BATISTE

LOOM REQUIRED.

Batiste could be very profitably woven on a Northrop magazine loom. The fabric is a plain weave, no dobby being required. The fineness of the yarn, however, requires the use of string heddles. Wire heddles would cause too many warp breakages. The high running speed of the Northrop loom, together with the number of looms a weaver can tend.10 to 20 looms, brings the weaving cost to a minimum. The warp should be drawn in on four harnesses, skip draw as follows: 1, 3, 2, 4 instead of straight, as 1, 2, 3. 4. Skip draws give less strain to the warp. FINISH. Batistes are given a Swiss finish; after the cloth comes from the loom it is bleached. After the bleaching process it is sized, then sprinkled or dampened, and then calendered, after which it is folded; then it is ready for the market.

Carding and Spinning Particulars.

The division of mills which make "'batiste" is the third of those mills which are equipped with machinery for making fine count yarns. Batiste is made up of extra fine counts of yarn, although these counts vary a great deal according to the grade of fabric wanted. In order to do this cloth justice it will be better to first describe the processes of a coarse yarn batiste and then a batiste made up of fine yarns. We will consider the coarse fabric to be made up of l-60s warp yarn and l-100s filling yarn. The finer grade we will consider made up of l-120s warp yarn and l-200s filling yarn. THE RAW STOCK used for both grades should be Sea Island cotton of from 1% to 2 inches staple, although 1% inches staple is the length generally used. The selection of the cotton is one of the first and by many considered the most important points to look out for. The lot should be sampled bale by bale and all those bales having a staple not up to standard should be thrown out of the mixing. Those bales that are selected as 0. K., should be placed around the mixing bin and thrown into it alternately from each bale until all the bales for the mixing are in. At this point the GOOD SLIVER AND PICKER WASTE are mixed in. Care should be taken to see that the sliver waste is pulled apart Into short lengths and that no other waste is thrown into the bins by mistake, because a small lot of short staple waste can cause a great deal of trouble later on. Some overseers use only an opener and one process of picking, others use two processes of picking with the opener. It is the general custom to use only an opener and one process of picking for these fine counts. The general instructions that have been given in regard to openers should be followed. The speed of the beater (rigid type) should be reduced so that the cotton should only receive 29 beats per minute. The weight of the lap at the front end of the picker (when one picker is used) should not exceed 30 pounds and from this range to 25 pounds. A GOOD WEIGHT per yard for the grade of fabric under description is 9 ounces. The machines should be carefully looked into to see that they are all kept clean and properly set. The laps are taken to the cards. At this point, as at a great many others, overseers differ as to the best means of procedure. Some use a large draft at the card and only one process of comblag.and others use lower drafts and two processes of combing. In this lesson we will assume a large card draft and one process of combing for all counts of yarn in both grades of batiste. The speed of the licker should be reduced from about 350 revolutions per minute to 275 or 280 revolutions per minute. This is done by lagging the licker-in pulley. The wire fillet used on the cylinder should be No. 34 wire (American count, or 110s English count), and on the doffer and top flats No. 36 wire, or 130s English count.

THE FLATS should be speeded up to take out as much waste as possible. The cards should be stripped three times a day and ground so as to keep the wire sharp. The settings used should be very close and care should be taken to see that the cotton is not broken in staple at the card. A great many times, if the cotton is sampled at the front of the card, it will be found to be shorter than when entering. ThlB may be and is generally caused by an improper setting of the feed plate to the licker-in. While this applies directly to long staple cotton, still all cottons should be looked into carefully to avoid shortening the length of the staple. It is very important to keep the cards clean so that as little dust and dirt will go into the sliver as possible, because, if this dirt gets past the combers, it will show up in the cloth, as the thread or yarn is so small.

The percentage of waste taken out should be about 25. These processes will answer for all the counts except for the 200s, which should be double combed, i. e., after being put through the combers once should be run through the sliver lap machine and then through the combers again. After passing through the combers the sliver passes through two processes of drawing. At these machines the sliver is doubled six into one, the speed of the front rolls at each frame being 320 revolutions per minute. Be sure the settings are proper for the staple so as not to "break" the staple, or too far apart so that uneven drawing will result. THE TOP ROLLS should be of a little larger diameter than for shorter length of staple; the grade of skin used for the top rolls should be finer than that used for the shorter and lower grades of cotton. Not only is this true in regard to the drawing frames, but also on all machines on which leather top rolls are used. Always keep these rolls in the best of shape and clean machines more often than with the lower grades of raw stock. The weight of sliver at the front is 60 grains per yard. The drawing sliver is put through the slubber, which makes it into .80 hank. This machine also uses a larger diameter top roll than is used on the lowe. grades. The slubber roving for 60s yarn is put through three processes of fly frames, the hank roving, at the 1st intermediate being 2.25; at the second, 5 hank, and at the fine frames 15 hank. From here it is taken to the ring spinning room and made into 60s warp yarn on a frame having the following particulars: Gauge of frame, 2% inches; diameter of ring, 1 5-16 inches; length of traverse, 5 inches.