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mule, and in a very few years the contest for superiority between the two systems will show to which side the victory will finally incline. There is no likelihood, however, that whatever the ring frame may be rendered capable of doing in competition with the mule in low medium and the lower ranges of the fine numbers of yarn, that it will ever displace the mule for fine counts-say, from 80s and upwards in warp yarns, and 60s and upwards in weft yarns. The necessarily less twist put into the latter class of yarns will render them unable to carry a ring traveller without such breakages as would greatly interfere with both quality and quantity of production.

In the United States, where, as has been shown, the use of the ring frame is a necessity arising mainly from its social conditions, it is used extensively for the production of weft yarns, but certainly not economically; and were it not for the highly protective tariff in force in that country, it is probable that for this purpose it would have to give way to the European productions of the mule. In this field it holds its own simply by virtue of the protection accorded to it.

Being in existence and use as a weft-producing machine, it necessarily engages attention, and mechanicians are labouring continuously to improve it. In the States, the sub-division of the cotton trade into two branches-spinning and manufacturing-as here, has not taken place; yarn is spun and consumed in one establishment, and the difficulties of dealing with the tare and return carriage of empty tubes or bobbins does not arise. Here, with the spinning carried on in one part of the country, and the manufacturing processes in another, distant ten, twenty, thirty, or even more miles away, and by other firms, these are insuperable; and unless the machine can be modified, so as to produce yarns that can be handled and transmitted from place to place with the same facility and cost as mule wefts, its field for spinning this class of yarn in this country will remain a limited one. Mr. Samuel

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Brooks, so far as we are aware, is the only machinist in this country who has devoted much effort to accomplish this purpose. His labours have met with a fair measure of success. Fig. 89 shows this machine as constructed by him for spinning wefts. It differs little from the warp yarn frame, except in such details as the gauge and size of the spindles and rings, and the substitution of paper tubes for the wooden pirns of the latter. It is meeting with much acceptance on the Continent, where the conditions of the trade are more nearly like those of the States than of this country. Some spinners also in this country, who weave their own productions of yarn, have also adopted it, and its future is regarded as being of a hopeful character. The persistent endeavours made to render it a practicable machine for its designed purpose certainly deserve to be successful.

DOUBLING.— This is a process by which two or more threads are twisted together to form a stronger thread. Such threads are termed 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold, 6-fold, 8-fold, or 12-fold yarns, according to the number of single threads each may contain. When described commercially, the count of the single yarn is first expressed thus: 123 2-fold, 16 4-fold; these are usually written thus: 123/2, 16/4. Yarns of this kind are much used in manufacturing, and are also extensively applied to many other purposes. They form the warps for numerous descriptions of silk, cotton, worsted, woollen, linen, and other fabrics both light and heavy, including Kidderminster, tapestry, Brussels, and other carpets; they are also employed extensively in the lace and hosiery trade, and for knitting, netting, sewing, crochet, and many fancy purposes. Thus it will be seen that the doubling branch of the cotton trade forms an important portion. It is so extensive, indeed, as to have developed the tendency to become an independent section of the trade, and many establishments exist in which doubling alone is carried on. In others, again, it forms a portion of the spinning division, whether this is on the mule, throstle, or ring principle.

Doubling is chiefly performed on three different machines, all of which are respectively modifications of spinning machines. The first that should be named is the doubling throstle frame, which is the throstle frame modified by the arrangement of the creel for the reception of yarns, and the substitution of the drawing rollers by a single pair of rollers of considerably increased diameter. These rollers in wet doubling are covered with thin sheet brass to prevent corrosion. When delivered from the creel, the yarn passes through water contained in a zinc trough, heated by a steam pipe passing through it, and thence between the pair of rollers which press out the superfluous water it may have taken up. It next passes to the flyer and upon the bobbin. Care is always taken that the twisting it receives shall be in the direction opposite to that of the single thread. The flyers are so constructed that the curls on the legs can be renewed when worn out. In other respects the throstle doubler is simply a counterpart of the spinning frame of that name.

In doubling fine numbers on the throstle several serious disadvantages are encountered. One of these is that after doffing it is necessary to oil the spindles in order to secure that the bobbin shall "slip" and wind properly, so as not to break the threads. The consequence is that many bobbins soon become saturated with oil, the dry porous wood readily absorbing it, whereby the weight of the bobbin is greatly increased, and the drag is rendered unequal as compared with that of bobbins not yet saturated with oil. The result is an irregular yarn. Another evil is that a large number of bobbins are rendered useless. The saturated bobbins also stain the yarn wound upon them, and greatly depreciate its value. Often when a frame has been replenished with bobbins it is found that several will not slip, and the threads after breaking and being pieced several times are rendered unfit for their intended use. These are then stripped with a knife, and the yarn, worth, perhaps, from 1s. to 5s. per lb., is reduced to waste, valued at only a few pence per lb. In numerous

other ways yarn is damaged by saturated bobbins. A great quantity of oil is consumed in the lubrication of the spindles, and a heavy loss is entailed by the necessity of throwing out as unfit for use a great number of the saturated bobbins.

These evils have to a great extent been obviated by an

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Fig. 90. Improved throstle doubling spindle.

invention perfected and patented by Messrs. Taylor and Ramsden of Bolton, and which is illustrated in Fig. 90. The flyer, f, is removed from the summit of the spindle—the position it occupies in the ordinary throstle-inverted, and relegated to the place formerly occupied by the bobbin, b. Instead of being made fast as before, it has a boss, b′′, fixed to it, and is placed loose upon the spindle, resting upon the bolster rail, r, with only the ordinary leather washer inter

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