The difficulty continued for some time, and I asked the foreman what changes he made in putting in the new boilers. He told me, all the changes he had made were to put in a larger connecting pipe, and larger valves. Alterations were then made, and the steam let on as before; the difficulty ceased, and we had good dressing.

Mr. PAINE, of Fall River, Mass., said that Gen. PALFREY's paper seemed to be one that needed to be studied in order to properly estimate its true merits. It occurred to him that it might be well to have some statistical information in regard to heating a mill by direct and exhaust steam. He offered the following resolution :

That the Board of Government be requested to procure statistical information in regard to the difference in expense, for a given space of time in winter, over the same length of time in midsummer, between exhaust and direct steam for heating.

The resolution was adopted.

On motion, it was

Voted, That the thanks of this Association be presented to the Messrs. CHICKERING, for the Hall kindly afforded for gratuitous use at this meeting.

Voted, To adjourn sine die.

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THE ENGLISH DRESSING MACHINE.

BY A. D. LOCKWOOD, ESQ., LEWISTON, ME.

When I went to England, in 1866, I entertained the opinion, so common in this country at that time, that the English method of sizing yarn was entirely wrong, and that our system was so much better than their's, that an examination of their's would be a waste of time. In fact, I did not entertain the thought of devoting any time to that department of manufacturing, supposing and believing that they practised their method, not because they considered it the best, but rather as a necessity, growing out of the combinations among Dresser Tenders, which lead to unreasonable demands on their part, and which manufacturers were in some way forced to resist. My idea was, that, though the Slasher system did not secure so good dressing, it was, nevertheless, deemed advisable to adopt it, inasmuch as it required but few hands, and could therefore be done without the annoyances and impositions of these organized combinations, the object of which was to dictate terms to employers, and which resulted in such unreasonable demands. And I still suppose that its origin was in fact due to the state of things above suggested, and that early in its history many difficulties were encountered, which by degrees were surmounted and the system perfected. And I knew also of the unsuccessful attempts to introduce it into this country, by several parties, in previous years, and at various times, and this contributed to create the strong prejudice which I had against it. It was not until I had been in England several weeks, that I gave the subject the slightest consideration, so strong was my conviction that the system was all wrong; and then my attention was called to it by an American, a member of this Association, who was in Manchester, and had seen the Slasher in operation. Being favorably impressed with it, he remarked to me that he thought the matter

worthy of investigation; and he seemed so decided in his convictions, that, notwithstanding my previously conceived opinion, I regarded the question one not to be overlooked or neglected; and at an early day I made a personal examination of it, going for that purpose to Stayley Bridge, Chorley, Blackburn and Accrington. In England the custom is unlike our own in this particular, that yarn and cloth are not generally made in the same mill. For the same party to card, spin and weave, is the exception and not the rule; and the great body of spinners sell their yarn to other parties, who make it into cloth. Hence there are Spinning Mills, Dressing Mills, Weaving Mills, &c. A person may therefore spend much time in the examination of English Mills and not find sizing machines or looms, but merely carding and spinning. Of the various mills I visited in Bolton (a large and important manufacturing town), I went into but one where there was weaving. In Blackburn, on the contrary, there is a large proportion of Weaving Mills. To examine therefore the English system of dressing, it was necessary to make it a specialty. The conclusion I reached was, that the English system was superior to ours, and as a result I ordered a machine as an experiment, and selected the make of Messrs. Howard & Bullough, as in my opinion decidedly the best machine in use in England. This machine was started in November, 1867, in the Continental Mill in Lewiston, and has been in constant use from that time to this; and, though we had some anxiety as to the result, in view of the radical change from the old system, and the failure of former attempts to introduce it, the success was perfect. It was supposed, that, for a while at least, there would be more or less trouble in operating it; and hence the machine was put under lock and key, and no person admitted to the room, except the agent of the mill and those employed in setting it up; thinking it best to keep from the hands in the mill a knowledge of the difficulties which might be experienced in starting, that there might be no prejudice created against it. This precaution, however, proved to be entirely unnecessary, as the anticipated trouble did not occur; for the machine was started and the first beam filled without a thread breaking, or occasion to stop for any purpose whatever. The yarn was about No. 20, and was woven in a 50 reed. It required the dressing of two or three webs, to reach the right standard of sizing; the first being sized a little too hard to secure the right weight of cloth, or

the best weaving. Neither the overseer of the weaving, or the weavers, complained of the first web dressed, notwithstanding they were terribly frightened in anticipation of trouble; and especially was this true of the overseer. He has, however, repeatedly told me since that he is perfectly satisfied with the dressing, and cannot point to a single objection to it.

Our next test was on Nos. 30 to 31 warp, for 64 × 64 print cloth, and the result was similar to the first. The third trial was on No. 22 yarn, for 64 × 68 sheeting, and the fourth on 84 × 88 and 84 × 112 shirting; the results of which were equally satisfactory.

After running the first machine six months, one was started in the Lincoln Mill, in Lewiston, on fine shirting 88 × 92, and on print cloths; and, as this experiment was also entirely satisfactory, the second machine was ordered for this mill, and the common dressers dispensed with altogether. The agent and overseer expressed themselves convinced that the slasher-dressed warps were the best and produced the best cloth; the best, because there were less breakages in weaving.

The question of the quality of sizing being so well settled, the next to be considered was that of economy; embracing the saving of labor in operating the machines, the expenditure required in substituting the Slasher for the Dresser, the amount of work turned off, &c. The saving of labor, I have no doubt, will be more than one-half; probably, two-thirds; and the amount of work produced from one machine, equal to from four to six times that from the Dresser; the amount depending upon the kind of Dresser used, style of goods made, and quality of help employed.

The amount of power required is not more than one-quarter, and probably not more than one-fifth of that under the Dresser system.

With proper warping, the waste will be less rather than more, and the room required about one-third, to produce the same amount of work.

Having tested the machines sufficiently to satisfy myself as well as several other gentlemen, of the superiority of the system, orders were given for machines for the Quinebaug Co., Boston Manufacturing Co., Pepperell Manufacturing Co., Naumkeag Steam Cotton Co., Mechanic Mills, and several other parties; and, so far as I know, they have, in all cases where they have been

received and put in operation, given entire satisfaction. At the Quinebaug Mills in Danielsonville, Ct., the success has been quite as marked as at the Lewiston Mills; and in the Pepperell Mill at Biddeford the success has, if possible, been even greater than in either of the other places.

They are now running in various places on numbers ranging from 20 to 50, and I am not aware that they have failed in any instance to meet the expectations of parties using them on any number of yarn or any style of goods.

The question has often been asked me, if the system is adapted to fine work; and my reply has always been yes, better, if possible, for fine than coarse, and I would add, better for poor than for good yarn; and simply because the running the yarn through boiling sizing, and thoroughly drying it, materially strengthens it. And I think also that a mule-warp mill would receive more strikingly beneficial results, than a mill with ring or throstle warp, because the yarn would take the sizing better.

A large amount of sizing, put on the outside of yarn and imperfectly dried, is not of much use; but let it penetrate the yarn as it does in slasher dressing, and be thoroughly dried before being wound on the beam, and it adds very much to the strength of it. In one of the mills where the Slasher is used they had a few beams of very poor yarn, so poor that it was almost impossible to dress it on the common dresser; and when dressed it was equally as difficult to weave it; and they had laid several section beams of it aside, as almost worthless for the purpose of making cloth. They concluded, however, to try it by dressing it on the Slasher, and the trial proved so successful that this yarn wove as well with slasher dressing as ordinarily good yarn did dressed on the American Dresser. Such was the testimony of the superintendent and overseer of weaving. The number of this yarn was, I believe,

about 22.

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