ke a soft round cord about an inch
thick, and is coiled up in cans nearly a yard high. This cord is
called "sliver."

[Illustration: IN A COTTON MILL

The "sliver" coming through the machine, and the "roving" being
twisted and wound on bobbins.]

The sliver is not uniform; even now its fibers are not entirely
parallel, and it is as weak as wet tissue paper. It now pays a visit
to the "drawing-frame." Four or six slivers are put together and run
through this frame. They go between four pairs of rollers, the first
pair moving slowly, the others more rapidly. The slow pair hold the
slivers back, while the fast one pull them on. The result is that
when the sliver comes out from the rollers, its fibers are much
straighter. This process is repeated several times; and at last when
the final sliver comes out, although it looks almost the same as when
it came from the carding-machine, its fibers are parallel. It is much
more uniform, but it is very fragile, and still has to be handled
with great care. It is not nearly strong enough to be twisted into
thread; and before this can be done, it must pass through three other
machines. The first, or "slubber," gives it a very slight twist, just
enough to suggest what is coming later, and of course in doing this
makes it smaller. The cotton changes its name at every operation, and
now it is called "roving." It has taken one long step forward, for
now it is not coiled up in cans, but is wound on "bobbins," or great
spools. The second machine, the "intermediate speeder," twists it a
very little more and winds it on fresh bobbins. It also puts two
rovings together, so that if one happens to be thin in one place,
there is a chance for it to be strengthened by a thicker place in
the other. The third machine, the "fine speeder," simply makes a
finer roving.

All this work must be done merely to prepare the raw cotton to be
twisted into the tiny threads that you see by raveling a piece of
cotton cloth. Now comes the actual twisting. If you fasten one end
of a very soft string and twist the other and wind it on a spool, you
will get a spool of finer, stronger, and harder-twisted string than
you had at first. This is exactly what the "ring-spinner" does.
Imagine a bobbin full of roving standing on a frame. Down below it are
some rolls between which the thread from the bobbin passes to a second
bobbin which is fast on a spindle. Around this spindle is the
"spinning-ring," a ring which is ma