Framingham State University - Dial Yearbook (Framingham, MA)

Page 21 text:

15 Next, the cotton went through the opening and picking, in which the libres were loosened and blown by air currents up into a box overhead, while the dirt and foreign matter dropped down. The next machines were the cards, where by means of cylin- drical rollers set with flexible wire teeth, the cotton fibres were straightened out and made to lie all in the same direction. The cotton came from this machine in broad thin ribbons, and in this condition goes through the processes of drawing and combing, the object being still to straighten and condense the fibres into long narrow strips. These strips are called slivers, and in the process of drawing, two of the slivers are put together and come out as one. The slivers go into the roving machines, where they are condensed still more and made into long soft threads, which are very easily broken, having as yet no twist nor firmness. These slivers are wound on spindles and put on the spinning machine, where two are twisted together many times with very great rapidity, and the thread which is produced is wound on spindles. This thread is the final product of the spinning room. There was one machine which wound the thread in skeins instead of on spools. From the spinning room we went into the weave room, which was filled with looms of all kinds, from the simple two harness loom to the complicated jacquard. We first examined the loom which wove plain unbleached cotton cloth. This had two har- nesses and one shuttle, and the cloth was woven by the simple one up and one down process. From this we went to the looms weaving cloth with patterns of checks or stripes. These had as many harnesses as there were colors in the warp, and the different colors for the filling were on different bobbins held in boxes on the sides. By a system of cogs and wheels these boxes were so regulated that when it was time for a certain colored filling thread to go in, the box containing that shuttle would come up and the shuttle shoot through. The looms were all regulated so that when a thread broke or ran out, the machinery would stop, thus pre- venting the making of an imperfection in the cloth. One kind of looms, made by the Draper Company of Hopedale, was made with a rack for full bobbins on one side, and when a bobbin became empty it would be discharged by the machinery and a full one take its place. The largest and most complicated looms were the jacquard, where every thread is governed independently. These were weav- ing tapestries of intricate design 5 one was weaving a design in silk which was so fine that there were hundreds of threads to the square inch. After the cotton we went to the wool departments. We first went to the room where they received the raw material, the pelts, just as they were taken from the sheep, full of oil and foreign

Page 20 text:

14 Our Visit to Lowell Textile School THE first week in March we were told that a visit to Lowell Textile School had been planned for us, and on Friday morn- ing of that week, the twenty-eight Household Arts Seniors started, headed by Mr. Howe, and accompanied by Miss Nicholass and Mr. Whittemore. We left Framingham on the 7.42 train and reached the school about half past nine. The Lowell Textile School is situated on the banks of the Merrimac river, and the buildings, of which there are three, are of brick, all connected, and are mill construction throughout. The stairs are all self-supporting, arched slightly, enough to support them without pillars. All the rooms and corridors in the build- ings are iitted out with automatic sprinklers in case of fire, and in the spinning and weave rooms are humiditiers, which spray moist- ure in the air constantly when the machinery is in operation, thus keeping down the dust and lint. When we reached the buildings we were shown into the ofiice, where we were asked to register in the guest book. After this, we went into the Principal's office, where we left our coats, and there we were divided into three groups, Mr. Howe going with one, Miss Nicholass with one, and Mr. Whittemore with one. An instructor went with each group to explain everything, and Mr. Eames, the Principal, as well as Mr. Mackay, instructor in hand loom weav- ing, went with Mr. Howe's group, of which I was a member. We first visited the mechanical and machine drawing room, where the students have mechanical drawing, mill construction and so on, and machine drawing, and where we learned what a cam was. Then we went to the cotton manufacturing room and visited first, the section where the knitting machines were, and where we saw hosiery and underwear in the process of manufacture. The machines were circular in shape and the threads were put in very swiftly, from left to right. Open work was made by dropping stitches at the desired intervals. After this, we went through the cotton yarn department, be- ginning with the raw cotton, and visiting each machine in turn till we reached the finished thread. The first machines were the gins, which removed the seeds from the raw cotton. Of these there were two varieties. the saw and the roller gins. We were told that they did not handle much raw cotton, but had some and the machines, that the students might learn the principles.

Page 22 text:

16 matter of all sorts. There they first sort and grade, according to quality, or sort and blend. The wool is then scoured with strong soap solution and caustic soda to remove the dirt and o1l, and dried- in a centrifugal machine. Then the cleansed wool is put into the carbonizing machine, the purpose of which is to remove all foreign vegetable matter as cotton, or burrs which have become entangled in the wool. In this machine sulphuric acid is used, which does not affect the wool, but which will take other elements from the vegetable matter and leave the carbon, which is blown out in the form of dust. The pure wool is washed and the acid neutralized with an alkali, then the wool is dried. This cleaned fibre is mixed to make it of even grade, or if a mixture of wool and cotton is desired, it is mixed at this point. The fibre is next oiled with olive oil, lard, or something of that nature, to prevent the electricity in the wool from making it diffi- cult to handle. The fibre is now taken to the carding room and prepared for spinning. First, the fibres are somewhat straightened out by the card, and the long fibres which are to be used for worsted are sep- arated from the short wool fibres. The true difference between woolen and worsted yarns is that for worsted the longer, straighter fibres are used, and they are all laid parallel by the machinery, while for woolen yarns the short fibres are used, and they are criss crossed or not combed into any regular position in the yarn. The result is that worsted yarn is softer and lighter, while wool is harsher and harder to the touch. Different machinery is required to make the two. We next examined the machinery used in the worsted process. The worsted fibres go through various processes of carding, comb- ing, gilling and drawing. all of which have the same object - to straighten the fibre, make them lie parallel and in long ribbons or slivers. These slivers are put into the rover, where they are drawn out still more and condensed and rubbed into small strips about a quarter of an inch wide. This roving is wound on spindles and is ready to be spun. A In the French system of spinning, which was most highly recommended by the instructors, a self-acting spinning mule is used. In this, two of the rovings are twisted together to make the thread. The rack which held the spindles would move away from the rest of the machine, twisting and drawing out the thread as it went. Then it would move toward the machine, the spindles re- volving and winding up the spun thread. Wool yarn does not go through so many processes as worsted. It is simply picked and carded and drawn into long slivers similar to the worsted and cotton, except that the fibres are left in nearly