Part 19

WOOL SORTING]

The fleece is spread out on a table, the center of which is covered with wire netting, and through this netting part of the dust and other matter from the wool falls while the sorting is going on. Sorters tear with the hands the different parts of the fleece from each other and separate them into piles, according to their different qualities.

All unwashed wool contains a fatty or greasy matter called yolk, which is a secretion from the skin of the sheep. The effect of this yolk is to prevent the fibres of the wool from matting, except at the ends, where, of course, it collects dust, and, forming a sort of a coating, really serves as a protection to the rest of the fleece while on the sheep’s back.

After the wool is sorted it is next cleansed or scoured, in order to remove all this yolk, dirt and foreign matter, and this is accomplished by passing the wool, by means of automatic rakes, through a washing machine, consisting of a set of three or four vats or bowls, which contain a cleansing solution of warm, soapy water, until all the grease and dirt have been removed.

Each bowl has its set of rollers, which squeezes out the water from the wool before it passes into the next bowl. Having passed through the last bowl and set of rollers the wool is carried on an apron made of slats on chains, to the drying chamber, called the dryer, where is taken out most of the moisture.

The wool is now blown through pipes or carried on trucks to the carding room.

~DIFFERENCE IN WOOLENS AND WORSTEDS~

From this point the wool follows one of two different processes of manufacture--that of making into worsteds or that of making into woolens.

Speaking in a general way, worsted fabrics are made of yarns in which the fibres all lie parallel, and woolens are made of yarns in which the fibres cross or are mixed. Ordinarily, worsteds are made from long staple wools, and woolens from short staple wools.

Copyright American Woolen Company

WOOL SCOURING]

By means of the comb the fibre is still further straightened out, the short stock and noil, or nibs, are removed, and when the sliver comes from the combs most of the fibres are parallel to each other. A number of the slivers taken from the comb are then put through two further operations of gilling, and wound into a large ball, which is called a finished top.

The next process in the manufacture of worsteds is carding. In this process the wool is passed between cylinders and rollers, from which project the ends of many small wires. These cylinders revolve in opposite directions. The result is the opening, separating and straightening of the fibres; and the wool is delivered in soft strands, which are taken off by the doffer comb and wound upon a wooden roll into the shape of a large ball, known as a card-ball or card-sliver, or put into a revolving can. The sliver from a number of these balls or cans is now taken and put through what is known as the gilling machine, which to a degree straightens the fibres.

From the gilling machine the wool comes off in soft strands. Four strands are then taken to the balling machine, where is made a large ball, ready for the combing. It takes eighteen of these balls to make a set or fill up the comb.

The dyeing is done in three ways--in the top, in the thread or skein after being spun, or in the piece after it is woven. If the wool is to be stock dyed--that is, dyed in the top--it is sent to the dyehouse to be dyed the shade required, and afterwards returned to be gilled and recombed ready for the drawing.

Copyright American Woolen Company

WORSTED CARDING]

Up to this point there has been no twist given to the wool, nor any appearance of a thread. The top, the soft untwisted end, is now run through the drawing machine, the process sometimes consisting of nine distinct operations, and is drawn and redrawn until reduced to the size required for its special purpose; and the stock is then delivered to the spinning room on spools, and is called roving.

Copyright American Woolen Company

GILLING AFTER CARDING]

Copyright American Woolen Company

COMBING]

In the spinning the process of drawing continues until the twisted thread is reduced to the size required, which, either singly or twisted together in two, three or four strands, is to be used for weaving.

The yarn is then very carefully inspected, and all imperfections which would show in the finished goods are removed, and, if it is to be dyed in the skein, the yarn is taken to a reel, where the skeins are made ready for the dyehouse.

~HOW CLOTH IS MADE FROM WOOL~

The threads must now be prepared for the loom, in order that the actual weaving may be done. The thread is used in two ways in weaving--as warp, which is the thread which runs lengthwise of the cloth, and as filling, or woof, which runs across the cloth from side to side.

Copyright American Woolen Company

GILLING AND MAKING TOP AFTER COMBING]