The picture shows the Warping or Beaming department, technically this is back beam warping, the usual practice in the cotton industry, as opposed to section warping in the woollen and worsted trades. A very large unit!
These machines are bobbin winding frames. The front one is probably made by Joseph Stubbs Ltd, Manchester, who specialised in winding machinery and had works at Ancoats and Openshaw. The nearest machine is 'assembly winding' ie winding two ends from…
The machine was manufactured by Howard & Bullough in Accrington, Lancashire. Founded in 1851, the company was a major manufacturer of power looms in the 1860s.
This is carding, the first process in the Cardroom, where the raw wool or cotton is prepared for subsequent spinning by separating the fibres to form a sliver, this is performed on a revolving flat card made by Platt Bros & Co Ltd of Oldham, the…
This look like a woollen card hopper, but actually the photo was taken in the Blowing Room and shows a hopper opener, feeding a line of machines leading to the scutcher. Cotton comes in press-packed bales, and it must be loosened up or 'opened' and…
This shows a later process in the Cardroom, the machines are flyer frames, specifically,either intermediate or roving frames. Bobbins from the previous process, eg the slubbing frame, are placed in the creel and pass through the drafting system,…
This is in the cardroom and shows the back of a slubbing frame. The sliver cans in the foreground have come from the drawframes (not shown in this picture). The drawframe sliver is passed through the roller drafting system, which reduces the weight…
This view is of the spinning room and shows a pair of self-acting mules spinning cotton yarn from roving. The spindles are mounted in a moving carriage and move away from the drafting rollers, inserting twist. Usually in cotton spinning, the carriage…