170    THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



  This machine had eight spindles, and the
threads, after being drawn out, were passed
through a fluted wooden clamp, which had the
effect to render them smoother. Quite a step!
But why not have more spindles! The num-
ber was increased to 80. Then the world won-
dered, and Hargreaves' fellow spinners grew
jealous and compelied him to leave town. But
he realized that he had hold of a lever which
was to effect an important revolution, and was
not in the least discouraged.  He established
a factory at Nottingham and continued to flour-
ish.

  Soon another genius came to his aid. It
was Richard Arkwright, with an invention for
drawing out the slivers of cotton as they came
from the carding rollers into ribbons, uniting
several of these in one and again drawing it
out; the process being repeated until the fibres
are most perfectly straightened and the sliver
prepared for spinning.  He also contrived *
cylindrical cup revolving upon a pivot within
which the sliver was twisted into a -roving,"
and thus still better prepared for the spindle.
Arkwright lived to enjoy his success, and in
1782 had 5,000 men in his employ.

  And then came Samuel Crompton with his
- mule," first provided with 20 or 80 spindles,
the whole frame moving back and forth like a
regular spinster of the olden time by the side
of her wheel.  This did splendidly at once,
and, in the course of time, increased its spin-
dles to 2,200, all managed by one attendant!
This is substantially the ' mult  of to-day-
of the original of which the ftany here about
us are but so many modifications. CVompton's
invention dates back to 1779, and tb.&y we
have in Great Britain alone 21,000,000 spindles
in almost unceasing operation, many of them
making 5.00X revolutions a minute!
   The fineness of the thread which may be
spun on one of these machines is really sur-
prising.  A single "hank " or skein aonsists
of 840 yards in length of thread. What then
must be the tenuity of that thread of wVich
two thousand five hundred hanks are required
to make one pound!  A thread so fine that a



single pound of it, drawn out in a straight line,
would extend over one thousand one hundred
and ninety-two miles! Such a thread could
scarcely be woven, and if it could the tissue
would hardly be visible.

  At this rate of manufacture, the amount of
cotton that could be worked upwas damost un-
limited, and there was need that some more
expeditious method should be adopted for
cleaning the raw material. The fingers, up to
this time, had alone been employed in picking
cut the seeds, and one pound per diem would
answer no longer. Eli Whitney, of Mauachu-
setts, came to the rescue in 1708, and the "cot-
ton gin " stood in the place of S6 men! It
was this invention that stimulated cotton-grow-
ing in the Southern States, and made them the
most important cotton district of the world.
  The cotton gin was a very simple machine,
consisting of longitudinal metallic bars so close
together as to barely allow circular wheels
armed with saw teeth to pass between them,
and it seems strange that it should not have
been invented before.  Machines of this sort
are here in operation. The machines next in
order for preparing the cotton for spinning are
known as scutching machines.
              FLAX XACHINEUR

  Is also here. After being -rotted" by high-
pressure steam, until the gum and extractive
matter combined with the fibre is decomposed,
the stems are subjected to the action of the
-sountching mill," where the woody fibre is
bruised off by toothed rollers. The long fibres
are then put into the "cutting machine," and
so cut into lengths as to equalize their quality.
They are next subjected to the operation of
"hackling," which is accomplished by revolv-
ing cylinders or endless belts surface-covered
with metallic points. The "drawing," "rov-
ing," and spinning are performed by machine-
ry similar in principle to that used for cotton.
  Linen has been in use from the earliest times.
The Scriptures abound in references to it, and
scientific investigations have lately demonstra-
ted that the cloths with which the mummies of
Egypt were wrapped, thousands of years ago,



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