Reeling

—The bobbins of the spinning-frame are placed in a row upon wires before a long horizontal reel, and the threads from 20 bobbins are wound off together. The reel is exactly a yard in circumference, and when it has wound off 80 turns, it rings a bell; the motion of the reel is then stopped, and a thread is pa ed round the 80 turns or folds which each thread has made. The reeling is then continued till another 80 yards is wound off, which is also separated by interweaving the same thread; each of these separate parcels is called a ley, and when 7 such leys are reeled, it is called a hank, which contains 560 yards. When this quantity is reeled off, the ends of the binding thread are tied together, to bind each hank fast, and one of the rails of the reel is struck to loosen the hanks, and they are drawn off at the end of the reel. These hanks are next hung upon a hook, and twisted up hard by a stick; then doubled, and the two parts twisted together to make a firm bundle. In this state, the hanks are weighed by a small index-machine, which denotes what number of the hanks will weigh a pound, and they are sorted accordingly into different parcels. It is by this means that the number of the worsted is ascertained as the denomination for its finene : thus No. 24. means, that 24 hanks, each containing 560 yards, will weigh a pound, and so on. This denomination is different from that used for cotton, because the hank of cotton contains 840 yards, instead of 560; but in some places the worsted hank is made of the same length as the cotton. To pack up the worsted for market, the proper number of hanks is collected to make a pound, according to the number which has been ascertained; these are weighed as a proof of the correctne of the sorting, then tied up in bundles of one pound each, and four of these bundles are again tied together. Then 60 such bundles are packed up in a sheet, making a bale of 240 pounds, ready for market.