it thoroughly.

Mr. G. W. WEEKS. We have tried a great variety of sizing compounds, and have discarded them all for simple water, starch and tallow.

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A MEMBER. We have used dressine and the Victoria on our work, I must say the Victoria size, dressine, and tallow and starch and blue vitriol put into the size. I cannot see any difference in all three.

A MEMBER. I have had some little experience in handling size, and I find that what experience I have had conforms very largely to what has been expressed here; that is, that it is more important to have the base right. These ingredients that are added, if they do not do harm, very seldom, I think, do good, in certain classes of weaving. I believe myself that in colored work, such as Mr. PRATT spoke of, it is necessary to have some acid, something to assist in penetrating the thread with the size; but I believe that, if they can be mixed naturally without this being added too strongly, it is better. I think it is a good thing to take the starch and ferment it. I know that is an old-fashioned idea, and a good many will say that is all nonsense; but it is a matter of experience. I ran them side by side, the fermented and unfermented, and I find that the fermented size gives altogether the best results. You will notice one thing in the harness. If you use the unfermented size it leaves the harness dirty, and it will take a boy as long to clean one harness with unfermented size as a dozen with fermented.

Mr. KENT. I would like to ask the gentleman if the fer

mented and unfermented size were cooked the same length of

time.

Mr.

Mr. KNIGHT.

Mr. hour.

I should say they were.

How long were they cooked?

Sometimes we put our size in as much as an

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Mr. KNIGHT. Mr. President, I have had experience on gray goods with both fermented and unfermented starch, potato starch and corn-starch; and I think about all that any of us care to get from a sizing is something that will lay the fibres of the yarn, something that will stick to the yarn while it is weaving. I find that the longer we boil our size, the better it is. I have not been able to find the limit. We cook our sizing perhaps an hour and a half or two hours. We have two kettles to a slasher, and keep one boiling until the other is used up; and if we do not boil our sizing, we find right away that there is trouble, but if we cook the sizing a longer time, an hour and a half or two hours, and I would rather cook it two hours than an hour and a half, we get the best results. We cook it until it gets thin, and has that blue appearance with which you are familiar. I think you will find that there won't be a great deal of difference between fermented and unfermented, if you boil it long enough. It does not chafe off at the slasher, and does not shed on the floor. I do not think you will have any more trouble with your harness or in the weaveroom. I think corn-starch will go as far as potato starch, and potato starch as far as corn-starch; but we use corn-starch because it costs less money. The advantage we get by using dressine on the two slashers for sixteen hundred looms is that the acid keeps the rolls clean in the sizing box, and also keeps the cylinders clean, enabling us to dry the yarn. I also think the acid takes the place of fermentation. Fermentation produces acetic acid, which causes the starch to dissolve more readily. With dressine, the same result is obtained without the disagreeable features attending fermentation. Nothing else

them analyzed. One of those that has been mentioned here today contained sixty per cent. of water, and when urged to try another lot of it I notified the parties that, Maine being a prohibition State, we did not need to import any water. We have settled down to the use of dressine, and find an actual gain in product by its use. It causes the size to penetrate better and leaves the yarn smooth and nice. We use potato starch and cook it thoroughly.

Mr. G. W. WEEKS. We have tried a great variety of sizing compounds, and have discarded them all for simple water, starch and tallow.

A MEMBER. We have used dressine and the Victoria on our work, I must say the Victoria size, dressine, and tallow and starch and blue vitriol put into the size. I cannot see any difference in all three.

A MEMBER. I have had some little experience in handling size, and I find that what experience I have had conforms very largely to what has been expressed here; that is, that it is more important to have the base right. These ingredients that are added, if they do not do harm, very seldom, I think, do good, in certain classes of weaving. I believe myself that in colored work, such as Mr. PRATT spoke of, it is necessary to have some acid, something to assist in penetrating the thread with the size; but I believe that, if they can be mixed naturally without this being added too strongly, it is better. I think it is a good thing to take the starch and ferment it I know that is an old-fashioned idea, and a good many will say that is all nonsense; but it is a matter of experience. I ran them side by side, the fermented and unfermented, and I find that the fermented size gives altogether the best results. You will notice one thing in the harness. If you use the unfermented size it leaves the harness dirty, and it will take a boy as long to clean one harness with unfermented size as a dozen with fermented.

Mr. KENT. I would like to ask the gentleman if the fer

mented and unfermented size were cooked the same length of

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Mr. KNIGHT. How long were they cooked?

Mr.

hour.

Sometimes we put our size in as much as an

Mr. KNIGHT. Mr. President, I have had experience on gray goods with both fermented and unfermented starch, potato starch and corn-starch; and I think about all that any of us care to get from a sizing is something that will lay the fibres of the yarn, something that will stick to the yarn while it is weaving. I find that the longer we boil our size, the better it is. I have not been able to find the limit. cook our sizing perhaps an hour and a half or two hours. We have two kettles to a slasher, and keep one boiling until the other is used up; and if we do not boil our sizing, we find right away that there is trouble, but if we cook the sizing a longer time, an hour and a half or two hours, and I would rather cook it two hours than an hour and a half, we get the best results. We cook it until it gets thin, and has that blue appearance with which you are familiar. I think you will find that there won't be a great deal of difference between fermented and unfermented, if you boil it long enough. It does not chafe off at the slasher, and does not shed on the floor. I do not think harness or in the weaveyou will have any more trouble with your room. I think corn-starch will go as far as potato starch, and potato starch as far as corn-starch; but we use corn-starch because it costs less money. The advantage we get by using dressine on the two slashers for sixteen hundred looms is that the acid keeps the rolls clean in the sizing box, and also keeps the cylinders clean, enabling us to dry the yarn. I also think the acid takes the place of fermentation. Fermentation produces acetic acid, which causes the starch to dissolve more readily. With dressine, the same result is obtained without the disagreeable features attending fermentation. Nothing else

we have used has helped us at all, and I am inclined to think that under ordinary circumstances starch and water is as good as anything, with perhaps a little tallow. I have tried glue, putting in a pound or two of glue; and, as I said, we all thought we derived some benefit from it for a while, but after a while we found no difference, and abandoned it.

Mr. MESSENGER. Does Mr. KNIGHT continue boiling his size in the size-box while it is running after boiling two hours?

Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, boil all the time; keep it hot.

QUESTION. Do you use any acid or vitriol to cut the tallow or impregnate the yarn?

Mr. KNIGHT. No, sir.

QUESTION. You do not consider it necessary?

Mr. KNIGHT. No, sir. We keep it agitated all the while that it is in the kettle while the sizing is being cooked, and after that it is put into the size-box over the boiler, where the boiling continues the agitation; and we use it there.

A MEMBER. My experience has been very much like that of Mr. KNIGHT. At first our boiler boiled the starch for an hour and a half, until that blue appearance came that he speaks of. Some gentlemen have spoken of tallow and dressine. I am using what I have not heard mentioned, whalesfoot, and also a small quantity of turpentine in each kettle, because I got the impression, whether right or not, that it kept the yarn from sticking on the cylinder, and made it easier to penetrate. I may possibly be wrong, but with me it appeared to be a good thing. I thought I got better results with it than I did without it; but I think the secret of the thing is in boiling it a proper length of time, until that blue appearance comes into it.

A MEMBER. I used unfermented size. The difference in the product was not very much, but there was in the way the goods were handled, and in relation to the condition of the harness, and the looms did not run as well with unfermented as with fermented.

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