3-008-778 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition - cotton manufacture: cotton in its different stages, 1862. Diagrams '...to indicate the different stages of manufacture. Fig. 4 is the cotton containing seeds, dirt, and other matter; fig. 5 is the cotton after it has passed through the gin, the seeds and pieces of the sheath having been extracted; fig. 6 is the same material after having been subjected to the action of the cotton scutcher and opener, which separates the fibres by drawing apart those matted together and also effectually freeing it from dust; fig. 7 is the carded cotton, the fibres having been all brought to lay parallel with each other; in fig. 8 the carded cotton has been doubled and the parallelism of the fibres made still more perfect; in fig. 9 the ribbon of cotton becomes a roving, which is a quantity of cotton fibre perfectly cleaned, and every fibre laid straight in the direction of its length, in no way twisting or attaching itself to its neighbour. Thus there are four points attained in its manufacture - the first to free it from any kind of foreign matter, the second to secure perfect parallelism of the fibre, the third to secure uniformity in the roving by the lapping and doubling, and the fourth to draw out and twist it into yarn'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.