Framingham State University - Dial Yearbook (Framingham, MA)

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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

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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

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17 their originally twisted condition. Then these slivers are con- densed and spun, the mules being used as in the worsted. The instructor explained to us that woolen blankets which can be bought for seventy-five cents are not wool, but are cotton fibres which have been put through the wool processes of carding and spinning. The wool and worsted yarn we saw being woven into carpets and tapestries on Jacquard looms. After the wool departments we visited the hand loom weaving department. This room was filled with hand looms which were like the power looms in miniature, having varying numbers of harnesses and boxes, some of them being hand jacquards. The work in this room is part of the first year, when by use of the hand loom, which can be operated more slowly, the student can become thoroughly acquainted with the steps in weaving. We stayed but a short time in this room, going next to the finishing room, where the cloth is taken to be looked over and sponged and pressed. There were also machines in this room for putting nap onto cloth. These were called nappers and were of two kinds. In one the burrs of the teazle were used and in the other metal hooks set in canvas. By these means the nap is picked on formerly smooth cloth. In one corner of this room was a large rack and table, at which cloth is examined, and any im- perfection, such as a dropped stitch, remedied by hand. When we had been through this room, we found that it was 12.30, so we had lunch in the school lunch room and rested a few minutes afterward in the library before starting out on our after- noon trip. . In the afternoon, neither Mr. Eames nor Mr. Mackay were able to go with us, but Mr. Ferguson, instructor in fabric analysis and fabric costs, took their place. Mr. Ferguson took us, first, through the chemical laboratories, general, qualitative and quantitative, and the balance room, which reminded us forcibly of many quiet hours last year when we were middle juniors. The laboratories were large and well equipped, and the lecture room, which Mr. Ferguson said was commonly called the Chamber of Horrors, was particularly good, the chairs being arranged in tiers, and with a stereopticon lamp in the centre. From this we went to the dyeing department. The instructor there showed us some sample books which the students had worked out, showing the results of experiments with dye stuffs, showing whether certain colors were fast or not, and the effects of soap, sunlight, acid, alkali, and so on, on them. There were also ex- periment books on work the students had done in analyzing cloth, such as plaids, where a number of colors were used and where they were required to match these colors with dyes of their own makin g.