THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON AUGUST 28TH 1979 AT 13 WHITEHEAD STREET, RAWTENSTALL. THE INFORMANT IS JOHN GREENWOOD, FORMER MANAGER AT SPRING VALE MILL. THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
R - Now then, this tape.
Well, in this tape what we are going to do is go through these pictures in the Spinning Folio and you tell me, you give me your description of the pictures and then of course that's going to tell us all about what they are about.
R - Well now do you want picture 5? I mean, for instance, say…
That's it, yes.
R- There you are. So well, picture 5. you see.
Yes, that's it number 5, that's it, you have got it, John.
R - Yes. Right ...
So, number 5, what's going on in number 5?
R- Well, number 5. It shows the bales being unloaded from the suppliers and they, in point of fact this particular, well these particular bales are United Kingdom bales but on the other hand we do use bales from all over the world. We get it from, we get the raw material from Brazil, Egypt, Germany, France, Belgium, Russia, United States, in point of fact anywhere where they use, where they actually spin raw cotton, we get raw material. Because the raw material that's used at this mill has already been processed, or semi-processed, once.
(50)
R- The point being that this is what is known as a condenser mill. The cotton industry can be divided into stages where you get the finest of fine yarn spun from Egyptian cotton and Sea Islands cotton which is the West Indies. And then you get the medium which are the yarns say spun from types of American cotton, African cotton, Turkish, Israel, Russian, Chinese, Indian, that’s the middle stage. And then we get down to what is known as the condenser trade which uses as its raw material the residue from a lot of the previous mentioned processing you see. And in this case the waste dealers as we call them go round and buy the residue from these mills, and then they re-bale it and then it comes in to us. So that the thing is that we are not on the lowest tier but next to the lowest tier of cotton spinning. And this particular one shows the bales coming in from the waste dealer. And they can weigh anywhere from between say 300 up to a 10001b. It depends of course on the type of material that it is. You see this particular bale I can tell is what we call a bale of thread waste which when it's pressed
(100)
condenses you know, very tight and the bales get very heavy whereas the smaller ones here are what we call comber waste, which is like a fluffy type of waste which will not condense to the same extent as thread waste. So that's number 5.
You knew straight away John when you saw that bale that it was a UK bale, how did you know that?
R- Oh yes. Well, the wrappings and the type of the wrappings and the number of wires and the type of bale. Now this one on the lorry here and that one are not United Kingdom bales, that looks to me as though it could be ...
The one that's laid down?
R – Yes. The one he has his arm on looks as though it could be I should say from Germany or Switzerland. Now this is a soft, continental type bale.
Yes, the one that's stood up on the flat.
R - Yes. United kingdom bales are usually more compact you see, that type of bale than the other ones that are on the lorry.
Yes, very good.
R - Now then, you see this is definitely…
Yes well, number 6 is him fetching that bale in.
R- Number 6 is fetching the same bale in. Now, the same bale is on the scales.
On number 7.
R- On number 7. It's on the scales and I can tell already that the finger, there is an adjustment on this tare bar on this particular scale and it's been adjusted because it's only registering about 801bs so it’ll probably have been adjusted to about 7 or 8001bs. You see and this shows
(150)(5 min)
a platform scale. They just wheel them in, there is an allowance made for the weight of the truck and then it's registered. And of course these bales have to conform to the weight as they are on the notes.
Yes.
R - Now number 8. Now there are two different types of machinery here, one for dealing with what we call hard waste which is thread which requires different processing altogether to the other material which is what we call soft waste. Now, the main item is a machine where the thread waste is placed on and it consists of a wood . cylinder with metal spikes on and very heavy weighted rollers. And as you can see they are segmented so that as the material's fed in this cylinder is going round very fast and it tears these threads apart. At least, it doesn’t tear them back to fibre but what it does it stops the mattedness. Or if there is part of a bobbin that's been what we call slipped off and it hasn’t been pulled out, this here machine is actually a puller. And it reduces the hard mass to a slightly more lofty mass.
A slightly more what mass? Lofty?
R- Yes, it's more lofted when it comes out at the front.
Lofted?
R - Lofted aye.
That's it aye, I understand that.
R- Lofted.
And that's what they call the Jumbo don't they?
R- They call, actually it's proper name is a running down machine.
Yes right, that's what we want yes.
R- See its proper name in the trade is a running down machine but it commonly gets its name as ‘the jumbo’ And you can see it's a very solidly constructed machine.
(200)
Yes and a very heavy drive belt and all hasn't it?
R – Yes. Oh it’s a woven belt and of course it's very solidly constructed. Because after all, if you can imagine the width of that it's 32 inches wide; now if you got a rope of the same dimension of the amount of material that is actually on that feeder you see it would be anywhere up to about 8 to 10 inches and that machine's got to tear that you see. And that's what it does, you see it has handles on for reverse, not for reversing, for stopping instantly, instantaneous stop because if a little bit of metal or anything like that goes in of course it can cause a spark and you have a fire. But as the material's delivered at the front it does actually pass over magnets so if there is any steel it will hold it but of course it won't hold non-ferrous metal.
That's it, yes.
R - You know, like brass, something like that would go through.
One thing John, when that hard waste has gone through that machine, where does it go to then?
R- Well, if you look at number 9 in the left-hand corner you'll see a little, what we call a stack. You know the word, a pile of raw material. And it's edging on a guard. Now actually inside that guard is a hole in the floor which when the people underneath are ready, that material is put down that hole for the further processing you see. I meant these guard rails protect anybody from falling down.
Yes.
R - Now, shall we go on about these machines, or shall we take them as a separate item ?
Well, I think if you go on to number 10, I think you'll find it's a picture of the blending machines, John.
R- Oh, well then number 9 is just a general view of the whole room. Now, number 10 are the blending machines. Now, it’s the job of the, well it should be the manager who selects the bales because in cotton particularly you get different colours, and you get different lengths of what we call staple which is the hair length. And of course you’ve got to make a selection, because the longer the hair length and the better it is to spin. But at the same time, when you are spinning to design that means to say that the type of end product begins here and the blend of materials is such that it'll give you the characteristics in your finished product that you want. For instance, in condenser the yarn spun is mainly used for what we call weft which is the filling in any cloth. And in this particular case where they make raising cloths, that's flannelette sheets, yellow polishers, where you want a nap, you have got to put in a certain amount of short fibre so that in your yarn the ends protrude and then when they are brushed they'll stand up further and it gives you a nap. You see the blending starts here. The bales are selected and then they are brought down, so many to each machine, and the operative takes a selection, or should do, of every bale. He doesn't just use one bale. I mean, down here you have thirty odd bales which are all in process at one time, so that you get a full cross section and a perfect blending so that when the material is delivered, and the action of machine is just simply a tearing action, the material is fed on the lattices that you can see. And inside the machine there are further spiked lattices with spikes rotating against one another. For instance the lattice is going up then the top lattice
(300)
will be coming in reverse to the spikes going up so that as the cotton passes in between, it’s torn apart. And all that it does to take the mass and break it into small tufts. And of course you see, each machine is so sequenced that the percentage of any one can be regulated. You see they all fall on to this creeper lattice, all the material falls on to the creeper lattice so that the number 4 machine puts its material on. Now as it’s passing along it passes in front of number 3 whose material falls on top of number 4, number 2 whose material falls on 3 and 4 and number 1 who falls on 2, 3 and 4, so that you get again a cross…
It's a mix again, yes.
R- … a cross section and blending. Actually it’s a blending plant you see? Well those are them. Now, number 11. Now. these are the breaking up machines to give them their proper name, better known in the trade as the devils because believe you me they are at times. You see the thing is now you’ve got the material that's been through the jumbo comes down the chutes and then it's fed on to the lattices as we can see. But these machines, the cylinders are all covered with, again, short spikes and they’re what, the diameter is 39” and you have 37 lags on each cylinder and the number of teeth vary in density, the further down the line you get, the finer the teeth. More of them because you see your material is being slowly opened as it's going down. So that the thing is that the
(350)
coarser teeth are at the first cylinder and the finer teeth at the back; until it comes out at the front. If it's properly broken up the material then will not contain any thread at all, it'll all be fibre.
There is something I noticed about one of those machines when they had it open the other day John. The lags on the front cylinders and I think the third one back, seemed to be set on a steel plate whereas all the others were on wood. Is that just a different type of lag, or is it ...
R- No. The thing is they should all be on a steel plate. That steel plate prevents burning in case of fire you see?
Aye, yes, yes.
R- Because actually these machines, you know a match will strike a fire, and the velocity. After all the cylinders are going 900 rpm. The velocity is such that although the machine might be stopped a spark will travel the whole length of that machine and should it be running you can’t catch it if you ran, before it's at the other end, a fire all down the line.
Yes, they did have them on fire one day. I didn’t see them but I think we’ll get on to that. Of course that’s the reason why the fire buckets are on the floor, isn't it?
(15 min) (400)
R- Oh there's fire buckets and there is hoses on every pillar. For instance, you can only see one there but actually there is another down here and this right-hand wall side, looking down the length of the room there's, there are about six and then there’s a hose reel at the feed end. And then there is a hose reel, 1 think that's it there.
Yes, the far right-hand corner of the room. Now, the insurance on those machines must be terribly expensive, you know.
R- Oh it is yes. And of course the thing is you see that with experience comes the knack of dealing with fires. Because, I mean, the thing is that when it strikes up, you see your smoke will come out of your third cylinder. No, the second set of cages. For instance, as these teeth go round the material is broken off and then it's thrown on to cages, revolving cages that condense it and let the air escape you see. And then it slowly goes forward until it's a mass, ready for the next cylinder. Well the thing is if you have a fire in the first set of cages your smoke will come out of your second you see?
I see, yes.
R- And of course you have got to be smartish. The thing is to stop the machine straight away and get to the source of the fire. And so often for instance, if you open the access you know it'll woosh!, flare up.
Flare up.
R- And then again, this is one reason why, when I was managing I insisted that the floor was kept very clean because it will travel, it will travel on the machines of course, it will travel across the machines if there's fluff anywhere about.
Yes, I have heard the old tacklers on about that John when they had gas lighting in the sheds and they went to light them at night. They said many a time the flare used to travel down the dust on the beams, you know. It'd just catch and it’d just go woosh, from one end of the shed to the other as fast as you could follow.
R- Oh yes. Well this is why if you were careless lighting them and you broke a mantle you know?
Yes. Of course it's almost explosive isn't it, finely divided cotton.
R- Oh it is, aye. Well I mean, let’s face it, cotton is of itself 92% cellulose, which is a very highly flammable substance.
Yes, that’s it. Aye of course it is.
R- You see? And I mean, wait a minute, I got that wrong. It’s 89% cellulose, 8% moisture, and the remainder is natural waxes and what have you. So does that cover that one?
Aye. I should think that's fairly comprehensive Mr Greenwood.
R- Right. [No 12] Well now then you see that's just a close up of one of the cylinder covers ...
Number 12. Yes, that's number 12.
(450)
R- ... showing the date of the machine 1923 to 1979 and still going strong.
I noticed that, I noticed that a lot of the machinery in the mill seems to have been replaced round about 1900 to 1910 and yet the devils seemed to be a bit later. Is that because devils wear out and do they wear out any quicker than any other machine?
R - Well let's say, let me say this straight away. That the machinery in this mill has been bought from various places, at various times. For instance the plant that you saw, if you had been there 20 years ago the shed part where the cards are was full of looms, you see.
Aye, I thought it were like a weaving shed, yes.
R- And the card room was on the first floor where you saw the mules you see.
Aye, yes.
R- And what’s happened in this particular mill, the machinery has been nearly all second hand you see. And the devils you know, they do wear out of course, they are being replaced by some from somewhere else but I don't think they have had any new machinery except the press. And that was second hand, but it was brand new and it had never been erected and the firm that bought it didn't want it so it came to us in its crates but it was second hand. But there is a peculiar, well not a peculiar tale, I shouldn't say that. There is a tale going you know that in the about 1880's, happen later than that, round about 1900 happen, I can't give you the exact date, but this particular mill used to be known as Devil Dick.
Aye?
(450)(20 min)
R- Devil Dick’s. Now Dick was a Hardman, wait a minute, was he a Hardman? Well he would be yes. He would be a Hardman and it were known as Devil Dick’s. Now then he was the owner and the story goes that one, and I mean in those days you know they used to be working owners, that he went in early one morning and they used to start at 6 o’clock mind you but he had gone in because they were short of cotton, short of material. And he set the devils on. He nearly burnt the factory down because there was nobody there and he had a fire. You see, in my time, in my time these mills used to run solely on devilled cotton, they never used to buy comber. And 1 can remember comber being instituted in the mill where I worked, and it was oh, shall I say a pence a pound in those days cheaper than thread waste. And then slowly as the mules in the higher classes of spinning went out, there wasn't the same thread waste made so they looked round and they started using these combers. And what, and so now, I shall say these last, oh what, 40 years, comber had been the staple type of raw material. And thread waste is the poor relation. But L. Whitakers were very wise, everybody threw the devils out you see, they wouldn’t. Well in the main they couldn’t get fellows to run them, what they called a skilled deviller you see, a chap who was used, I mean he had to have his wits about him and some acumen because if there was a fire you know, he’s got to know what he was doing. And a lot of people threw their devils out and of course they’ve rued it ever since because thread waste is now the cheapest of raw materials because nobody uses it much.
That’s it aye.
R- You were going to say?
Yes, I was going to say. I don’t know what I was going to say John so we’ll go on to picture 13.
R- Well, picture 13 just shows the chappie using a hose-pipe on the fire.
They have got a fire in the trunking. Now that was in the small machine down at the side, that only has one cylinder on it John. What's that used for?
(550)
R- Well, as I had mentioned in the intermediate process as above, condenser spinning, when they are drawing the thread out you know. I mean first of all it's carded into a rope, and it's got to be gradually dwindled down till it's ready for spinning. Well to make it carry in these intermediate processes they have to put twist in which it means turning it on its axis to bind the fibres together to carry it forward. Well, it's these processes before the yarn has received its final twist you see where it's soft but it still has twist in, and it doesn't want very much opening, so they just use this one cylinder and it reduces it back to fibre. It's known as a roving waste opener.
Roving waste opener, yes that’s it.
R- You see, you only need a match or a nail or something like that.
The fire actually that day was in the trunking of that machine.
R – Yes well it would be, because there is only one cylinder on it
That's it aye
R- You see, it's straight, there's no cages, there is no cages you see.
Straight into the trunking, yes.
R - Aye, yes.
And when that waste comes off those devils, that’s blown upstairs into the blending room, isn’t it?
R - That blown upstairs into the blending roomy into two bins. And the thing is from there of course it's baled up and it has then to stand for three days or should do. The point being that when the material has gone through these cylinders it actually takes all the moisture out. You see the natural content of cotton, moisture content is 8% or 8 ½% and the thing is that when it comes out of these machines, and I’ve tested it myself, it's what we call bone dry. In other words, if there is ½% of moisture in it it's as much. So that the thing is to get it to spin and make it pliable again it has to pick up its natural moisture because if you noticed that on those blending machines in particular, and you haven't got a picture of the stacking bins, you'd have seen that there were jets over the tops and these jets spray on a solution of oil and water, on to this devilled cotton as it came down.
(25 min)
Aye.
R - And then of course it’s baled up, and then they get, it gets further oil as it goes through on the …
Scutcher?
R -Lattice.
Yes.
R- No, on the lattice to the baler and then it should, for good results, stand about three days while the water has permeated the whole of the cotton. Because the idea of putting oil on is just to stop the water evaporating again, you see, the water is a carrier for the oil, which holds the water when it gets on.
(600)
Yes.
R- So now then.
Picture 14.
R- Number 14. Well now this is really a little bit out of place in this particular order in as much as… When the cotton goes on a finisher card, what we call a finisher card which will be explained later, the selvedges are taken away because it would be an uneven yarn. And these machines are extracting those selvedges from the card room which is ...
That’s it, there is a little thing sucking it off at either side isn't it?
R- Yes that's right yes, aye. Now this is the baling press and the thing is that the baling press is used for two things. As I have said before, as far as devilled cotton’s concerned. For maturity, to press the cotton together, and in the other case the comber waste is baled up to prevent having loose stock lying about all over the place. And again, when we had three to four spinning mills it was pressed into bales for transporting to the other mills so that every mill was using the same type of material. Because it used to be when each mill did its own blending, like I've mentioned before, you get cotton which might be white, it might be cream you know and it might be somewhere in between. And at one time, going back a good many years, when each mill did its own blending you couldn’t take the yarn from Springvale and put it with the yarn from Holmesfield because Holmesfield might be using more white cotton than you are and you used to get a lot of what they call bars or stripes in them in the cloth you see. And the point is that when we put this in, when would it be 1953 or 4 probably or thereabouts but anyway the thing is all the blending was done at Springvale and the incidence of striped cloth fell by 80% because striped cloth of course was reject. And the incidence fell by 80% it paid for itself did that machine in the first 12 months.
That's the way isn't it.
(650)
R- Yes. And what happens in it of course, the material comes off, you see you have got the pressing end instead of a full view of all the press. But the material is collected you see on the apron that we saw from the blending room and it drops into what we call the trampler side of the press which gathers it in and presses it and gathers it and presses it gently until it's got a specific amount in and then it stops. Now when that machine stops automatically it stops all the blending machines upstairs, it stops the feed lattice, and it also cuts off the oil sprays you see?
Aye. I see, I didn’t know.
R- And then of course you see this is what they call a swivel press. It's on a central pillar and then it’s swung round one half, you see, under the pressing side, and then he presses it while the other side is filling up.
That’s it yes.
R- You see the other side is filling up while he is pressing and wiring that.
That's it. Well I have never seen that done and I couldn't weigh up what was going on there, because I could see that the actual hydraulic press was only at one side and now, obviously now I know because that's what you are here for Mr Greenwood, is to enlighten us.
R- Well, the thing is there, there's a ram in there.
Yes.
R- But the old one, it only had a single screw, where this had a twin screw. The pressure is about 5tons for a square inch.
Good.
R- Now then. This machine is called a scutcher.
This is picture number 16, yes.
R- Yes. Picture number 16 is a scutcher, the machine was invented by a chappie called Snodgrass in Glasgow, in - what's the matter?
Oh you are great John, go on. No it's that, John I’m most impressed with the quantity of information, I mean this, it's just, I am sorry but go on I am sorry I have interrupted you.
R- I should have said that the finishing end was invented by Snodgrass in Glasgow in about 1820 but the other parts are known as hoppers, and the whole object of these hoppers again is blending. And the whole object of the machine is to take the blended stock out of the bales, blend it again, and the spikes on the lattices in these hoppers, which is the same as the blending machines except that they are finer you see, so it breaks these lumps that you might have into smaller tufts. And then of course when you have got them right lofty, as is a good Lancashire process, you squeeze them together again. You see the thing is that what happens is that as this machine is going along it's feeding the stock. Now this is the blending hopper, and that's the hopper feeder in there. If we had a front view, if you had taken one you know, in between there is a vibrating plate that is gradually pressing the cotton on to a front plate which means that as the cotton is just simply dropping in by the action of the lattices, every hole is filled up. And so, as it is delivered you get an even sheet of cotton.
Yes.
R- You see? Now as it goes along of course the cotton then passes under a roller. There's a top roller, but the bottom one consists of a lot of rollers about 2 to 2 ½ inches wide, what we call pedals, and the roller sits in the lip or nose of the pedal. So that if you get a lump in one place, that pedal will depress you see. Now if it’s very thin all the pedals will come up and at the back side where, but you can't see, there are a lot of levers that are all intermingled and if as one pedal is lifted up another might be depressed, and so on until the action of the pedals ultimately is conveyed through a lever to a strap fork on a cone, a pair of cone drums, one’s convolute and the other is involute. Aye one's concave and the other's ...
Convex.
R - Convex. But these cone drums are machined to very, very fine limits in their arc so that as a strap moves, even if it's only l/8 of an inch there's a change of speed on to the intake roller.
Aye.
R- And these straps, I mean these cone drums, are what, 15 inches in length and whereas one is narrow at the bottom the other one's broad at the bottom. And they, as I say they are so graduated that as this strap floats up and down on the surface of these cone drums so the speed of the intake is altered so that you get a regular feed. And, there's quite a story about one of these machines, not this one in particular, but the other.
Yes?
(750)
R- That in 1970. No, about 1968, whereas we had two machines we thought right, we'll get a brand new one you see. And this would be fully automatic you see. So they went to a German firm called Herketh to see what they could offer. And they said yes, we can find you a new machine you know. Oh yes, I mean, those old things. So they said “Well what we’d like you to do is to send us some of your stock which we will process on our machine and we should also like you to send some of the laps.” You see, the thing is that when this machine, when this cotton's gone through the feed rollers, it's combed out by a beater and then it’s condensed on to cages. As I said, being Lancashire way we have opened it up to squeeze it together. It goes through the rollers, the delivery rollers, four of them you know so it's three nips, and the pressure on there is about 5tons, on the whole of those, then it's rolled on to what we call a shell, and it's rolled up into a roll like a toilet roll, and we call those laps.
(35 min)
R- So we had to send some laps to Herketh and after a long time, and when I say a long time I’m talking in terms of six to nine mouths, we finally got a report. We are very sorry to say having processed your material on our machinery we would not be able to give you any better results than your present machinery. And the machine that that was done on was made in the year 1900.
Aye.
R- Yes.
So there had been no advance.
R- There had been no advance in the technology to improve, shall I say the regularity, and this was what we were aiming at in that time and we never got a new machine. And it isn't this one, it's the other one at the other side.
Yes that’s it, there are two machines in there aye.
R- Which was made by Platt Brothers in 1900.
Aye, aye.
R- Well that’s number 17. Showing George as he is called.
George Pickup, yes.
R- George Pickup, yes, a grand chap, just taking a lap out of the machine. Now the picture of these laps, every one has to be within a pound of a norm, either above or below, definitely no more. Actually in some cases it's half a pound, but no more, if it's more than that it has to be rejected.
And the reason for that John? Do we come on to that?
R- Well it, you see this is the first stage, or I should say the second stage of what you might say is a colour, quality control.
Yes.
R- The first stage of course of quality control, is the selection of raw materials. Now this, you are getting down to the fine limits you see because after all you've, one of these weighs 421bs so that half a pound is something slightly over 1% of irregularity you see.
(800)
Yes.
R- So that's it. Now then.
Ah that's it, he was just weighing one weren't he.
R – Oh, 18 shows him weighing one, and of course the thing is the weights are actually locked in that box that you can see at the back of the scale so that they can*t be tampered with. He has odd weights, you know, half a pound, but there is a scale on there on the dial you see. It’s up to a pound and a half either way but the thing is why he has the odd weights because if you are changing materials for instance, the thing is that you might want to know if a lap is very heavy, how much too heavy it is. Because as I was mentioning, the cone drums that are feeding the stock in, there’s a regulating screw on there and the thing is that you can manually alter the position of the stop on the cone drums. For instance if the lap’s light it wants to be fed quicker, so you can manually alter this position of the strap on the cone drums so that it will feed quicker. So this is why he has spare weight just to be able to adjust his strap on his cone drums. And 19 is, shows him inserting the lap roller or as the, in some places they call them mandrels, we call them mandrels. The mandrels are covered with that sleeve and then he puts it in and then of course he can withdraw the mandrel easily [when the lap is full]. Now then, number 20 again shows the mandrel in position, the machine has been started up and he is replacing the guard. Now the thing about this raw material, this stock, as I had mentioned before it's covered in oil, at least there's oil sprayed on it. So then, the point is that these layers would tend to stick to each other. And to prevent that when they are unwinding we place in a series of threads, these are very soft so that they are lost in the next process but we feed them in so that the sheet will unwind without sticking to itself.
Aye that's it, yes.
R- And so 20 and 21 show George, well 21 particularly, he is taking a spindle out and he’s going to put a new one on.
That’s it.
(850)(40 min)
I have an idea 22 is the same John. Ah yes, he is threading it through, yes.
R- Oh yes. It shows him threading it through, yea he has to thread it through.
Yes, through the guard, and 23 he has got them all replaced. Tell me John, those pirns that he uses there, are they say nicked cops from upstairs or something like that?
R- Yes, reject yarn, yes.
Yes, that’s it. Yes.
R- It’s a way of using them up you see.
Yes, that's it, aye. Of course it all gets combed again and goes back, recycled into the process.
R- That’s true.
Yes. Aye.
R- Aye, well 23 is the same. Now then, 24, now we have got these laps from the scutcher and now they've got to be carded. And I should say that the action of the scutcher is to break down the, shall I say large lumps as I've already mentioned into smaller pieces. Now, when we get to the cards they are very small tufts but the card, the action of the card is to disintegrate all the tufts and get down to individual fibres you see. And if you were to examine the web coming up at the front there's no
tufts at all, not if your machinery is set correctly. I mean that's the whole object of carding is to disintegrate the fibres and to separate them so that there’s ease of manipulation after processing. And then again, the thing is that carding, it does remove quite a lot impurities and extra short fibres, they drop out. Well, here you are,
you have actually jumped the gun here, because these are finisher cards, no they are not…
No these are the ...
R - No they are breaker cards.
Yes they are breaker cards. Yes.
R- No, that’s right. I beg your pardon. And the whole action is this, that you put two of these laps on.
Yes, which is another mix of course.
R- Which is another blend, you see. We have a light one and a heavy one you see. You can put them on together you know, providing the manager's not about. And hope that it'll be right. But you see, you put two on, well these two layers pass under the feed roller which is revolving very, very slowly and then they go into contact with what we call a taker-up which is a roller covered all over with saw teeth just like a circular saw. And of course they comb the fringe of the fibres out. And as the fibre becomes detached, they carry it forward and then they are put on the cylinder. Now the cylinder is covered with card wire. Now, card wire is a cloth foundation of about 1/8 of an inch thick and inserted into the cloth foundation are ‘U’ shaped wires you see, and the number of wires varies with the type of material you are using. You see you can have a
(900)
coarse card, or you can have a fine card and it varies, again it varies with the instrument that you've put the wire on. For instance, in condenser cards you have got the main cylinder which is 45 inches in diameter and 49 inches wide in the main. And round the periphery the upper periphery at any rate, you get a series of what they call rollers and clearers which are each covered with this card clothing you see. The thing is, to give a carding action the wire on the cylinder is bent at a certain angle. Now, the wire on the rollers is bent at the opposite angle, and it’s the rollers that actually, on the cylinder, that does the carding. Now, the wire on the clearers in at the opposite angle to take the cotton off the rollers and put it back on the cylinder. And so the process goes on until the material's gone right round. And then at the front we have a large slow moving cylinder 26 inches in diameter, again covered with card wire, on which the fleece is condensed.
(45 min)
SCG/01 September 2003
6,711 words.