177 CHAPTER III. COTTON MILLS. In our attempts to illustrate the improvements that have taken place in mills and mill-work we have endeavoured to give in detail the present improved state of the machinery for grinding corn, and the next after what is generally called the staff of life is the factory system for the manufacture of cotton. Of all the manufacturing interests which the industrial resources of this country present, this is probably the most important, not even excepting the iron and coal trades, and we may readily be excused if we briefly glance at the increase and immense extent to which this manufacture has attained until suddenly arrested by the unnatural war now raging in America. It will be in the recollection of most of our readers, that for the last seventy or eighty years, the mills of Lancashire and those of other parts of Europe, depended almost entirely for their supply of cotton upon the Southern States of America, and that the extension of the trade grew up with the facilities of obtaining the means of supply; and although India, Egypt, and other countries, of late years cultivated and exported cotton, yet the chief dependence of Lancashire and other parts was upon the American States. The present miserable war has, however, cut off those supplies, and hence follows the distress and misery which have from this cause overtaken our once comfortable, willing, and industrious population. Our business, however much we may regret this circumstance, is not with the growth or supply of cotton, but its manufacture, and we have now to describe the improved methods and systems adopted for giving motion to the various intricate and ingenious machines now in use. Until of late years, nearly the whole of our cotton mills were built from five to eight stories in height, with a succession of flats or floors in which the different processes were carried on. Generally speaking, the ground or first floors were appropriated to carding, drawing, and roving, with a separate building for the opening and blowing machines, and these constituted the preparatory process. The rooms above were invariably set apart for spinning, by mules if for fine yarn, but by throstles and mules conjointly if for coarser numbers. This was the state of the factory system thirty years ago when adapted exclusively for spinning, but the introduction of the power-loom and self-acting mule gave a new character to the dimensions and form of factory buildings. In the first instance, it was found that power-looms worked better on the ground-floor than those on the upper stories, and that the yarn required a certain degree of moisture to weave freely, which could not be obtained from the heated and dry floors above. These properties peculiar to the ground-floor led to the shed principle, and there is scarcely a cotton mill now in the kingdom where looms are employed that has not a shed attached to the lower story on a level with the ground-floor. Again, it was found after the introduction of the self-acting mule that one man could work, with the assistance of two or three boys, 1,600 spindles with as much ease as he could work 600 spindles by the hand mules. This led to mills of double the width of the old ones, the former reaching from eighty to ninety feet wide. The spinning mills of the present day are therefore more like square towers or large lanterns, with considerable architectural pretensions as compared with the uncouth buildings we have already described. To these square buildings it is usual to attach a weaving shed with all the requisite warehouses and appurtenances for carrying on that additional department of the manufacture. In order to exemplify our description of a cotton mill, with the steam engine and transmissive machinery by which it is kept in motion, we might have chosen some of our largest establishments upon the principle referred to above; but having constructed mills for the colonies on a different principle, we have selected for illustration one of those erected in India, where the whole of the machinery is on the ground floor, and where it is covered by a light roof on the system of the weaving shed for looms. Messrs. William Fairbairn and Sons have built several of these mills for the Bombay Presidency, and the whole of the machinery being open for inspection can the more easily be traced from the opening of the cotton bales to the finished cloth on the opposite side of the mill. Description. In the annexed plan and sections it will be observed that the building covers a large space of ground, and is chiefly adapted for the country or small towns where land is cheap. In large cities such as Manchester, buildings of this description are seldom erected, owing to the high price of land and local taxes, from which the country is free; we have therefore most of our cotton mills in the surrounding districts, depending on Manchester as a centre and ready market for the sale and the export of yarn and cloth. The mill to which we refer, shown in Plates XV. and XVI., was built for India, and is now in successful operation some short distance from Bombay. Plate XVI. is a plan of the buildings showing the position of the machinery and the steam engines at A. The main shafts and gearing are supported on stone or brick pillars through the whole length of the building, receiving in their passage motion from the large pinion at B, which works into the fly-wheel, distributing it to the different lines of shafting on each side. The steam is supplied to the engines by six boilers, 5 feet 9 inches diameter, and 32 feet long, with internal flues. The engines are each 80 horse-power, collectively 160 horses, 6 feet stroke, 24.7 strokes per minute, and are calculated to work to the full extent of 600 indicated horse-power. The main shafts, which receive motion from the fly-wheel, make 80 revolutions per minute, and are 8 inches diameter for a distance of 70 feet over the throstles and mules, and for a further distance of 35 feet towards the cards, they are 6 inches diameter, when they gradually taper in both directions to 5 inches at the end over the cards, and to 4 inches over the looms. The cross shafts over the power-looms are 24 inches diameter, tapering to 2 inches at the end. The cross shafts over the throstles and mules are 3 inches diameter, tapering to 24 inches at the |