MYSTERY OBJECTS

[chinatyke]

Not sure, but I have vague memories of combing flax using teal heads?

[Tizer]

Not sure, but I have vague memories of combing flax using teal heads?

No ducks were harmed by China's post! I think he's referring to teasel heads being used for carding.

[chinatyke]

Thanks. I knew teal wasn't right, and I kept thinking thistle, but the right word wouldn't come to mind!

[Stanley]

China. Teasels were part of the same story that introduced this machine.
Ken has hit the nail on the head, it's a 'flock shaker'. 'Flocks' was a by product of wool processing and was the fine fluffy residue. It was good when stuffed into a ticking bag and became a comfortable mattress. However it had a fault and clumped together in lumps. The cure for that was to take it over to the mill and have it emptied and the flocks 'shaken', a very rough carding process. The machine had a lattice bed called a 'willow' because it was originally made with willow rods and this acted as a sieve, any dirt or foreign bodies like insects falling out of the bottom of the machine.
Good one Ken and I thought it would go longer. Well done. Next one?

[plaques]

After the war Dad went back weaving then became a tackler so a lot of the 'tackler' talk rubbed off. When the shed closed down he finished his years as a school caretaker, janitor was a posher word. When his heart played up it became part of my routine to stoke the boilers early mornings and late evenings. Prior to getting married I lived next door to Harling & Todds, Butterworth & Dickenson's another couple of hundred yards away. You may say I grew up alongside looms.

[Stanley]

You remembered flock shakers.....



Can you remember the name of this machine?

[plaques]

It was probably called 'Flossy' or 'Floozy' after the bits of fluff on the floor. No idea for what its purpose is, I'll possible guess at Flock Printing machine. pre-electrostatic?

[Stanley]

No Ken, primary process. Look at the extreme left corner of the pic for a clue.

[plaques]

I looked at them and thought they may contain the glue to bond the flock to. I have to say I definitely don't know, its over to the size 12 hats.

[Stanley]

What the machine is doing is taking multiple slivers from the carding machines and combining them all in a large package that is then ready for installing on the condenser mule. There is a specific name for it....

[chinatyke]

A drawing frame? Or does it have a more specific name? I only worked on fabrics and not yarn or yarn production.

[chinatyke]

Just a thought: Is it sliver to rhyme with river, or sliver to rhyme with driver? I've always thought the first option was correct.

[Gloria]

Just a thought: Is it sliver to rhyme with river, or sliver to rhyme with driver? I've always thought the first option was correct.

I think that’s correct also.

[Stanley]

In textiles I have always heard it as driver. No it isn't a drawing frame. Can't think of a clue, I shan't keep you hanging on long.

[plaques]

After spending prime post lunch napping time with my pal google I'll offer up 'Roving Machine' which is far to complicated for me to explain so I'll offer this up. Roving

[Tripps]

Despite growing up in Oldham, with a view of sixty plus mill chimneys from my bedroom window, I know next to nothing nothing about the cotton industry. I do remember though, the deaths announced in the weekly Oldham Chronicle where the words Byssinosis and Pneumoconiosis were common.
I watched that video in amazement. No people and no dust.

[Stanley]

That's very modern fine spinning and what I am asking you for is an older technology. It takes the sliver at the stage where it has just come off the carding machine and combines many cans into one large package which is loaded on the Condenser Mule and spun into soft yarn from that.



Here's the complete machine at Spring Vale and it's called a Derby Doubler. (Nobody could ever tell me why!)
Next one?

[Stanley]

Where is it?

[Bodger]

Brimham , Nidderdale ?

[chinatyke]

Interesting that I've seen somewhere on the internet that sliver rhymes with driver for textile use, but this pronunciation is considered archaic. I can't remember where I saw it but you are confirming this pronunciation.

[Stanley]

Bodge has torpedoed my latest mystery object as soon as it hit the screen. He's right of course, It's at Brimham Rocks.....
Another one?

[Tizer]

Well done, Bodger!

Here's a new mystery object. What is it?

[Stanley]

Piece of deer antler that has been used as a tool?

[plaques]

Fossil Rhinoceros horn. Come across them all the time.

[Big Kev]

Fossilized tooth?