hose duty it is to open, and
comb out, and clean the fibers as they pass along.

To begin with, the "lap" or roll of cotton is placed behind the machine
so as to rest on a roller of 6 inches in diameter, which slowly unwinds
the lap at the rate of about 9 inches per minute, by frictional contact
therewith.

Here, it may be said that the width of this and other chief rollers and
cylindrical parts of the card may be about 38 inches or 40 inches wide,
there being a tendency to make present-day Carding Engines rather
narrower than formerly, in order to give greater strength to certain
parts. From the lap roller the sheet of cotton is conducted for about 8
inches over a smooth feed plate, and then it goes underneath a fluted
roller of 2-1/4 inches diameter, termed the feed roller, having
practically the same surface speed as the lap roller, or possibly a
small fraction more to keep the cotton lap tight.

At this stage the actual work of the Carding Engine may be said to
commence. While the feed roller and the feed plate hold the end of the
sheet of cotton and project it forward at the slow rate of 8 or 9 inches
per minute, this projecting end of the lap becomes subject to the action
of a powerful roller or beater termed the taker-in or licker-in.

The most recent and improved construction of this roller is termed the
Metallic Taker-in, and it is covered all over with strong steel teeth
shaped something like those of a saw. It is about 9 inches in diameter,
and its strong teeth strike the cotton down from the feed roller with a
surface speed of nearly 1000 feet per minute.

It is at this stage that the bulk of the heavier impurities still found
in the cotton are removed, as these fall through certain grids below the
taker-in immediately they are loosened from the retaining fibres by the
powerful teeth of the taker-in.

The great bulk of the cotton fibres, however, are retained by the teeth
of the taker-in and carried round the under side to a point where they
are exposed to the action of the central and most important part of
every Carding Engine, viz., the main "cylinder." The licker-in contains
about twenty-eight teeth per square inch, but the "cylinder" is the
first of the parts that the cotton arrives at, previously referred to as
being covered with a vast number of closely set steel wire teeth.

Just to convey an idea of this point to the uninitiated reader, it may
be said that it is quite common to have on the "c