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 £y JAMES A GREER 
 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 1915 
 
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 m 
 
 CO 
 
 RAPID 
 
 SIMPLE 
 
'©/©'UK %Q/ty&W&'W§/&'§/WWWW&&'WWWty& / §/WtyWWty&W§/§/§i 
 
 I 
 
 (j2> 
 
 The Stamp of Excellence # 
 
 $ 
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 Devoted to the Better Class of 
 
 COMMERCIAL 
 PRINTING 
 
 MANUFACTURERS OF 
 
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 Blank Books, Special Ruled 
 
 Forms of all kinds. Equip- 
 
 pedwith every Facility for 
 
 Producing High-Glass 
 
 Printing 
 
 LONG DISTANCE PHONE 342 
 22 W. Trade St. Charlotte, N. G. I 
 

 NORTHROP LOOMS * 
 
 , Trade Mark 
 
 Twisters Spoolers 
 Warpers Reels 
 Balling Machines 
 Banding Machines 
 
 Mirror Spinning Rings 
 
 Trade Mark Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. 
 
 Dutcher Temples 
 
 Trade Mark Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. 
 
 Rabbeth Centrifugal Clutch 
 Spindles 
 
 Rhoades-Chandler Separators 
 
 Moscrop Single Thread Yarn Testers 
 
 and other Patented improvements in 
 Cotton Machinery 
 
 Draper Company 
 
 HOPEDALE MASS. 
 
 J. D. CLOUDMAN Southern Agent 
 
 40 South Forsyth Street Atlanta Ga. 
 
MASON MACHINE j 
 WORKS 
 
 @) 
 
 Builders of 
 
 Cotton Mill Machinery 
 
 CARDS-DRAWING 
 
 SPINNING FRAMES 
 
 LOOMS-DOBBIES • 
 
 WORKS 
 
 TAUNTON, MASS 
 
 
 EXECUTIVE OFFICE 
 
 $ 77 Franklin St. Boston, Mass. 1 
 
 SOUTHERN OFFICE 
 
 Greenville, South Carolina 
 EDWIN HOWARD, - Agent 
 
 
^'&&W&&WW&W& / &'&'&W&'& / & / &W&W&W&Q / &'&'&'WWW&W&WWWW& 
 
 <<3> 
 
 W. H. MONTY 
 
 President and Tr easnrer 
 
 W. H. HUTCHTNS 
 Vice-President and Secretary 
 
 Being the ONLY PRESSER MAKERS IN 
 THE SOUTH means your ORDERS 
 FILLED PROMPTLY" 
 
 Southern Spindle & Flyer 
 Company, Inc. 
 
 Charlotte, N. G. 
 
 Manufacturers, Overhaulers and Repairers of 
 
 GOTTON MILL MACHINERY . 
 
 THE ONLY j REPAIRERS 
 
 IN THE % SOUTH 
 OF THIS MAKE OF FLYER 
 
 Repairers of Steel 
 Rolls, Spindles, Fly- 
 ers, Doffer Gomb 
 Bars, Etc. 
 
 Overhaulers of Fly 
 
 Frames, Spinning 
 
 Frames Twisters 
 
 and Spoolers 
 
 U=<^) 
 
 Manufacturers of Steel Rolls, Pressers, 
 Card Room Spindles, Whirls, Spindle Steps, 
 Lifting Rods, Gollars Bushing, Top Rolls, etc. 
 
 We sell- Twister, Double and Single Spinning Rings of the Best 
 ^r Make. We Align and Level Shafting with a Kinkead apparatus. 
 
To Earn More 
 Learn More 
 
 The true University of these 
 days is a collection of books. 
 
 —Carlyle 
 
 m 
 
 <$) 
 
 If you want to advance in the 
 textile industry you should 
 have a good collection of tex- 
 tile books. 
 
 I can furnish you any textile 
 hook at publisher's price. 
 
 For further information ad- 
 dress 
 
 JAMES A. GREER 
 
 Author and Publisher 
 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 ^/^/^/(^/^/W^/q)/^^W^/^/W^/W^/W^/^WW^'W^W^/^ / WW^/W^W^^W^/^. 
 
"Nigrum" Oil -Less Adjustable 
 Saddles 
 
 @> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 Patented— Patents Pending 
 
 Have passed the experimental stage. 
 They are a positive proven fact, to the 
 satisfaction of the most skeptical, and 
 have been adopted by some of the 
 largest mills in the country. They 
 eliminate oil, save the cost of oil and 
 the oiler, and do away with the possi- 
 bility of seconds caused by oil, 
 
 Are you open to conviction? Send us a 
 sample of the saddle you are now using and 
 we will submit to you, at our expense, sam- 
 ples of our "NIGRUM" oil-less saddles for 
 your most severe tests. 
 
 Graphite Lubricating Company 
 
 Specialists in oil-less bearings 
 for every use. 
 
 Church & Main St. Bound Brook, N. J. 
 
FROM PICKER 
 
 When adding to present equip- 
 ment or buying new, every cotton 
 manufacturer, regardless of what 
 make he is now using wants the 
 most efficient and advanced ma- 
 chinery 
 
 We are separate organizations SPECI- 
 ALIZING on the various units in complete 
 cotton mill equipment as far as the loom. 
 This SPECIALIZATION has enabled us 
 to perfect many exclusive refinements and 
 patented features which account for the 
 superior results our machines obtain, both 
 in quality and quantity of production and 
 in cost of repairs. 
 
 The efficiency of our machinery is not 
 merely a claim but an established fact. 
 You should prove this for yourself. Esti- 
 mates gladly given. 
 
TO LOOM 
 
 Pickers and Flat Cards 
 
 Potter and Johnson Machine Co. 
 
 Roving and Drawing Frames 
 
 Woonsocket Machine & Press Co. 
 
 Spinning and Twisting 
 Frames 
 
 Fales and Jenks Machine Co. 
 
 Spoolers, Reels and Spindles 
 
 Easton & Burnham Co. 
 
 MANUFACTURERS EQUIPMENT COMPANY 
 
 Northern Representatives 
 136 Federal St. Boston 
 
 J. H. MAYES 
 
 Southern Representative 
 
 Independence Bldg. Charlotte, N. C. 
 
JAMES A. GREER 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
^s 
 
 Greeks Spinning Rules 
 
 A Practical Book for 
 Practical People 
 
 A book of useful information written for those who 
 wish to know more about Cotton Spinning 
 
 By >o 
 
 JAMES A. GREER 
 
 Editor Textile Manufacturer 
 
 Author 
 Greer's Practical Carder 
 
 JAMES A. GREER 
 
 Author and Publisher 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
^ 
 
 ff>v 
 
 "PREFACE Of^ 
 
 To write a book on cotton spinning, that would be loth 
 interesting and instructive, to those wishing to learn more 
 about this important subject, has been the desire of the Author 
 in preparing the little volume hat you now hold in your hand. 
 The plan of dividing the matter into letters was adopted, in 
 order that it would appear, as the sincere advice of the A uihor, 
 and at the same time, give an excuse for the relating of per- 
 sonal experiences. It has been the object of the Author to 
 refrain from any <l high-brow stuff," and to get right down to 
 the plain everyday vernacular of the common mill man. The 
 matter contained herein was published, serially, in the Textile 
 Manufacturer, of Charlotte, N. C, during 1914 
 
 The A uthor has reason to feel proud of the record, his 
 previous publication,— Greers Practical Carder— has attained 
 and should the present volume become so well \ncwn, to the 
 four corners of the textile world, he will feel amply repaid 
 for the time, trouble and expense, incident to the publishing of 
 such a hoofy. 
 
 Your particular attention is directed to the advertisements 
 appearing in this book- These advertisers are among the 
 leaders in their respective lines, and it is by their co operation 
 that a wide distribution of this book nas been made possible. 
 That the present volume will be of interest and value, to all 
 into whose hands it may come, is the sincere wish of— 
 
 'Uhe A uthor ' 
 
 y 
 
 A\ 
 
LETTER NO. 1. 
 
 MY Dear Son: You are doubtless aware of the fact 
 that unless you settle down to business and con- 
 centrate your mind and effort on the one thing 
 you wish to accomplish, you will never be worth a pinch 
 of snuff. No one has ever made a success of anything, so 
 long as they have jumped about, like a frog, going no- 
 where in particular, but just hopping around from one 
 place to another. The thing to do my boy, is to concen- 
 trate upon one thing. Act the part, of the postage stamp, 
 stick to one thing until you get there. Now you tell me 
 you are going to learn the cotton mill business, good! I 
 am so glad you have decided to take up this work. As 
 you know I have spent the better part of my life in the 
 mill and have acquired some reputation as a mill man, 
 and while I can be of some help to you, by way of telling 
 you, my experience and pointing out to you the many dif- 
 ficulties to be overcome, and the best way to overcome 
 them, you must realize to begin with that the road of a 
 successful mill man is not strewn with roses. There is a 
 great deal of satisfaction in being the possessor of a fund 
 of knowledge in any line of industry, and to acquire this 
 knowledge one must be willing to undergo a great deal of 
 inconvenience, hard work and suffering. Nothing my boy 
 can be accomplished without hard work. Take any ac- 
 complishment in life, no matter what it may be, and back 
 of it you will find hard work. You can't get something for 
 nothing, put that down in your memory to begin with. 
 You must work and work hard, but with the advice and 
 help that 1 can give you, you should be able to get on 
 much faster than I did, for you have many advantages 
 that I did not have. Though by hard work and much in- 
 convenience and self-aenial I have been able to get along 
 fairly well, and have enjoyed some of the sunshine of life 
 
12 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 with a few of its roses, but son, even the roses have 
 thorns and unless they are handled with caution and 
 judgment they become painful possessions, in spite of all 
 their beauty and fragrance. These words of mine are 
 written hurriedly; as you know I am kept very busy, and 
 have not the time to be as concise as I would like to be, 
 but if you will follow my lettors closely and bear in mind 
 that what I tell you is what I have learned in that greatest 
 of all schools — experience — you will be profited by them. 
 Son, I am delighted to hear that you are going to start in 
 the spinning room and believe me, you have got some fun 
 coming to you as you climb the hill of learning to be a 
 boss spinner. There is more action in a spinning room 
 than there is in a good dog fight, and more fun than there • 
 is in a barrel of monkeys. 
 
 When I began to learn the mi.r, business it was quite 
 different to what it is now, and there was none of the 
 pleasantries that you find in mill life nearly everywhere 
 you go to-day. There has been a great improvement in 
 machinery in general, as well as in the construction of the 
 buildings of the mills. To-day the buildings are all well 
 lighted and almost perfectly ventilated, and the floors are 
 of hard, smooth maple, and too, the floors are regularly 
 scrubbed and are kept sweet and clean. In the scrubbing 
 of the floors they use a disinfecting compound which kills 
 all germs and is a protection to , the health of the opera- 
 tives. 
 
 When I first began work in the mills they did not 
 have the well lighted and ventilated buildings that they 
 have now, and the floor, oh, my! Scour them! If any one 
 had suggested such a thing they would probably have 
 been taken for crazy and hurried off to an asylum. The 
 floors were of common yellow pine and soon became 
 soaked with oil, tobacco and snuff spit, and were as slick 
 as glass. 
 
 I remember how, during the winter, when I wore 
 shoes, we boys used to skate on the floor and we became 
 so expert in skating that I could easily skate the whole 
 length of a spinning frame. Also I carry a perpetual re- 
 membrance of these skating days, in the shape of several 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 13 
 
 scars on my head caused by falling against a piece of ma- 
 chinery or colliding with some other boy. 
 
 Wait a minute son, until I fill up my Jimmy Pipe, I 
 can write so much better of these good old times, when 
 I am enveloped with a cool fragrant smoke. You remem- 
 ber how we used to rehearse some of Sherlock Holmes 
 great tales? Well, it always, appeared to me that I could 
 get closer to Holmes and his narrative if I followed his 
 example and smoked a great deal. 
 
 Now the old pipe is going beautifully. Son! I hope 
 that you will take my advice and avoid the narrows 
 which I shall try to point out to you while you are learn- 
 ing to be a boss spinner.v_You have many advantages that 
 never came to me. Andrew Carnegie says that "poverty 
 is a blessing" and whether we agree with him or not, it 
 does seem that most of the great successes of life come to 
 those who have been reared in pcverty. In this respect 
 your father enjoyed all the blessings of poverty (?) and has 
 not yet been able to get completely out of that environ- 
 ment, but you, my son are living in a time when all cotton 
 mill people are surrounded with advantages far removed 
 from what they have ever been before. When I was a boy 
 of your age, — and by the way I see from the family Bible 
 that you have just passed your eighteenth birth day — I 
 had already spent about ten years in the mill and was a 
 cracker-jack spinner, doffer, bander and section hand or 
 fixer. My father, who of course is your grandfather, 
 gave me all the advantages that 1 would accept, but the 
 trouble with me was that I would not or did not appreciate 
 the good advice that he gave me. Probably I would have 
 been better off if I had listened more to my father's ad- 
 vice, and I mention this so that you may take ' warning if 
 you will, and listen to what I am telling you. I sowed my 
 wild oats and so, proverbially, have had to reap what I 
 sowed . 
 
 The sins of the father are said to descend to the third 
 and fourth generation. My son, listen, you are of the third 
 generation of the cotton mill descendants, being the 
 grandson of one of the pioneer cotton mill men of this 
 country. But whether or not you inherit the good or bad 
 
14 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 qualities of your ancestors you have certainly shown 
 some of their traits by making up your mind to go into 
 the mill business and learn it thoroughly. That word 
 thoroughly my boy is a good word, place it upon your 
 forehead, write it upon the walls of your room, where you 
 can see it constantly, burn it into your brain, as one of the 
 greatest passports to success ithat anyone ever had. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, I think it was,, used to say, that 
 whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Just 
 another way of saying whatever you do, do it thoroughly. 
 If you are tying on bands, tie them on right, take pains to 
 learn the right method and any good boss spinner can 
 show you the right way to tie on a band, then when you 
 know how to do it, do it right. It pays to do a thing right. 
 When you tie a band on right it will stay on, and do good 
 work longer than two bands will if tied on carelessly. 
 But here, I have taken up all the space allotted to this 
 letter so I will leave you for the present. I will write you 
 again next week and hope to have the time to write you 
 a letter regularly each week. Read this over several 
 times and carefully note those things that may be of ser- 
 vice to you in the future. 
 
 Until next week, my boy, I bid you adieu. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 2. 
 
 MY Dear Son: We were talking about tying on 
 bands in my last letter, and I wish to impress 
 upon you the importance of bands and banding. This is 
 one of the most important things about a spinning frame, 
 and you cannot afford to be careless about your spinning 
 bands. 
 
 They should be made of hard twisted roving and 
 should be uniform in size. 
 
 About one-eighth of an inch in diameter will be found 
 a very good size. 
 
 They should be tied on uniformly tight, but not too 
 tight, as they will consume a great deal of unnecessary 
 power if tied on too tight. 
 
 You will find that, bands made from roving will not 
 stretch, as much, as will bands made from yarn, and so by 
 using the roving band you will not be troubled so much 
 with slack twisted yarn caused from loose bands, but even 
 With roving bands you should have your bander or some 
 reliable person to examine all your bands, at regular in- 
 tervals, and to cut off all that are found to be slack. 
 
 By doing this you will prevent the making of a great 
 deal of soft twisted yarn, which is a dead loss to the com- 
 pany. Sometimes you will find bands that will accumu- 
 late lint until they become much larger than their regular 
 size, these should be cut off also, as a large band will not 
 put in the same amount of twist a<* a small band. The 
 reason for this is obvious. The small band will go deeper 
 into the groove of the spindle whirl, and will drive the 
 spindle faster than the large band which stands up on the 
 larger circumference of the whirl. When you have large 
 and small bands mixed together, it will result in the yarn 
 being unevenly twisted, the same as if you had different 
 sizes of whirls. 
 
16 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 I have seen a great deal of trouble come from bad 
 bands, and I learned a long time ago to look closely after 
 my banding. We frequently hear people say that if you 
 will look after the little things, the big things will take 
 care of themselves. This is very true, my boy, and the 
 reason for this is simple. 
 
 A band is a small thing, the shafting and hangers 
 overhead are much larger things, but they all require at- 
 tention, however, your bands may be doing a great deal of 
 bad work and not be very noticeable. They may run 
 along very smoothly and not attract any particular atten- 
 tion but still be making a great deal of bad yarn or caus- 
 ing the spinner a good deal of unnecessary work. It is 
 different with the shafting, as the big thing, when a hang- 
 er is neglected, it runs dry, gets hot and begins to smoke, 
 thus taking care of itself or rather showing up its neg- 
 lect. 
 
 One great trouble that frequently results from bad 
 banding is the fact that sometimes you will find that just 
 a few bad bands will keep a spinner "stuck-up" as they 
 say in the mill. If there are, even a dozen, bad bands 
 scattered about on eight or ten sides it will be sufficient 
 to keep the spinner on those sides busy, and when a spin- 
 ner is kept busy all the time putting up ends there is no 
 opportunity for cleaning the rolls, clearers, rails, etc., and 
 as a result of this there will be a general dissatisfaction 
 on the part of the help, besides a lot of bad work and 
 waste. 
 
 One of the most important things for you to fix in 
 your mind, at the very beginning, is the fact, that an end 
 never breaks without a cause, and that wherever an end 
 breaks and is put up there is a bad place in the yarn. 
 The mended place may be as strong as any other part of 
 the yarn but it will not be as smooth or even. So having 
 learned that an end never breaks without a cause, and 
 that each break means waste and bad yarn, we reach the 
 obvious conclusion that when we learn the various causes 
 of breakage, and remove them we are certain to get 
 good yarn with a minimum of waste. 
 
 There are many causes for the ends coming down on 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 17 
 
 a spinning frame, and one of the greatest of these is 
 to be found in the bands. Even when the bands are 
 properly made, thsy may be tied on too tight or too slack 
 or the knot may be of such a nature as to make the spin- 
 dle run with a jerk. The ideal condition, to be sought af- 
 ter is a band that will not stretch after it is put on, and to 
 Tiave it put on at the right tension, and tied so as to run 
 with a steady pull the same as if it was endless. 
 
 When tying on bands, too many should not be tied on 
 one side of the frame at the same time, as this is likely 
 to pull the cylinder out of line. It is best, in fact it is 
 Teally necessary, when tying on bands, where they are all 
 off, or even a good many off, to use two banders, one on 
 each side of the frame, each tying on an equal number. 
 
 These things, my boy, may appear simple, and they 
 ^re to many, but you should fix these elementary points 
 firmly in your mind. I have seen many boss spinners, 
 neglect this very thing and I know of some who Lave fell 
 down on their jobs simply on account of not knowing or 
 neglecting the importance of banding. 
 
 A simple way to determine the variation of the twist 
 in yarn caused by different size bands, or to find the true 
 ratio of the spindle to the whirl, would be as follows: 
 Make a circular card just a little larger than the spinning 
 ring, and have a hole in centre of card so that it can be 
 placed on top of the ring with the spindle running 
 through the centre. Make a circle on this card about as 
 large as the ring and divide this circle into one hundred 
 equal parts Then place upon the .spindle a hand or point- 
 er similar to the hand of a clock, and in such po- 
 sition that it will move around the circle of the card. 
 Then by turning the cylinder exactly one , revolution you 
 can count the revolutions of the spindle to one of the cyl- 
 inder, and the pointer will show the hundredth part of a 
 revolution of the spindle. 
 
 By trying this simple device on various spindles, with 
 different sized bands, much valuable information may be 
 iad. 
 
 Some years ago I went into a spinning room where 
 they were trying to start up a lot of new spinning, and as 
 
18 GREER'S SPINNING, RULES. 
 
 is usually the case everybody was in a great hurry. 
 
 The company, anxious to get started, had taken sev- 
 eral large orders for hosiery yarn, to be delivered at a 
 certain time, and that time was about to arrive with no 
 yarn in sight. 
 
 There had been various an\l sundry delays such as is 
 always the case in building, (equipping, and starting a 
 new mill. 
 
 The superintendent h£ing a close personal friend of 
 mine, asked me to look over the spinning and tell him 
 why it would not run. 
 
 He also intimated that he was about to quit the job,, 
 but he did not want to fall down and was willing to take 
 advice, and would try anything to make that blamed old 
 spinning go. He said many things about his superiors and 
 inferiors that will not bear printing, but that everybody 
 and everything was in a hellofafix there was no denying. 
 
 The boss spinner was running around like a chicken 
 with its head cut off, not knowing or caring which way he 
 went, just so he kept busy. 
 
 Son, after your father too a look over the room, he 
 could not but feel proud of the fact that he had started in 
 the mill business at the spinning room and had learned 
 to make bands and also to tie them on. 
 
 For awhile I let a selfish motive creep into my mind, 
 and I felt that it could do me no possible good to advise 
 these people where their trouble was. 
 
 I spent some time looking into the various things 
 that will cause an end to come down on a spinning frame, 
 and I had in mind just what I have told you, that an end 
 never breaks without a cause. To locate the cause is 
 generally, but not always the most important thing to do. 
 Sometimes the cause is easier to locate than to remove. 
 
 In the hustle and bustle of starting this new mill 
 they had been in too much of a hurry to look carefully af- 
 ter the little things, these had been neglected and the 
 greatest trouble with the job I have just mentioned was 
 found to be in the banding. They had sent around to va- 
 rious mills in the vicinity and had purchased a great va- 
 riety of bands, also they had a little boy making bands on 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 19 
 
 an old time band machine just like your dad ran many 
 years ago. 
 
 The bands which were secured from the various 
 mills were of all sizes, lengths and colors, and were made 
 from different kinds of material. They formed a general 
 lot that might be classed as good, bad and indifferent but 
 mostly bad and unfit for tt^e. 
 
 Some of them, I noticed particularly were twister 
 bands, larger than a good big lead pencil, and never in- 
 tended to be used on spinning frames. Then there were 
 others made from a general mixture of roving, slasher 
 waste, and soft filling, and coming from a mill that made 
 colored goods they were of more different colors than 
 Joseph's famous coat ever dared to be. Then the boy that 
 was making bands on the old machine, in an isolated part 
 of the building, he knew no more than a pig, what consti- 
 tuted a good band, and what's more he did not care a tink- 
 ers dam, whether they were good, bad or indifferent. Some 
 were as large as your finger others about the size of 
 "wrapping twine. 
 
 The whole trouble was simply this; the boss spinner 
 and the superintendent had been too busy looking after 
 the big things, and the little things were just about to 
 put them both out of a job. They both knew these things 
 but had simply lost sight of them in the rush of getting 
 started up. 
 
 When I explained the trouble and showed them the 
 bands and some other things, the superintendent tele- 
 phoned a large mill in a neighboring town and arranged 
 to get a large shipment of roving-made bands, of the 
 proper size. When they arrived, by express, the next day, 
 a dozen or more boys and men were put to work cutting 
 •off the old bands and tying on the new ones. 
 
 I called at the mill a week or so later at the request 
 -of the superintendent,, who by the way met me at the depot 
 with his new automobile a boad smile and a hearty wel- 
 come to visit his mill and his home, where upon his insist- 
 ence I spent several days with his attractive family, in 
 one of the most beautifully located and handsomely fur- 
 nished homes I have ever had the pleasure of entering. 
 
20 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 At the mill there had come the calm that follows the 
 storm, the sunshine that follows the rain. The trouble 
 had passed over, as a dark cloud, that had threatened to 
 burst upon these men charged with making this spinning 
 run. 
 
 Everybody at the mill gtosut/ed me with cordiaity and 
 I feared that the superintendent and the boss spinner 
 would become jealous of me on account of the attention 
 that was shown me, but I do not believe that I have two 
 better friends to-day than these two men, though I doubt 
 if the officials higher up were ever told of the matter, and 
 f am sure I never mentiond it to them, though I had am- 
 ple opportunity to do so. And it all came about from a 
 little close observance of bands and banding on my part 
 and a neglect of these things, on their part. 
 
 My son, I want to impress one thing upon your mind 
 in this connection, don't ever try to run over the head of 
 your boss, I mean by that to never go to an official higher 
 up, than the one you are working for. Stick to the man 
 you work for and let his interest be yours. I have always 
 found this to be a good policy and have stuck to it,, 
 though there have been many times when I feel that I was 
 doing things for men that would not appreciate them, and 
 that I might gain the good will or possibly a better job by 
 going to some one higher up. I have never done this and 
 I advise you to not do it. Next week I will take up with 
 you some troubles I have had with oiling and in the 
 meantime, let me hear from you. I am always glad to 
 hear how you are getting along with your work. 
 
 Sincerely ycurs, 
 
 DAD. 
 
L 
 
 LETT \ '% NO. 3. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — I am glad to hear you are getting 
 along so nicely, and that you are now head-doffer. 
 If you will keep right after your work and study 
 the lessons I am sending you, there is no reason why you 
 should not be promoted soon. 
 
 In making you head-doffer, the boss is giving you an 
 opportunity to show what you can do, and I want to im 
 press upon you the necessity of keeping your head level. 
 Don't get the big head, now, over your first promotion, 
 you are too well raised for that, just go right along and 
 try to get the other boys to do their work right, but don't 
 try to show your authority, too much. There is a great 
 deal of tact required in handling help, and this is espe- 
 cially true of the spinning room. 
 
 You must learn to be firm, but, be kind to every one. 
 You can do a great deal more with people when they re- 
 spect you than you can if they feel spiteful or revengeful 
 towards you. You must learn to be a leader, not a 
 driver. 
 
 When I was a young fellow like you and learning the 
 iriill business, the boss was a terror, why we were as afraid 
 of the boss as an innocent child is of the devil. The boss 
 used to take kids down and whip them just like they be- 
 longed to them. I have seen the boss take a boy" your 
 size, put his head between his knees, and using a top 
 clearer for a paddle, he would proceed to beat the boys', 
 circumstances. I have during my experience as an over- 
 seer of spinning been so provoked at times, that I could 
 hardly keep from slapping the wax out of some little in- 
 sclent brat, and a few times I have put my hands on them 
 pants just like a washerwoman beats clothes with the old 
 soap-stick. Things are quite different now, corporal pun- 
 ishment in the mill would not be tolerated under any 
 
22 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 and threatened to throw them out of a four-story window. 
 And also I have frequently had to interview some of 
 these little devils' parents, about the discipline I would en- 
 force upon their unruly progeny. 
 
 On a few occasions I haW\had some old hag approach 
 me, with a big stick and unV;,yr very provoking circum- 
 stances, about her "dear little' Johnnie, who had been 
 mistreated by the boss." Nearly every boss spinner 
 could^tell an interesting story, from his experience that 
 would bear me out in saying that the way of a boss spin- 
 ner is equally as hard as that of the transgressor, and 
 there comes to every boss spinner a time when he has to 
 "'grin and bear it" to keep from slapping some kid's face 
 key-western-crooked. 
 
 All of this, however, you will learn as you advance, 
 and you must, of all things, learn to control your temper 
 ;and overook the many failings of the help. You cannot ex- 
 pect them to do everything just as you would do it and you 
 must remember that you can't put a grown person's head 
 on a child's shoulders. Just do your best to train the help 
 and teach them to do everything as near right as possible 
 and you will find that if you get the respect and good will 
 of the help you can lead them to do fight. 
 
 Well, son, I promised to tell you something about oil- 
 ing this week. You will find this to be more important 
 than most people think. I could call the names of several 
 overseers that I personally know have lost good jobs by 
 neglecting the proper oiling of their machinery. And, too, 
 I can't understand why some mill managers and mill own- 
 <ef£ are so ignorant or careless of this subject. They will 
 pay high prices for good machinery, employ the best su- 
 perintendent and overseers to manage their mills and then 
 insist on having some blamed fool that hasen't sense 
 enough to pour sand out of a boot, to oil the ma- 
 chinery. You will find in the mill where you are to-day, 
 that it is the accepted rule that anybody can do the oiling. 
 Yes and anybody can strike a match 'and stick • fire to a 
 ten dollar bill. Simply because of the fact that anybody 
 can pour oil out of a can, is no reason why so important a 
 job as oiling of the machinery in a cotton mill, should be 
 so sadly neglected. If you will just walk around about the 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 23 
 
 machine shop and take a look at the scrap pile, you will 
 find why I lay such emphasis upon the question of oiling, 
 but the half is not told when you see the scrap pile, with 
 its many broken and worn out parts, a veritable monu- 
 ment to careless oiling. 
 
 fa 
 Oil is cheaper than mH^iinery and the way it is used 
 
 in the average spinning room shows that it is considered 
 cheap, alright, for I have yet to see the first mill where- 
 less oil is put upon the floor, than upon the machinery. 
 I believe it would be safe to say that about three- 
 fourths of the oil delivered to a cotton mill is absolutely 
 wasted. T don't think that statement is strong enough I 
 am going to amend it by striking out the words "three- 
 fourths" and inserting the words "ninety per cent." There 
 is no doubt in my mind but that fully 90 per cent of the oil 
 is wasted. You can find a thousand places about cotton mill 
 machinery where one small drop of oil would be ample 
 lubricant for a period, and if you will take the time to see 
 how these places are oiled you wiil find the average oiler 
 putting, say a teaspoonful where there should be one 
 drop. "Willful waste makes woeful want," my son, and I 
 want you to learn these things for your own good and for 
 the good of your employer. 
 
 Cotton mills are built to make money, but it is a won- 
 der that more of them don't break or go into bankruptcy, 
 in view of the great wastes that are allowed around them. 
 
 Take the oiling of spindles on a spinning frame for an 
 example of wastefulness. It is customary to oil spindles 
 every two to four weeks, according to the different ideas 
 of the superintendent or overseer in charge. 
 
 High speed spindles require to be oiled with a very 
 light oil, and this should be of good quality, cheap oils are 
 worthless and are to be avoided. The average oiler on 
 spinning puts more oil upon the floor and upon the rails 
 than ever gets into the base of the spindle. If he uses a 
 drip cup he generally files off the spout so that a large 
 stream will pour from the cup, and when he starts at one 
 end of the frame he pours a constant stream from the 
 cup, jumping from one spindle to another, until he 
 reaches the end or his cup runs empty. 
 
24 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 Several automatic systems of oiling the spindles have 
 been tried, but as yet none have come into general use. 
 I have seen one patented system that I believe will be 
 eventually adopted with some minor improvement. It 
 consists of an oil reservoir placed upon the head of the 
 frame and at such a level tha\the oil flows, by gravity, 
 through small pipes to the bases of the spindles. The 
 height of the oil in the spindle base is shown through a 
 glass in the oil reservoir, and the overseer or any one else 
 can tell at any time, just how much oil is in the spindles. 
 
 Some fool-proof oiling device for the spinning frame 
 spindles, if perfected and made entirely practical and posi- 
 tive in its action, should make its inventor immensely 
 rich. 
 
 I have frequently detected oilers skipping spindles, 
 that is, sometimes when in a hurry to get through, they 
 will oil two spindles and skip two or three, or perhaps 
 sometimes they will skip a whole side if they are not 
 watched carefully. Of course such careless or willfully 
 negligent person, should not be retained under any cir- 
 cumstances, unless you can persuade or force them to do 
 their work right. 
 
 The spindles and rolls are perhaps the most important 
 parts of the spinning frame, so far as the oiling is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 The spindles should be oiled as often as necessary to 
 keep them well oiled, and, it has always been my idea 
 that it was better to oil them too much than too little. 
 
 The rolls, if shells, should be oiled with a good non- 
 fluid oil and the shells should be mapped out at regular in- 
 tervals. 
 
 Solid top rolls need more frequent oiling than shells, 
 and only a small drop ibould be put on and that in the 
 right place. 
 
 For the top leather rolls an oil should be used that 
 will not spread onto the leather, as this soon ruins them 
 and will make the work run bad. 
 
 I do not consider it necessary to lay down any specific 
 rules as to how often any part of a spinning frame 
 should be oiled, as this varies greatly with different kinds 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES 25 
 
 of machinery and different local conditions, nearly every 
 case will need special attention. 
 
 It should suffice to say: that every part requiring oil. 
 should be perfectly lubricated and kept clean at all times. 
 All oil holes should be cj^fully cleaned out at regular 
 intervals and care taken -o see that the oil reaches the 
 proper place, and as little as possible wasted. 
 
 Some spinners do not believe in oiling the lifting 
 rods, while others maintain that they should be oiled with, 
 good lard oil which seems to possess the quality of not 
 gumming. 
 
 Lifting rods frequently cause a great deal of trouble, 
 by sticking and causing tangled bobbins, resulting in a 
 great deal of waste yarn being made. One of the most 
 common causes of lifting rods sticking is the frame being 
 out of line or not level. As long as a lifting rod is per- 
 fectly plumb it will not stick unless the bearing becomes 
 clogged with lint. I remember one mill I went to some 
 time ago where there had been a great deal of trouble 
 with the sticking of the lifting rods. I am sure the trou- 
 ble was the result of the frames being badly out of line 
 and not level. The floors had settled, as all floors will, 
 and as a result the rods would bind and stick. Instead of 
 leveling up and lining the frames the overseer took out 
 all the lifter-rod bushir?:s and had them filed or reamed 
 out so as to allow the ~ods more play. The result was 
 that there was about a quarter of an inch play, and the 
 ring rail would wobble about from one side to the other, 
 making it practically impossible to keep the spindle in the 
 exact centre of the ring. This caused the spinning to run 
 very badly, while it only partially overcome the trouble of 
 sticking rods. 
 
 Steel roll bearings should be oiled with a grease or 
 non-fluid oil, that will not run out onto the flutes of the 
 rolls, as this causes the yarn to become stained, and will 
 also make the ends come down and lap up around the 
 rolls, causing a great deal of waste and also ruining the 
 rolls. 
 
 Perhaps it would be safe to say that as a general rule, 
 wherever two surfaces come into contact there lubrication 
 
26 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 is needed, the amount and kind being dependent upon the 
 weight and speed or the friction between the two surfaces. 
 
 You will note that there should be very little friction 
 in the lifting rod bushing as the rods are supposed to be 
 perfectly plumb and the bushi^,s are there to act merely 
 as a guide, the entire weight oi the rod and the ring rail, 
 which it supports, rests upon the roller carried by the 
 rocker. 
 
 My son, when you have learned to properly oil and 
 band a spinning frame you will have learned a lesson that 
 will be worth a great deal to you in years to come, if you 
 continue in the cotton mill and make it your life work. 
 
 The oiling and banding, in all its different phases is 
 extremely important and should be in the hands of none 
 but trustworthy employees, and then the overseer will 
 find it to his advantage to keep the closest possible watch 
 on these two essential details. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 DAD. 
 
LETTpfia NO. 4. 
 
 MY Dear Son: While you are head-doff er you will 
 have an opportunity to learn a great deal that will 
 be of use to you later on, so be sure to make note 
 of everything of importance as you go along. 
 
 You will perhaps be held responsible for the cleaning 
 that is generally, but not always, done by the doffers. I 
 mean the cleaning of certain parts of the frames, such as 
 the head-ends, rockers and gearing, and you should not 
 slight this as being unimportant, because as a matter of 
 fact, it is really one of the most important parts of run- 
 ning' a spinning room. 
 
 Besides the cleaning of certain parts of the machin- 
 ery the doffers are usually required to clean-up all bad 
 bobbins, cut off pieces, change travelers, gather up all 
 bobbins that may be upon the floor, etc., etc., in fact I 
 used to think that the boss lay awake at night studying- 
 up things for the doffers to do. However, these things 
 have become attached to the job, so firmly that, few, if 
 any, ever complain now, at having to do these things. 
 
 Doffers, as well as all other persons in a spinning 
 room, should be taught to pick up every bobbin seen 
 upon the floor. There should be no such thing as drop- 
 ping bobbins upon the floor, and allowing them to remain 
 there to be kicked and rolled around, and perhaps be- 
 coming smashed. If they contain yarn this is sure to be- 
 come soiled if it is not picked up promptly. The old rule 
 of the doff-boys picking up bobbirs after they have made 
 a "round" of doffing, should be done away with and it 
 should, as already stated, be the rule for everybody to 
 pick up a bobbin as quick as it is dropped. This will pre- 
 vent a great deal of yarn from being damaged and also 
 save many bobbins from being smashed, both of which 
 will save money for your company. 
 
28 GREER'S SPINNING RULES 
 
 Where the doff -boys are required to do certain clean- 
 ing, you should see that this is done regularly and done 
 thoroughly. 
 
 Don't forget what was said in a former letter about, 
 "what is worth doing at all is^ jj th doing well." 
 
 It's a mighty good rule tcwSkvo a regular time for do- 
 ing things, and then doing them when this time comes 
 around. It is just like the good housekeeper's rule of 
 having "a place for everything and everything in its 
 place." 
 
 One of the greatest'influences of life is the forming of 
 habits. We can, by the use of a little good judgment, 
 train ourselves to form good and regular habits, and this 
 is very essential, not only in the mill but in our every act 
 of daily life. 
 
 We get in the habit of doing certain things and then 
 follow the habit, utterly unconscious of the fact, so you 
 see we should be very careful about what sort of habits 
 we form. 
 
 When it comes to changing travelers, you will find 
 that there is a wide difference of opinion among overseers 
 as to when they should be changed and how. 
 
 Some overseers never change travelers at all, unless 
 a change is made from one number of yarn to another or 
 unless they wish to change from one number of traveler 
 to another. They simply put on a traveler and let it run 
 until it wears out and flies off. This will probably do on 
 very fine numbers where the travelers are so delicate that 
 they will fly off when they become worn but on coarse 
 numbers it beccmes necessary to b^eak off' the travelers, 
 at regular intervals, or as soon ts they become worn 
 enough to cause bad running wor*r. 
 
 As to how often travelers should be changed, this is a 
 debatable question, but one rule will hold good and that is 
 that they should be changed when they are worn enough to 
 make bad yarn or cause the work to run bad. 
 
 Now, son when you and your doff-boys are called upon 
 to help change travelers, you shouid be very careful to 
 see that everyone of the old ones pre broken off. I have 
 frequently . seen boys when break] rig off travelers skip a 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES 29 
 
 <• 
 
 great many of them in order to get through with the job 
 sooner. This is especially true wnen the frame is divided 
 up into shares, each boy being giv^en so much of a side to 
 break off and put on. I have seen them "race" to see 
 which one would get through with their share first, and 
 some of them would, when no one was looking, break off 
 only every other traveler. 
 
 You can imagine what kind or worh. will result from 
 such doings as this and I merely mention these things 
 that you may learn right at the beginning of your career 
 to look out for the little things. 
 
 Another important thing about changing travelers is 
 the method of breaking them off. It used to be the cus- 
 tom, and some practice it yet, to take a roving bobbin and 
 hit the traveler a solid blow with the end of the bobbin. 
 This will break the traveler, all right, but generally re- 
 sults in knocking the ring out of position, and it also dam- 
 ages the ring, and for tiiese reasons should not be used. 
 About the best way to break off travelers is to have a 
 hook made of brass or some soft metal, „ that will not 
 scratch the ring, and by placing this hook under the bow 
 of the traveler a slight twist will be sufficient to break it 
 off. 
 
 Now, another thing you should learn while you are 
 head-doffer, is that in order to get production, every 
 frame must be kept running. Don't let your doffers lag 
 behind until there are several frames stopped, but push 
 them up and don't have but the one frame stopped at a 
 time. 
 
 When a frame is stopped to doff, it should be started 
 again as quickly as possible, and the ends broken down 
 while doffing should be pieced up immediately and before 
 the boys leave the frame, that is where the boys do their 
 own piecing. If end-piecers are used they should be ready 
 to piece up the ends when the frame is started. Also you 
 should arrange your doffing so that you can doff every 
 other frame, across the room, so as to not have too many 
 frames doffing at the same time on one spinner, which 
 will result in giving the spinner a great deal of trouble. 
 It is sometimes difficult to properly arrange the dof- 
 
30 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 fing, especially, if there are a great many different num- 
 bers of yarn being made, as the frames will not fill up 
 regularly. However, the object to be sought for, is to ar- 
 range your doffing so that the frames may be kept run- 
 ning, and with as little inconvenience as possible to the 
 spinners. This is co-operation, and that's another good 
 word I want you to learn. Let everybody work together 
 for the best results, at all times, and in all ways possible, 
 and there will not only be a successfully run mill, but each 
 one will find their work more satisfactory. 
 
 If the frames are so adjusted that they fill the bobbins 
 properly it will greatly help the proper arranging of the 
 doffing. 
 
 The traverses should be set so as to put as much 
 yarn on the bobbins as possible, not to tangle, because 
 the more yarn you can get on a bobbin the less doffing 
 there will be to do, and it also helps the spooling, in case 
 of warp yarn; it helps the weaver on filling yarn, and the 
 winders on yarn that goes to the winders. 
 
 I have seen men in charge of spinning rooms who 
 gave little or no attention to these details, with the result 
 that they were always in trouble with some other depart- 
 ment of the mill. The boss weaver would be continually- 
 complaining of the quills not being properly "filled up," 
 the spooler room boss would send back bobbins that were 
 not "full," and there would be an ill feeling between the 
 heads of the various departments, all of which results in 
 poor service for the company. 
 
 The more filling you can get on a quill, the longer it 
 will run in the shuttle on the loom, this helps and conse- 
 quently pleases the weaver, also it tends to reduce the 
 cost of weaving, as well as to make better cloth. 
 
 The same thing applies to the warp yarn on spoolers, 
 the more yarn you can get on a bobbin, the less ends there 
 will be to tie-up, and this not only helps to increase the 
 production on the spooler, but it improves the gMality of 
 the work, by there being fewer knots in the yarn 
 
 I have seen a great deal of trouble and general con- 
 fusion among the overseers and help, which came as a re- 
 sult of neglecting these matters, which I am warning you 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES 31 
 
 about so that you may avoid them as much as possible. 
 
 Many an overseer, who was otherwise a good man 
 has lost his position by becoming careless of these little 
 things. Any boss spinner can tell you that one of his 
 most perplexing problems is bad doffing and careless end 
 piecing. 
 
 Doffers are considered by a great many mill men as a 
 "necessary evil" and there is no denying that a set of 
 badly trained or careless doffers can cause as much trou- 
 ble and loss to a mill as nearly any other one thing. 
 
 A doffing machine has been x near-reality for several 
 years and that it will soon be perfected and come into 
 general use is greatly to be hoped for. The perfecting of 
 such a machine will no doubt mark the greatest advance- 
 ment in spinning for a hundred years. 
 
 Doffers should be trained to break down as few ends 
 as possible, while doffing and in piocing-up there should be 
 no lapping of ends. They should be required to do their 
 own end piecing as this will have a tendency to make 
 them more careful, and with the general carelessness that 
 usually attends the class of boys we have for doffers, we 
 need every restraint thrown about them to get them to do 
 their best work. 
 
 A good many mills, now pay their doffers on the piece- 
 fate plan, that is they are paid so much per side for dof- 
 fing and piecing-up, or for doffing where they have end- 
 piecers. This plan has its advantages and disadvantages. 
 
 While generally all piece work is commendable in that 
 it furnishes an incentive for more work, there are cases 
 where it Js applicable only at a disadvantage. 
 
 When doffers are on piece-work there will be an in- 
 clination for some to run ahead of others, and have many 
 frames stopped at one time. Also they will if allowed to, 
 doff the frames before they are properly filled, thereby 
 attempting to get more doffs. 
 
 All of these things, however, must be looked after, 
 and overcome by the overseer, in fact, if it were not for 
 the thousands of little details, some of which I have 
 enumerated in this letter, there would be little for an 
 overseer to do. 
 
 These are things, my boy, that you must learn,, and 
 
32 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 not forget. 
 
 Your letter which has just reached me is very en- 
 couraging. I am glad to know you like your work as 
 head-doffer, and I believe you will soon be promoted to a 
 section. 
 
 Yes, it does take a great deal of patience to work 
 with a "bunch of kids" as you express it. In fact I have 
 thought, at times, that if old Job had had to run a spin- 
 ning room with some of the "bunches of kids" that it has 
 been my pleasure? to meet, he would have considered all 
 
 other afflictions as beds of roses, even the boils would 
 have been as blackheads in comparison. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 5. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — Your letter has just reached me after 
 being delayed for a week or more. I am greatly- 
 pleased to know that you are getting along so nicely 
 and that you continue to like the work.' I have carefully 
 considered all you have said about the men you are work- 
 ing for and while I agree with you in most of what you 
 say, there are some things in your letter that you should 
 not have said. You will learn as you grow older that it is 
 impossible to have everything to your liking, especially is 
 this true in running a spinning room. We must do our 
 very best to get things done right, but as long 
 as we have to depend on human labor, there 
 will be no perfection. It is human to do wrong 
 and to be careless, and you need not get fret- 
 ted when you find that people won't do things just like 
 you tell them to do them. They never have done it and I 
 don't believe they ever will. If you could start up a room 
 and have plenty of help to run every job and each one 
 would run their job as it should bb done, there would be 
 no need for a boss, the superintendent could hire a hand 
 for each job and tell them how to run it, and then go away 
 and leave it to them, but this is all out of the question, 
 there must be bosses and as long as there are bosses, 
 those under them must learn to obey them, and consider 
 that the bosses have a duty to perform as much so as the 
 common hand. Each one must do their duty, and when 
 this is done everything will run smoothly. It is just like a 
 stone building, each stone supports its part of the struct- 
 ure and the whole taken together forms one. complete and 
 harmonious edifice. 
 
 My Son you must learn to be content with doing your 
 best, remember, that no one can completely overcome all 
 the fallacies of human nature, but be sure that you do 
 
34 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 your very best and when that is done you can have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that even God himself could not d® 
 more. When one does their best, that's the limit. What 
 else or what more could they do? 
 
 I note from your letter that you are still head-doffer 
 and that you have been helping the section men to do the 
 changing, thats right, take every opportunity to learn all 
 you can and don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty, it 
 has never yet hurt anyone. 
 
 I never think of changing gears on a spinning frame, 
 without remembering that nearly thirty years ago I used 
 to hold a lantern for my father to change gears. At that 
 time I worked in a mill where they did not have electric 
 lights and I remember how I used to have to brush off the 
 gas pipes every evening just before lighting-up time. I 
 would take a broom and go up one alley and down another 
 brushing the lint off of the gas jets, and a man would fol- 
 low me with a torch and light each jet. At stopping time 
 it was the doffer boy's job to put out the lights, each one 
 having so many lights to turn out, and I used to think 
 that the "old man" always gave me the ones fartherest 
 away from the door so that I would have to run over every 
 blamed doff box in the mill in getting out after the last 
 light was put out, but I soon learned how to get by that 
 proposition, I would have nearly all my lights out before 
 the whistle blew, that is when the boss didn't watch me 
 too close. 
 
 I remember that sometimes the spinning would get to 
 running bad and we doffers would have to get in and help 
 the spinners to run their work. This seemed all wrong to 
 me at that time, but I learned better when I got older and 
 had more experience, just like you will see things in a dif- 
 ferent light when you get more experience. 
 
 When the spinning got to running bad, it was then, that 
 my father and I used to go back to the mill after supper 
 and change twist gears to "beat the band." I would hold 
 a lantern for him to see how to change them. 
 
 The changing of gears in a spinning room is an im- 
 portant matter and should be attended to by one who will 
 be careful. In the changing of the draft gears you should 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 35 
 
 always see that you do not let the back roll slip back- 
 wards; for this will cut the yarn, and often cause a whole 
 side of ends to come down when the frame is started. It 
 is best to turn the cylinder backwards just a little before 
 starting to change the gear, as this will generally bring the 
 gears into proper position for changing. Then, too, you 
 should see that the teeth of the gears mesh properly, not 
 too deep, nor yet too shallow, but they should be set so 
 that they will not quite bottom. . 
 
 It is very important that all gears should be correctly 
 numbered and they should be kept in a gear cabinet, with 
 a separate stall for each number, and they should be ta- 
 ken up, cleaned, and put away as soon as they are 
 changed. Do not allow them to lay around on the ends of 
 the frames or on top of the creels after they are taken 
 out of use. They will get lost and will also get black oil 
 on the creels which will ruin a lot of roving or anything 
 else that may be put on the creels later. It pays to have 
 a good supply of gears of each number, especially, where 
 you have to do a great deal of changing as is the case in 
 a lot of yarn mills. 
 
 I have seen mills where they would not buy, nor have 
 made, the proper number of gears to do the changing, and 
 I have had to use two or three different numbers of gears, 
 in making changes simply because I did not have and 
 could not get the right number. I mean by that, that if I 
 was making number twenties with a thirty draft gear and 
 the yarn should get a little light and I wanted to heavy up 
 one tooth, and put on a thirty-one tooth gear, I would not 
 have enough thirty-ones to change all the frames that 
 were on twenties. Sometimes the superintendent would 
 tell me to put on what thirty-ones I had and finish out 
 with thirty-twos, the latter of course would make the 
 yarn as much too heavy as it was too light before the 
 change. Some mills practice this kind of foolishness, and 
 use whatever they have on hand rather than get what is 
 right, with the result of having a great deal of uneven 
 yarn. Such false economy can be found in a great many 
 places. 
 
 I have seen mill men who were too stingy or too care- 
 
36 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 less to buy a set of dies with which to number their gears, 
 and when it became necessary to change gears, the sec- 
 tion hand or second hand would have to count each gear 
 to see if it had the correct number of teeth, this of course, 
 is a cruel waste of valuable time, besides resulting in an 
 occasional general mix-up of gears. 
 
 No up-to-date machine shop will or should send out a 
 change gear without having it properly numbered, and 
 then they should be kept in a suitable place, conveniently 
 provided, and arranged for keeping them separate and 
 clean at all times. 
 
 Son, next week I am going to take up a few calcula- 
 tions with you and begin to teach you how to figure out 
 any change that may be necessary. I feel sure that you 
 are learning very fast and I am proud of the fact that you 
 are with good men and a good company. Let me hear 
 from you regularly. Sincerely, 
 
 DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 6. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — I am just in receipt of your valued 
 letter telling me you had been promoted to a sec- 
 tion, good for you, go to it! I knew you could do it 
 and I was not altogether surprised when I received your 
 letter telling me that you had been promoted. 
 
 Now Son, let me tell you something, — but wait a min- 
 ute, till I get my pipe loaded up — now the old pipe is 
 smoking like a German cannon at the battle of Aisne, and 
 by the way do you smoke ? If you do, for Heavens sake 
 cut the cigarette and smoke a good pipe. 
 
 Speaking of smoking reminds me that when I was a 
 kid my father used to make me smoke, yes sir, but he 
 didn't furnish any fragrant havanas or even a good old 
 jimmy pipe, nope, he used a leather belt or a top clearer 
 off of a spinning frame, and I'll tell you what's a fact, top 
 clearers would make fine clothes cleaners, I've seen them 
 used in the dry cleaning process and they certainly make 
 the dust fly, but hereafter I want mine removed from my 
 frame before being subjected to this dry cleaning process. 
 
 Now, as a section hand you will have greater oppor- 
 tunity, as well as more responsibilities, and you should be- 
 gin to be more serious about your duties. 
 
 You should begin to study human nature as you take 
 up the duties of directing others. 
 
 You will find that people vary as much in their dispo- 
 sitions as they do in their features, no two people being 
 exactly alike in every particular, some will require a little 
 humoring, others must be dealt with in a cold austere 
 manner, and still others require to be let severely alone. 
 Some require one kind of treatment, some another, but on 
 the whole you will find it best to be firm, yet kind and 
 considerate of all. 
 
38 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 If you will be careful, cautious and considerate, in the 
 management of the help placed under your charge, you 
 will soon have the good will and respect of all with 
 whom you come in contact. 
 
 In spite of the most careful attention to your duties, 
 you will, at times find yourself in a predicament with your 
 help. When such times come, you should endeavor to 
 keep your head, and above all be loyal to your employers, 
 Teach your help to be loyal to the interests of the com- 
 pany for which they are working and when things go 
 wrong, when the work runs bad, when help gets short or 
 when business gets dull for the mill, remember that it is 
 then that you should, rise to the occasion and show your 
 worth to your employer. 
 
 The poet put it this way: 
 
 "It's easy enough to be pleasant, 
 
 When life moves along like a song. 
 
 But the man worth while, 
 
 Is the man who can smile 
 
 When everything goes dead-wrong." 
 
 Try as hard as we may we cannot avoid difficulties, 
 they will come in every business and in every kind of work 
 under the sun, but every difficulty overcome, every trou- 
 ble encountered and surmounted only strengthens us and 
 prepares us to overcome still greater difficulties. 
 
 The enforcing of discipline in a cotton mill and espe- 
 cially in the spinning room is a serious matter, and calls 
 for men of good judgment. To be equal to any task, to 
 rise to any emergency, you must be ever on the alert, giv- 
 ing your work the most careful attention. 
 
 Along with your enlarged duties and opportunities 
 there will come increased temptations. As your wages 
 become greater you will have more money to spend or 
 more to save, just as you choose. Also you are now in po- 
 siiton where you will come in direct contact with many 
 girls and women, some or whom will not bear a reputation 
 equal to that of Ceasar's wife. 
 
 Taken as a class and considering the environments of 
 the girls who work in the mlils, it is my opinion that 
 there is considerably mort virtue, and certainly more mod- 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 39 
 
 esty than you generally find in the higher circles of so- 
 ciety. However, you will occasionally meet with those, 
 whose company you must shun, if you would succeed in 
 life. Nothing will more surely ruin a man in business, 
 than undue intimacy with his female employees. Read 
 the fifth and seventh chapters of Proverbs and take 
 warning from the wisest man who ever lived. 
 
 I promised to give you some calculations this week 
 and from the way you are progressing I think you will 
 soon have need for them. 
 
 One of the first things you should learn is the system 
 used for numbering cotton yarn, as this is largely used in 
 nearly all the calculations that you will find a need for. 
 
 One hank of number one yarn weighs one pound. It 
 is upon this basis that the entire system of numbering 
 cotton yarns is established. This system, while simple, is 
 not always easily understood by the student. Let us ana- 
 lyze this system and get it in the simplest form possible, 
 that we may thoroughly understand just what is meant by 
 yarn numbering. A hank of cotton yarn is 840 yards in 
 length. This is the standard length upon which all calcu- 
 lations are based. 
 
 The number of hanks, required to weigh one pound 
 (avoirdupois,) is the number of the yarn. 
 
 To find the number of cotton yarn: 
 Rule: Reel off 120 yards and weigh it. Divide the 
 weight, in grains into 1000, the quotient is the number of 
 the yarn. 
 
 Example: Suppose 120 yards of yarn is found to weigh 
 50 grains, then: 1000 -f- 5Q = 20, the yarn would be call- 
 ed number 20. The weight of one hank (840 yards) in 
 grains divided into 7000 (the number of grains in one 
 pound) equals, the number. 
 
 The reason why it is customary to use 120 yards in- 
 stead of 840 yards, in the making of yarn calculations is 
 on account of the excessive waste that would result from 
 frequent sizings of 840 yards each, we reduce the length 
 and weight in the same proportion using 120 yards which 
 is 1-7 of a hank and 1000 grains which is 1-7 of a pound. 
 The following tables are used in cotton yarn numbering. 
 
40 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 Table of Measurement. 
 1 1-2 yards — 1 thread or circumference of yarn reel. 
 120 yards =3 80 threads t= 1 skein. 
 840 yards == 560 threads = 7 skeins = 1 hank. 
 Table of Weights. 
 27.34 grains = 1 dram. 
 437.5 grains = 16 drams — 1 ounce. 
 7000 grains = 256 drams = 16 ounces = 1 pound. 
 Practical Examples. 
 To find the number of any amount of yarn when the 
 length and weight are known: 
 
 Rule: Divide the total length in yds. by the weight in 
 pounds, and the result obtained by 840, (the standard 
 length of one hank). 
 
 Example What would be the number of 168,000 yards 
 of yarn, if it weighed 20 pounds? 
 
 Divide the length, 168,000 by 20 pounds = 8400 and this 
 divided by 840 = 10 the number of the yarn. 
 
 What would be the number of yarn in a warp 4200 
 yards in length, if it contained 400 ends and weighed 100 
 pounds. First find the total length of yarn in the warp by 
 multiplying the length 4,200 by the number of ends 400. 
 4200X400=1,680,000 then applying the rule given, 1,680,- 
 000-1-100=16,800-^840=20 the number of the yarn. 
 
 What would be the weight of a warp 4200 yards in 
 length, if it contained 400 ends and was made up of num- 
 ber 20 yarn? As in the preceding example first find the 
 total number of yards in the warp. This is done by mul- 
 tiplying the length by the number of ends, 4200x400= 
 1,680,000 yards then divide this by the number of the yarn 
 and by 840. 1,680,000-^-20=84,000-^-840= 100 pounds, the 
 weight of the warp. 
 
 To find the length of yarn in a warp: 
 
 How many yards of yarn would there be in a warp 
 weighing 100 pounds and made up of number 20 yarn. 
 
 Rule: Multiply 840 by the number of yarn and this 
 result by the weight of the warp, thus: 840X20X100= 
 1,680.000 yards, total length of yarn in the warp. 
 
 I have put these calculations in the simplest form I 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 41 
 
 could think of so that you could get at the very founda- 
 tion of yarn calculation. 
 
 Later on we will take up the questions of draft, twist, 
 production and all the other necessary calculations per- 
 taining to spinning. 
 
 Keep pegging away son, and don't he afraid of work. 
 Take right a-hold of anything that it becomes necessary 
 for you to do and constantly keep in mind that nothing 
 can be accomplished without hard work, and while you 
 are working don't forget to learn the value of time, it is 
 the greatest asset of all those who have become famous 
 or even done things worth while. Napoleon was once 
 asked why he so completely overwhelmed every enemy 
 that came before him, to which he replied, "they (his ene- 
 mies) do not know the value of time." 
 
 Read this letter carefully son and then write me what 
 you think about it. Sincerely, 
 
 DAD 
 
LETTER NO. 7. 
 
 MY Dear Son: Your letter has just come to hand 
 telling me about the labor troubles that had sprang 
 up at the mill where you are. 
 
 Now my advice to you is to keep entirely away from 
 this sort of thing, don't take sides with either party in a 
 dispute where no good is to be the result, you have every- 
 thing to lose and nothing to gain, so be neutral and keep 
 out of any entangling alliance. 
 
 I am not opposed to a properly organized and well 
 regulated labor union, I believe that labor has as much 
 right to organize as has capital. The laboring man has 
 rights, there is no denying that and as a general proposi- 
 tion no one does deny it. I believe that some labor un- 
 ions, such as the well organized trade unions, do a great 
 deal of good and if you will take the trouble to investi- 
 gate you will find that they are organized for mutual 
 benefit and not to antagonize their employers. 
 
 The labor union that makes trouble for everybody is 
 the one that is fostered by a gang of foreigners, who care 
 no more for the rights of labor, than they do for well or- 
 ganized democratic government, and it is their sworn pur- 
 pose in life to destroy all forms of government. 
 
 There is no need for labor unions among the textile 
 operatives of the South. The industry has progressed 
 and prospered here, as no where else on earth, and there 
 has sprang up a feeling of mutual dependence between 
 employer and employee, that it will be difficult to break 
 down, moreover, he who attempts to destroy this mutu- 
 ality is a traitor! 
 
 The best friend the mill operatives of the South have 
 to-day, is the mill owners. 
 
 He is their best friend simply because of the fact, that 
 he has, in most cases grown up with them and amid simi- 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 43 
 
 lar surroundings, furthermore there is, as already stated, 
 a feeling of mutual dependence, which is growing strong- 
 er every year. There is absolutely no excuse for anyone 
 to try to stir up a feeling of discontent among the mill 
 operatives where this feeling of mutual dependence pre- 
 vails. 
 
 A strike is an instrument made use of by those who 
 have become temporarily insane 
 
 It injures everyone who comes in contact with it and 
 sometimes its harmful effects descend to the third and 
 fourth generation. Expressed in plain blunt words, a 
 strike hurts everybody and helps nobody. This is the lit- 
 eral truth, as shown by the history of strikes for the past 
 hundred years. 
 
 I have stated that I am not opposed to a well organ- 
 ized labor union. I mean by that, that I am heartily in fa- 
 vor of giving the mill operative, all the freedom and privi- 
 lege that any other people have, but I am unalterably op- 
 posed to foreigners coming into the South and organizing 
 our people into unions for no other purpose than to plun- 
 der and rob them and to set up a doctrine of anarchy 
 that is in the highest degree repugnant to our best inter- 
 ests, and destructive to our civil and religious freedom. 
 
 Does any sensible person believe that these foreign 
 interlopers are actuated by a sense of brotherly feeling, 
 when they come from a section that has always been hos- 
 tile to the Southern people? 
 
 Son, be not deceived, by a wolf in sheep's clothing. 
 The underlying motive in this effort to organize labor un- 
 ions among the Southern mill operatives, by Northern 
 and foreign interests, is a business proposition pure and 
 simple, for the benefit of the organizers at the expense of 
 the organized. Keep away from it as you would a plague. 
 
 If the Southern textile workers must have an organi- 
 zation, let them organize one suitable to conditions in this 
 section. 
 
 To adapt the tenets of an organization foreign and an- 
 tagonistic to this section is the height of folly. As well 
 might we substitute a fetishism for Christianity. The true 
 solution of this problem is, I believe, for every manufac- 
 
44 GREER'S SPINNING RULES 
 
 turer to realize that his employees are entitled to a just 
 wage and to a fair and impartial hearing in the adjust- 
 ment of any differences that may arise in the relations of 
 . employer and employee. On the other hand the employee 
 should fully understand that the employer has many and 
 serious responsibilities, and that in furnishing them with 
 employment at a just wage they are entitled to and should 
 receive honest and loyal service. When an employee ren- 
 ders efficient service, he may go to his employer, with the 
 assurance of getting a faithful hearing on any supposed or 
 actual grievance that he may have. Not to believe this is 
 unreasonable, for how can any intelligent person refuse to 
 consider their own interest? 
 
 The employer knows better than anyone else that he 
 cannot operate his mill, successfully, without the best la- 
 bor obtainable, and it is he who is giving of both time and 
 money to raise the standard of the Southern mill opera- 
 tive. 
 
 But here I am giving you a lecture on things you, 
 perhaps, already know, when I had promised to give you 
 some more figures, but after all I want you to learn the 
 human side of the industry as well as the theoretical side. 
 I have known many men to make successful mill mana- 
 gers, who were short on theoretical knowledge, but long 
 on knowledge of human nature. They were good mana- 
 gers; had a tact for getting and keeping good men and 
 letting them attend to the details. One in your position, 
 however, should learn every detail of the business, for 
 nothing stamps a man "master of the situation" so much 
 as to be able to tell those under him exactly how to do a 
 thing and if necessary, to be able to take hold and show 
 them that he not only knows how it should be done, but 
 that he can do it. 
 
 Don't let the trouble that has come up at your mill 
 discourage you in the least, it is only one of those things 
 that seem to be incident to business. Sit steady in the 
 boat, don't let misfortune dissuade you from your purpose. 
 "The little mind is tamed and subdued by misfortunes, the- 
 great mind rises above them." 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES 45 
 
 The true unionism to be hoped for is a unionism of 
 employer and employee. 
 
 Such a union may be slow in coming but it is inevita- 
 ble, the best interests of both parties demand it, the rela- 
 tion of master and servant is gradually falling into disre- 
 pute and in its place there is being set up a mutual rela- 
 tionship of employer and employee. 
 
 It has been proven a thousand times that men who 
 work in harmony are twice as valuable as those who 
 are antagonistic to each other. I have taken up all 
 my space for this letter and will have to stop now, but I 
 trust you will find food for thought in what I have said 
 here. The following verse from James Whitcomb Riley 
 comes to mind just at this time and I give it here for your 
 inspiration : 
 
 KEEP ON. 
 
 If the day looks kinder gloomy, 
 • An' your chances kinder slim, 
 If the situation's puzzlin' 
 
 An' the prospect's awful grim, 
 An' perplexities keep pressin' 
 
 'Til all hope is nearly gone, 
 Just bristle up and grit your teeth, 
 
 An' keep on keepin' on. 
 
 Fumin' never wins a fight, 
 
 An' frettin' never pays; 
 There ain't no good of broodin' in 
 
 These pessimistic ways — 
 Smile just kinder cheerfully 
 
 When nope is nearly gone, 
 And bristle up and grit your teeth, 
 
 An' keep on keepin' on. 
 
46 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 There ain't no use in growlin' 
 
 An' grumblin' all the time 
 When music's ringin' everywhere 
 
 An' everything's a rhyme — 
 Just keep on smilin' cheerfully 
 
 If hope is nearly gone, 
 An' bristle up and grit your teeth, 
 
 An' keep on keepin' on. 
 Just keep on keeping on, you are doing nicely and I am 
 proud of you. Write me regularly and when I can help 
 you it will afford me the greatest pleasure to do so. 
 
 Sincerely, DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 8. 
 
 ■m jb-Y Dear Son: Your letter has come to hand and I 
 I Y I note what you say about making a change. Under 
 **• ""• the conditions existing at your mill you will do 
 well to stay there. There is nothing to be gained by a 
 continual moving from one place to another. 
 
 Instead of giving you the figures I had prepared for 
 you, I am going to give you a paper that I read before 
 the Southern Textile Association, at Chattanooga, Tenn., 
 in 1912, on the subject of changes. 
 
 "Why So Many Changes?" 
 
 Mr. President: I wish to speak a few words upon a 
 subject that seems to me to be one of the most important 
 issues before the Southern Textile Industry, to-day. An 
 issue that vitally affects the earning power of every cotton 
 mill in the Southern States; one upon which depends the 
 happiness of thousands of the homes of our mill people; 
 one that is partly responsible for the present high cost of 
 living. The proper settlement of the question to which I 
 refer would add roses to the pathway of the cotton mill 
 superintendent and overseer where now there are only 
 thorns. Mr. President I refer to the question that has 
 tfeen asked a thousand times and answered with as many 
 different answers. Why so many changes? Why are there 
 so many changes among our mill people here in the South? 
 I am told that this condition does not prevail in other lines 
 of work nor does it exist in other sections of the textile 
 industry. 
 
 Every member of this association is familiar with the 
 fact that a large number of our mill people are continually 
 moving from one mill to another, and a few years ago 
 when there was a great scarcity of labor and thousands of 
 spindles and looms were idle, it was conservatively esti- 
 
48 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 mated that there were enough mill hands on the road 
 moving from one mill to another to run every idle machine 
 in the South. Now as sure as water runs down hill, there 
 is a cause for this condition. What is it? Do they move 
 to better their condition? Do they get an increase of 
 wages every time they move? Do they find a more health- 
 ful place to live every time they move? If so some of our 
 operatives 'would soon be rich and living at health resorts. 
 Gentlemen, I do not propose to tell you that this con- 
 dition can be changed by any revolutionary method. I do 
 not wish to be considered a pessimist. I am an optimist by 
 nature. I believe there is more good in the world than 
 there is bad, that there are more sunny days than there 
 are cloudy days and that everything happens for the best, 
 but we all know that clouds and gloom will come at fre- 
 quent intervals. We cannot have sunshine and flowers 
 all the time. If the individual members of this association 
 will give serious attention to the question I am referring 
 to, much good will result therefrom. The big question 
 before the cotton mill superintendent and overseer to-day 
 is not how to figure draft and twist," nor the proper con- 
 struction of a piece of cloth. These are matters of sec- 
 ondary importance. A great many of the operatives in 
 our mills can make all the necessary calculations for op- 
 erating the machinery. Those three excellent textile week- 
 lies published in Charlotte together with that high class 
 textile journal published in Atlanta and the many text 
 books now on the market are educating the mill people of 
 the South in a technical way. Even the unlettered man 
 has ways and means of obtaining results from the ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 Take for instance the production of a card. While 
 this may be obtained in several ways by figuring from the 
 gears and speeds a short and simple way to obtain the re- 
 sult is as follows: Stand before a card, with a watch, 
 break down the end and allow the sliver to run upon the 
 floor for one minute. The weight of this sliver in grains 
 multiplied by six and divided by seventy gives the pro- 
 duction in pounds for ten hours running time. This rule 
 also applies to any other machine in the card room. 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 49 
 
 Now I say again these technical matters are of sec- 
 ondary importance. The big job today of running a cotton 
 mill is the handling of the labor problem and it would be 
 well for this association, composed as it is, of the men 
 who are to handle this problem first hand, to discuss ways 
 and means of bringing about more stability among our op- 
 eratives. Some of the best managed mills are now giving 
 attention to this problem and a great deal is being done to 
 make living conditions for the mill operative more attract- 
 ive than heretofore. The people themselves, however, are 
 largely responsible for so much changing and they need to 
 be taught by precept and example that often they have 
 good opportunities right where they are and that instead 
 of going away to hunt for bigger possibilities, they should 
 develop their present holdings. No doubt ninety per cent 
 of the changes are made with the intention of doing bet- 
 ter but the people are simply mistaken or misled. 
 
 It seems to have become a habit with our people to 
 look elsewhere for what they desire. I am reminded here 
 of the story of Al Hafed, an ancient Persian, who owned a 
 large farm with orchards, grain fields and gardens. He 
 had money at interest, had a beautiful wife and lovely 
 children and was a wealthy and contented man; content- 
 ed because he was wealthy and„wealthy because he was 
 contented. One day there visited the old Persian farmer 
 one of those ancient Buddist priests, one of the wise men 
 of the East who sat down by Al Hafed's fireside and told 
 the old farmer how this world was made. He told him 
 that this world was once a great bank of fog and that the 
 Almighty thrust his finger into this bank of fog and began 
 slowly to move his finger around and then increased the 
 speed of his finger until he whirled this bank of fog into 
 a solid ball of fire and as it went rolling through the uni- 
 verse burning its way through other banks of fog it con- 
 densed the moisture until it fell in floods of rain upon the 
 heated surface of the world and cooled the outward crust, 
 then the internal fire bursting the cooling crust threw up 
 the mountains and hills and valleys of this wonderful 
 world of ours, and said the old priest, if this internal melted 
 mass burst forth and cooled very quickly it became gran- 
 
50 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 ite. If it cooled more slowly it became copper. If it cool- 
 ed less quickly, silver — less quickly, gold, and after gold 
 diamonds were made. Said the old priest a diamond is a 
 congealed drop of sunlight. 
 
 The old priest told Al Hafed if he had a diamond the 
 size of his thumb he could purchase a dozen farms like his 
 and said the priest if you had a handful of diamonds you 
 could purchase a county and if you had a mine of dia- 
 monds you could purchase kingdoms and place your chil- 
 dren upon thrones through the influence of your great 
 wealth. 
 
 Al Hafed heard all about the diamonds that night and 
 went to bed a poor man. He wanted a whole mine of dia- 
 monds. Early in the morning he sought the priest and 
 awoke him. Al Hafed said, "Will you tell me where I can 
 find diamonds?" The priest said, "What you you want of 
 diamonds? Said Al Hafed, "I want to be immensely rich." 
 "Well, said the. priest, if you want diamonds all you have 
 to do is to go and find them and then you will have 
 them." "But, said Al Hafed, I don't know where to go." 
 
 "If you will find a river that runs over white sands, be- 
 tween high mountains, in those white sands you will al- 
 ways find diamonds." "But, asked Al Hafed, do you be- 
 lieve there is such a river?" "Plenty of them; all you 
 have to do is just go where they are. "Well, said Al Ha- 
 fed, I will go." So he sold his farm, collected his money 
 that was at interest, left his family in charge of a neigh- 
 bor and away he went in search of diamonds. He began 
 his search at the mountains of the Moon, afterward he 
 came around into Palestine and then wandered on into 
 Europe. At last when his money was all gone and he was 
 in rags, poverty and wretchedness, he stood on the shore 
 at Barcelona in Spain. When a great tidal wave swept 
 upon the shore the poor starving, afflicted stranger could 
 not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that 
 incoming tide and he sank beneath its foamy crest never 
 to rise in this life again. 
 
 Now the man who purchased Al Hafed's farm led his 
 camel out into the garden to drink and as the animal put 
 his nose into the shallow water of the garden brook, A3 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 51 
 
 Hafed's successor noticed a curious flash of light from 
 the white sands of the stream. Reaching in he pulled out 
 a black stone containing a strange eye of light. He took 
 it into the house as a curious pebble and putting it on the 
 mantel went his way and forgot all about it, but not long 
 after that the same old priest came to visit Al Hafed's suc- 
 cessor. The moment he opened the door he noticed the 
 flash of light. He rushed to the mantel and said, "Here is 
 a diamond! here is a diamond! Has Al Hafed returned?" 
 "Oh no, Al Hafed has not returned and we have not heard 
 from him since he went away, and that is not a diamond, 
 it is nothing but a stone we found out in our garden." 
 
 "But, said the priest, I know a diamond when I see it, 
 I tell you that is a diamond." Then together they went out 
 into the garden. They stirred up the white sands with 
 their fingers and there came up other, more beautiful, 
 more valuable gems than the first. Thus was discovered 
 the diamond mines of Golconda, the most valuable dia- 
 mond mines in the history of the ancient world. 
 
 Had Al Hafed remained at home and dug in his own 
 cellar or in his own wheat fields instead of wretchedness, 
 starvation, poverty and death in a strange land, he would 
 have had acres of diamonds. Acres of diamonds, Yes, for 
 it is historically true that every acre of that old farm, 
 even every shovelful, afterward revealed the gems which 
 since have decorated the crowns of monarchs. 
 
 Very few of us ever dream that we may have acres of 
 diamonds in our present position though we can look back 
 and see the results when it is too late. 
 
 Now young men sometimes say: "There is no ad- 
 vancement where I am, my employer is unappreciative, 
 he is unjust." It is true that there are such instances. 
 There are mean men in all lines of business, no doubt, but 
 as a rule the fault lies more often with the employee than 
 with the employer. Very few employers will prevent the 
 cream of their establishment from rising to the top. It 
 wouldn't be good business to do so. If you are certain that 
 you are with the wrong firm or not in the right business 
 then your duty requires you to make a change but be care- 
 
52 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 ful that you do not leave acres of diamonds to hunt for the 
 end of the rainbow. . 
 
 Now, I have not answered the question. Why so 
 many changes? nor could I do so in the short time neces- 
 sarily given to these discussions here; A great many 
 changes are induced by advertisements for help; some of 
 which are as much exaggerated and as misleading as the 
 ordinary circus poster. Many a happy and contented fam- 
 ily have been lured into moving through this means, that 
 probably could not have been moved otherwise and often 
 instead of bettering their condition, instead of finding 
 diamonds they soon wake up to the awful fact that they 
 have made a mistake and they either return to their for- 
 mer home or continue to move from place to place hoping 
 for something better. 
 
 Frequently changes are made on account of the lack of 
 managing ability on the part of the superintendent or 
 overseer. It requires considerable tact to manage the or- 
 dinary mill operative of the South, and this quality is 
 greatly lacking in many of our men. Sometimes disputes 
 arise among the operatives that can only be adjusted by 
 the mature judgment of the superintendent, or overseer in 
 charge, and if this matter is left with some section man 
 or head doffer — as it sometimes is — it may result in one 
 or two families of competent mill help becoming dissatis- 
 fied and moving away. I have seen this happen and so 
 have you and when one party becomes dissatisfied at a 
 place, they can and often do influence others to leave. 
 
 The vast majority of people are like sheep they follow 
 a leader, so where you have strong leaders for good the 
 majority will generally follow and vice versa. We must 
 teach our people that it does not pay to be continually 
 changing. We can take for a text the words of Carlysle, 
 "Our grand business undoubtedly, is not to see what lies 
 dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." 
 One other illustration and I am through. 
 
 Some years ago there was a contented and well-to-do 
 farmer in Pennsylvania who having heard of the enor- 
 mous profits to be made in* oil decided to sell his farm and 
 embark in the oil business. He wrote to a friend in New 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 53 
 
 York of what he intended doing. This friend being better 
 posted on such matters advised that he first study the oil 
 business and learn something of it before taking such a 
 radical step. Acting upon this advice the farmer bought 
 up all of the literature available on the subject of oil and 
 began a systematic study. After six montlxS of study and 
 careful research he again wrote his friend saying that now 
 he knew all about oil from the second day of God's Crea- 
 tion down to the present time. So he sold his farm and 
 went to New York to engage in the oil business. A few 
 days later, the man to whom he sold his farm went down 
 to the creek to water his horses. He noticed at the wa- 
 tering placs some boards placed at an angle across the 
 stream to tnrow to one side a heavy scum through which 
 the horses would not drink. An investigation was made 
 and it was learned that this man who knew all there was 
 to be known about oil and who had sold this farm for 
 $800.00 and moved away to enter the oil business had for 
 23 years been damming up one of the righest streams of 
 coal oil ever found in America and from which subsequent 
 owners have made millions of dollars. 
 
 It is often said that the man who never makes a mis- 
 take never makes anything and it may be true but it is 
 worth while that we take a retrospective view of our own 
 lives and resolve that if we must make mistakes they 
 shall be as few as possible and that we will not make the 
 same mistake twice. Let us seek always to build up and 
 improve our present opportunities instead of choosing vain 
 and imaginary greatness and let us not forget that: 
 
 "Time will bring summer, when briars will have blos- 
 soms as well as thorns, and those blossoms will be as sweet 
 as the thorns are sharp." 
 
 Son, you will do well to study this phase of your mill 
 work carefully. It is more important than the minor de- 
 tails. Write me often and long letters. 
 
 Sincerely, DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 9. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — This will acknowledge your letter 
 telling me that the labor trouble at your mill had 
 vanished and I breathe a silent prayer that it may 
 never return. I know what it means to be mixed up in 
 labor truobles and I trust you will have no further trouble 
 of this kind. 
 
 You appear to be doing well on your section, and I 
 suppose you have learned to handle the doffers by now. 
 Yes, I know it is perplexing to handle doffers, but do you 
 know, the training a doffer gets in the mill is worth a 
 great deal to him and it is also a good training for one to 
 have the management of a set of doffers. 
 
 Nearly all of our good mill men have been through 
 the exact experience that you are now having and I urge 
 you to be patient, and rest assured that the experience 
 will be worth a good deal to you in years to come. 
 
 I am enclosing herewith a story of Andrew Carnegie 
 as a doffer boy and I am sure you will find it interesting. 
 It is a true story, the facts having been furnished by Mr. 
 Carnegie. 
 
 Many of the great men in all walks of life and in all 
 times have come up from the ranks of the poor. This 
 statement applies with full force to Andrew Carnegie the 
 subject of this sketch. To one familiar with conditions 
 prevailing among our Southern cotton mills, it is a long 
 step from the doffer-boy of to-day, with his onerous duties, 
 to the position of millionaire, burdened with the task of 
 giving away vast sums of money, yet this is a true story of 
 the road that has been traveled by Andrew Carnegie dur- 
 ing the past 66 years. It seems a long time since the year 
 in which Queen Victoria first ascended the throne of Eng- 
 land, and in fact it is more than three quarters of a cen- 
 tury since that event took place. In the same year, 1837, 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 55 
 
 in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, in the home of a 
 family of poor people who depended on their small "home 
 cotton factory" for a living, there Andrew Carnegie was 
 born, on the 25th day of November. 
 
 The story connected with the early life of Andrew 
 Carnegie, is one of unusual interest to the entire world 
 and of especial significance to the thousands of small boys 
 and young men who are to-day plodding along lines simi- 
 lar to those followed by Andrew Carnegie during the 
 early part of his career, and it is hoped that a recital here, 
 of some of the difficulties which were met and overcome, 
 will be a source of inspiration to some of our Southern cot- 
 ton mill boys. The boys of to-day have far better condi- 
 tions under which to labor and have much greater leisure 
 time to devote to self-improvement. The road from dof- 
 fer-boy to millionaire must of necessity be a hard and 
 rugged road to travel, and of course, "few there be that 
 find it," but we are not surprised, nowadays, to hear of 
 those who have come up from the ranks of poverty to the 
 eminence of success. History shows that practically all 
 of our great men have come from the ranks of the poor, 
 and the subject of this sketch, whose authority on such 
 matters would seem to be conclusive, has repeatedly said: 
 "It is a great blessing to be born poor." In keeping with 
 this paradox Mr. Carnegie gives us another one in these 
 words, "He who dies rich dies disgraced." Such pithy 
 paradoxes as these are not readily assimilated by the 
 great majority of people, but there is much truth in them 
 as we can see by looking far beneath the surface and into 
 the very inner meaning of them. Andrew Carnegie's fa- 
 ther was an expert weaver, and, as was the custom at the 
 time referred to, he owned a small "home cotton factory" 
 consisting of four damask looms, which of course were 
 operated by hand power. The power of steam loom, as it 
 was sometimes called, had not then come into general use, 
 but was gradually being adopted in the leading manufac- 
 turing centers, and was also making inroads on the earn- 
 ings of those who depended on their hand looms for their 
 subsistence. The elder Mr. Carnegie being as I have said, 
 an expert weaver would receive many orders from the 
 
56 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 dealers in his immediate vicinity, for towels, table cloths, 
 napkins and other such goods as could be woven on the 
 damask looms. 
 
 The dealers would in most cases furnish the yarn or 
 thread to be used in the making of the goods they had or- 
 dered, leaving to Mr. Carnegie and his apprentices the 
 weaving of the goods according to specifications. It was 
 amid such surroundings as these that Andrew Carnegie 
 grew up. 
 
 The invention and introduction of the power loom, as 
 well as that of the cotton gin, the cylinder card and the 
 spinning mule were rapidly changing the old system of 
 home factories, to that of the public factory system, 
 wherein all the processes of making yarn and cloth were 
 carried on under one roof. This change to the public fac- 
 tory system, with its large production at greatly reduced 
 cost, made possible by the economies of concentrated cap- 
 ital, soon put the home factories at a great disadvantage, 
 as they could not compete with the new factories, equip- 
 ped, as they were with modern machinery and greater fa- 
 cilities for turning out the various classes of goods re- 
 quired. As a result of the change the home factories was 
 gradually forced out of business, and this disaster soon 
 came to the Carnegie home. Orders began falling off, and 
 though Mr. Carnegie struggled against the adverse con- 
 dition he, too, was finally forced to close up his shop, as 
 no order could be obtained, at a figure that would allow 
 of any profit. Though Mr. Carnegie had been able for 
 many years to support his family, through the operation of 
 his "factory" he was now face to face with the problem of 
 no work and no income. There was nothing to be gained 
 by moving to another town; the same condition prevailed 
 everywhere. Andy was at this time a lad of ten years, 
 and he had helped his father around the home factory for 
 several years doing such work, as could be done by a boy 
 of his age. That Andy had been schooled in strictest 
 economy is illustrated by an anecdote told of him during 
 his school days. It was the custom at roll call each morn- 
 ing for the pupil to arise when his name was called and 
 repeat a verse from the Bible. Andy on one occasion 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 57 
 
 stood up and said: "Take care of the pence and the 
 pounds will take care of themselves." The shadow of 
 gloom now cast over the future prospects of the little 
 family, on account of being unable to get more orders, 
 wherewith to operate their looms, resulted in the decis- 
 ion to follow the example of some of their relatives who 
 had a few years before gone across the big pond, and lo- 
 cated at Pittsburg in America. The parents came to this 
 conclusion, after a family council, the main consideration 
 being "the future of our two boys, Tom and Andy." This 
 decision was followed by quick action, the looms and the 
 business were sold and preparations made for the trip to 
 America. The breaking up of home and family ties, was 
 not done without many a heartache and regret, but the de- 
 cision having been reached they lost no time in making 
 final arrangements for the long move. It was in 1848 
 when the little party consisting of father, mother, Tom 
 and Andy embarked upon the sailing vessel Wiscassett, 
 and began their seven weeks' voyage across the ocean to 
 the land of promise. The crossing of the Atlantic in a 
 sailing vessel, was no pleasant undertaking but the stur- 
 dy and determined character of the Carnegies was such 
 that they were not to be easily deterred from their pur- 
 pose. The party of four, reached Pittsburg safely and at 
 once settled down to business. Andrew's father secured 
 work in a cotton mill, and when Andrew was 12 years of 
 age he began his business career as a doffer-boy at the 
 mill where his father and brother Tom were at work. 
 The hours of labor then were much longer than they are 
 now and everyone was required to work from dark till 
 dark, with 40 minutes for dinner. Andrew's salary at this 
 time was 20 cents a day and each week he received his 
 salary of $1.20 with a feeling of pride. Mr. Carnegie fre- 
 quently refers to this fact to-day and says it >was one of 
 the joys of his life when he reached the point where he 
 could contribute something toward the support of the 
 family. 
 
 Andrew Carnegie, as a doffer-boy, doubtless displayed 
 the keen foresight that has since distinguished him as a 
 man of finance. The hard work and long hours of the cot- 
 
58 GREER'S SPINNIfvG RULES. 
 
 ton mills of those days with the attendant small pay that 
 the operatives received, no doubt made life a monotonous 
 burden, but to Andrew Carnegie it was an inspiration, and 
 to have come up through the ranks of the hard laborers of 
 his adopted country is one of the proud boasts of this dour 
 Scotsman to-day. "Who can know and appreciate the 
 conditions of the laboring man better than one who has 
 been rocked in the cradle of poverty, and compelled by ne- 
 cessity to participate in the labors of those among whom 
 he lives? 
 
 The doffer boys of to-day are far removed from the 
 hard task which Andrew Carnegie had to perform in order 
 ,o earn his $1.20 a week. Working conditions among th.. 
 cotton mill people are far superior in every particular to 
 what they were even ten years ago, and with the better 
 conditions of labor, there has also come better wages, 
 better houses, better schools, and a higher plane of living 
 in general. 
 
 While working as a doffer boy Andrew Carnegie was 
 subject to the usual "ups and downs" that are peculiar to 
 this position, and which are only appreciated by those 
 who have come in direct contact with the endless jobs 
 that are generally attached to the position of doffer. Dof- 
 fing is understood by those familiar with cotton, mill ver- 
 nacular as the taking off of the* full bobbins and replacing 
 them with empty ones. This term is applied to the vari- 
 ous machines in the mills, and even in the picker room, 
 and the card room we have the doffing of the laps and 
 the doffing of cans, in each instance, it refers to the tak- 
 ing off of the finished product. The doffer boy, however, 
 when referred to in general terms, is understood to be one 
 whose duties are to remove the full bobbins of yarn from 
 the spinning frame spindles and replace them with emp- 
 ty bobbins. This work being rather simple and requiring 
 little or no experience, has always been done by small 
 boys, and when a family "moves to the cotton mill" and 
 asks for work for the whole family, it is to doffing that 
 the boys are usually put. Such was the case in Andrew 
 Carnegie's boyhood days and the same conditions prevail, 
 largely to-day. Child labor, of which we hear so much to- 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 59 
 
 day, is a relic of the former system of the "home factory," 
 where every member of the family was required to do 
 such work as best suited their age and experience, and 
 while labor conditions in general have been greatly im- 
 proved during the past few years, that work done by the 
 younger members of the family shows a much greater im- 
 provement than any other. The conditions of child labor 
 in the cotton mills have been greatly exaggerated during 
 the past few years. This has come about largely through 
 those seeking notoriety, or who for political reasons have 
 been perniciously active in behalf of the laboring classes. 
 The Carnegie family on coming to this country found in 
 the cotton mill a suitable place, wherein to make a living, 
 as have thousands of other families, who by force of ne- 
 cessity, are compelled to work for a living. As a doffer 
 boy Andrew was required to clean the machinery, sweep 
 the floor, bring water, and to do a hundred and one other 
 jobs that were tacked on to the duties of doffing. What- 
 ever was required of him he did it the best he could. He 
 was thorough-going in his work and soon won the good will 
 and esteem of his employers. The flame of his ambition 
 burned brightly and though required to work hard his 
 motto, Nil desperandum (never despair) stood him 
 in good stead and he performed, with credit 
 to himself, every task that was assigned him. 
 After a year or so as doffer boy he accepted 
 a much harder position in the boiler room, where he was 
 required to- shovel coal into the furnace and to oil and 
 look after the pumps and engine. This position, while be- 
 ing unusually severe on a boy of his age offered him in- 
 creased pay and an opportunity to contribute more to the 
 support of the family, of which he was justly proud. This 
 work, however, soon began to tell on his not already 
 strong constitution and he was forced to give up the place. 
 He then left the mill and secured a position as telegraph 
 messenger boy at a salary of $3.00 per week. Andrew 
 Carnegie was not an example of the old proverb that "A 
 rolling stone gathers no moss," for he changed his posi- 
 tions often. While he always attended diligently to 
 whatever work he was set to do, he never lost an oppor- 
 
60 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 tunity to get a better position. He was trained in the hard 
 school of experience. He, like Napoleon, learned early in 
 life, "the value of time." He was always busy and was a 
 hard worker. As a messenger boy he took advantage of 
 the spare moments around the office to learn to be an op- 
 erator, he made a name for himself, and soon became 
 known as one of the best on the system. He systema- 
 tized his work in order that he could do more of it and 
 find leisure time for self-improvement. He did not object 
 to long hours of hard work for he had an ambition to rise 
 in the world and was not content to remain in mediocrity. 
 He knew that the poet spoke truly in these words: 
 
 "The heights by great men reached and kept, 
 Were not attained by sudden flights, 
 But they while their companion slept, 
 Were toiling upward in the night." 
 
 While an operator Andrew Carnegie was given an op- 
 portunity to earn a few extra dollars by doing copy work 
 for some of the newspapers, and he looked upon this 
 money as real capital. His father having died when An- 
 drew was about 15 years of age, the support of his wid- 
 owed mother devolved largely upon him, and it was to her 
 that he always went for advice, at this time as well as in 
 the long years afterward. 
 
 Having become an expert operator he attracted the 
 attention of the railway officials who frequently had busi- 
 ness* with the office where Carnegie was stationed. He 
 was offered and promptly accepted a position as tele- 
 graph operator in the service of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road. In this position, as in those he had formerly held, 
 he "made good" and was rapidly advanced in salary and 
 position until he was eventually made private secretary to 
 Thomas A. Scott, then superintendent of the Pittsburg di- 
 vision of the Pennsylvania lines. Andrew Carnegie has 
 never ceased to be a hard worker, and it is only by the 
 recognition of this essential to success that anyone ever 
 gets anywhere. There is a class that labors under the de- 
 lusion that success is only for the few, and comes only by 
 luck or inspiration. 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 61 
 
 Thomas A. Edison, however, has given us a good an- 
 swer to the question: "Does success come by inspira- 
 tion?" No, says Edison: "Success comes only by perspi- 
 ration." 
 
 When the civil war came on Mr. Scott was made assist- 
 ant secretary of war and Mr. Carnegie continued with him 
 as private secretary, going to Washington with his chief. 
 Mr. Carnegie was, at this time, 24 years of age and dis- 
 played considerable tact and judgment in the handling of 
 the troops and the despatching of equipment and supplies 
 for the army. He was present at several battles, but took 
 no active part in the war except in his capacity as private 
 secretary to Mr. Scott. In June, 1862, Mr. Carnegie re- 
 turned with Mr. Scott to Pittsburg, and soon thereafter 
 succeeded him as superintendent of the Pittsburg Divis- 
 ion of the Pennsylvania road. Mr. Carnegie was greatly 
 admired by Mr. Scott, whom he had served long and faith- 
 fully. Carnegie's first investment came about on the ad- 
 vice of Mr. Scott, who advised the former to buy ten 
 shares of stock in the Adams Express Co.. This he was 
 not able to do, however, until his mother — always 
 ready to help her dear boy — mortgaged the home for the 
 necessary $600. The investment proved good and the 
 stock was sold, afterwards, at a handsome profit. After 
 Mr. Carnegie became a superintendent, which was his last 
 position as an employee, his successful ventures came fast 
 and decisive. He became interested in a company to build 
 sleeping cars, and from this enterprise made considerable 
 money. 
 
 He made several profitable deals in oil «wells about 
 the time Rockefeller was monopolizing that great indus- 
 try. Foreseeing the demand that was sure to come, at an 
 early date, for steel bridges to replace the old wooden 
 ones that were frequently being burned, thereby seriously 
 delaying traffic, he resigned his position with the railroad 
 and organized the Keystone Bridge Works. This concern 
 became the basis of .his marvelous operations for the next 
 twenty or thirty years. He continued to build and equip 
 steel works, and to manage them in such a masterful way 
 that he became known throughout the entire world as the 
 
62 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 Steel King. At the time of the organization of the 
 United States Steel Corporation, Mr. Carnegie almost, if 
 not entirely, dictated the price of steel to the whole world. 
 He sold his steel works to the Giant Corporation for the 
 staggering sum of $300,000,000, receiving $100,000,000 in 
 cash and $200,000,000 in five per cent gold bonds. Since 
 the passage of the Income Tax Law there has been a good 
 deal of comment on the foresight displayed by Mr. Car- 
 negie in making his deal with the Steel Trust. He had it 
 stipulated in the contract that the bonds were to be ex- 
 empt from all State and National tax. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie's fortune is estimated to-day at $300,- 
 000,000, notwithstanding the fact that he has given away 
 many millions of dollars in establishing free libraries and 
 other educational institutions. Under the Income Tax 
 Law referred to he would have had to pay to the govern- 
 ment a tax of six per cent on his income, which is esti- 
 mated at $15,000,000 per year. This tax would have cost 
 Mr. Carnegie $900,000 a year, but owing to the provision in 
 his contract with the Steel Corporation, regarding State 
 and National tax, it is said, he will be absolved from the 
 payment of the income tax on these bonds. 
 
 To have come up from a poor doffer boy in a cotton 
 mill, working for 20c a day, to be a great money king,, 
 with an income of more than $41,000 a day, and to be em- 
 ployed only in the effort to give away his money faster 
 than it accumulates, is indeed a story worthy of careful 
 thought. Mr. Carnegie was always thrifty and to this we 
 must attribute much of his success. 
 
 We cannot, of course, all be millionaires, nor should 
 we want to be. However, it should be the aim of every 
 man to save at least a part of, his salary, and he who does 
 this, will get ahead financially, while the great majority 
 will continue to be the tails of other men's kites. Plan 
 your course so that you will not always be dependent on 
 your salary. Build up a reserve fund. From time to time 
 make wise investments, and in a few years you may be- 
 come independent, and in the meantime, you will be able 
 to do more work and better work, because your mind will 
 be relieved of that anxiety, as to what would happen 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 63 
 
 should your regular income fail. There is food for thought 
 in a saying of the late B. H. Harriman that "Only the poor 
 are wasteful." Practically all riches are founded on 
 someone having adopted the saving habit. We should 
 learn early and practice assidiously, the habit of saving 
 our money: 
 
 Not for to hide it in a hedge, 
 Nor for a train attendant, 
 But for the glorious privilege 
 Of being independent. 
 
 Son, next week we will take up some of the calcula- 
 tions, pertaining to spinning. This letter is long, but I 
 trust you will find it both interesting and profitable. 
 Sincerely, DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 10. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — This thanks you for your very inter- 
 esting letter, which has just reached me. I am 
 glad to hear that you have been promoted to sec- 
 ond hand, and, of course, you have my very best wishes 
 for a grand success. 
 
 You have done well, and I am pleased at the rapid 
 progress you are making. 
 
 In letter No. 6, I gave you a few rules on finding the 
 number of yarn, now, we had better take up some more 
 calculations. I have already explained to you the system 
 of cotton yarn numbering now we will see by what means 
 we may change from one number to another. This is ac- 
 complished by what we call "draft," and may be explained 
 in several different ways. 
 
 The "draft" of a spinning frame may be said to be the 
 difference between the surface speeds of the front and 
 back rolls; or, it may be explained as the difference in 
 the weight, or length, of the product going into the frame, 
 or machine, and that coming out. 
 
 If the surface speed of the back roll was 40 inches per 
 minute, and the surface speed of front roll 400 inches per 
 minute, there would be a draft of ten, and each inch of rov- 
 ing taken in by the back roll would be drawn out, into 
 ten inches, by the front roll. 
 
 To change this draft we increase or decrease the speed 
 of the back roll, the front roll remaining at a constant, 
 speed. The back roll is driven from the front roll by gears, 
 and there is usually a gear upon the front roll, one upon 
 the back roll, and two connecting gears called, crown gear 
 and draft gear respectively. 
 
 The draft gear is the one generally changed when it 
 becomes necessary to make the yarn lighter or heavier, 
 although this result could be obtained by changing any of 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 65 
 
 the gears, in the train, and it is the custom in a great 
 many places to change the crown gear, instead of the 
 draft gear. 
 
 There is an advantage in changing the crown gear, in 
 that it usually contains a great many more teeth, than 
 does the draft gear, and thus finer changes can be made, 
 for instance: in changing a gear that contains 100 teeth the 
 result is a change if one one-hundredth, whereas when 
 changing a gear of 30 teeth the result is one-thirtieth. 
 But, say, look-a-here who in the devil can write about 
 drafts and twists and other such dry subjects, with a 
 circus street parade going along just outside my window. 
 Not me, I am going to quit right here and get out on th« 
 streets and follow the clowns and other animals back to 
 the show grounds and right there I'll stay until the wee 
 small hours of the morning, and I may drink some red 
 lemonade if I can find any in "brown bottles." Good night! 
 
 Here's some tables that you may find need for, so clip 
 them and paste them in your memorandum. 
 
 Measures of Length: 
 
 Inches Feet 
 
 Yards 
 
 Rods Furlongs 
 
 12 1 
 
 
 
 
 36 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 198 16 1-2 
 
 5 1-2 
 
 1 
 
 
 7920 660 
 
 220 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 63360 5280 
 
 1760 
 
 320 
 
 8 
 
 
 Measures 
 
 of Area 
 
 
 Square . Square 
 
 Square 
 
 Square 
 
 
 Inches F§et 
 
 Yards 
 
 Rods 
 
 Acres 
 
 144 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1296 
 
 9 1 
 
 
 
 39204 2721-4 30 1-4 1 
 
 
 6272640 43560 4840 
 
 160 
 
 1 
 
 4014489600 27878400 3097600 
 
 102400 
 
 640 
 
 Miles 
 
 Square 
 Miles 
 
66 
 
 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 Seconds 
 
 60 
 
 3600 
 
 86400 
 
 604800 
 
 31557600 
 
 Gills 
 4 
 
 Measures of Time. 
 Minutes Hours Days 
 
 Weeks Years 
 
 1 
 
 60 
 
 1440 
 
 10080 
 
 525960 
 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 168 
 
 8766 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 365 1-4 
 
 52 5-28 
 
 Pints 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 Measures of Quantity. 
 
 Quarts Gallons Barrels Hogsheads 
 
 32 
 1008 
 2016 
 
 Mills 
 
 10 
 
 100 
 
 1000 
 
 10,000 
 
 252 
 504 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 126 
 
 252 
 
 1 
 31 1-2 
 63 
 
 Table of U. S. Money. 
 
 Cents 
 1 
 10 
 100 
 1000 
 
 Dimes 
 
 1 
 10 
 100 
 
 Dollars 
 
 1 
 10 
 
 Eagles 
 
 Mensuration. 
 
 A LINE is that-: which has length only. 
 
 A POINT is that which has position only. 
 
 An ANGLE is formed by two lines diverging from a 
 common point. 
 
 A RIGHT ANGLE consists of a horizontal and a per- 
 pendicular line. 
 
 A TRIANGLE is a figure bounded by three straight 
 lines. 
 
 A QUADRILATERAL is a plane figure having four 
 straight sides. 
 
 A PARALLELOGRAM is a quadrilateral the opposite 
 sides of which are equal. 
 
 A CUBE is a body having six equal square sides or 
 faces. 
 
 A SURFACE or AREA has length and breadth. 
 
 A CYLINDER is a round body of uniform diameter 
 whose ends are parallel to each other. 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 67 
 
 A PRIZM is a body whose ends or bases are equal 
 plane figures and whose sides (3 or more) are parallelo- 
 grams. 
 
 A CONE is a body having a circular base and tapers 
 uniformly to a point called the vertex. 
 
 A FRUSTRUM of a cone or pyramid is the part that 
 remains after cutting off the top parallel with 'the base. 
 
 A PYRAMID resembles a cone being many sided in- 
 stead of round. 
 
 A SOLID or BODY has length, breadth and thickness. 
 
 A SQUARE is a quadrilateral whose sides are all 
 equal and whose angles are all right angles.. 
 
 I'm off for the circus. More later. 
 
 Sincerely DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 11. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — Now that the circus is over we must 
 get down to business and make up for lost time. 
 The tables which I gave you last week have very 
 little to do with a spinning room, and yet you will find 
 that you will frequently have need of them, so I thought I 
 would just throw them in. 
 
 Now that you are a second hand you should begin to 
 look into the many calculations that are required to be 
 made in order to get the correct results for any number 
 of yarn, and too you must make a more careful study of 
 the labor problem. If you have followed my letters, care- 
 fully, and I believe you have, you should be pretty well 
 posted on how to get along with your help, with the least 
 amount of trouble, and as I have already pointed out, this 
 is by no means, a small item. When I began to learn 
 about spinning one of the first rules I got fixed in my 
 mind was a simple one on draft, it ran in this way; if you 
 are making a number 14s yarn with a draft of seven what 
 is your hank roving? I was told that by dividing the num- 
 ber of yarn by the draft it would give the hank roving. 
 Following out this rule we find that 14 divided by seven 
 equals two, the number of the roving. Now you will find 
 that the figuring of draft is simply a question of multipli- 
 cation, subtraction and division, as you will see from the 
 following: a draft of seven, with a two hank roving, pro- 
 duces a number 14s yarn. Dividing the number of yarn 
 by the draft, gives the hank roving; dividing the number 
 of yarn by the hank roving gives the draft, and multiply- 
 ing the draft by the hank roving, or the hank roving by 
 the draft gives the number of yarn. This is the 
 foundation of all draft calculations, and while it is practi- 
 cally correct it should be remembered that there is a va- 
 rying amount of contraction which makes the yarn slight- 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 69 
 
 ly heavier than what the figures will show. This contrac- 
 tion will vary from three per cent v to probably ten per 
 cent, but it is. fairly safe to allow five per cent. To find 
 what per cent the yarn actually contracts, you should di- 
 vide the number that the yarn actually sizes, by the num- 
 ber obtained by figures, thus: if you figure fpr number 14s 
 and the yarn sizes 13.30 what is the contraction? By di- 
 viding 13.30 by 14 we get .95 subtract this from 1.00 and 
 we have 5, for the per cent of contraction. You will bear 
 in mind that in the numbering of the roving the same 
 rules apply as in the numbering of yarn, and when we 
 speak of a two hank roving we mean that two hanks of 
 that roving will weigh one pound just the same as if it 
 was yarn, in fact the only difference in yarn and roving is 
 the difference in the twist, ordinary warp yarn having 
 twist equal to 4.75 times the square root of the number, 
 while roving, ordinarily, has only 1.20 times the square 
 root of the number. Now to figure out the draft of a spin- 
 ning frame by the gears we will suppose the following for 
 an example: Front roll gear 30 teeth, draft change gear, 
 24 teeth, diameter of front roll 1" or 8-8". Crown gear 84 
 teeth, back roll gear 84 teeth, diameter of back roll 7-8". 
 Then to get the draft we multiply the front roll gear, the 
 draft gear and the diameter of back roll together for a di- 
 visor; the crown gear, back roll gear and the diar/eter of 
 the front roll together for a dividend, as follows: 30X24X 
 7=5,040. divisor. 84X84X8=56,448, dividend. 56,448-1-5,040 
 =11.20, Draft. To get the constant number we work in 
 the same way, except that we leave out the draft gear. To 
 find the constant number on a frame geared as above we 
 will work as follows: 30X7=210, divisor. 84X84X8= 
 56,448 dividend. Then 56,448-4-210 =268.80 constant num- 
 ber. 
 
 To get the draft from the constant number it is only 
 necessary to divide the constant number by the draft gear 
 thus: 268.80-^-24=11.20 draft as before, or to find what 
 draft gear is required to give a certain draft, it is only 
 necessary to divide the constant number by the draft thus: 
 268.80-^11.20=24 the draft gear required. Now my boy if 
 you will get this matter firmly set in your mind you should 
 
70 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 be able to figure out any case of draft that may be re- 
 quired of you, also you should bear in mind that when 
 you are using double roving you should first reduce it to 
 single, that is; two strands of a four hank roving would be 
 considered the same as one strand of two hank roving, you 
 will of course, understand why this is so. Now I will 
 have to leave you until next week, and I suggest that you 
 study this lesson very carefully. Next week I hope to be 
 able to get deeper into these calculations. With all good 
 wishes I am. Sincerely yours, DAD. 
 
 LETTER NO. 12. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — In regard to the draft of a spinning 
 frame there are a great many ways to get it. As I 
 pointed out last week the usual method is 
 through the gears, but here is another way: . 
 
 Rule: — Divide the surface speed of the front roll by 
 the surface speed of the back roll, the result will be the 
 draft. Example: Suppose the surface speed of the front 
 roll to be 1200 inches per minute, and the surface speed of 
 back roll to be 200 inches pe,r minute then 1200-^200=6 
 the draft of the frame. Now you will want to know of 
 course how to get the surface speed of the rolls and I will 
 give you the rule. 
 
 Rule: — Multiply the diameter of the roll by 3.1416 and 
 this product by the revolution per minute, . of the roll. 
 Example: What is the surface speed of a one-inch roll, 
 which makes 127.33 revolutions per minute. Applying the 
 rule given: 1x3.1416X127.33=400 inches per minute. 
 To Find the Number of Bands Per Pound. 
 
 Rule: — Divide 7,000 by the weight of one band in 
 grains. 
 
 Example: — One band weighs 58.33 grains, then 7,000-=- 
 58.33=120 bands per pound. 
 
 Rule: — Divide the number of inches of yarn delivered 
 by the front roll per minute, by the circumference of the 
 bobbin, and subtract this result from the speed of the 
 spindle, the result will be the speed of the traveler. 
 
 Example: — Inches of yarn delivered per minute by 
 the front roll, is 400. Speed of spindle 8,000. Diameter 
 
GREER'S SPINNING} RULES. 71 
 
 of bobbin 1 inch. Then 400-f-3.1416=127.32 8000—127.32= 
 7872.68 the speed of the traveler. It will be seen from 
 this that the speed of the traveler must necessarily vary 
 with the circumference of the bobbin, and is always just 
 enough behind the spindle to wind on the amount of yarn 
 that is being delivered by the front roll. If the spindle 
 and traveler made the same number of revolutions it is 
 evident that there would be no winding-on. 
 To Find the Twist in Yarn from the Speed of Spindle and 
 Rule: — Divide the speed of spindle, by the surface speed 
 of front roll, the result is the twist per inch. 
 
 Example: Speed of spindle 8,000, surface speed of 
 front roll 400 inches per minute. Then 8000-=-400=20 the 
 turns per inch. This result is practically correct but the 
 twist will be slightly in excess of that shown, on account 
 of the contraction. 
 
 The basis upon which all twist, for yarn and roving, is 
 figured, is the square root of the number, not that this has 
 anything in particular to do with it, but because it fur- 
 nishes a regular scale. The following table gives the 
 standards that have been generally adopted for different 
 kinds of cotton yarns: 
 
 Extra warp twist 5.00 times the square root of the num- 
 ber. 
 
 Ordinary warp twist 4.75 times the square root Of the 
 number. 
 
 Low warp twist 4.50 times the square root of the num- 
 ber. 
 
 Extra mule warp twist 4.00 times the square root, of 
 the number. 
 
 Mule warp twist 3.75 times the square root of the 
 number. 
 
 Extra Filling twist 3.50 times the square root of the 
 number. . 
 
 Filling twist 3.25 times the square root of the number. 
 
 Hosiery twist 3.00 times the square root of the num- 
 ber. 
 
 It will be found that these figures are not accepted by 
 all mill men as being correct, and that there is a wide dif- 
 ference of opinion as to the exact amount of twist that 
 
72 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 should be put in the different kinds of yarn. However 
 this will be found to furnish a good guide, in connection 
 with which one must use their own good judgment and 
 experience. 
 
 To Find the Twist Multiple Being Used. 
 
 When it is not known just what multiple was used in 
 adjusting the twist, we can determine this by 1 the follow- 
 ing: Rule: — Divide the turns per inch being put in by the 
 square root of the number of the yarn being spun. Exam- 
 ple: Spinning number 16s with 19 turns per inch, what 
 is the twist multiple being used? The square root of 16= 
 4 then 19-=-4=4.75, the answer. 
 
 It is well to keep in mind that the contraction varies 
 with the twist, there being more contraction in warp yarn 
 than in filling yarn. - x As a general proposition, the more 
 twist you put in the more contraction you will have, and 
 the more contraction you have, the more twist there will 
 be. 
 
 To Find the Twist of a Spinning Frame by Gears. 
 
 Rule: — Multiply the cylinder gear, twist change gear, 
 and circumference of front roll, together for a divisor. 
 Multiply the jack gear, front roll gear, and ratio of cylin- 
 der to whirl, together for a dividend, the result will be the 
 twist per inch. 
 
 Example: Suppose we have a frame geared as fol- 
 lows: Cylinder gear 50 teeth, Twist gear 16 teeth, circum- 
 ference of one inch front roll 3,1416". Jack gear 60 teeth, 
 front roll gear 112 teeth, ratio of 7" cylinder to 3-4" whirl 
 8.24. Then work as follows: 50X16X3.1416=2513.28 
 divisor. 60 X 112 X §24=55,372.80 dividend. Then 55,372.80 
 -4-2513.28=22.03 turns per inch of twist. 
 
 To Find the Twist Constant. 
 
 Rule: — Work the same as for twist except that you 
 
 « 
 leave out the twist change gear. Following the example 
 
 given above we have: 50X3.1416=157.08 for a divisor. 
 
 60X112X8.24=55,372.80 for a dividend, then, 55,372.80-h 
 
 157.08=352.51 constant number. 
 
 The same rule will apply here as was explained in re- 
 gard to constant number for draft, the constant number 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. . 73 
 
 divided by the twist gear will give the twist per inch, and 
 the constant number divided by the twist per inch will 
 give the twist gear required, as follows: 352.51-^-16 =22.03 
 twist per inch. 352.51^-22.03r=16 twist change gear. 
 
 To Find Speed of Cylinder. 
 
 Rule:— Multiply speed of counter shaft by diameter of 
 pulley on same and divide this product by the diameter 
 of pulley on cylinder. Example: Speed of counter shaft 
 330 revolutions per minute, diameter of pulley on same 30 
 inches, diameter of pulley on cylinder 10 inches, then 330-X 
 30=9900-M0=990 revolutions per minute. 
 
 To Find Speed of Spindle from Speed of Cylinder. 
 
 Rule:— Multiply speed of cylinder by diameter of 
 same and divide this product by diameter of whirl on 
 spindle. Example: Speed of cylinder 990 revolutions per 
 minute, diameter of same 7 inches, diameter of whirl on 
 spindle 3-4 inches, then 990 X7--3-4"=9240 revolutions per 
 minute. It is customary to allow a certain percentage for 
 the slipping of the band, some do this by adding 1-16" or 
 1-8" to the diameter of the whirl. 
 
 General Speed Calculations. 
 
 Practically all speed calculations may be made by ob- 
 serving the following four terms: First, speed of driver; 
 Second, diameter of driver; Third, diameter of driven; 
 Fourth speed of driven. The following rules will apply: 
 
 Multiply first by second and divide by third gives 
 
 fourth. 
 
 Multiply first by second and divide by fourth gives 
 
 third. 
 
 Multiply fourth by third and divide by second gives 
 
 first. 
 
 Multiply fourth by third and divide by first gives sec- 
 ond. 
 
 Now, Son, I have given you these rules just as they 
 have occurred to me and in a very simple way, in order 
 that you would have no trouble in readily understanding 
 them, of course I could have stated some of these matters 
 in a more technical way, and have avoided a great deal of 
 repetition but my object has been to make them so plain 
 
74 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 that anybody with a thimble full of brains could readily 
 understand just how to do any of the things I have re- 
 ferred to. Your advancement has been rapid, you have 
 done fine, or as "Teddy" would say you are doing "bully." 
 I trust you are doing as well morally as you are indus- 
 trially, and that you will not get to be one of these fellows 
 we hear so much about that turn out to be such a charac- 
 ter, as is referred to in "he's a devil in his own home 
 town." You are learning a good trade and I believe that 
 we are going to see a great revival in the textile industry 
 in the next few years, and good men are going to be in de- 
 mand, as never before. Stick to your job and when I can 
 serve you, don't hesitate to call on me. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, DAD. 
 
LETTER NO. 13. 
 
 MY Dear Son: — Now that you have been promoted to 
 boss spinner, I feel that you should be able to get 
 along nicely, in view of the fact that you have had 
 considerable drilling from your very first entrance into the 
 mill. I have endeavored to give you such instruction as, 
 in my opinion you would most need and while these let- 
 ters have no doubt been of service to you I am aware of 
 the fact that you possessed the needed qualities that go to 
 make a mill man, otherwise, you could not have gone up 
 as rapidly as you have. 
 
 No man can advance in any line of work unless he 
 has ability to command the respect and confidence of his 
 employer, as well as the good will of those who work with 
 and under him. The man who cannot command the good 
 will of both employer and employee, will find very little 
 ■encouragement in any line of industry, especially is this 
 true in a position where one is required to direct the work 
 of others and carry the responsibility for large numbers of 
 less-informed workers. 
 
 You will find that your duties as a boss spinner will 
 Iteep you fully engaged; you will have little time to devote 
 to outside interests and I would advise you to keep free 
 from such "outside interests." Few men ever become an 
 •expert at more than one thing, and you will do well to con- 
 centrate all your efforts towards becoming the best boss 
 spinner in the country. Remember the saying attributed 
 to Emerson that: "If a man can write a better book, 
 preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse trap than 
 his neighbor, even though he live in the forest, the world 
 will make a beaten track to his door." My son if you can 
 make of yourself the "best boss spinner in the country" 
 you will never need to hunt a job, your services will al- 
 ways be in demand. Further than this a man who can run 
 
76 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 a spinning room better than anyone else, can set his own 
 price. The great trouble with most men who enter the 
 cotton mill business, is that they do not try to master the 
 details of the business. As soon as one learns enough to 
 merely hold a job of small proportions, they stop studying 
 and soon get into a rut where they remain, grinding 
 away, as lifeless as a mere machine. Strive to realize the 
 ideal in the saying quoted above, and in the realization, at 
 each step gained, you file the chain which binds Success. 
 
 It is not so much what a man knows, as what he does; 
 
 one may know all about running a spinning room; may 
 
 know how to make any calculation that is ever required, 
 
 and yet be a complete failure as a boss spinner. If you 
 are not willing to work hard; to assume a great deal of 
 responsibility, and to virtually do the thinking for many 
 of . those placed under your care you had just as well quit 
 right now, and go out on a farm where you can get a job 
 plowing a steer. You are doomed to failure, if you enter 
 the cotton mill thinking that it does not require the use of 
 ones brains. There will come a time when you will feel 
 like you have the hardest job on earth, that everybody 
 else is having a good time while you are up to your neck 
 in trouble, but don't get discouraged, keep a stiff upper lip 
 and fight it out. Don't be a quitter. Nothing worth while 
 was ever attained by those who balk at every little hill of 
 difficulty. Obstacles are put in our way to be overcome 
 and not to stop our progress and each obstacle overcome 
 gives us greater confidence in our ability and helps us on 
 to greater accomplishments. Remember that opportunity 
 comes to every one, whether they are ready for it or not, 
 some say that opportunity makes the man, others that 
 man makes the opportunity, it matters little to us how we 
 look at this proposition, as long as we are not prepared 
 to take advantage of the opportunity when it does come. 
 It is said of Napoleon that "he made himself ready for a 
 great opportunity and a great opportunity came to him." 
 
 Perhaps you will at times feel like throwing down 
 the job and walking out, you will get blue, become dissat- 
 isfied, with everybody and everything, but wait-a-minute, 
 
GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 77 
 
 right-about face and look at the proposition squarely. 
 Don't lose your head, remember to: 
 
 Let nothing disturb thee, 
 Nothing affright thee; 
 All things are passing, 
 God never changeth, 
 Patient endurance, 
 Attaineth to all things. 
 
 In this series of letters I have not attempted to give a 
 great many calculations, these may all be had from the 
 machinery catalogs, and really as I see it they are not by 
 any means the most important part of what . a spinner 
 needs to know. At some future time I expect to add some- 
 thing to what I have had to say to you along this line. 
 
 I am now to close this series of letters and in doing 
 so I sincerely hope that they have not been altogether un- 
 interesting, and that you who have read them will find 
 helpful suggestions herein. 
 
 Many men have failed in the cotton mill business as a 
 result of conditions over which they had no control, fail- 
 ure, however, is often due to one's own lack of practical 
 knowledge. There are many ways in which we may learn. 
 It has been said: "We may learn from experience, from 
 books and from men," and doubtless, it requires all three 
 of these to produce a well rounded evenly balanced, man 
 of affairs. Experience is a great teacher, perhaps the 
 greatest teacher, and yet a careful study of the experi- 
 ence of others should enable us to avoid the many pitfalls 
 into which they have fallen only to rise and know that a 
 "burned child fears the fire." Of the making of books 
 there is no end and the fact that books are made in great 
 and increasing numbers indicate that there is a demand 
 for them, to supply which many men have given much 
 time and careful thought to the preparation. A great deal 
 may be learned from men, both good and bad, and one 
 cannot be too careful in the selection of associates, from 
 which they will acquire unconsciously perhaps habits and 
 knowledge. 
 
 I am conscious of the fact that these letters are not by 
 
78 GREER'S SPINNING RULES. 
 
 any means as full and complete as they might have been 
 and yet there is much practical information on the subject 
 of spinning. No effort has been made to produce what is 
 termed as "fine writing" or to turn out strictly technical 
 matter. It is the sincere wish of the writer that all who 
 may read the foregoing letters will find them not altogeth- 
 er uninteresting, and, if they shall be the means of helping 
 some one to a better knowledge of the spinning depart- 
 ment, and help some deserving man to a better position, 
 the writer will feel that he has been graciously repaid for 
 all the time he has spent in the preparation of this work. 
 With all good wishes for your success I am 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 "DAD." 
 
Oil Stains on Goods are 
 not a Necessary Evil 
 
 For years mill men tolerated the toll of "seconds" im- 
 posed by the use of dripping, spattering oil. 
 They had no choice, since mat hinery would not run 
 without oil, and oil would drip, no matter how care- 
 fully applied. 
 
 & 
 
 Non-Fluid Oil solved that problem 
 
 It is as fine a lubricant as the highest grade fluid oil, ard can 
 be applied in the same way, but it does not drip. 
 Every particle of NON-FLUID OIL is used up in reducing 
 «| friction. None spatters off bearings on to the goods being made 
 — a saving of lubricant; an increase of output. 
 In this age of strenuous competition and modern methods, a mill 
 that clings to the old fluid oil style of lubrication wilfully hanci- 
 caps itself. 
 
 NON-FLUID OIL has been adopted by hundreds 
 of mills. 
 
 Especially recommended for comb-boxes on cards, and necks 
 of rolls and other spinning room machinery 
 
 Write for testimonial letters and free samples 
 Only the genuine bears this trade- mark 
 
 TRADE MARK 
 
 UNITED STATES L V ^ f^ PATENT OFFICE 
 
 New York & New Jersey lubricant Co. 
 
 1 65 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 
 
Gives full information on every Cotton, Woolen, 
 Silk, Knitting and Flax Mill with Dyers in the 
 United States and Canada, as follows: Year incor- 
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 other machinery, hands employed, kind of goods 
 made, how sold, numbers and kinds of yarns bought, 
 £tc., etc. 
 
 Revised list of dealers in Cotton, Wool Waste, 
 Yarn, Mill Supplies, etc. 
 
 A Gomplete and Accurate Directory 
 of the Textile Industry 
 
 OFFICE EDITION 
 
 1100 Pages, $4.00 
 
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 SENT PREPAID ANYWHERE 
 
 DAVISON PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 407 Broadway, - NEW YORK 
 
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 Filling Bobbins 
 Chipped at Base 
 a Rarity 
 Where 
 
 Shambow-Marble 
 Spindle Shuttles 
 Are Used 
 
 Made Strongest 
 
 # 
 
 Wear Longest 
 
 % 
 
 WQONSOCKET, R. I. 
 
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 £ 
 
 * T hAHD THREADING- * V 
 
($) 
 
 IF YOU WANT 
 
 Quality and Quantity From Looms 
 
 USE 
 
 Leslie's Tempered Cast Steel Reeds 
 
 Made To Weave 
 
 Heaviest Duck or Finest Counts 
 
 They Stay on the Job 
 Outwear Several of Best Soft Iron Wire Reeds 
 
 Loom Reed & Harness Co. 
 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 A. H. WASHBURN | 
 
 CONTRACTING ENGINEER | 
 
 COTTON MILL 
 MACHINERY 
 
 POWER PLANTS— STEAM 
 ELECTRIC 
 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED 
 CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 i> 
 
' I ''HERE may come a time when your belting is sub- 
 . *■ jected to moisture that loosens the joints and destroys 
 
 ordinary belting. 
 
 If you use SchiereriY Duxbak Leather Belting, that moisture 
 
 would 'only tend to give the belt more suction on the pulleys 
 
 arid would not hurt the belt in the least 
 
 Order "Duxbak" (Waterproof) for .any amount of 
 . .moisture and a temperature up 
 
 to. 160° F. ' 
 
 '■" Duxbak " (Steamproof) 
 where it comes in con- 
 fact with boiling hot water or v live steam. 
 
 TANNERS, BELT 
 MANUFACTURERS 
 
 NEW YORK, 30-38 Ferry St. 
 
 CHICAGO, 128 W. Kinzie St. 
 
 BOSTON, 641-643 Atlantic Ave. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 226 North 3d St. 
 
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 DENVER, .1752 Arapahoe St. 
 
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 for Cotton and Knitting 
 Mills and Supply Men. 
 
 Down - to - the - minute work. 
 I Best Grade Stock at the Lowest prices. 
 
 News Printing House 
 
 News Building .\ CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 (| 
 
 

 # 
 
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 For the past 21 years the 
 
 Textile Manufacturer 
 
 has devoted its energies to the upbuild- 
 
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 It has helped in the most marvelous 
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 It can help you if you will let it. 
 
 WRITE 
 
 I Textile Publishing Company 
 
 # W. C. DOWD President and General Manager 
 
 | JAMES A. GREER, Editor 
 
 Subscription $2.00 a year. Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 
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 Whitinsville Spinning 
 Ring Co. 
 
 Whitinsville, Mass. 
 
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Commonwealth Hotel 
 
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 STORER F. CRAFTS, General Manager 
 
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 Offers rooms with hot and cold water for $1 .00 
 
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 use of public shol&er baths. 
 
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 Rooms with private baths $1 .50 per day and up; 
 
 suites of two rooms and bath for $4.00 
 
 per day and up. 
 
 ABSOLUTELY FIREPROOF 
 Strictly a Temperance Hotel 
 
 Send for booklet. 
 
TEXTILE BOOKS. All books that are in print, 
 whether our own publications or not, supplied at net 
 price. A catalog containing a list of books in the English 
 language on textile subjects that are in print and of 
 present value sent free on request. 
 
 @i 
 
 For News and Ideas 
 
 LORD 8 NAGLE CO'S. PUBLICATIONS 
 
 The TEXTILE WORLD RECORD prints 
 more valuable articles bearing on cotton 
 manufacturing than all other American Tex- 
 tile publications combined. 
 
 The principal manufacturers, mill officials, 
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 recognized as the highest authority. . 
 
 Subscription price $2.00 per year, or with 
 the Official American Textile Directory. 
 $3.00 per year. 
 
 The OFFICIAL AMERICAN TEXTILE 
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 the textile mills in the United States and 
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 Standard (complete) Edition $2.00. 
 
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 144 Congress St. Boston, Mass. 
 
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 72 Cambridge St: - Worcester, Mass. 
 
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 The Original and Only Genuine Self-Setting 
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 Address Suite 29, Natl. Union Building 
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 © 
 
 JAMES A. GREER 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER 
 
 Publishing 
 
 Greer's Practical Carder • 
 
 ALSO 
 
 Greer's Spinning Rules 
 
 Price $1.00 Each 
 
 Every man interested in Cotton Manu- 
 facture should have a copy of these books 
 
 Address the Author. 
 
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 Builders of the Best Engines and Boilers 
 
 BURLINGTON, IOWA 
 
The h :b Stor at 
 
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 iVrjPiLi LOOMS 
 
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 FRED H. WHITE, Southern Agent 
 
 Realty Building CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
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 FRED H. WHITE "5KEF" 
 
 THE STAFFORD COMPANY 
 
 Automatic Looms 
 
 COHOES IRON FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY 
 
 Slashers 
 
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 COLLINS BROTHERS MACHINE COMPANY 
 
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: ;:,U' : ;;^^ 
 
 SAVE COTTON 
 SAVE MONEY 
 
 The latest invention of importance 
 to cotton manufacturers is 
 
 The Greer Cotton Saver 
 
 No cotton card is complete without 
 this patented device. 
 
 Increases Production 
 Makes Stronger Yarn 
 Makes Cleaner Yarn 
 Saves Cotton 
 Reduces waste 
 Saves So Much 
 Costs So Little 
 
 For full particulars address : 
 
 GREER MACHINE COMPANY 
 
 P. O. Box 910 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 

 THE 
 
 Greer Cotton Saver 
 
 (SPECIFICATIONS 
 
 THIS invention has reference to improvements in 
 carding machines, and its object is to effect a sav- 
 ing in cotton, as well as improve the quality 
 thereof. 
 
 It is the customary practice in carding machines to 
 run the carding cylinder and the flats in the same direc- 
 tion where they engage, wherefore the flats become pro- 
 gressively more contaminated with refuse taken from the 
 cotton as the cotton approaches the doffer. 
 
 In accordance with the present invention the flats are 
 caused to travel with the run adjacent to the cylinder 
 moving in a direction the reverse of that of the card cyl- 
 inder, so that the cotton is acted upon during its progress 
 through the carding machine by successively cleaner por- 
 tions of the flats and consequently when finally delivered 
 to the doffer the cotton is markedly better and freer from 
 refuse than has heretofore been the case. 
 
 Moreover, the invention includes an additional roller 
 covered with carding cloth and located between the licker- 
 in and the corresponding end of the web of flats, the ar- 
 rangement of this roller being such as to be active to the 
 flats and to the carding cylinder. The added roller is for 
 the purpose of removing the cotton strips from the flats 
 as they leave the carding cylinder close to the licker-in 
 and after these cotton strips are cleaned the cotton is re- 
 placed upon the card cylinder. The result is that there is 
 a saving of from seven to ten per cent, more or less, of 
 the cotton and practice has shown that the resultant card- 
 ing is superior to that obtained in a carding machine 
 without the presence of the additional roller. 
 
 The refuse removed from the cotton in a day's run is 
 almost free from cotton instead of this refuse containing 
 
 II 
 

 WITNESSES 
 
 ? &i0hu. 
 
 
 INVENTORS 
 
 sUa 
 
 TTORNeY/** 
 
 Plate 
 
 III 
 
'. ' ,. , ■-...:. :.■) 
 
 a material portion of the cotton treated by the carding 
 machine. 
 
 The invention will be best understood from a consid- 
 eration of the following detailed description, taken in con- 
 nection with the accompanying drawings forming a part of 
 this specification, with the further understanding that 
 while the drawings show a practical form of the invention, 
 the latter is not confined to any strict conformity with the 
 showing of the drawings, but may be changed and modi- 
 fied so long as such changes and modifications mark ho 
 material departure from the salient features of the inven- 
 tion. 
 
 In the drawings: — 
 
 Figure 1 is. a front to rear vertical section of a portion 
 of a carding machine embodying the present invention. 
 
 Figure 2 is a perspective View of a portion of a card- 
 ing machine embodying the present invention. 
 
 •Figure 3 is an elevation of a portion of the opposite 
 side of the machine from that shown in Figure 2, and 
 showing driving mechanism for the flats. 
 
 Figure 4 is a longitudinal diametric section of the ad- 
 ditional roller. 
 
 Figure 5 is a fragmentary view of a carding machine 
 showing a somewhat modified construction. 
 
 Figure 6 is an elevation of a detail of Figure 5. 
 
 While the present invention is not limited to any spe- 
 cial type* of carding machine, it can be and has been used 
 in connection with a carding machine such as illustrated 
 in patent No. 623,094, granted to 0. Mills and L. W. Pen- 
 ney, April 11, 1899, and a reference to said patent will be 
 sufficient to disclose parts of the cardang machine or en- 
 gine which have not been illustrated in the annexed 
 drawings because deemed unnecessary for the under- 
 standing of the present invention. 
 
 The carding machine or engine includes a carding 
 cylinder 1 covered with the usual wire or carding clothing 
 2, and this cylinder is mounted upon a shaft 3 supported 
 in suitable bearings in a frame 4 and driven in any appro- 
 priate manner. 
 
 Crowning the cylinder 1 is an endless chain of wire 
 clothed flats 5 carried by rollers 6, and this web of flats 
 
 IV 
 
■ 
 
 
 immmmmim mir 
 
 WITNESSES 
 
 
 I.W. O'ret/i A'n 
 ***& tXA.Grgpr, 
 
 Plate 2 
 

 extends from a point near the licker-in 7 to a point near 
 the doft'er 8 all similar to the arrangement shown in the 
 aforesaid letters patent. 
 
 There is, however, a material difference between the 
 arrangement shown in the said letters patent and a card-^ 
 ing machine or engine constructed in accordance with the 
 present invention, and one of these points of difference re- 
 lates to the course of travel of the flats. 
 
 I It is customary with a machine such as shown in the 
 said letters patent to drive the flats by power imparted to 
 the end roller of the series of rollers supporting the flats 
 and indicated in Figure 1 at 6a, the direction of travel of 
 the run of the belt or web of flats next to the carding cyl- 
 inder being in the same direction as the carding cylinder, 
 and in the structure as viewed in Figure 1 where the direc- 
 tion of travel of the cylinder 1 is clockwise the direction 
 of travel of the run of the flats next to the cylinder would 
 also be clockwise, but in accordance with the present in- 
 vention motion is imparted to the flats by power applied 
 to the other end roller 6b of the series, so that the active 
 run of the flats is counterclockwise as viewed in Figure 
 I, or the reverse of the direction of travel of the periphe- 
 ral portion of the cylinder 1. It is customary to run the 
 flats by a belt driven by a pulley 9 mounted on the shaft 
 3, and in a machine constructed in accordance with the 
 present invention this pulley drives a belt 10 leading to 
 another pulley 11 on a stub shaft 3a driving a worm gear 
 4a on another shaft 5a carrying a worm 7a in engagement 
 with a worm gear 8a fast to the shaft or journal of the 
 roller 6b and so arranged that the surface of the carding 
 cylinder and the adjacent run of the flats move in opposite 
 directions and, furthermore, the parts are so related that 
 the movements are at such relative speeds as practice de- 
 mands. 
 
 The roller 6b has journal bearings in brackets 12 car- 
 ried by a suitable portion of the frame, and these brack- 
 ets have other brackets 13 secured thereto and so located 
 that they carry journal bearings 14 for the journal ends 15 
 of a roller 16, which latter is covered with card clothing 17 
 and is situated between that portion of the flats passing 
 about the roller 6b and the licker-in 7, the card clothing of 
 
 VI 
 

 the roller 16 being so related to the card clothing of the 
 cylinder 1 and flats 5 as to nearly touch that of the flats- on 
 one side and the cylinder on the other. 
 
 The roller 16 is provided with a pulley 18 which may 
 be mounted on one of the journals 15, and this pulley is 
 driven by a belt 19 coming from an appropriate pulley 20 
 on the shaft 3, the parts being proportioned to impart to 
 the roller 16 an appropriate speed of rotation which may 
 be relatively high with respect to the speed of rotation of 
 the cylinder 1 and the linear speed of the web of flats 5. 
 The roller 16 is so connected up to the shaft 3 that its di- 
 rection of movement where adjacent to the cylinder 1 and 
 where adjacent to the flats 5 is" the same as the correspond- 
 ing surfaces of the cylinder and flats, although the roller 
 itself rotates upon its axis in a counterclockwise direction 
 in the view of the structure as seen in .Figure 1. 
 
 The lap indicated at 21 is fed from the lap stand 22 to 
 the licker-in 7 in the usual manner and to the cylinder 1 
 where it is acted upon by the flats 5 first by the loaded end 
 of the web of flats and later by the cleaner portion of the 
 web of -flats until as the sliver approaches the doffer 8 it is 
 subjected to the action of the cleanest portion of the flats, 
 wherefore when the sliver approaches the doffer it is in far 
 better condition than is the case where the flats and the 
 cylinder 1 have their adjacent portion moving in the same 
 direction. 
 
 The loaded top flats leave the cylinder 1 close to the 
 licker-in and are there acted upon by the roller 16 which 
 removes the strippings from the flats and replaces them 
 upon the cylinder 1, which at this point has a greater peri- 
 pheral speed than the roller 16, thus keeping the latter 
 clean. Between the point where the roller 16 takes off the 
 strippings from the flats and the point where it replaces 
 these stripping upon me cylinder 1 a suitable number of 
 mote knives 23 are located to knock out the motes, dirt 
 and other trash, which trash falls into a mote box 24 en- 
 closing the roller 16. The mote box has a door 25 for the 
 convenient removal of collected trash at suitable inter- 
 vals. By this means almost the entire amount of cotton 
 fiber heretofore allowed to waste is replaced upon the 
 
 VII 
 
• 
 
 carding cylinder to be ultimately removed therefrom by 
 the doffer 8, and practice has demonstrated that the re : 
 sultant sliver is particularly clean, while the output of the 
 machine is increased from seven to ten per cent, more or 
 less, due to the saving of the strippings which are taken 
 directly from the flats and at once replaced upon the card- 
 ing cylinder, while in the interim between the removal of 
 the strippings from the flats and the replacing of them 
 upon the carding cylinder all motes, dirt and trash found 
 in the strippings are removed. 
 
 The operation is wholly automatic and requires but 
 the presence of one small additional roller which places no 
 appreciable load upon the machine and requires no atten- 
 tion. The cost therefor of recovering the strippings from 
 the flats is wholly negligible, and this recovery represents 
 a material saving amounting to ten to thirteen pounds of 
 cotton, more or less, per card, per day of ten hours, while 
 the resultant carding is noticeably improved. 
 
 In the arrangement shown in Figure 1 the cotton 
 strippings are taken from the flats and replaced directly 
 upon the carding cylinder. Instead of such an arrange- 
 ment the arrangement shown in Figure 5 may be employ- 
 ed where there is indicated a roller 16a and another roller 
 16b between the delivery end of the web of flats and the 
 licker-in 7. These two rollers 16a and 16b are connected 
 as by gearing 18a to rotate in opposite directions, the roller 
 16a rotating with respect to the flats in the same direc- 
 tion as the roller 16, while the roller 16b rotates in the op- 
 posite direction. Neither roller 16a nor 16b delivers 
 upon the cylinder 1 in the structure shown in Figure 4, but 
 the roller 16a strips the flats 5 and delivers upon the roller 
 16b which in turn delivers upon the licker-in 7 and the 
 strippings are by the licker-in delivered to the cylinder 1, 
 the motes and dirt and trash being removed from the 
 strippings before they, reach the cylinder 1. 
 
 In either structure shown in the drawings the flats 
 travel in the opposite direction to the travel of the cylin- 
 der 1 so as to deliver close to the receiving portion of the 
 cylinder, while the roller 16, or the pair of rollers 16a, 16b 
 strip the flats of adhering cotlon and restore this cotton 
 
 VIII 
 
- 
 
 to the cylinder 1, the trash accompanying the strippings 
 being removed before such strippings again reach the 
 cylinder 1. 
 
 In the actual operation of the machine the waste is 
 made up almost exclusively of motes and dirt and trash 
 with hardly any noticeable quantity of cotton fiber, while 
 the waste of a carding machine lacking the features of the 
 present invention represents a Very material amount of 
 the cotton fiber which has heretofore been saved only at a 
 material cost. 
 
 Claims Allowed. 
 
 1. In a carding machine or engine, a rotatable carding 
 cylinder, a web of flats in superposed relation to the cyl- 
 inder, means for driving the active run of the flats in a di- 
 rection opposite to the movement of the corresponding 
 portion of the cylinder, and a stripping roller for removing 
 strippings from the delivery end of the web of flats and re- 
 lated to the cylinder to return the strippings thereto at 
 the receiving end of the cylinder, said stripping roller be- 
 ing provided with means for removing the trash from the 
 strippings on the stripping roller before the strippings are 
 returned to the cylinder. 
 
 2. In a carding machine or engine, a rotatable carding 
 cylinder, a web or flats in superposed relation to the cylin- 
 der, means for driving the active run of the flats in a di- 
 rection opposite to the movement of the corresponding 
 portion of the cylinder, and a stripping roller for removing 
 strippings from the delivery end of the web of flats and 
 related to the cylinder to return the strippings thereto at 
 the receiving end of the cylinder, said stripping roller be- 
 ing provided with means for removing the trash from the 
 strippings on the stripping roller before the strippings are 
 returned to the cylinder, the trash removing means com- • 
 prising mote knives and a mote box enclosing the mote 
 knives and provided with a receptacle for trash and also 
 provided with a door for access to the interior of the box. 
 
 3. In a carding machine or engine, the combination 
 with a rotatable carding cylinder, a licker-in,a web of flats in 
 superposed relation to the cylinder and means for driving 
 the active run of the flats in a direction opposite to the 
 
 IX 
 
'- 
 
 
 "'•''•■'': /': '-liJi&i 
 
 ,■ 
 
 'iS^friU:;: ' . :■- ' 
 
 movement of the corresponding portion of the cylinder, of 
 stripping means at and for removing, strippings from the 
 delivery end of the web of flats- and constructed and ar- 
 ranged to cause the strippings to be replaced upon the cyl- 
 inder to be again fed to the flats along with fresh or 
 untreated material, said stripping means having means as- 
 sociated therewith for removing trash from the strippings 
 before the latter again reach the cylinder. 
 
 X 
 
HOTEL MARLBOROUGHf 
 
 Broadway, Between 36th and 37th Streets 1 
 IN THE VERY CENTER OF NEW YORK I 
 
 THIS famous h6tel is known the 
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 and up to date in all details. 
 
 The most convenient location in 
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 Whether > our visit is one of busi- 
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 Rooms, $1.00 Per Day Upwards 
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 JOHN F. DOWNEY, Manager 
 
 XI 
 
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 Hotel Powhatan 
 
 Pennsylvania Ave., H. and 18th Sts., N. W. 
 
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 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
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 Offers to the public every comfort. 
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 upon application to 
 
 E. C. OWEN, Manager 
 
 I 
 
 XII 
 
: ' : ^^;-^^;;::-;.-- 
 
 "COTTON" 
 
 THE great monthly textile author 
 ity for executive^, superintend- 
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 It is one of the oldest, one of the 
 largest, and one of the most widely 
 quoted textile journals. 
 
 The work of a large staff of regu- 
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 reputation is supplemented by fre- 
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 the ablest arid best known manufac- 
 turers and financiers. 
 
 Each issue combines practical data 
 and suggestions invaluable in the op- 
 eration of cotton, knitting, dyeing, 
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 complete reports of mill conditions 
 and reviews of cotton, knit goods, 
 and yarn markets. 
 
 Over 600 pages of reading each 
 year. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $1.00 FOR 
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 Sample Copy on Request 
 
 W. R. C. Smith Publishing Co. 
 
 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 
 
 XIII 
 
';;-';;.?:;<•;;:■';: ■.■■... ■ ■ : 
 
 What the Greer Cotton 
 Saver Does 
 
 In the first. pages of this colored insert there are draw- 
 ings and specifications of a new invention, which, for lack 
 of a better name, has been called The Greer Cotton Saver. 
 
 The name given this new device is really a misnomer, 
 as the chief object of the device is to improve the quality 
 and increase the production of the card. That it does ef- 
 fect a material saving in cotton is incidental to its main pur, 
 pose. 
 
 It has /ong been known that if the flats on a revolving 
 flat card were run with their operating portion moving 
 along the cylinder from the doffer towards the licker-in, that 
 the product of the card would be greatly improved. 
 
 With the flats commencing their work at the back of 
 the card and moving towards the front, to be cleaned, it is 
 evident that all the trash and foreign matter which col- 
 lects on the flats is brought forward, along with the cot- 
 ton, and that a considerable portion of this trash must 
 necessarily be delivered to the doffer and become a part 
 of the finished sliver. 
 
 With the flats commencing their work at the front of 
 the card and moving towards the back, clean flats are 
 presented to the carding cylinder, at a point where the final 
 carding is being done. This is as it should be, and any 
 person, at all familiar with the principle and construction 
 of a revolving flat card will be able to see, at once, that 
 the product must be greatly improved by running the flats 
 from front to back, instead of from back to front, as is 
 now the custom. 
 
 When the flats are run from front, to back a decided 
 improvement is also made in the quality of the work, due 
 to the fact that the flats are le»vip<? the card at the back 
 — where the cotton enters — and a great ouantity of heavy 
 trash is removed immediately *r\d never finds its way to 
 the front of the card, whereas, in the present system all the 
 trash entering the card must remain in eontaet with the 
 cylinder and flats until it reaches +he front of the card, 
 where it either passes into the finished sliver or is re- 
 moved with the strips. 
 
 Realizing that a great improvement Would result from 
 such a change, many attempts have been made, heretofore, 
 to run flats from front to back, none of these efforts have, 
 
 XIV 
 
"'';.'-■ ■ . ■■ ■'•■: . 
 
 however, been sufficiently successful to warrant their adop- 
 tion. The chief obstacle to be overcome in running the flats 
 from front to back was the stripping of them. This could 
 not be successfully accomplished by a comb, owing to the 
 wire pointing in the direction of movement. 
 
 In the present invention the flats are stripped automati- 
 cally, and the strips, after being cleaned, are returned to 
 the card, to be again treated in the regular manner. 
 
 It is well known that card strips contain a considera- 
 ble percentage of good fibres, to recover which it is 
 the usual custom to return the card strips to. the mixing 
 room to be reworked. Their reworking is detrimental to the 
 fibre, and is also an added expense. 
 
 The production of a card being limited to the amount 
 of cotton that can be carded and cleaned it is evident 
 that increasing the rHrdiitg and cleaning capacity of the 
 card, automatically increases its producing capacity, and 
 this is what the present invention accomplishes. 
 
 The running of the flats from front to back; the add- 
 ing of two small stripping rolls between the flats and 
 licker-in; the removing of the strips frcm the flats; the 
 cleaning of the strips and the replacing of them up^n the 
 cylinder, is all accomplished by this device, automatically, 
 with a minimum of mechanism and with no appreciable in- 
 crease of load on the machine. 
 
 The general adoption of this improvement will doubt- 
 less take place, as rapidly as possible, wherever its salient 
 features become known. Such general adoption will mark 
 a decided improvement in carding and will mean a better 
 product; an increased production, less waste and reduced 
 cost. 
 
 This invention is fully protected by Letters Patent. 
 
 Any one desiring further information are directed 
 to address: 
 
 GREER MACHINE COMPANY, 
 
 Box 910, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 XV 
 
. . . V r 
 
 HM^M 
 
 
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 EVERY SATURDAY 
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 J. H. Bragdon & Co., Publishers 
 
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 XVI 
 
Ashworth Brothers, **■ 
 
 Tempered and Side Ground 
 CARD CLOTHING 
 
 TOPS RECLOTHED LICKERINS REWOUND 
 
 Spiral Brushes Refilled 
 
 Garnett Cylinders Reclothed 
 
 Cards Reclothed and Clothing Redrawn 
 
 Office 12 West 4th St., Charlotte, N.C. 
 
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 I 240 River St. Greenville S. C. 
 
 Regular Sizes of Clothing Always in Stock 
 
 LONG DISTANCE PHONE 
 
 
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237 90 
 

 
 
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