ree principal cylinders. The lap passes first under the
smallest of the three, called the taker-in, which is covered with very
fine saw-teeth all in one long strip of steel, wound and fixed spirally
in the surface of the cylinder. The taker-in receives the cotton from a
feed-roller (C) that turns above a smooth iron plate (D) called the feed
plate. The saw-teeth comb the fibers which are imbedded, so to speak, in
the lap, and deliver the loose ones to the second cylinder, which is the
largest of the group. This main cylinder is covered with wire teeth all
bent at exactly the same angle. The cotton clings to them, and is carried
around to the top of the cylinder, where it is engaged by teeth on the
revolving-flat card which are bent in the opposite direction. This
"card-clothing" arranged in strip, crosswise on a travelling lattice,
moves in the same direction as the cylinder but moves very slowly, and so
the fibers are carded between the two sets of wire points, the short and
immature fibers remaining on the card wires of the lattice and the
perfect and now almost entirely parallel ones being carried over from the
main cylinder to the doffer cylinder, the third of the trio. From this
they are removed by an oscillating comb (F), coming off in a light,
fleecy lap, which is condensed through a funnel into a soft untwisted
roping, or sliver, about the diameter of a man's thumb, and is then
coiled into a can, usually about 45 inches high by 8 inches diameter.

[Illustration: _View of Modern Motor-Driven Opener Picker_]

The conveying of the sliver (pronounced with a long or short i) into the
can is in itself an exceedingly ingenious operation, although a very
simple one. The device is attached directly to the card, and is called a
coiler. The sliver passes into it from the funnel. The hole from which
the sliver emerges is off the center of a steel plate which revolves
slowly, so that the sliver, as it comes out, has an eccentric motion
which causes it to fall into the can in regular coils. Tangling is thus
prevented, and ease of handling secured.

Combing Necessary in
Spinning Fine "Counts"

Combing is necessary in the preparation of cotton for the spinning of
fine "counts" or coarser yarns where great smoothness and regularity are
desired. They are now quite extensively used in the United States, and it
is significant of the trend of the industry here that the number is
rapidly growing. The first cotton comber was inve