THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON THE 8th of APRIL 1980 IN THE WRAPPING ROOM AT SPRING VALE MILL, CHARLES LANE, HASLINGDEN. THE INFORMANT IS ARNOLD PARKINSON, MULE OVERLOOKER AND THE INTERVIEWER IS MARY HUNTER.
[SG note. Some parts of this transcript were virtually incoherent and I have had to edit very heavily to make sense. The principle I have followed is to preserve the sense and meaning rather than refine the original words. The message is that if you wish to make your own assessment of my accuracy you must go back to the original tape. Sorry if this sounds arbitrary but it was the only practical way to do the job.]
R - Is it right now?
Yes, we finished the last tape on 73 1 think didn't we?
R – That’s right, yes. Well you were on to 73 and we were saying there the basic thing of piecing up two ends together in that you pull the loose end, which is broke off the cop with your right hand, right? Now, with your right hand then you’ll reach over, your left hand will also reach out to get hold of your loose end, the soft roving which is coming from the bobbin. Your right hand then will go to your left hand. Now although it seems like it you don't actually twist, you just put your right hand to your left hand, and break the two ends of [level], and therefore those two ends together will automatically twist their selves, you don't twist them yourself.
Why will they automatically twist then?
R - Well because the spindle is revolving in itself with the spindle bands and the mule running out .. and as I say, once you've put, once your right hand has gone over and you’ve got hold of your loose end you're like, you are not pulling your soft end, you know a lot do, they are frightened and they are pulling back, that’s why they break then. But you don’t, if you just put your right hand over and just break your
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your soft end off and you automatically just put it together and it spins it back in, the fibres gather theirselves up with the spindle turning all the time.
Which do you break off the loose bit with?
R - Well, the loose bit, it seems more complicated than what it is. You'll have your right hand up in the air, your left hand's down. When it gets to the roller beam and the mule's gone in, you automatically get hold of your slack, your soft end from your bobbin with your left hand, you just break that off and the other end will go to it then you see because you've already got hold of it.
Yes.
R- So I meant you just put the two ends together and automatically with the spinning of the spindle it'll piece itself up, although a lot try to spin it with the finger on top but in actual fact you don’t need to spin it at all, it already does it. But the idea is, really, to piece that end up as near to that roller beam at the front as possible. When you get your end from the cop you're reaching over and that is to try and get it from the spindle point to the roller beam, as near a possible.
So that it has the maximum twist.
R- So that it has the maximum twist in it. Not to piece up when the mule gets three quarter way out or on the back, and doing that is neither use to weaver nor the cloth what’s being finished you see because it's too soft. And you'll see it done, you'll see it done a lot in fact. I mean even a lot of overlookers including meself does the same thing many a time, instead of piecing up from the spindle point to the
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roller beam will get hold of the roller beam end first, the opposite way to what I’ve already said, with the left hand, fetch the soft stuff forward, break that off first and then take the spindle to that you see? It's the wrong way, it's the wrong way of doing I quite admit it but that's another way that you find. A lot of young uns that's just starting in the mule room does that to get a start you see? Once they’ve mastered that part the other comes quite easy.
On picture 73 is Jim doing it that way.
R – Jim’s doing it roughly in the right way but as I say he's gone over the soft end, so he's bringing the soft end to the spindle when it should be the other way about. And .. that's what I mean you see, you joint the piece up as near as possible to the roller beam. You should do that, that's the way to do it by rights, it's not to take the soft end to the spindle but take the spindle to the soft end. On picture 74 it shows you there now where he has pieced the ends up. Now he's gathering his waste,
(5 min)
he's picking his waste up. Now if he is not careful, by doing that, them ends is going to travel through on to the ends again. Instead of holding his hand down, getting hold of the ends and just opening them a bit with his fingers. Hooking the ends up but not stopping them from spinning you see, to gather his waste up. 'Cause that waste would be flying about even with a bit of draught, blown it over on to the other, so then if it’s blown it over on to the other it means he has to break it again and then start re-piecing it.
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So then the other picture, number 75, that shows where he has managed to gather his, his waste up, and he's just rolling it round in his hand. Now the other side I don't know whether there was sommat went wrong there. Looks like all the ends is gathered. So in this picture he’s had some kind of a break down here, or ...
On the other mule?
R - On the other mule. Or else the mule has slipped from the back and they've all curled round on the top of the spindle and consequently all the ends is all gone slack, so there in something automatically gone wrong with the mule which is not their fault. We’re right on them two are we?
I think so.
R - Seventy-six is just an example sometimes, as spinners suggesting really, either that the mule is running out, that there is either more twist being put in or not enough with the consequence that Jim has to put his hands through the ends and lift them up you see. To see whether they're feeling a bit hard or they're feeling a bit on the soft side you know? I mean on that principle that's what he’s doing. That’s what he’s lifting the ends up for.
What could he do about it if it was?
R - Well he can do nothing. The only thing he can do, that’s report it to such as the overlooker or the manager, and to say that he thinks they are either too hard or they are too soft. Then that's up to the individual overlooker to either re-wrap them or check up for the strength and everything else, whether it wants twist in or it wants twist taking out.
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Now 77 is another reasonable picture as to what should go on with regards to keeping the leather rollers and that clean on the mule, where the ends come through underneath there in between the two fluted rollers and your leather rollers. The cleaner which runs along the top is being wiped off instead of just being turned round and being left as a lot of them do. He’s actually wiping the dirt off the bit of wool which is nailed to a small block of wood to travel backward and forward with it. The only function that has is to keep the leather rollers reasonably clean.
Do you have a name for that?
R - Well I mean there's no specific name, we just call then cleaners. There is no specific name for them. They’re a cleaner and that’s all they are for really and that's just for keeping the dirt, the bit of soap and that which is in the cotton do you know, from sticking to the leather roller and keeps all them clean.
It just travels along those…
R - It just goes half way across the mule to the headstock, then he turns it back round and it comes back again, that’s the only function about that one particular thing.
And if it wasn’t there, the rollers…
R- Well, if that cleaner weren't on at all, or there were no other kind of cleaner being used then the leather rollers would get that dirty as you'll see in one or two odd mules which don’t bother about the cleaner going backward and
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forward, or looking after them you'll see the leather roller's going to get all slippy with the grease and soap that’s come out of the cotton and the oil that gets on to the leather rollers. Well if he doesn’t keep them clean consequently you get a small film of dirt on the leather and on the ends running through although really with the naked eye you can’t actually see it but in fact the roller has just lifted up that little bit so by the fact of that leather roller just being lifted that little bit, the actual twisting is not being done from the spindle point to the leather roller and the fluted roller, it’s actually going underneath it.
Yes, I am with you.
R - Now that can cause some ends breaking unnecessarily what don't need to break. You see them fluted rollers are another, the front one is nearly always kept clean, the excess dirt what comes off the cotton and the cleaners goes mostly on to that back fluted roller. Now that back fluted roller should really be cleaned frequently. The spinner like individually cleans them happen five or ten minutes at morning or at dinner time, in their own time, keeping that back roller clean.
Yes.
R - That is really what they should do. Some spinners you'll see they don't even bother over ‘em. They are supposed to do what they call scouring every three months. That’s been a recognised thing in the trade all the time; and they normally stop like, depending on the length of the mule, between four hours, four and a half, five, it might even get up to six on individual lengths of mule you know. You have a time allowance that’s for taking all the bobbins out, all your leather rollers and everything off, giving them all a good cleaning and a good oiling. That should be done at least once every three months. But I mean through the process, like everything else, I mean, that gets ignored many a time in a lot of places including here, but more often than not they get cleaned more or less.
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They really need to do it in this place because depending on the requirements of the stuff what we're wanting. But quite a lot of firms just ignore it and don't bother till it gets too late then they have to do something. But with all the dirt there is on that fluted roller at the back plus the dirt what's on your leather roller, you can't
actually see it with a naked eye, but you can see it if you’re looking carefully, you'll see at the back of the leather roller the ends are actually twisting. And you get more breakages on your ends with that than you’ll do with anything. Now 78 is the same procedure, we can see the mule running out. Jim’s took his cleaner off, so as to keep his rollers clean and he's actually got the cleaner in his hand making sure he's got all the excess dirt and that off the cleaner before putting it back onto the leather rollers for it to start again. Your next picture to that is 79 which also shows the cleaner being
pushed along with the other one, just one round block of wood being pushed
along on top to another and it's only like a small wool, piece of cloth in that what’s on, but it just helps to keep the leathers and that clean and polished that little bit. Now, number 80, well that just shows you the mule as it's run out and I presume it's near enough to the back with this picture and it just shows you the individual spindles, the ends on the top of the spindle before the mule's backed. The pressure which
they have for pressing the tube and that down. It's quite a decent picture is that of the tubes and the ends on each individual spindle.
In that picture, am I right, it’s twisting at that moment?
R - It's twisting on the back yes. That’s when the biggest part of the twisting is done when it's on the back and as I say it's a good picture to show you that the ends get a reasonable tension all the
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way along when it gets on the back because that's when all the twisting mostly is being put in.
Does it twist when it stops at the back or when it's coming out again?
R - Well it's twisting all the time. When it's coming out it’s twisting but it does its majority of twisting when it gets here on the back we call it.
That’s right, yes.
R - But it is twisting all the way. It starts twisting from the time it leaves the roller beam does the mule. The condenser mule starts doing that as soon as it leaves the roller beam it is twisting is that. It twists it and drafts it at the same time.
And by draft you mean pull it out.
R - By drafting .. it's pulling it out as well as twisting it.
And when it goes back in it, it's winding it on.
R- When the mule’s going back in the folders is changed, your counterfolder is the one at the bottom, in reverse order. Like when the mule’s running out your counterfolder is at the bottom, your winding folder, guide wire as we call 'em like is at the top. Now when the mule has backed off the winding folder then goes to the bottom, your counterfolder comes back to the top so then the mule starts running in and the winding folder then is guiding the ends on to each individual cop.
Yes, I am with it now.
R - Eighty-one .. well that's a matter of showing you where Jim is pulling the end off the cop, off one cop end which is broke. That's really the only thing you can say about that, except that it shows you where he's got his fingers through the two cops to stop the spindle from revolving. And he’ll be holding the cop and the tube at the same time.
To find the end?
R – Yes to find the end so the end will lock on to the other you see, so you can just pull it straight up then. But it shows you in that one particular picture your counterfolder and your winding folder. You see, your winding folder is the top one when the mule's running out, your counterfolder, the one underneath when the mule’s running out. When it's running back in it's the other way about, the winding folder in at the bottom and the counterfolder is at the top.
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Yes. You can also see on 81, and 80 you can see the thread on the bottom.
R - Yes I can see the thread underneath, yes. That is only when they are getting ready for doffing where all that thread is involved.
But presumably, every so often you’ve to take all that off.
R - Well roughly, depending on the count and that what you are spinning, they need to be took off at least once a week. If you go on to a bigger count, and when I say a bigger count I mean if you are going on to threes, fours, fives, such as that which we do as well as sevens and things like that. If you go on to a bigger count like threes or fours then obviously any time you doff that bit of waste on the bottom gets so much bigger, so you can only stand a limited amount on that otherwise your spindles will be stopping, your ends'll be running together, and so as I say the bigger your count the more times you want to take that off.
Can you just explain the counts to me? How the counts work out?
[What follows is incredibly confusing even to me, and I have spent a lot of time studying this. The basic problem is that Arnold is not answering the question that Mary asked. He is describing how they do checks on yarn in production in the wrapping room. I can’t begin to explain this but what I can do is give the answer to Mary’s original question as stated in the Cotton Year Book for 1919. I chose this at random out of the text books that I have on hand because it is clear, concise and authoritative. ‘Owing to the fact that some yarns are denser than others and also to the difficulty of measuring the diameters of threads, the count of yarn cannot express any direct or simple weight or measurement. What it does express is a relationship of length to weight. The units of length and weight involved are the hank (840 yards) and the pound (7,000 grains). Sometimes indeed the count of yarn is called the hank number because it expresses the number of hanks that go to make up one pound. It will be clear from the above that if we take the weight of a hank of yarn in grains and divide it into 7,000 we shall at once ascertain the count of the yarn. Further, if we take for convenience one-seventh of a hank, (called a lea = 120 yards) we shall only need to divide the weight in grains into 1,000 in order to ascertain the count.’ Note that this is for counts of cotton, a hank of worsted is reckoned at 560 yards. I hope this makes what follows slightly less opaque. SCG.]
R- Well the counts is there, just give us that board, on the… Well, the counts are these. Now then these are below fives, now these are what we call low counts, right? Now these are what we are meaning, you take them bits off there at least twice a week on them. Ones, one and a quarters, one and a half, one and three quarters, then you start going up to twos all the way through. Them’s your grains, them's what they should wrap at. Now when I’m talking about wrapping that's the wheel but she has a yard stick. Now when Irene is wrapping with this particular count she only has ten cops right? Before it only goes into five hundred because five hundred yards on this represents a pound.
Five hundred yards represents…
R - Roughly represents to a pound in weight, supposed to do. That’s one ounce as we call it. Now as I say she'd wrap ten cops if she were doing fours right? She'd get ten cops up to the wrapping room. She'd weigh then ten yards off six times, that's sixteen yards then .. right? She'd wrap them. Now if it were fours they should come out to a hundred and twenty five grains.
And a grain is .. ?
R - A grain? Well that's the weights that they put on to the scale you know, just small pieces they are. I mean they're all weighed out for that like. I mean is all of them. They’re fetched for us like that and they are all different little weights that they’ve been put on the scale for weighing. But them's roughly what the weights should be. Now, when you get above the fives and you start going on to your sevens and, well I mean we, we don’t get down to elevens or twelves or anything like that so often, eights is about the biggest thing what we do, although it sounds queer eights represent a hundred and twenty-five grains, the same an fours count, a hundred and twenty-five grains. But you see the difference there, you've only got ten cops at six yards ... right?
Yes.
R - In this particular one you've got .. but you can do any amount of cops providing you get a hundred and twenty yards. So any amount of cops whether you get, you can get two, you can get five, you can got twelve, you can get sixteen or you can go, you can even get into twenty, providing you can get a hundred and twenty yards that represents one lea. One lea. Now that one lea as we pronounce it like that, one lea is exactly like one part of an ounce. It's the eighth part of an ounce. You write leas to make up an ounce, so that's where your one thousand thing comes in so you divide whatever counts you want into that one thousand to give you the grains that you want.
It sounds awful complicated to me.
R - It does .. it might do but see .. put it this way then : a hundred and twenty-five, if you calculate it out going into that one thousand you’ll find out it roughly comes eight times.
Yes, I follow that.
R - Now then, that is the thing about it you see and providing you get a hundred and twenty yards when you are wrapping, and you get all of your cops, whatever you want, they’re the same, as long as you can get a hundred and twenty yards to divide into that, that hundred and twenty you can get what you want out then.
Right ...
R - That's all you need to remember, a hundred and twenty for below sevens, above sixes and fives, below fives, you only take half of five hundred grains. Because it's a very heavy thing you see, it's twice the weight what the others are. But ally all your, all your grains, all your counts divide into a thousand, and that’s where you get your, that's where you get your grain. And that’s all there is to be said really about that.
How does this weighing machine work?
R - Well that’s not a weighing machine, that's what they call a wrapping wheel. All as they do with that, every time Irene used to take a wrap off the mule, she'd put a cop an each of them spindles. When she took the spindles she'd put it on to this wrap wheel, and she'd turn that handle at what’s called twenty turns with the handle from where it is now, she’d turn it round twenty times. Now that twenty is in actual fact when you've weighed it, when you’ve measured it out, it’s sixty yards because it does a turn and a half, every time it goes round it goes two and a half times round with the handle there to wheel all the way round. So if she take twenty she's actually getting sixty yards. Now when she's done that, she puts it on the strength machine here which hooks on to the top hook, the bottom hook, this is automatic, it runs itself.
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Some of them have a wheel on, they turn by hand and it pulls a chain at the top so that, as you can see, the finger goes round telling you the strength of what each individual cop is.
Oh I see, yes. Very good.
R - There is supposed to be a limit but there in no specific limit to them really I mean you can’t because you might pull one cop off which is a bit thicker end, you might pull another two off which is that bit thinner you see.
Sorry about that deviation, but I thought I’d ask you.
R - Oh it's right. No, as I say, that’s just a wrapping wheel, that's just for getting her sixty before she puts it on here. That’s all that's for.
Now we’ve got a new series of photos on the headstock.
R – Eighty, yes well this is where the mule’s already in.
And if you can just on the following ones explain to us as well as you can
R - Well you’ve got your mule into the roller beam, it stopped in at the roller beam and as far as this front side is concerned you’ve got two weight levers which you can see quite clearly; one which we call a salmon head lever, that is the one with those two ten pound weights on and the counterfolder weight which in some cases we have just a weight on it without having a five pound on, to compensate for them. Now getting any one of these weights out of correspondence, we’ll say we had that chain there, the chain that comes from the folders down to the salmon head, if that one had to be pulled up that bit more tighter then this one'd be slack. So therefore, when you’re mule is running out your folder would be tipping up all the time, pulling the end off the cop all the time. That’s really all. Them are supposed to be in uniform with one another all the way through the mule. If you get one tight and one slack you'll get a variation and when your mule backs off .. that's providing you can get to the back without it jumping up .. you’ll see then because you’ll get a lot of ends that’s slack, you'll get some that's tight and that can be quite a bit of it with them. Now it shows you
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the quadrant as we call it with a long chain fastened to it that is also fastened to a barrow wheel inside. Now that barrow wheel is the one which governs the amount of time as there is on that cop under the tubes. Whether it's on a tube, or whether it's on a Welsh hat, whether it’s on a paper tube or the bare spindle, that chain and the barrow wheel, plus the plate wheel governs the times on them, as well as the weights.
A quadrant is the diagonal bar?
R - The quadrant. That's right, the diagonal bar as you call it.
What is it?
R - That's what it is, it's only a circle cut in half and another what's called ... another small collar fixed on to it so that through but it works backwards and forwards , really that’s all it amounts to. But in actual fact as I say, it is to govern the tension which is on them cops. But whether they are on any tube or bare spindle or anything else, that's what that is for. You’ve also got a small nosing notion on it should be adjusted so that when the mule is running in or out there is a chain .. used to be fixed to the travelling rail at the other side here and it came round through a small eye hole at the bottom of the mule, back up to the nosing motion to work automatic. But like .. as spinners are, in their wisdom sometimes they move it up, they take it off. Like some cops it wouldn’t work, others it would work too fast on the mule and other times it wasn’t working. Well the idea of that particular notion is only for a particular reason, when your mule, your cops are getting tall on to the spindle or the tube or when it’s getting full. That nosing motion then should he starting coming into operation to push that chain that little bit more. Now when it pushes that chain it turns that barrow wheel that bit faster. Now with turning that barrow wheel and your plate wheel that bit faster so it makes then spindles revolve that bit faster and the cotton then is being pulled tighter at the nose, so as to keep a good nose on and that’s what the nosing motion is for, just to keep it tighter.
And the nose is the top of this…
R- The nose is the top end of your cop. Where your end starts coming off when it goes into the loom. Now eighty-three, now that is the same thing except in the reverse way. It does show you the builder rail.
The what?
R - The builder rail. Now this rail as you can see it more or less underneath the rim band which turns all your spindles and that’s really all that is for. It turns the tin roller which goes right through the carriage, from one end to the other at both sides of the headstock. It turns that tin roller to turn your spindles. That’s governed at the back with three or four wheels which you can’t see in this picture. But just underneath that is where your builder rail is. Now that builder rail it works with a small chain coming through from the quadrant shaft here, which you can see at one side. You have a small shaft, and it runs through underneath. Now at the inside of there, more or less just down there, there is a small catch that’s fastened on to that shaft. And there’s four or five holes in it. It is just hooked on with a bit of wire and then a small chain comes from that back to a small builder wheel here. Now every time that mule runs out, that builder wheel turns to the required thing at that tooth. If you want two teeth it’ll go two, if you want three it’ll take it to that. We only take one tooth. Now as it turns that one tooth, your builder rail then does naturally move but drops your plates at the one that’s moving. You’ve one, two and one at the back which you can't see. They're moving out all the time, your builder rail itself is just moving down, it's not moving anywhere else it just goes straight up and straight down, but the function of doing that, the shape of the builder rail is what governs the shape of your cops.
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Oh I see.
R - Now if this one here, you can't really explain these like, on this line, because you can't really see them. But the middle plate of all, and the end plate are the two plates what do the shaping of the cop.
Yes.
R - The front plate really is only what they call a Locking Motion. That’s for the nose of the cop and where the cop starts. It's really all as it is for. But the shapes of
each individual plate, if you take any notice of it, the middle one is flat, it looks more or less flat at the top but it is actually concave, that little bit round you know so that the plate in actual fact starts high, starts dropping that very little bit, and comes back up again to make the shape of the nose and the bottom of the tube straight away.
Yes I am with you.
R- There is nothing else really there. Oh there is a quadrant rope there or sommat, aye, he must have been putting a check band on.
I think they were, I think that rope, I don’t know what it was for, but I think they were stretching it weren't they?
R- No, it's too thick you see? No, he’s been putting one of the thick ropes on which pulls the mule in and out. It’s the same weight of rope is that, that’s what that'll be. Now picture 84, that shows you the front of the mule, the plate that's on the top which tell you ‘Taylor Lang Limited. Stalybridge, England’ and .. well I can't really… What is that number?
Number 2,000?
R- Aye, that's when it were more or less made. That’d be the date.
You don’t know when that was?
R - Well 1 couldn’t tell you off hand. They’ve normally a plate at each side of the mule which tells you the date, but most of them were fetched out roughly about 1916, 1920. They started going out then. Well that were more or less when they were made. It shown you in the picture a small rope which goes through a guard which is over the top of the mule, the headstock, right in front. That thin rope is only a steadying band as we call it, for the back shaft, and that’s really all it is for, to help to steady the mule going in and coming out.
What's this?
(750)
R- The handle if that’s what you're meaning. Well that's for winding your rim band when they start first thing at morning. They can put that on the end of the rim band and either turn it round, you can either tighten it or slacken it. Same with the check band which is just underneath it, there is another small flat thing as comes out, they put it on there, they can either tighten that up or slacken it. And that's all the handle is for in there. That block of wood which you can see on the top, that is also the block which they put underneath the counterfolder when they're getting ready for doffing.
Yes.
R - Now 85 is a good picture of the headstock at the front. It shows you the guards which ought to be on now for the insurances. These are over the bobbin drum wheels, for guarding the bobbin drums, they've one at either side. There is the other guard which is [over] your pinion wheels, them are the ones that govern your counts which comes from your bobbin to your spindle point. Underneath the guard at this side is a train of one, two, three, four wheels which is under the steel roller shaft, them's the ones that drive your
(40 min)
mule backwards and forwards that's under there. That is your bevel wheel for driving your different motions all the way through. This small bevel wheel here is for, is into another what we call a bell wheel inside there. That is fastened on to another flat wheel at the back of it which then drives these from the pinions, from your headstock. Them are also for driving your mule in and out. But they drive it all at different sections like, I mean they’re not all the same. The headstock pulleys, the two pulleys on the top, two narrow ones, unless you're looking carefully you might think they are all alike, but they are not. Them two, the first two of all which you can see is what we call the first speed pulley, there's one loose and one which you can turn but in actual fact it's a fast pulley with a small clip at the back which you can’t see here but there is a small clip inside there under the shaft. Now, when that mule sets off, that catch goes into that wheel and then it starts the mule in rotation while driving from these. Now it sounds complicated to you, I quite agree, but once that mule has gone roughly about sixteen inch, twenty inch, the strap which is on that narrow pulley then could be took off, if there's any need it could be took off and it wouldn’t make no difference to the mule, the mule would still run out
(800)
to the back because your other speed pulleys on the big rim takes over. Now as I say that’s your first speed, that’s your second speed which I mean again, has got a loose pulley in the middle, but you've got a two inch strap on, on your narrow pulleys and a three inch on your big one. Now the three inch strap has to go over like, pushing a small lever inside the front of the mule like same as down this side, pushing the fork over under the second (?) when your twist wheels revolve at a certain time. That then with this, this is the one should be done here, the twist motion I am talking about now, has two fingers on. When it gets down here that strap will be on the second speed. Now when that pin releases that arm, the first arm outside releases this fork for that fork to go straight over on to the third speed pulley; that is when all your twist is going in.
The third pulley is the one furthest away?
R- That’s right, the one furthest away. Now the mule then is near enough on the back. That's when near enough all your twisting need being done, all your ends and that are coming to the right tension and everything. But they're all governed with that particular small wheel, the twist wheel as we call ‘em, they're governed with them. You can either go bigger or you can go smaller but you're given that to the required counts as what you're wore likely to spend your time on. The wheels here we have the low counts with that from twos up to eights. Now [it’s] very seldom we go any more, if we did we’d have to change nearly all these round, it we had to go any different. But they can all be changed. Now 86, well that's the same kind of a picture at the front excepting .. when I were saying about your strap fork there coming over under your second speed you can see a small finger just underneath your folders, your counterfolders, that thing, you’ll see a small finger sticking down. Now as the mule runs out roughly about sixteen to twenty inches that finger then depresses that lever to fetch that fork over on to the second speed right?
(850)
It looks like a band doesn't it?
R- Well, there is a band, that is a rope, that's for what you call the quadrant rope. You’ve two ropes there, you’ve that one, that's a seven eighth, that's on the quadrant. Now you’ve got the other thin rope which is just a steadying band from your back shaft. That's over the top. Well that small finger, when the mule is run out that small finger down there is loose, just free on itself but when it starts running out it’ll catch on to this lever here, this slide, and it'll start pushing that down. Now as it pushes that down it fetches that fork forward and it fetches it on to your second speed. Now at a given time that twist wheel turning that finger then shoves that fork out, lifts that fork up from here to let that strap fork go back right over on to the third speed. 87 is a good picture showing you the various ropes including the slide, your carriage rods and that for them, your quadrant as it is when it’s in. You’ve got a check band right down at the bottom that governs the speed of your mule running in so that when it gets into the roller beam it's not banging and breaking all your stop motion at the back. That’s all is required for to stop the mule from running in hard. You've got your quadrant rope again showing, plus your steadying band. These others underneath, they're in twos, that’s steadying and there is one which comes from the back shaft round back to the carriage. But your quadrant band is in two sections, you’ve got one long one at the top but one shorter underneath. But they're both on the same pulley which you can't see here. I can’t see anything else really in there for you. I mean the rods for driving your strap on and pulling then off, but you can't really see it in this. Now, what’s 88? Well 88 shows you the front of your headstock. It shows you the builder wheel that we were talking about before with a small finger which turns as the mule is running out. That mule runs out and you can imagine your quadrant coming up. So as your quadrant's coming up the chain side is going back round. Well as it goes back so this wheel, this finger turns that little cog wheel that much and then lets it go back as your mule goes back in. It also shows you the builder plate and your plates which 1 were saying at the beginning, the shapes of them. As you can see it looks more or less flat but in actual fact it’s that little bit concave in and then up.
Yes, so that the builder plate is this shiny one?
R- Well all that is the builder plate, yes.
Yes. And on either side of the builder plate is…
R - There's two, there's two plates ... but they’re one plate is them. There’s only one plate there, and one at the back. It's just that this builder rail here is the one that builds the cops, the shape of the cops up or down. All as that does, that just slides up and down in those two levers there at that side. Now as I say, some people call that other things but that's all as it is for is to stop the builder rail from sliding out and falling over. It’s just there to hold that builder rail in so that it lets it drop.
SCG/22 June 2003
7,123 words.