ng that 1 inch of cotton be passed through the
first pair of rollers, the second pair will immediately draw it out into
1.3 inches; the third pair will draw out the same portion of cotton into
1.3 x 1.8 inches = 2.34 inches, and the fourth or last pair of rollers
will draw out the same portion of cotton into 2.34 x 2.6 inches = 6.084.

Image: FIG. 17.--Drawing frame showing eight slivers entering and one
leaving the machine.

The six slivers put up at the back are therefore drawn out or
attenuated to the dimensions of one by the rollers, and then at the
delivery side of the machine the six slivers are united into one sliver,
and arranged in beautiful order inside a can exactly as described for
the Carding Engine.

Now it is in the doubling together and again drawing-out of the slivers
of cotton that the two objects of making the fibres parallel and the
slivers uniform are effected.

In the first place, even the uninitiated readers of this story may
conceive that the combining of six slivers will naturally cause any
extra thick or thin places in any of the individual slivers to become
much reduced in extent by falling along with correct diameters of the
other five slivers; and experience proves that such is the actual fact.
In this way the slivers, or soft untwisted ropes of cotton, are made
uniform.

It is perhaps not so easy to see how it is that drawing rollers make the
fibres of cotton parallel. As a matter of fact, it may be said that as
each pair of rollers projects the fibres forward, the next pair of
rollers takes hold of the fibres and draws their front extremities
forward more rapidly than the other pair will let the back extremities
of the same fibres pass forward. It is this action often repeated that
draws the fibres straight, or in other words, reduces them to a
condition in which they are parallel to each other.

It is the usual practice to pass each portion of cotton through three
separate frames in this manner, in immediate and rapid succession. The
"slivers" or ropes of cotton made at the front of the first drawing
frame, would be placed in their cans behind a second drawing frame and
the exact process just described would be repeated. The same identical
process would usually be performed yet a third time in order to secure
the required objects with what is considered a sufficient degree of
perfection.

After this the cotton is usually deemed to be quite ready for the
immediate