PROCEEDINGS.

Pursuant to the foregoing notice, the stated annual meeting of the Association was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday, April 27, 1892, at 10 o'clock A.M.

The President, Mr. WALTER E. PARKER, occupied the chair. The call for the meeting was read by the Secretary, and also the preliminary notice issued in advance of the regular call for the meeting.

The President then announced that the meeting was open for business; the first item of which was the election of officers for the ensuing year.

On motion of Mr. RICHARD GARSED it was voted that the Chair appoint a committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year. Accordingly the President appointed as that committee. Messrs. H. L. PRATT of Lewiston, Me.; CHARLES D. MCDUFFIE of Manchester, N. H.; JOHN KILBURN of Lowell, Mass.; RICHARD GARSED of Philadelphia, Pa., and HERBERT FISHER of Taunton, Mass.

The reports of the Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor were then presented and by vote were accepted, and ordered to be placed on file.

The SECRETARY. At the meeting of the Board of Government, just held, the Secretary was requested to announce a gift to the Association by Mr. E. M. SHAW of Nashua, N. H., of a complete set of Reports of the Association from the beginning; which will be very valuable in the office, for

reference. The Board has passed a vote of thanks to him for his generosity.

The Secretary then read the names of persons who had been recommended by vote of the Board of Government, for election. to membership in the Association; as follows:

On motion of Mr. O. S. BROWN these gentlemen were elected as members of the Association.

The PRESIDENT. We will now take up the first topic for discussion, before the committee on nomination return to make their report. If there is no objection, I will call upon Mr. E. W. THOMAS of Lowell to present the first topic for discussion to-day, viz., "The benefits derived from the licker-in and shellfeed system to cotton cards."

Mr. THOMAS. One of the great benefits derived from using the revolving top card is the method of feeding the cotton to the card cylinder, which is peculiar to this class of card, and one adopted by practically all builders of the card to-day.

The figures to be presented are from the results obtained by the adoption of this kind of feed to the Foss & Pevey and the Whitehead & Atherton patterns of cards, and figures can and probably will be presented showing the benefit derived by its adoption on the common American thirty-six-inch card.

In the fall of 1890, the management of the Tremont & Suffolk Mills, in considering what improvements could be made in the carding department in the Suffolk Mills, which consisted

of 280 Foss & Pevey cards in one room and on the same grade of work, resolved to experiment with the shell-feed and sawtooth lickers-in. A section of ten cards was changed, and the results obtained were so highly satisfactory that the balance of the cards was speedily changed. The work of changing these cards was intrusted to the Lowell Machine Shop, who originally built the cards some eight years before.

The speed of the cylinders was increased from 142 to 160 revolutions per minute. Fillet clothing, on cylinders, was put onto many of the cards at the time the feed changes were being applied.

These cards had been used for carding cotton for warp yarns from 20's to 30's at the rate of about 60 pounds per day, but for the few months just preceding the changes referred to they had been working at the rate of 72 pounds per day. After the changes were finished the cards were made to do 85 pounds per day, at which rate they are running to-day. We had not up to the time the changes were made been extremely well pleased with the working of the card, having had more or less trouble with droppings from the end of the doffer, split laps and a not perfect sliver.

Our advantages gained by the changes are a larger production by 15 per cent., evener work and a net saving in waste of 1.33 per cent., beside the removal of a large amount of solid dirt, trash and sand, before the stock reaches the card clothing. It is only fair to say that at this time the "Connelly method" of feeding laps was applied, entirely preventing our previous trouble of split laps.

We have been more than pleased with the results obtained, and the saving in waste from these cards as they are running to-day compares very favorably with that from revolving top flat cards running in the Tremont Mills, as may be seen from the following comparative tests, made during the week ending Nov. 1, 1890. Tests were made on four different makes of revolving top flat cards, which for various reasons are designated as "A," "B," "C," "D," in the accompanying table.

From this table it will be seen that the total percentage of waste made from the Foss & Pevey Card after the shell-feed attachment was made compares very favorably with the total waste made on the revolving top cards.

From other very carefully conducted tests, covering considerable time and many cards, I present the following figures: 240,701 pounds of cotton were run through 75 Foss & Pevey cards in three weeks (these cards had not been changed, but were the regular cards), and 8,022 pounds of strippings were made, 3 per cent.; 2,117 pounds of fly and dirt, 88 per cent.; a total of 4.21 per cent.

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During the same three weeks, on 109 cards that had been changed 381,925 pounds of cotton were used, making 10,205 pounds of strippings, 2.67 per cent.; 1,168 pounds of fly and dirt, 36 per cent.; a total of 3.43 per cent.; showing a gain in saving waste of 1.18 per cent.

As a further test of seven weeks' trial on cards that had not been changed, 141,465 pounds of cotton were used, making 4,753 pounds of strippings, = 3 per cent.; 1,376 pounds of fly and dirt, 1 per cent. ; a total of 4.33 per cent.

During the same seven weeks, 171,477 pounds of cotton were passed through cards that had the new feed appliance, and 4,408 pounds of stripps were made, 2.57 per cent.; 427 pounds of fly and dirt, 25 per cent.; a total of 2.82 per cent.; a gain in saving of waste of 1.51 per cent.