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Upon motion, it was voted, that a committee be appointed by the Chair to collate such statistics in reference to Pickers and Laps as can be collected in season to be published with the proceedings of the Association, as early as the 1st of March.

The committee appointed consisted of Messrs. NOURSE, of Woonsocket, R.I.; BURKE, of Lowell, Mass.; and SAUNDERS, of Nashua, N.H.

Voted, That the Secretary be instructed to issue a circular to the members of the Association, inviting them to return statistics of experiments, all based upon one uniform length.

Mr. CUMNOCK said that the Lap was affected by the different grades of cotton used, and by the weather; and, unless this is taken into consideration, we do not get a true report. Let the members of the committee make fifty tests on each of the Pickers, — the Whiting, the Lord, and the Hackling, — and we shall get an accurate result.

Mr. WETHRELL said he wished the matter might be examined first by the committee that is already appointed. They are to report at the next meeting, and might give satisfaction to many present. For one, he felt satisfied that after the matter is thoroughly investigated, we shall find that the motion attached to the Lapper to graduate the feed will amount to but little. As to the variations of the number of yarn, the cause of that will be found elsewhere, rather than in the Laps for the card. The variation of feed of the Lapper, as adopted by some parties, makes the use of the Cone a fallacy.

Mr. HUSSEY said that if any member of the committee is a particular friend of any Picker, he may direct his overseer to make these experiments; the overseer may delegate this power to his second hand, and the second hand in turn may put the Grinder in. The only way in which it is possible to get an accurate report is to have some disinterested person go into a mill, and give a true account of the work as they are every day running; but, if this power is to be delegated through different parties, he could hardly put a great deal of confidence in the report.

Mr. NOURSE thought he should be perfectly willing to trust one

3

of his overseers.

If there was any great variation, he should be

apt to look into it himself.

The President suggested that perhaps all parties might be satisfied to request of the Board of Government to appoint a Committee on Pickers, and leave that committee to examine such machines as they saw fit, and report.

Mr. HUSSEY said he had been making some experiments on the twist of Roving, and had noticed that where the top Roll lay immediately over the Bottom Roll, or when the top of the Flyer is not in a tangential line with the bite of the Rolls, the cotton or Sliver has to wind on a segment of the Roll until it comes on a line with the top of the Flyer-nose; this prevents the twist from running to the bite of the Rolls, leaving a portion of the Sliver without twist, and liable to be stretched by the tension of the Roving without being noticed by the operator; as it will not affect the running of the Frame, but materially affect the quality of the Roving. He then put a Tube into the Flyer-nose, and extended it up so as to have the top of the Tube come in a line with the bite of the Rolls, and found then that the Sliver was twisted as fast as delivered from the Rolls. The effect of that was, if any extra tension caused the Roving to break, it broke down in the Flyer between the end of the Presser and the Bobbin, where it is impossible to stretch the Roving without breaking down the ends. He came to the conclusion that it was absolutely necessary for fine Roving, to have the relation between the Flyer-nose and Rolls such that the twist can run into the bite as far as possible.

A motion was made that a committee be appointed to investigate the matter of Pickers, and report at the next meeting of the Association in July.

Mr. BURKE said it seemed to him that the matter was assuming undue proportion, although he was gratified at the interest that had been taken in the matter. It seemed to him that any defect of evenness in the Lap is soon lost sight of. Where we are using double carding, we put together from forty to sixty Laps, and what becomes of a variation of even one half-ounce? It is soon lost sight of, and becomes incorporated in the finishing Laps. The question seemed to be whether a Regulator could be applied and used upon a Lapper that should dispense with hand-weighing.

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It seemed to him that the gain was more likely to be in a saving of labor, than any great advantage in the evenness of the Lap. If a committee is appointed to go into our mills, they will find all sorts of machines in all conditions and circumstances. Some have a bad draft on their Pickers; others are so situated that they can not get rid of the wind. His own opinion about it was that it is only fair to go through a manufactory, making two, four, or more experiments each day, so as to give an average. doubted whether gentlemen could be found to serve if a committee were appointed by the Association, as, unless they were willing to go to a place and stop for a few weeks, we should not get much more information than we now have. For these reasons he should vote against the appointment of the committee.

The motion was withdrawn.

He

The next topic for discussion was the Anti-friction Loose Boss Top Roller.

No remarks being offered on this subject, the President, Mr. STRAW, read the Paper which accompanies this Report. It was very cordially received.

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GOVERN THE USE OF DRAWING, AS A PROCESS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON YARNS.

BY E. A. STRAW, ESQ., OF MANCHESTER, N.H.

GENTLEMEN,

-

At the request of your Board of Government, I have prepared and offer for your consideration a few remarks upon the principles which should govern the use of Drawing when applied or used as a Process in the Manufacture of Cotton Yarns.

In presenting this subject to you, who are all so familiar with the details of the manufacture of cotton, I can but feel my inability to illustrate any other than well-known facts, or present other views than such as are likely to have occurred to most of those here present. Besides this, the subject has been to some extent already remarked upon by gentlemen who have preceded me; hence, if I state apparent truisms, or repeat suggestions that have already been made, I trust to be excused on the ground of your familiarity with the subject.

In the practice of the Cotton Spinner, after the cotton leaves the Picker or Lapper, the entire process of its manufacture into yarn may be said to be a series of Drawings. The Carding, important as it is, may be looked upon as a subsidiary cleaning and opening process performed by the machine in which, at the same time, the greatest amount of Drawing is accomplished.

The Lap is generally the first "Sliver," "Ribbon," or "String" of cotton obtained from the machinery, and this, in the manufacturing process, is drawn down to the size of the yarn. Usually in

our practice, the Lap is about six thousand times the size of No. 14 yarn, and about seventeen thousand times the size of No. 40 yarn. The manipulation of this great amount of Drawing necessitates a great number of "doublings," in order to maintain or increase the evenness and uniformity of the Ribbon or Sliver. These doublings commence, or should do so, as early in the process of manufacturing as is possible, beginning with the second Picker, where that machine is used, continuing in the Laps for the Finishing Cards, at the Railway Heads, at the Drawing Frames, on the Roving Frames, and when a fine yarn of extra quality is wanted, double on the Spinning Frames.

In this paper, however, I do not propose to consider any of the Drawings made during the process of picking or carding, nor those made upon the Roving or Spinning Frames. Another gentleman has been requested to make the subject of the Roving Frame a matter for the special consideration of this meeting. This paper, therefore, will be confined to the "drawings" to which the Sliver, or ribbon of cotton, is subjected while it is in that peculiar state during which it is called, in the technical phrase of the mill, "Drawing;" or otherwise, to the drawings made upon the Drawing Frame.

To persons unfamiliar with the operations and terms used in a cotton mill, there may appear to be some confusion in the use of the word Drawing; but, "in the mill," the word is used to define both a material, and a process to which that material is subjected.

It designates a condensed Sliver, or ribbon of cotton, without twist, and of proper size and condition to be manipulated by Drawing Rollers; and it also defines the operation or process of attenuating or drawing down this Sliver through a series of Rollers, arranged in pairs in what is called the Drawing Frame.

This frame is a most essential machine for the cotton factory, and its importance is generally recognized by practical manufacturers. It probably affords the best illustration of the Drawing Roller mechanism which Sir Richard Arkwright has the credit of having invented or perfected; who, it is said, had so high an opinion of its value in perfecting his manufacture that he always attributed any bad yarn that came from his mills to some want of attention to the operations of this machine. Such, however,

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