THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON MAY 26TH 1980 AT 119 BURY ROAD, HASLINGDEN. THE INFORMANT IS ROLAND TAYLOR, JUMBO OPERATOR AT SPRING VALE MILL. THE INTERVIEWER IS MARY HUNTER.
Right, back on number 27 Roland.
R- Again.
Again.
R- Well, I’ve got now to where it’s coming through the rollers and it’s rolled it into an inch diameter strip and it goes through the coiler on the front. It goes through the hole on the top of the collar, comes into this can which rotates as your cotton is coming in. It’s wound round in a circle to fill the can.
And that one’s nearly full isn't it.
R- That one’s nearly full yes, there’ll be about another ten minutes on that.
Really?
R- ‘Cause you can push them down a bit, and that hasn’t been pushed down yet. In fact you can push it and that can keep them going for quite a while.
(50)
Who, who pushes them down? Someone or the machine?
R- No, somebody. See them, we’d have to take them out, if they don’t want them out yet they’ll push them down a bit, keep them going a bit longer. Like normally they don't because the doubler normally goes quicker than what they are making them. So normally we whip them out about then. Now the lever at the bottom of the machine on the loft there, well that stops these rollers in case like it breaks or it snaps away, which it has a tendency to do, you’ve got to stop it while you get another end in there and you’ve to roll it in your hands so as it has got a point on your cotton, you’d never try getting it into something the same size of hole, it’d take some doing. So you’ve got to get it pointed to get it into the hole. All that lever does is stop the rollers. And the doffer lid, it stops it moving, once you lift it up it sets it on again. It doesn’t actually stop your card from running. Picture number 28. Now that’s a view of the smaller Derby Doubler, and this one isn’t, doesn’t run of the same cans that you’ve just seen in the other photograph.
Doesn’t it? Oh I thought…
R- No, that’s what I say, it’s a different one. If you look at your cans there and look at the cans on this one…
(100)
Oh, it hasn’t got a stripe on it.
R- No. Have a close look at that one.
Oh dear, now comes the test.
R- Can you have a close look at that one?
Right…
R- Now, what’s the difference?
One's taller and a narrow neck and the other is smaller with a wider neck.
R- No. They’re actually smaller, they're the same size, but one of them's a lot bigger in diameter than the other one.
Did I pass the test?
R- Just about. Now this one runs off .. well we call them pups, they're smaller cards that the ones you were just looking at. You can laugh but that’s what they call them, pups, because they are smaller
(5 min)(150)
than them. And I forget how many cans there are on it. There's about 100 cans running this one. I think there is only 40 on that other one, if my memory serves me right. And this one, it's a slower doubler than the other one, why I don’t know but it is, and this for ... the one on 28, is nearly all back view. It’s from this back view, and ... your starter for this one you can just about see in 28 is on the right hand-side of your picture. But the other end which you can’t see at the moment is the end where your finished lap comes out. He's taking all the wrong end in here.
(150)
Isn't this the way the lap comes out?
R- No, because your starter motor's always at the opposite end to where your lap comes off.
Oh.
R- In fact, we were saying with the other doubler…
Yes.
R- Now your rods on the top, on your arms there. Them’s for stopping your doubler from running. Those bars they have, where you see your cotton going on to the top just before the rollers, like a hinge. Well, loops on a bracket, and normally, if your end breaks them loops lift up and it’ll stop. Well sometimes like we weren’t [effective] and it’d keep going, they don’t always stop when it runs off or breaks so you’ve got to keep your eyes open in front because if it runs too long there you’ll get a gap in your lap where there is an end missing. Well you have to stop it then and put your fresh can on. Now, where are we, I don’t think there’s much else there…
What does that machine do?
R- It puts your cotton, well you can see on the right hand side, it makes it into laps like that stacked on the right hand side there.
Oh, beyond the doubler?
R- Yes, on the right hand side of the doubler there. And they are for your finisher cards. It make it easier to run on your finisher cards. Where are we now? Nothing more there.
(200)
So basically it's turning this inch roll into yet another lap.
R- yes, it’s another lap. It make it, what shall we say, well really it’s to get rid of your cotton mostly. You know, when you saw your lap on your back of the breaker card and had your cotton that were hanging down. Well you don’t want that on your finisher cards. Well it breaks it up before it gets there, what you’ve got to, see that breaker till it gets rid of that cotton. Now it’s got rid of your cotton but now you want to get it back into lap form again. Like I say, all this really again is blending all the way through because your mixing all the time you get cans from different machines, you’ve got different laps in different days and so on.
[This is slightly confused. The process of combining up to a hundred cans on the Derby Doubler is of course another blending operation but additionally, the fibres are better organised when they come off the breaker card and the combining and pressing of the large lap on the doubler produces a more compressed and organised sheet of fibres which is easier to convert to mule roving in the finisher card. This re-organising of the fibres is just as important as the blending element.]
And those, the laps that come off the Derby Doubler, they are quite heavy aren’t they?
R- Yes they are a fair weight. Not really a ladies job but there used to be ladies do it, and they go on to your finisher cards. In fact you can just about see some on the left hand side in the photograph, on the bottom there, they go on to them cards.
So in fact if there was another part of the breaker cards that was actually producing a lap instead of a coil the Derby Doubler could be done away with. So it’s just a link process.
R- Yes and I think they do have them now like that. It could be made into a lap instead of having just one roller on your things, having a lot of them, it’d come out in a lap. In fact I think they do make them like that now. And you wouldn’t need your Derby Doubler. Well, that’s near enough, are you right there?
Yes.
R- Picture 29 is near enough the same picture but on the right hand-side instead of the left. And there you can see your finisher cards a bit more plain, where the laps off the doubler go. In fact if you look down on the bottom of each picture you’ll see what we call the pups where they make the cans for this doubler. In fact there’s only about a dozen altogether in for running for this. ‘Cause it runs a lot slower than the other one. It doesn’t need as many. Looking for ends down, there isn’t , he’s being lazy is the lad leaving empty cans there.
When I’ve watched that machine in operation it seemed to stop very frequently with ends breaking as it just goes through those feed bars, feed rollers. Is that normal?
(300)
R- Well sometimes you see a lot depending on the stuff. If you get rough stuff in it’s liable to do it.
Because presumably it only needs a slight inconsistency in the width of that roll of cotton and it will…
R- Yes if you do get like a knot in it it’s liable to do that.
Yes. What happens in the actual drum before it comes out as a lap?
R - What do you mean by that?
Well, what process does it go through apart from these fifty or so ends on each side being fed in? What happens in the actual drum before it comes out or is it just matted into a lap?
R – It’s just rammed together and put into a lap. It goes through a lot of rollers, again, you haven’t got the photograph.
I think perhaps later.
R- Aye that’s later on. But there’s rollers at the other end, they go through a series of rollers that rolls it into a lap.
But there’s no breaking down again.
R- No. No breaking down, no.
OK. That’s fine.
R- number 30. It’s a photograph right from the back of this Derby Doubler. And there you can see where all your ends actually go together and meet at the front end there. They’ve run along in channels, tin channels that runs down in all them channels. That’s just to stop it from twisting up as it’s running down. You don’t want it twisted before you start making your lap, it’d only break down every time you’ve made your lap. I don’t think there is much to say there. Like on the right hand side there you can see further down in your full laps, there are wooden bobbins that they use to put your laps on.
(350)
For the Derby Doubler?
R- Yes, for the Derby Doubler. And they’re wood not metal like you’d get on the scutcher. Brian’ll probably tell you why. You know, technically why ones for one and the other’s for the others.
I shall have to remember to ask him.
R- I’ll remind him when I go down tomorrow.
Right.
R- Now then, number 31. Now that’s your front end of your Derby Doubler. Yes, it’s like stopped and all. Where do we start? Now when it’s making a lap there’s like a cage in front here, like a grill, and that’s down while it’s making a lap. Now when it’s made the lap, that lid door starts lifting up and when it’s fully up you’ve a foot lever and a wheel on the right hand side here. Now you turn that wheel to lift up the rollers off the top of the lap because the rollers are to keep it flat and even. Well that lifts the rollers up so your lap will roll forward on to these two ledges on the front of your doubler for it. And after you put your fresh wooden roller on you push your rod on a bit to send your cotton through so you can just wrap it on your roller to start with. And you turn your, lift, there’s a lever again on your left hand side. You lift up and turn it down so it’s set for how long it has to run and again, you turn your wheel down which fetches your roller down onto your lap before you start making your lap again.
(15 min)(400)
So it’s set to stop automatically when it’s full?
R- Yes, again, it’s set on a lot of teeth is that arm, get the teeth run up and when it sets in the one you want that’s it. But then again, if you’re rushing you’ve a tendency to drop it in too early and that’s when you get a small lap and it happens occasionally. [When you’re] running if you don’t quite drop it in the right tooth and it makes your lap quicker therefore it’s not as big as it ought to be.
Yes. Do you know why this chain's hanging down here above it?
R- I think that’s the, it’s not actually there for a particular purpose, just if there is any breakdown, if your rollers go at the front there you can’t lift them out by hand, they've got to have a block and tackle job and it’s not that long age that they did that, that’s why it’s still there. Like if they'd done another job somewhere else in the mill they*d be moving them. So if they haven’t a use for that block and tackle they’d leave them where they’ve last had a use for them. They had to take them rollers out not long before he did them pictures so that’s why your block and tackle’s still there. Nothing else to say really about that.
Right.
R - Thirty two. I don’t know why he’s took that one.
Fire buckets perhaps.
R - Might have been. See, if you notice in a lot of the photographs there are fire buckets all round the walls which are a necessity in a cotton mill anyway. Because even your motors on your cards could cause a fire and set some of your cotton afire. And they’ve had fires before today in the card room, not so often, I think they’ve only had about three while I have been there. But they do happen, they are supposed to be kept full and all. I know the fire inspector comes round every now and again so if they are not full there are words said right from the top to bottom then…
(450)
And those are at the back of the breaker cards aren’t they?
R- Yes them are, them are the breaker cards belonging to the other Derby Doubler. And it could be because you can just about see the other Derby Doubler about half way down, after the fifth card you can just see the other Derby Doubler sticking out there.
Yes.
R- And well on this what. About half way on your picture, on the ceiling, about half an inch, you’ve got a fan there. That’s for during the winter when they are working it’s for blowing hot air in to try and keep them warm. Cotton’s like a lot of other things, if it doesn’t like running. And like neither do we.
It's a nice tidy alley there.
R- It is, but it used to be cleaner than that, every day when Johnny were there. It got a bit untidy after he’d finished.
Now we’ll move on to 39.14. We’ve missed out the finisher cards because Glenys has already covered them so we are moving on to grinding. OK Roland..
R – Well, 39.14 They've just started running the cotton off at the back there, they’ve took the full lap off and they’re running the card bare. You can tell they are running it bare when you see the cotton going over the rollers at the front, and no bobbin in to wind on. Not much more you can day because they are only waiting for it running bare in that one. 39.15, like they’ve near enough run it bare on that one and he’s, if you can see he’s cleaned it off the roller where it were lapping, it were lapping round [wrapping] The wooden rollers at the front, he’s near enough cleaned it off there. Again, nothing more you can say about that one
You need two people to grind then?
R- When you grind you need two people yes. You can’t lift them out on your own.
And how often would grinding be done?
R- A lot depends on how much they’ve run or how dirty the stuff’s been. When they were running fully and they had full staff on they used to do say two, at least two or three cards a day on one set so that’s what? Say six cards a day were being ground. So in three weeks or a month they’ve all been done, well, definitely in a month when they were going, running full production and full staff. If you got short of staff then they’re let go a lot longer, you haven't got the staff to do it with. That's when we used to do a lot of our grinding at night, we used to do it in overtime. Then 39.16, I think they are just waiting for it stopping now, they’ve run it bare, they are waiting for it stopping. Again you can't go lifting things up while they’re running, well they can but you get shot at if you are caught doing it, specially if you hurt yourself. See, they’re just waiting, you can see that doffer just leaving a bit on the end of the rails there where they were watching. Once it stops they’ll be ready to start grinding, well getting ready to preparing to start grinding, that’s more like it. Now on 39.17. It’s stopped and they are lifting the front cover up. And under there you can see the rollers and the, well they call them rollers and clearers, the big ones are the rollers and the
(550)
small ones are the clearers. Now you've 39.18. This is a guard on the front of this little doffer where Charlie, he’s the one with the light coloured hair, has got his hand, I should say white rather than light shouldn’t I? Well, they take that away so that they can let that doffer run free, because it has to run when they start grinding it. When we get to the photograph I’ll explain why. Now this trolley they’ve got in front no, they have two light rollers on, one has ? a roller on the top one and there is a small one. It runs, as it's running it runs along that roller, it goes right across the big cylinder but that's really used to sharpen up that cylinder.
Wait a minute, how does it do that?
R- Well, there is a rope and it runs on to one part of your card when, it’s actually when you put a rope on, when you set it on, when it's running, when they are not grinding they have a chain and a belt drive. Well when you start grinding you take your chain and your belt off and you have two special belts. I’m not sure you can see them on there. No, you can't see it on the trolley, they have probably [got them] down the side of the card, but they have two special belts that they put on for when they are grinding and it just runs what they want to run. Like them chains and belts they
run the rollers and clearers ‘cause they don't want them running ‘cause they are not there. So you’ve got two special belts, they just run the cylinder which is a big one, which all them are on. And the little one, the doffer, that runs that. Now you, the one with the sharpeners with this small roller on that runs across, goes on your big cylinder. And there is one underneath which is like a brush, now that goes on the doffer and that brushes the doffer, it doesn’t really need sharpening or owt like that, it just wants cleaning off.
And when you way sharpening, do you mean that the individual spikes on the big drum need sharpening?
R- Yes. They get blunt, they get worn down. It really lifts them up and sharpens them.
(600)(25 min)
So it’s the same principle as sharpening a knife but it’s on all these hundreds and thousands of spikes as opposed to a single blade.
R- Yes. Like on 39.19 you can see the plate they’ve just removed on the belt there. They’ve laid it across there, well you always put it there so you know where it is. See, that won’t move now they’re grinding, them leathers won’t move at all, that belt.
Presumably there is a lot of team work involved in grinding. If you know what your mate’s doing it’s easier.
R- It’s a lot easier aye.
Yes, because it’s a bit like moving by numbers isn’t it?
R- It’s also a lot easier if you’ve got two [blokes] the same size. If you get two people and one’s tall and ones short it’s hard work one way or t’other because you’ve either one getting the weight or the other one’s getting the weight. If you’ve got two about the same size, well if you notice, if you look when they, whenever you see them together you’ve got two near enough the same size so it makes it easier to lift your rollers out.
Am I right in thinking it’s a bit like working by numbers. You have to do it in a certain order and back in a certain order?
R- Yes, back in the reverse order. See there is an easy way of doing it and a damned hard way of doing it and the easy way’s not easy so you can imagine what the hard way is like. Now, 39.20 you can just see ‘em taking the first roller out there. He’s blurred it and all, not like our Stanley. [Everyone’s a critic!] Well they’re just taking that first roller and see, over this, like them leathers again you’ve got what we call, I forget what they call them myself.
Stirrups?
R- Yes. And they fit over the shafts that ran through your leathers. Now they are to hold your rollers while you're taking them out, because you can’t put your, well your sharpening roller on until you can get at your cylinder. So you use them, you always carry them around on the horse. That’s what them are on is called, a horse.
(650)
The trolley? It’s called a horse?
R- Yes they call it a horse. Well, they normally, if you see the other photo you’ve see them in the bottom.
Yes they were.
R- They are always in the bottom there. Now then, 39. 21. You see they are taking another roller out. Now you always take your rollers and clearers out together. You don’t go say, a roller, a clearer, a roller, a clearer or you’ll muck yourself up. Now you don’t always grind your rollers and your clearers together ‘cause a lot of the time they don’t both need it, normally it’s your rollers that need grinding and not your clearers.
So the roller that they are lifting out in 39.20 is the roller that's now in position in 39.21?
R- That’s the one. And the one they're lifting out now will be going with it. And [you’ll] find out on one side there’s only three rollers and on the back side there’s four rollers. And you’ve to lift them all out before you can start grinding. Now 39.22. You’ll see that that roller they were lifting in the previous picture is again in that saddle and they are lifting the top one out on that side now. On 39.23 you’ll find out now that they’ve not only taken that one out, but they’ve got the one right underneath the ?, that’s your four on that side and you have three on the other side. I’m not sure whether they’ll take them rollers out… Yes, that’s what they were doing. You see normally, whichever ones you see on the saddle there, they’re the ones that don’t need grinding. See, it looks like they are grinding the clearers on this one. See, they only put them there now, they have another horse, it’s not for… Well, it depends on how they’re working it but when I did it I used to put these off me horse on to the card and the ones I wanted to grind, like they have grinding frames at either end of the room. I’d have put them on to the horse I’d just taken my stuff off to move them down. It saves having two horses in the same alley like you can get short of room when you’ve got two in.
(700)(30 min)
So what are they actually doing in 39.23.?
R- It looks like they are getting ready to take the clearers out and they are the smaller ones. He’s missed a lot there, 39.24 now, you can see them here, they’ve moved all them clearers out and they’ve put the brush onto the small doffer. It looks like they are getting ready to put your, it looks like they are getting on the horse there to lift the one that actually sharpens ‘em on to the card. Now in 39.25 you can actually see them lifting it on, you can see by the look on Charlie’s face that it’s not light! When you come, as I say if it’s not team work it’s damned hard work. And they are getting ready now to start the card to do what they actually call grinding, which means this one weren’t that bad ‘cause if it had have been they’d have cleaned it. In 39.24, if you look at it on that one , they take them all out at the back as well and they’ve like a long brush with a fine toothcomb on it as well on a stick. A long arm on it. And one turns the cylinder while the other one brushes it up so it takes [the dawn] off before they ever put the grinding stuff on.
What’s this small wheel on the bar made of?
R- It’s a steel roller with like emery paper on, like a rough emery paper.
You'd think it would… Presumably they set that spinning. You’d think it would blunt them rather than sharpen them.
R- It doesn’t because it goes the opposite way to what [they are wearing]. Like the cylinder might go in that way, and that’ll be going the other way just to turn it to the opposite… See, they’ve been knocked down with the way the cotton [hits them]. Well, it’s going the opposite way.
Oh I see, right.
R- Really it’s lifting them rather than sharpening them. See, with them being knocked down they are blunt. If you lift them back up again… See they’re steel and all them teeth on it and it’s only a matter of lifting them back up again that makes them sharp.
[Roland is essentially right but my understanding was that grinding the tops of the individual card wires gave a flat top with sharp edges and this made the carding action more efficient because those edges gave the card clothing its ‘bite’]
Got you.
R- It depends how long they’ve been running for how long you leave that on for turning them up. I mean if you leave it on too long you’ve got to start again because you’ve mucked it up, you’ve blunted it the other way and then you are really for it, they jump down your throat then and luckily, touch wood, I never did it. Now, 39.26 you can see they’ve gone to the back of the card now and they are taking them off at the back. You just cover them over with a cloth or something and you rest your rollers on them, it makes it easier to rest them otherwise you ? down like waves on the, thing’s are liable to fall off. And it’s surprising, them shafts there, you only have to drop one and the shaft hits like that and it’ll snap the shaft off and I’ve done that.
And then you were for it!
R- They weren’t too happy with us. We did it twice in one day. One of them were the foreman’s fault, we got hold of one, I had hold of it and he let go so the spikes came down onto my hand and I had to let it go, it hit the floor and it snapped off.
And they weren’t pleased with either of us. Specially as they had to go to
Higher Mill to get another one because it were one of the funny sized uns. Now then, 39.27. You’ll see ‘em lifting another of the rollers out and putting it on the back of the card. As I say they do ‘em in turn, you’d take the rollers out first, and in fact you can see they’ve got the clearers on the horse at the back there. See, they’re smaller than them, they’re going to take the other clearers that’s on there and then they’ll take them to be ground on the grinding frame. Picture 39.28. Now there you can see the card with them completely off it. ? mention it though, they’ve taken them clearers, it could be that they are going to use that thing I were telling you about for cleaning the cylinder in the next one, do it from the back. I used to do it from the front, it were easier for me. But everyone has their own ways, whatever is easier so somebody else, it might be harder for someone else.
So you do both front and back at the same time?
R- When you are scraping with that, it’s like a scraper, it just scrapes the cotton off. Well, with these rollers they’ve probably left it so as it’s not touching the cylinder. That’s the one, stop doing that it’s going on… (?) Nothing else you can say on that one now. Now, 39.29. You can see Bill at the side horse there and you can just about see Charlie at the back here with his head there with what we used to call the scraper ready to scrape it off. Now Bill, at this side, turns the cylinder with a wheel, you can see, well you can’t, but you’d see his right hand on the big wheel there. Now you turn the cylinder with that big wheel so the bloke at the back can scrape off. Now 39.30 you’re getting a better view of it. Now Bill’s gone to this side ‘cause he’d sooner push rather than pull. Like when he’s turning the wheel he’d rather push the wheel down than pull it up. Now you can see Charlie, you can see on that side of the cylinder where he’s scraping the cotton off while Billy’s turning it. Now 39.31 it shows them stopped while he took that photograph and you can see the difference that just a handscrape will do. But when you got your grinder on the other side doing it, it fetched it really clean. Now, 39.32 you’ll see they’ve swapped places and see that Charlie’d rather do it the other way.
(800)(35 min)
Now as I say, everybody has their own opinions, whichever way is easier for everybody. As I say, some people like pulling and some people like to push it. Then it’s ? I don’t think you’ve ever seen them doing it.
I haven’t, no.
R- But it’s hard work scraping that stuff off and it’s hard work turning it as well but it’s hard work scraping off and if you’re doing it, I’ve done one or two actually, full ones where by the time you’ve done about three your arms feel like they don’t belong to you. And they are scraping the other side there for you. Now on 39.33 you can see they’ve done the whole side now and you can just see a mark where they’ve stopped and there’s cotton in a line across. Well they’ll pull that off before they set on ‘cause it’d only stick under the roller at the front. But I think that what they’re doing there is testing to see how long they’ll have to leave that grinder on, they’re feeling [the card clothing]
By feel?
R- yes, by feel.
And that of course is where the skill in using this sort of machine comes in. The knowledge and the skill of knowing.
R- Yes, and that only comes by practice.
Right.
(850)
R- Now in 39.34 you can just see, I think, well you can see the speed that that's going at now, that cylinder. It's fairly shifting round. Now in the background on this other one you can just see the brush now that’s going too and that’s cleaning this little doffer as well. In fact you can just about see the dust coming off it, that’d be dirty,
there's a big cloud coming up off them. Now on 39.35 I think they, Bill there is checking to make sure that is there level right the way across. Like you set from each end and then you don’t want it hard at one end and up off it at the other end, you’ve got to set it level going across.
And that you do only by sight?
R- No, not normally. You can do. When you first start you do it be that. Like Bill left it to me when I were working with him, you do it by ear.
So is he listening or looking?
R- He is looking there because, before he set it completely right you’ve to see it [running] first. You can see if one end’s lower than the other to a certain degree but once you set it going like your {incomprehensible type] ‘cause you’re setting by one ear. Bill being at one side listening with his ear and Charlie at the other listening with his, well they’ve both got different hearing. So you’ve got to set it with one bloke listening at both ends with the same ear. Otherwise it’s surprising, if you do it with either ear it can be different at each end. They’ve found out with practice, many years ago. You know if you use a different ear it could be uneven and you’d have one half of the card sharp and the other end dull, that doesn’t do either. Picture 39.36. Now he is doing the most important job and that's oiling up while it’s running. That’s got to be oiled up every five minutes while it’s running for grinding. It’s liable to get rather warm while it’s running because it’s only running in half a bearing. It doesn’t really have a proper bearing on it, just like a cap and that’s to be kept full of oil while it’s turning in it.
(40 min)(900)
How long would you leave that roller on in general? I know it could vary from card to card but…
R- Aye it does vary. And again it varies from how long it’s been since it were ground last.
Well, say every three weeks a card.
R- Normally three quarters of an hour.
Really.
R- You leave them on. If you are lucky you can get away with half an hour.
Does it make a terrible noise?
R- Not a row. It makes a fair bit of noise because the cards themselves make a fair noise but no, nothing excessive. Now in 39.37 you can see Bill and he’s got a small brush and he puts that on in between each, eh, what do we call it?
Groove ?
R- In between each level. Yes, you could call it a groove. In between the leathers, you see the leathers in the…
I see, yes.
R - It just fits in, in between each one. And if you can see where he’s just been, they’re really clean on the left hand side you can see where he has got to. In fact I think he’s done the right hand side and all and he’s gone to, see, you can only go half way along with your arm, then you’ve got to cross over to do the other side.
And he holds that in position while the drum’s turning?
R- Yes, while that is going.
All right as long an you keep hold of the brush?
R And you never do it at the other side. One thing you haven’t got the room to go at the other side of this brush.
Oh I see, right.
R- ‘Cause the other one will take your fingers off. Now 39.38. He’s doing the same now with a wide brush on the big cylinder. He’s, you go right, in fact I think he’s done the right hand side here again. You have to watch with that brush that you don’t press it too hard or it could whip out of your hand and your hand would go onto the cylinder then and you’ll be sorry. You can see there on the right hand side that it’s driven by a rope see? Round your cylinder, when it’s running next the cylinder will have a belt on there, all round your rollers on the other side there’ll be a chain round your clearers.
So that’s the special one they put on for grinding?
R- Yes, just for the grinding job. Now then, 39.39 you've got what were called the tools for the job. You’ve got your small brush and your wide brush and your setting spanner and you’ve got a rag there and all. You need to clean down your sides with all the dust that’s been coming up.
This one on the right hand corner is the small one to get in between each leather right?
R- That’s the small brush yes. And your other one’s for your cylinder. Now your spanner there that’s for…. You see here on 39.38, do you see in a groove there? Well underneath there, inside there is a nut on each side. Now whichever way you try to wind it up or down with that nut, it either lifts it up or pulls it closer to your cylinder. Well they’re all, or are all supposed to be the same size nut or 99% of them are. You only get the occasional one that’s awkward, they’ve been broken and replaced [with a different size]
(950)(45 min)
R- 39.40. Now what’s our friend Charlie doing? Oh, he’s lifting one of the clearers off the horse, he’s going to take it to the grinding frame.
He’s not slipping a disc I hope?
R- No, they’re not so bad, it’s the rollers you want to get a lift with, clearers are all right, there’s not much weight in them. Now in 39.41 you can see him putting it into the grinding frame. Now on the left hand side you’ll see a switch. Now that belongs to that grinder frame. You’ll see there is a belt. Now that belt has to go over the flange on the clearer he is putting into that machine and the wheel at the bottom on the floor runs that. When you are doing your rollers you’ll see that there is a wheel on the top of the lid on that grinding frame, that’ll be fitted on each roller as you’re grinding them otherwise your belt wouldn’t be able to drive it. Now that’s fairly done that one. Picture 39.42. Again he is just dropping it into the grinding frame and you’ve got a better shot altogether of your grinding frame there. And that [grinding wheel] is similar to emery paper in texture but it’s steel, but on the same principle of emery paper. Now hang on a second, I were looking at that other photograph, I’m not going to describe something until he’s actually using it, a bit daft.
OK.
R- Now 39.43, you can see him now putting, well it looks like he’s another belt as well, normally he’s one or two belts, I were wondering where the other were. He’s just putting the belt on the, well he’s put it on the flange on the clearer, he’s just putting it on the bottom pulley and he’s getting ready to set the grinding frame on. Now in 39.44 he’s set it on , you can just about see you are [running] it’s not a right tight belt. And what he’s holding now, it takes your clearer up to the grinder itself. And that one you do set by ear, you can tell with your ear whether it’s on too hard or too soft.
And can you hear even with all the other cards working around you?
R- Oh aye, you can hear quite well without having to stick your head into it. 39.45 now, you’ve got the same brush that you used on the cylinder and again, your grinding frame is sharpening that clearer up, what he’s doing now, he’s taking the top cotton, the loose cotton off and you run along it as it’s running again. You don’t press too hard because it’s liable to fling your brush off at you.
The clearers are spiked as well are they?
R- Yes like a fine , eh what the hell do you call it now.
All right, don’t worry, it’ll come to you probably.
R- I’ve forgotten now what you call it. But they are like small teeth through a cloth. [card clothing] And there's hundreds and thousands of them over the cloth on each one.
And can you be doing that while the roller's spinning on the …?
R- Yes. See well, Bill will, well the other bloke will be watching that [the card] while he is doing that. Now, 39.46. Now that one is your, well really that’s just for finishing off like. Like with grinding a knife, you use one side of your stone and then tidy it off with the other side. Well actually it’s the same principle, that tidies off what your small one’s done but it does it so all the lot’s getting the same amount.
(50 min)
So it's like the sandpaper is to the plane on wood, it’s the finishing off part/
R- Yes, it’s the finishing off part. Well again, 39.47 is just a close up, it’s running off the same rope as your small one runs off, that as I say is just to finish the job off. And again, that’s normally only on about a quarter of an hour. Or twenty minutes.
SCG/05 July 2003
7,136 words.