a somewhat tortuous form, and are of considerable length, requires them to be frequently drawn from each other by the exertion of the strength of the wool-comber or the machine, In this state they form a bundle of fibres about six feet in length, called a sliver, and this being laid upon the stretching or drawing frame, constitutes the commencement of the preparing process. The wool passes through several pairs of rollers of which the first and last are of course the essential ones, the intermediate moving with equal velocities, and consequently serving merely to conduct the skein: this is received in cylindrical cans; and three such skeins being passed through another drawing-frame, and stretched in their progress, become fitted for roving, the last step in the preparatory processes. Allowing for the difference in distance of rollers and weights, which on account of the length and adhesiveness of the fibres of wool, are both necessarily greater than with cotton, the description of the bobbin roving machine already introduced, will be sufficiently explanatory.

Spinning, the concluding process, is effected by means of two pairs of rollers moving with unequal velocities, and intermediate auxiliaries.

The loosely twisted thread from the roving bobbin, E, fig. 408, is slowly carried forwards by the holding rollers A, a, and supported as it proceeds by the two pairs, C, c, and D, d. It is then drawn between the rollers B,b, and having been thus brought to a proper thickness, is twisted by the flier L, fixed on the top of the spindle, through which at K it passes: it is then taken up by the bobbin M, which moves round with the spindle its axis, although not equally quick. The ultimate thickness or size of the thread is determined by the difference of velocity in the holding and drawing pairs of rollers; that is of A, a, and B, b, which in their operation evidently imitate a pair of hands. The celerity of the three pairs of rollers nearest to the back of the frame is equal; consequently no stretching takes place amongst them. The upper rollers of the first and last pair are pressed down upon the lower, by weights, F, G, much heavier than H, I, which are supported by the axes of C, D; these being only required steadily to carry forward the skein, and prevent the remote ends of the fibres of the wool from starting, whilst B, b, are pulling their other extremities. The front rollers belonging to one division, or box, as it is commonly termed, are represented in fig. 409, where the drum, which moves the spindles, and by a bevelled pinion at the top of its axis conveys motion to the rollers, is also shown. The pinion on the right extremity of the roller, acting upon a train of wheels properly adjusted, imparts the required relative motion, in succession, to the rollers beyond.

SHORT WOOL.

SHORT Wool is wrought into the finest cloths for personal wear, and is spun in a manner similar to cotton, as described in jenny-spinning.

The first stage of the manufacture consists in submitting it to the action of chamber-ley and frequent rinsings in clean water, which bring it to the state fit for the operation of carding. The carding-engine for fine short wool is constructed with one main cylinder, having, in lieu of the top cards used in jenny-spinning, numerous small rollers, lying and rolling upon its upper surface; it is used in place of a breaker-engine, and is called a scribbler. The wool is delivered from a main cylinder to a doffer, and, being combed or doffed, is carried to another engine, called the carder, which perfects the carding, and delivers it off, by means of grooved mahogany rollers, in a row or rowan, as in jennyspinning. If the wool is of a coarse description, such as is formed into yarn for the manufacture of coarse cloths or woollen cords, more carding is required.

The scribbler-engine has three distinct parts or cylinders in one frame. The first part consists of the first main cylinder with its top rollers, and is called the breast; this delivers the wool to the second main cylinder, which, with its top rollers, is called the first part; this delivers it to a small intervening cylinder, called the 'tween doffer, which carries it to the third main cylinder, which, with its top rollers, is called the second part; from hence it goes to the last doffer cylinder, from which it is combed by a doffing-plate, and finally carried by hand to a carding-engine.

The carding-engine consists of similar parts to the scribbler-engine, except that it has no breast cylinder, and is covered with finer cards: its last doffer delivers the wool to a mahogany grooved roller, which forms it into rowans for the process of spinning.

The act of continuous carding, as described in mule-spinning in the cotton manufacture, is said to have been effected in some mills, but the advantages arising from it are not so great as to procure it general introduction.

The rows or rowans are taken to a roying-billy, which we have already noticed in jenny-spinning, and is spun and stretched by hand as there described. In this, however, the act of plying and drawing is not introduced, as fineness of yarn is not the object sought.

The engines used in carding wool are generally larger than those used for cotton, being frequently six feet wide; during the operation of carding, the wool is copiously sprinkled with rape oil.

SILK MANUFACTURE.

SILK is a very fine and delicate thread, the produce of a small insect, called bombyx, or the silk-worm; which is not less curious on account of the changes it undergoes in its existence, than valuable for the beautiful fibre which it spins.

The egg, requiring not the care of parental incubation, is by the solar heat brought into existence, and the bombyx or silk-worm thus produced lives upon the leaves of the mulberry-tree until it has arrived at inaturity, when, spinning itself up in a small bag, about the size of a pigeon's egg, it is changed into an aurelia. In this state it continues till about the fifteenth day when it is changed into a butterfly, and, if not prevented, eats its way through the silken prison, to expand its newly acquired wings in the sun.

The ball or cocoon, which the ingenious little insect has been at so much pains to spin, to secure itself from its enemies and the effects of the weather, is the substance we call silk; and many who have examined it with attention are of opinion that it will extend to the distance of six English miles.

In order to secure the silk for the purposes of the manufacturer, it becomes necessary to destroy the insect so soon as the cocoon is completed, which is on or about the tenth day. The cocoon is of various colours; but the most predominant are flesh colour, orange, and yellow. The whole of them, however, are lost in the process of scouring and dying, and therefore it is not necessary to wind them on separate reels.

The balls, preparatory to being wound off into skeins or hanks, are immersed in hot water, which dissolves a natural gum, by which the fibres are united together, so that a single thread taken from the reel will be found to be composed of numerous small fibres or threads in the state produced by the

worm.

The silk is imported into this country thus wound off into skeins, and in order to undergo the processes of the manufacturer is wound upon bobbins; and each thread being, as we before have stated, composed of several fibres, receives a certain degree of twist, that the constituent parts may be united more firmly together than they can possibly be by the gum alone. When they have been subjected to thus much of the manufacture, they are wound upon fresh bobbins, and two or three threads twisted together, to form a strong thread for

the weaver, who warps and finally weaves the silk into various beautiful and useful articles, by a process very similar to that used in the weaving of cotton and linen.

In Piedmont, where very excellent silk is produced, the manufacture is carried on by aid of the silk reel represented in fig. 424.

The balls or cocoons are thrown into hot water contained in a copper basin or boiler, A, about 18 inches in length, and six deep, set in brick-work, so as to admit of a small charcoal fire beneath it. BB is a wood frame sustaining several parts of the reel; D is the reel upon which the silk is wound; C is a guide which directs the thread upon it; and E F the wheel-work which gives motion to the guide. The reel D is merely a wooden spindle, having four arms mortised into it to support the four battens or rails on which the silk is wound.

Upon the end of the wooden spindle of the reel, and within the frame B, is a wheel of 22 teeth, which gives motion to another wheel C, fixed upon the end of the inclined axis E F, and having twice the number of teeth; at the end of this inclined axis is another wheel G, of 22 teeth, playing in a horizontal cog-wheel with 35 teeth. This wheel turns upon a pivot fixed in the frame, and has a pin fixed in it at a distance from the centre, to form an eccentric pin or crank, and give a backward and forward motion to the slight wooden rail or layer C, which guides the threads upon the reel; for this purpose, the threads are passed through wire loops or eyes, C, fixed into the layer, and the end thereof opposite the wheel and crank F is supported in a mortise or an opening made in the fraine B, so that the revolution of the crank will cause the layer to move, and carry the threads alternately towards the right or left. There is likewise an iron bar H, fixed over the boiler at H, and pierced with two holes, through which the threads pass to guide them.

In the operation of reeling, it is well known, that if the thread be wound separately it will be totally unfit for the purposes of the manufacturer; consequently the ends of the threads of several balls or cocoons are joined and wound together, and when any one of them breaks or comes to an end, its place is supplied by a new one, and thus by continually keeping up the same number the united threads may be wound to any required length.

The reeling is conducted by a woman, who, when the balls or cocoons have remained a sufficient time in the hot-water contained in the boiler A, to soften the gum, takes a whisk of birch or rice-straw, about six inches long, cut stumpy like a worn-out broom, and brushes the cocoons with it, which causes the loose threads to adhere to it; these she disengages from the whisk, and by drawing them through her fingers cleans them from the loose silk, which always surrounds the cocoon, till they come off clean, which operation is called la battue. When the silk has been perfectly cleansed, she passes four or more of the threads, if she intends to wind fine silk, through each of the holes in the thin iror bar H, and afterwards twists the two compound threads, consisting of four cocoons each, about 20, or 25 times round each other, that the four

ends in each thread may the better join together by crossing each other, and that the thread of the silk may be round which otherwise would be flat.

The threads when thus twisted together are passed through the eyes of the loops, C, of the layer, and thence are conducted and made fast to one of the rails of the reel. As it is of consequence in the production of good silk, that the thread should have lost part of its heat and gumminess before it touches the bars of the reel, the Piedmontese are by law obliged to have 38 French inches between the guides, C, and the centre of the reel; and the layer must also, under a penalty, be moved by cog-wheels instead of an endless-cord, which, if suffered to grow slack, will cause the layer to stop and not lay the threads distinctly, and that part of the skein will be glued together, whereas the cog-wheel cannot fail: when the skeins are quite dry, the reel is removed from the frame, and by the folding of two of its arms, by means of hinges, the skeins are taken off, and with some of the refuse silk are tied into hanks.

Although from the foregoing description the operation must appear very simple, it is a matter of very great nicety to wind an even thread, and the difficulty of keeping the thread always even is so great that, except when using a thread of two cocoons, they do not say a silk of three, four, or six cocoons; but a silk of three or four, four or five, five or six cocoons. In a coarser silk it cannot be calculated even so nearly as to four cocoons, and consequently they say, from 12 to 15, from 15 to 20, and so on.

It is also necessary that the water in the boiler be kept at a certain temperature; for if the water is too hot, the thread is dead and has no body; if too cold, the ends of the threads do not join well, and form a harsh silk. The threads themselves indicate when the water is not at the proper degree of temperature, by frequent breaking when it is too hot; and coming off entangled, and in a woolly state, when too cold.

In the process of winding the woman has always a bowl of cold water by her, into which she occasionally dips her fingers, and frequently sprinkles it upon the iron bar H, that the threads may not be burnt by the heat of the basin; it also serves to lessen the temperature of the water in the boiler when approaching the boiling point.

All kinds of silk which are simply drawn from the cocoons by the process of reeling are called raw silk, and is denominated coarse or fine according to the number of fibres of which the thread is composed. In preparing the raw silk for