. 238.

SPINNING.

the cotton, and causes it to spread out as it passes between the rollers, while rovingswith a little permanent twist in them are held together in the process of drawing, andthus produce smooth yarn. To remedy the evil above described, when untwisted rovingsare used, he causes the spouts or guides, through which the rovings pass into or betweenthe drawing rollers, to revolve slowly first in one, and then in the other direction, andthus puts a certain quantity of tiyist into the rovings while they are being prepared forspinning. Two modes of performing this operation are clearly described in his patentof 1835.

There is a little defect in the working of the rovings with reversed twist when toomuch or too little twist is put in them, or when the winding machine is not kept in goodorder. This defect proceeds from the change in the twist of the roving seen at A,jig. 152; in this place the twist is not like that at B, and it would, in some parts of the

yarn, be detected under circumstances just described. In cases where double rovingsare used, the twisters are so arranged as to put the twist in the rovings, as shown inJig. 153 : in this case the reversing place of one roving meets the twisted place of theother, and the fault is completely rectified.

153

The preceding description given an idea of Mr. Bodmer’s admirable system of P' eparing and spinning cotton, wool, flax, &c., and of the several processes; it would hesuperfluous to describe 1he several machines, or the details of the same, as exhibited t nhis patents.

In his patent of 1838, he specifies a self-actor, namely, a machine in itself, whichcan be attached to 2, 3, or even 4 mules of almost any convenient numberspindles. The mules are previously stripped of all their mechanism except the rolle rSand their wheels, the carriage and spindles; all the other movements ordinarily com'bined with the mule are contained in the machine, which is placed between a set o>mules, as seen in yig. 154; a and b, the self-actors, to each of which 3 mules are

yoked, and which are connected b)bands and shafts with the self-acton*or rather partly self-actor. A g',

ds

154

c

of fifteen or sixteen years old stan'at X between a and ft, and nev erleaves her place except, perhaps, maiding in doffing or in banding thespindles. The gearing of the roomacts by means of straps upon t®machines a and ft, and from thesmachines all the movements

CZJ x CD

.............. ...

given to the six mules, namely,motion of the rollers, the spindles*the drawing out of the carriage, th eafter draft, &c. When the carriages

___are to be put up, the girl takes

I l hold of two levers of the machine a*

I ' "| and by moving them in certain P r ®j

portions, acts upon two cones anpulleys, and thus causes, in the m®^

|-•—;-—- 1 easy and certain manner, the^ ca ^

I ij -. riages to run in and the yarn to®

. 1 1 I wound on the spindles. The nr

machine Mr. B. made for this Ppose was completely self-acting,

r - - 1 he found very soon that the t®

r' ■ . — -i chanism was more complicated a

'■ " ■ * 1 I apt to go out of order than th* ,

' . the above-described machine;

as it is necessary to have a girl of a certain age to watch over the piecers for a'cer'annumber of mules, he preferred the simplified machine; placing the girl near tn»machines, from whence the whole set of mules attached to the same can he overlook