each sliver passes over a spoon lever forming part of a
motion for automatically stopping the machine when an end breaks. The
eighteen slivers now pass side by side through three pairs of drawing
rollers with a slight draft, and between calender rollers to a wooden
"core" or roller. Upon this roller the slivers are wound in the form of
a lap, being assimilated to one another by the action of the drawing and
calender rollers.

=Special Drawing Frame.=--In order to have the fibres of cotton in the
best possible condition for obtaining the maximum efficiency out of the
combing action, it is the common practice to employ a special drawing
frame between the card and the sliver lap machine.

As described elsewhere in this little story, the use of the drawing
frame is to make the fibres of cotton more parallel to each other by the
drawing action of the rollers, and to produce uniformity in the slivers
of cotton by doubling about six of them together and reducing the six
down to the dimensions of one. In the case under discussion the slivers
from the card are taken to the special drawing frame and treated by it,
and then passed along to the sliver lap machine as just described.

Image: FIG. 33.--Ribbon lap machine.

=Ribbon Machine.=--Quite recently a machine has come slightly into use
designed to supersede this special drawing frame. This new machine is
termed the "Ribbon Lap Machine," and it may be described as a variation
of the principle of the machine it is designed to supersede. The
difference is this, that, whereas the drawing frame doubles and
attenuates slivers of cotton, the Ribbon Machine operates upon small
laps formed of ribbons or narrow sheets of cotton. By this treatment,
the evening and parallelising benefits of the drawing frame are secured,
with the addition of a third advantage, which may be briefly explained.
The slivers, which in the sliver lap machine are laid side by side so as
to form a lap, have a tendency to show an individuality so as to present
a more or less thick and thin sheet to the action of the nippers of the
comber. The latter, therefore, hold the cotton somewhat feebly at the
thin places, thus allowing the needles of the revolving cylinder to comb
out a portion of good cotton. When the Ribbon Lap Machine is employed,
the slivers from the card are taken directly to the Sliver Lap Machine
and the laps made by this machine are passed through the Ribbon Machine.
Six laps being operated up