Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/315

Rh are equally associated with the evolution of the machine in England; while that of Josue Heilmann, an Alsatian, who undoubtedly worked out a combing machine on independent lines, is immortalized by his invention, which was patented in France in 1845, and in England in 1846.

The various inventors named created three machines, working upon different principles, all of which are now in use, and each of which has points of superiority in different kinds of work. They are known as the Lister, the Noble, and the square-motion combs; the French machine, founded upon Heilmann's invention, being a modification of the Lister. In 1843 Mr. Lister succeeded in combing the first fine wool (Botany) ever combed by machinery. After that the use of the machines speedily became general. The Noble comb is in the most common use, perhaps, being found superior for combing the short-stapled wools now largely utilized in the worsted manufacture. The Lister machine is preferred for the long-stapled wools. The picture of the Noble comb conveys a good impression of its general appearance. An intelligible description of its complicated and delicate parts is out of place in a paper of this description. Only when seen in operation can one truly appreciate what a wonderful achievement of the human mind is the combing machine.

From the comb, the wool intended for worsted yarn, now in the form known as "tops," goes first to a back-washing machine, to eliminate any remaining dirt, and is again gilled. The introduction of the gill-box, or drawing machine, now effects another distinction between the worsted and the woolen yarn. It is the beginning of a process of drawing, which continues through many subsequent machines. The worsted yarn is the result of a series of combinations or doublings accompanied by drawing or stretching. The drawing machine combines and reduces the thick sliver, or a number of them, down to a size so small that it can be spun into a thread without an excessive draft, and at the same time levels it so that the thread will be of uniform thickness. The sliver is put through six or more machines, each of which combines and draws half a dozen larger slivers—more or less according to the size of the yarn to be spun. Thus, in a Botany wool, with nine operations, the number of slivers ordinarily combined are 8, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, which are equal to the enormous number of 288,000 doublings. There have been at least two doubling operations between the comb and the top, of say ten and six slivers in each case, so that the total doublings from the comb to the spindle amount to 17,280,000. By this process of continued doubling and drawing, it becomes an easy matter to spin worsted yarns of extreme fineness, running in their counts all the way up to 80s, 90s, and even higher, the French particularly