exceeded the actual spinning machine in extent and complexity. To-day there are three distinct methods of producing worsted yarn. scour the slivers again, this being effected in what is termed a back washing machine. This machine as shown in fig. II usually consists

Fig. 11. — Sectional View of Back-washer. A are the delivering rollers, B, B are the immersing rollers in the first tank, C, Care the press rollers to squeeze out superfluous liquors, D is the immersing roller in the second tank, and C, C are the press rollers for the second tank. Dr>ing cylinders E to E"" may be arranged as "live-heat" cylinders, as secondary heated cylinders or as air drying cylinders. The roller F directs the slivers into the back rollers G of the gill-box, which in turn delivers up the slivers to the fallers H, which in turn delivers the wool to the front rollers I. Firstly, there is the preparing and spinning of the true worsted i of two scouring tanks with immersing rollers, dr>'!ng cylinders, a thread, ' this being made from long English and colonial wooL In ' gill -boxand oiling motion. The slivers on emerging from this machine this class should also be included mohair and alpaca.

Secondly, there is the prcpanng and

spinning of what are known as cross-bred and botany yarns, these being made from cross-bred and botany v/ools.

Thirdly, there is the preparing

and spinning of short botany wools on the French system. There is a fourth class of worsted yarns, principally carpet and knitting yarns, which are treated iii a much readier manner than any of the foregoing, but as the treatment is analogous— with the elimination of certain processes — to the second of the foregoing, it is not necessary to refer specially to it.

To obtain a sliver or " roving " which can be satisfactorily spun into a typical worsted thread the following operations are necessary:

—

preparing (five

or six operations), back-washing, straightening, combing, straightening and drawing (say six operations), and finally spinning on the flyer frame. After long wool has been scoured and dried it is necessarily considerably entangled, and if it were to

be combed straight away a large proporPrepeiiag. ^j^^ ^j ^j^^, j^^g

^, ^, ^^3 ^^.^^^Ij j^^ broken

and combed out as " noil " or short fibre. To

obviate this the wool is fed as straight^ as possible into a sheeter gill-box; after this it passes through other two sheeter gill-boxes, then through sav three can gill-bo.xes.

As shown in fig lo the

main features of a preparing or gill-box are the following: the feed sheet upon which the wool is "

made up, " the back rollers B which take hold of the wool and deliver it to the fallers F which, working away from the back rollers more quickly than the wool is delivered, comb it out. The fallers in turn deliver the wool to the front rollers D, which, taking in the wool more quickly than the fallers delivering it, again draft and comb it, but with a reversing of the former combing operation. The wool emerges from the front rollers as thin attenuated continuous fibre about 12 in. wide, which is wound upon an endless leather sheet H from yhich the box takes its name. When a sliver of sufficient thickness has been wound upon the sheet, it is broken across and fed up at the ne.xt gill-box.

The fourth gillbox

delivers into cans instead of on to a sheet. A number of cans are then placed behind the fifth box and the slivers from these fed up into the back rollers, and similarly with the sixth. The primary object of "

preparmg " or gilling is to straighten and parallelize the fibres m the sliver

This is effected by means

of the combining or doubling and drafting to which the slivers are subjected. In addition to this, how

- ri.

r

ever, a level sliver suitable for combing is formed by A, A is the large comb circle and B, B' the two small comb circles. The slivers are

the combined action of the drafting and doubling delivered by the mechanism C to the feed boxes D, being thrown across the pins ol which has taken place at each box.

the large and small circles at position E. A stroke at F suitably directs the fringes ol Oil will have been added to the wool at the first fibre as the circles separate and the combed fibres are taken hold of by drawingotf preparing-box to cause the fibres to work well, rollers G and G' and combined to form the " top." The brushes H. H and the noil

Were this all, there would perhaps not knives I clear the small circles of the " noil." The feed knife J in conjunction with

a h'-nir

^ '^«^ necessity for back-washing But the inclined planes at K are instrumental in feeding a previously directed length of

the silvers during their passage through sliver over the two circles as they practically touch one another at the point E, and so the preparing-boxcs become suffied naturally, and the process is continued.

ocks'ofwo"ol, ri"^hirhwt%oTt"fa°" in "he scaring now works 1 should be clean, fairly straight and in good condition for combing

out and further suffies the slivers.

It is consequently necessary to I Their condition may be further improved by passing them through