Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/473

Rh or case which causes the fabric to shrink in the direction of the warp. The first closed cylindrical fulling machine came into use about 1844. By its use this important branch of the work was executed with a precision and certainty hitherto unattainable, while much economy of room and saving of heat were effected by suppressing the old fulling machines.

After rinsing, tentering or dry stretching follows. In our older mill-yards may still be seen the tenter posts and hooks, upon which the cloth was stretched and left for several days to dry in the open air. This operation is now quickly performed by the use of revolving frames and steam coils. Raising follows, to open and disentangle the fibers, completely covering the surface of the goods after milling and tentering. The "nap" is raised by the use of the teasel, which earlier manufacturers set in a frame, having crossed handles, and scratched over the surface of the cloth. This frame formed a tool not unlike a currycomb in appearance, and was used by two men, who scrubbed the face of the cloth as it hung in a vertical position from horizontal rails fixed to the ceiling of the workshop. The machine upon which this work is now done is called the raising-gig. It is a large cylinder, containing a number of iron rods closely set with teasels. It travels rapidly, in a direction opposite to the movement of the cloth, which, moving slowly, is brought in contact with the sharp and pliant teasels, which raise the fibers by a series of rollers, capable of adjustment according to the amount of nap it is desired to raise. The gigging machine also, while not originally an American invention, has received from Americans its most valuable features. As early as 1794 Walter Burt obtained in America a patent for a gigging-mill in which the rotating barrel was the distinguishing part; and the names of Jersey, Christie, Olney, Barrows, Beck, and Wells are honorably identified with its subsequent development.

The process of cutting off at an equal height all the filaments on the surface developed by napping was performed in the middle ages by the use of enormous scissors, and this method was