THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.

ASTOR ! ENOX AND TID FOUNDATIONS.

A MEMBER. Do I understand Mr. Maxfield to say that that is cotton from the drawing-frame?

Dr. BOLLES. He says there is but one process of drawing in the mill, instead of two. This is cotton from the drawingframe, and not the railway head.

A MEMBER. Will Mr. Maxfield tell us the weight of the railway drawing as it comes from the machine?

Mr. MAXFIELD. I could not.

Dr. BOLLES. The next is cotton from the coarse speeder. You will see at the place which I now point to that the fibre is a little snarled up.

Mr. SAWYER. Would that be owing to the handling of the machine ? Dr. Bolles. Yes, sir; I

suppose so. We will now focus off the end there which you see right in the centre. [Adjusting the focus.] I would say that this enlargement is altogether sufficient to show you if there are any torn or split fibres.

Now, we will take the "intermediate speeder” cotton. [Showing the image.]

Now, we will take the "fine speeder.” [Exhibiting the illustration.] You will notice that there is no perceptible quantity of irregularly placed or badly broken fibres in this. In the preparation of this, the whole sliver is spread out on the glass, and you have the entire object. You see a perceptible number of twists being put into the whole. You see the fibres are beginning to cross. This is before it goes into the spinning process. There is a very slight twist to it. You can see at the crossing of the threads that those which fall from right to left are on one side, and those which pass from left to right are on the other side of the sliver.

These specimens are mounted dry. The series by which I propose to follow these are mounted in Canada balsam, and they will be shown you by polarized light, and there will be a very curious distinctness about those.

Here, in this other specimen now shown you, you have the same thing as in the last, only on a smaller scale, and consequently showing you the width of the fibre. This is just as it came from the rolls—merely flattened. That which is represented on the screen, now, is half an inch in length. One side lies over the other.

Mr. Hussey. That shows how little of the real strength of the cotton we get in our thread. The fibres are so crooked, that very few of them bear at the same time. In any thread, we only get from one-sixth to one-seventh of the fibres bearing at any one time before they begin to give way. Dr. Bolles. I think that is a just observation. When you

BOLLES come to observe with this instrument any of the processes, you will see how imperfectly we get it by our machinery. I will show you some woven fabrics, and you will see the same thing in the cloth itself. [Showing upon the screen the magnified image of a piece of woven cloth.] You see that there are there but very few woven fibres, and you do not bring out in the cloth the full strength of the cotton.

I will next take the filling. [Showing the image, with a low power of the microscope, bringing out all the threads.] That which we have now is the dressed warp.

A MEMBER. I should like to inquire if there was anything but starch used in dressing that warp ?

A MEMBER. Is not this prepared for the China market? (Laughter.)

Dr. BOLLES. To use a technical expression, which I did not before know the meaning of, that bunch, shown in the image, and now pointed out by me, is called the " white louse."

The next slide in the series is brush-waste, which will show you the imperfections which are cleaned off from the cloth. [Showing image of specimen of waste, magnified.] have broken fibres and torn fibres. It is this that results from the brushing of the cloth. Here is a good opportunity for comparison of fibres. [Showing specimens marked "throstle,"

[ ring,” "mule.”] On the left of the image we see the product of mule-spinning. You will see how admirably it shows the irregularities of the thread, the loose fibres, etc. I will put the

I image of the ring-thread upon the screen in the centre of the illustration. That one there to the right is No. 28 yarn. The next exhibit is No. 22 "throstle. The first one on the right will be " ring” No. 28; the next one, No. 22 "throstle”; the next, No. 22 "ring,” and the next, No. 40"mule.” These specimens of yarn are from the Nashua Manufacturing Company's Mills. We will now put on the higher power on one of these

. threads, and bring out, perhaps, the edges more perfectly.

d.] There you

The next exbibit is a comparison of the ring and throstle spinning from the Jackson Mill, from which all the other specimens, except that from the intermediate frame, and others specially designated, were obtained. Now, I will put on a piece of cloth from the Jackson Mills. The image shown will be very dense and opaque. (The cloths I shall show by and by, by polarized light.) You perceive that in this illustration the meshes of the cloth are plainly shown.

Mr. SAWYER. What is the field of that lens ?

Dr. BOLLES. Fifteen hundred diameters. I want to show you, in contrast with that last illustration, one or two fibres that are so mounted as to be a little more transparent than the cloth we have been examining with the microscope. I want to show you a specimen by the light which we are now using, before we make a change to polarized light,-a specimen of the celebrated Dacca muslin of India, and of the Arnee muslin. They are so light that they are called " woven wind.” They are very light, as you see, although, of course, they are woven regularly. The first preparation that I will put in the instrument is the specimen of Arnee muslin. These preparations are mounted to be used with polarized light. This is the same enlargement that was used with the other cloth. [Projecting image upon the screen.] Here [showing another slide] is Dacca muslin, which is the lightest, I suppose, of all these woven fabrics. I want to put on, now, a cotton fibre or two, in order to show you how small those fibres really are. [Projecting the image upon the

[ screen.] Here you see the size of our ordinary cotton fibres. Now, we will put on that specimen of muslin again, and you will see how very delicate the yarn is. I put on, in comparison with that last exhibit (while I am upon this subject), a specimen of ordinary India muslin from Calcutta, in order to show you the inferiority of the cominon product, in point of delicacy. Here [showing the image upon the screen] is a specimen of Calcutta muslin of very fine quality, although you will perceive, in regard to fineness, it is nothing like the Dacca muslin.

Against that, I will now exhibit to you the magnified image of a specimen of "lawn” from the Holyoke Mills. It is mounted so that it will be seen in precisely the same way as the three last illustrations. [Showing it.] Here is a slide marked " Bishop lawn.” [Exhibiting the specimen.]

seen.

Before we pass from this subject, I will show you what is probably the greatest curiosity of weaving that you have ever

You know that there has been very little cloth found with the vestiges of prehistoric man. But in the West, last year, a mound was opened, out of which were taken a few crumbling fragments of cloth, which bore a colored pattern. Mounted scraps of that were put into my hand for examination, in order to see if I could tell what kind of cloth it was. [Projecting the image of the cloth upon the screen.] You see it is a coarse specimen. It is not cotton fibre, or linen fibre, or any fibre which is in use to-day. The process of weaving it seems to have been peculiar, and we gain no hint from the specimen in regard to what that process was. We see that the cloth has a very delicate brown, cylindrical fibre. I don't know what it

I is. How many thousands of years have passed over that fabric it is impossible to say. We suppose it to be about as old a specimen of weaving goods as there is extant at the present time. The peculiar material which supplied the yarn for that cloth is not even distinguishable as yet.

After showing you two specimens more, I intend to make an entire change in the apparatus, and then place before you such results as polarized light is liable to show.

I will first, however, take a series of fibres from the Berkley Mill. Those fibres will be mounted in Canada balsam. I show you here, in the first place, two fibres of cotton.

The next illustration is the cotton from the last stage of preparation before the twist begins.

The next illustration is a specimen of Sea Island cotton. I leave out the members of this series that come in between those which I have last exhibited, because I want you to see how very little change there is in it, and how very clean a piece of work it is. These fibres are much more delicate than those shown in some of the illustrations that have been given. The doublings in this manufacture are very numerous. is very highly worked indeed. At the part of the image which I now point to, you see the cotton as it comes out in slivers before the twist is put into it.

It is impossible to see that, so far as the action of machinery has gone upon this specimen, there has been any injury whatever to that cotton, and it is, certainly, very beautifully laid together.

The cotton