the rate at which it will take up the rove will be such as to break the latter were it not counteracted by an acceleration of the speed in like proportion. Changing the ratchet-wheel, u 3, for one having a fewer number of teeth, secures this result; correspondingly, a finer rove requires a diminished number of revolutions of spindle, and a ratchet wheel of more teeth.

Such are the details of the roving frame. The intermediate frame which precedes it in the order of arrangement differs from it only in having its parts larger and correspondingly stronger. This difference necessitates a slower speed of the various parts, the proportion being when no wheels have been changed as five in the intermediate frame is to seven in the roving frame in all the revolving parts. As the rove produced on the intermediate frame is much thicker than that from the former, to prevent too frequent doffing and the loss of time consequent upon it, the bobbins are made larger, which necessitates stronger spindles and slower speeds to prevent excessive vibration. The diameter of the bobbin is increased, so that the winding on proceeds at the same rate as in the roving frame.

The slubbing frame compares with the intermediate, as the latter with the roving frame, the parts being proportionately larger and stronger. The speeds also are correspondingly slower; where the driving shaft of the former makes 250 revolutions, that of the latter only makes 220, the speed of the spindles being diminished in the same proportion. Often, however, the dimensions are the same, the differences being in these cases one of speed. The dimensions of the bobbins then are the same, though the coarser slubbing requires a ratchet wheel of less teeth in order to secure a corresponding acceleration of the spindle.

The slubbing frame is fed from cans of sliver from the card, whilst the intermediate and the roving frame receive their supply of material from slubbing and intermediate frame bobbins respectively, which are contained in creels.

The foregoing illustrations of the roving frame we have

reproduced from a small work on "The mule spinning process, and the machinery employed in it," from which also the description has been condensed, the algebraical formula being omitted as unsuitable to a great extent for the present treatise.

CHAPTER VII.

DEVELOPMENT OF SPINNING.

Spinning its antiquity; conjectural origin; the first spindle.Definition of spinning.-The whorl; the distaff. -Spinning as described by ancient historians.-The hand wheel; its first appearance in Europe; in India. The Jersey, or common hand wheel; its development from the spindle; the driving wheel, the wharve.-Similarity between the European wheel and the Indian wheel; European wheel used for wool and cotton; process of spinning upon it.-The flax wheel, or the Brunswick and Saxony wheels; the flyer.-The two-handed wheel; the traverse. The connection between the old and the new systems of spinning. Cotton: antiquity of its cultivation and manufacture.-India, the birthplace of the manufacture; its extensive manufacture in that country.-Sterility of Indian invention.-Kay's inventions a stimulus to further improvements.-Widespread influence of inventions in the cotton trade.

S'

PINNING is one of the most ancient arts, and in its beneficial influences, one of the most important. It is difficult to conceive what would now be the condition of mankind had this art not been invented. Nothing is known of its origin, for the earliest records in which it is mentioned, show it in the condition of advancement in which, after it became known, it remained, without further progress, for many centuries. Thus it may have had its birth centuries previously to its first mention in history. Only conjectures can be offered regarding its beginning, and these may be either far from or near to the facts. The same difficulty meets the investigator in connection with the material which formed the basis of the first experiments and earliest operations of the art. The writer, in another place, has ventured to suggest that the first spinner was a shepherd-boy, and the material used a few locks of wool. Reclining under the shade of a tree whilst his flock was

feeding around him, it might easily happen to a playful youth to have his attention attracted by a small portion of a cast fleece lying near, to which he would stretch forth his hand. Toying and amusing himself with this to relieve the tedium of the hours, it might quite as easily happen that he should twist its fibres together between his fingers, and surprised at the ease with which they combined, draw them from the mass; this process, repeated so as to obtain a thread exceeding the length of the original fibres, would give the first woollen thread. Whether the importance of his discovery vaguely dawned upon the mind of this hypothetical shepherd-boy or not, cannot now be told; neither can it be known whether he carried his spinning operations beyond the first stretch or not. But clearly a time would come when this would be done, and as a greater length of yarn was produced, to prevent its entanglement would involve winding it upon a twig. Here comes into view the beginning of the spindle; as yet, however, not yet used for its present purpose, or even such a purpose divined. But this in due course would grow out of the former. In order to prevent the unwinding of the yarn from the twig, in the event, say, of its falling from the hands of the spinner, the thread would be secured in a cleft made for the purpose at one end of the twig. Now further suppose, for there is nothing else available, that the spinner, after laboriously twining a length of yarn, instead of winding it upon the twig as usual, rises to his or her feet and allows the latter to dangle from the hand suspended by the length of yarn just spun, a new phenomenon occurs. The twig begins to revolve, slowly at first, but with an increasing velocity, until suddenly, whilst the spinner is contemplating this vagary, the thread breaks, and the twig drops to the ground. The spinner then finds that all the twist has been taken out of the fibres. The rapidity with which the fibres would be untwisted compared with the time it had taken the operator to twist them, could hardly fail to be recognized. Slowly it would break

upon his or her understanding, that if this revolving twig could thus take twist out by a reversion of its movement, it could be made to put it in. The mental sugges

tion would be acted on, and the trial that would follow would succeed. It can easily be imagined how that spinner would exclaim "Eureka! Eureka!" that is, if Greek happened to be one of his accomplishments, which is not probable; there would remain, however, its equivalent in his mother-tongue. This would be the first spinning spindle: that is, if our conjecture has been fortunate enough to hit the mark. All steps between this rude discovery and the perfect form of the spinning machine with which the world is now acquainted, consist of a series of improvements upon the original form.

As will have already been gathered from the above, spinning is the art of twisting together a number of filaments or fibres upon their own axis in succession, and in such a manner that a thread or line of greater length than the single fibres of which it is composed is produced. Spinning is thus something more than twisting, which is the twining of two or more threads together to form one, the length of which, however, never exceeds that of its component parts.

The first improvement that experience would dictate, and that at a very early time, would be the addition of a whorl to the bottom of the spindle. This would be suggested by the fact that a loaded spindle containing a quantity of yarn would rotate more easily, steadily, and continue longer than an empty one, or one not containing much yarn. It would therefore be easy to secure the best action by weighting its extremity with a piece of clay, wood, stone, or metal. This developed into the fixed whorl in process of time, and after many centuries, became the basis of another great step in advance. Concurrently with the invention of the whorl would be that of the distaff: this was simply a short staff on one end of which the raw material was placed, whilst the other was held under the