7. _Slubbing_; 8. _Intermediate_; and 9. _Roving_.--These frames are all constructed on one principle, and have for their object the gradual diminution of the thickness of the sliver, which at these processes is attenuated so much as to require twisting to keep it from breaking at the succeeding process. An additional jack roving frame is used at mills making over 100’s yarn. 10. _Spinning_ completes the object of all the former machines--_i.e._, to produce a level clean thread, free from unevenness in every respect. Four sorts of machines are used for completing the attenuation--the self-actor mule, ring frame, hand mule, and throstle frame. The two latter are fast disappearing in consequence of the great improvements over the hand mule recently made in the self-actor mule, so as to spin fine counts up to 300’s, and in the increased output of the ring over the throstle frame. The mule is automatic in all its movements for spinning the yarn and winding it on the spindle in the form of a cop--_i.e._, a cylindrical coil of yarn, cone-shaped at each end. In this machine the spinning is intermittent--_i.e._, for a few seconds the different portions of the machines are engaged in drawing out the roving to the required fineness until about 64 inches have been spun, the slack being taken up by a moving carriage bearing the spindles, then a few seconds are employed in drawing back the carriage and winding the yarn on the spindles. The ring frame is a constant spinner, and as fast as the yarn is spun it is wound on a bobbin, while the necessary twist is put in by a traveller shaped revolving round a ring. It will thus be seen that the ring frame is only suited for warp yarns, mainly in consequence of having to use a bobbin, which of course requires modifications in the shuttle and box of the loom, and even then is disadvantageous. The ring frame is suitable and preferable for warp yarn up to 40’s, where the spinner also reels, warps or weaves his own spinning. The mule spins both weft and twist. Throstle twist (or, as it is called when reeled or warped by the spinner, water twist) is generally admitted to be the evenest and roundest thread, ring twist being next best, and mule yarn inferior to both. Mule yarn, however, possesses an elasticity which neither of these can boast of. From a consideration of spinning we arrive at a definition of the manufacturing processes. Unlike the spinning which is carried on in a building five or six storeys high, the manufacture of cotton goods takes place in a “shed,” as much of the work as is possible being carried on on the ground floor. The weft yarn, or that which is laid transversely in the cloth, leaves the mule in the condition in which it is required at the loom, but the twist or warp yarn passes through several “preparatory” processes to fit it for the operation in the weaving:--