Textiles Part 31

2. Describe card clothing.

3. What does carding do to the wool?

4. When the sharp wires of one cylinder meet the sharp pointed wires of another cylinder what is the action on the wool?

5. If the sharp points of one cylinder meet the smooth surface of another cylinder what happens to the wool on that cylinder?

6. In what form does the wool finally leave the machine? What name is given to this fluffy rope?

7. How was carding done in the early days? How is it done now?

8. In what way is the principle of the hand cards the same as that of the card of the mill?

=Experiment 14--Drawing and Spinning=

Apparatus: Foot-rule, elastic band.

Material: Small quant.i.ty of scoured wool.

References: _Textiles_, pages 4, 44, 134; Sections: Spinning: Mule Spinning.

_Directions_

1. Observe the ma.s.s of wool fibers. The wool was clipped from the sheep, _washed_, and _oiled_ to make it smooth and pliable.

2. With the fingers gently open up or loosen the ma.s.s of wool fibers.

In the mill this is done by a machine called the _card_. (See picture, _Textiles_, page 38.) And the process itself is called _carding_.

3. Gently _draw_ out the ma.s.s of fibers until you have drawn it into one long strand.

4. Draw it again and again until to draw it would cause it to break.

5. This process in the mill is known as _drawing_. The wool pa.s.ses through machine after machine, which gradually reduces the thickness of the strand.

6. You have now a strand called _roving_, but not a thread with which you could weave. What is called the strand? Why could you not weave with it as it is? If you pulled the roving apart it would separate into a number of small ends. What name is given to these ends?

7. It is necessary to hold these fibers together in a thread. Hold the roving in the left hand and with the right hand draw the fibers out several inches. As you draw, twist the roving between the fingers and thumb. The _twisting_ is called _spinning_.

8. When you have twisted sufficient yarn to attach to the end of a foot-rule, do so. Give a whirl to the ruler, which is taking the place of the old-time _spindle_, and let it drop. Continue to whirl the ruler and notice that as it revolves the yarn is twisting. When well twisted, wind the yarn on the ruler. There was a hook on the old-time spindle. Instead of the hook, hold the wound yarn in place by an elastic band. Draw out several inches again and repeat.

9. With the spindle a _distaff_ was used. It held the roving which you now hold in your left hand. (See picture of distaff and spindle.)

10. Define spinning; see _Textiles_, page 4, footnote. The early use of the spindle was the same as its use of to-day. In what two ways is the spindle of use?

11. The improvement on the distaff and spindle was the spinning wheel.

Now the spinning frame in the mill has replaced both.

_Questions_

1. After shearing, through what two processes does wool pa.s.s?

2. Why is it necessary to oil wool?

3. What is the work of the _card_?

4. Explain the process called _drawing_. Why is it necessary to repeat the operation several times?

5. What followed the distaff and spindle in the development of spinning?

6. On what is the spinning done now in the mill? See _Textiles_, picture, pages 135, 137.

=Experiment 15--Gilling and Combing=

Apparatus: Coa.r.s.e comb, fine comb.

Material: Small quant.i.ty of scoured wool.

Reference: _Textiles_, pages 39-44.

_Directions_

1. Open up the wool a little with the fingers. Do this in place of carding, as you need but a small quant.i.ty.

2. You comb your hair to make the hairs lie parallel, side by side, in place. Combs are used on wool for just the same purpose, but the first process of combing is not known as such. It is called _gilling_, and the combs themselves are called _fallers_. The machines are known as _gill boxes_. See _Textiles_, page 43.

3. Hold the carded wool in the left hand in the middle of the strand.

With the coa.r.s.e comb in the right hand, comb and thus straighten the fibers first at one end then at the other. This is _gilling_. The principle of gilling is to comb the fibers more and more nearly parallel and to draw them out into more even strands.

4. The coa.r.s.e comb causes the hairs to lie parallel. A fine comb will further straighten the hairs, but it will also remove the snarled, tangled, short hairs. Again wool is to be treated like hair. Hold the strand in the middle as before. Comb each end with the fine comb.

Notice that the fine comb is removing the short fibers and leaving the long fibers between the fingers. This is the second process of combing, and is called _combing_.

5. The long fibers are called _tops_ and the short fibers are known as _noils_.[23] Combing is the process which separates the long fibers known as _tops_ from the short fibers known as _noils_.

6. The combing machine in the mill is a very complicated one. See picture, _Textiles_, page 41.

7. Gill and comb several strands of wool.

8. Top is too delicate, as it comes from the comb, to be handled. The next process is to combine several strands into one. Combine the several strands you have gilled and combed. Comb this one end with the coa.r.s.e comb again to be sure that the fibers are perfectly parallel.

9. You gilled, combed, and gilled again. So it is in the mill. After combing, the wool is gilled again by machines known as _finisher gill boxes_, and wound into a ball called _a top_.

10. _A top_ differs from _top_. _Top_ is the strand of long fibers which comes from the comb. _A top_ is the ball of combed wool as it comes from the finisher gill boxes. It weighs from 7 to 12 lbs. and contains 200 to 250 yds.

11. The wool is now ready for the next processes--those of drawing and spinning.

_Questions_