Hand spinning, as practiced in the early days of the Plymouth Cordage Company, yielded a remarkably good rope yarn, but large production was very expensive and laborious. The length of the spinning grounds, which with the buildings protecting them were known as the ropewalk, determined the length yarn that could be spun. Hand and water power had to suffice, and even the best spinner could make but two yarns at a time. Steam-driven spinning machines were introduced, however, as early as 1838, for our records show that near the close of that year Bourne Spooner, founder of our company, wrote to one of the directors as follows: “Our new spinning concern has consumed more time in the work of preparation than was expected, but we are now ready--this being the second day of steam spinning. It affords me much gratification to say that everything connected with this enterprise has gone comfortably on, and my faith in the utility and expediency of the measure is unabated.” Through the courtesy of the Watson Machine Co. of Paterson, N. J., we are able to show an excellent picture of one of these earlier-type machines which, it will be noted, is tended by a woman. Those familiar only with the present factory practice of putting none but men on the spinning machines may be surprised to know that during this first period in the modern development of the process women spinners were regularly employed by the Plymouth Cordage Company and other concerns. [Illustration: SPINNING ON EARLY-TYPE MACHINE] Our founder’s belief in the new method was speedily justified. A way was found to adapt the machines to the spinning of Russian and American hemps which could not at first be handled as successfully as Manila because of their somewhat softer texture. About 1848 the self-feeding device came into use. As the years passed, still other improvements were invented and utilized, giving us the highly perfected machine of today. Under favorable working conditions the only interruption in the spinning process, as now carried on, is the removal of the full bobbin and the substitution of an empty one. A bobbin will hold as much as half a mile of yarn which will weigh in the neighborhood of ten pounds--the length and weight of the load varying with different sizes of yarn. The feed portion of the machine, as can be seen in the picture below, consists of a revolving endless chain fitted with fine steel pins, and by these the fiber--now in the sliver form given it in the preparation room--is drawn from its bundle and carried toward a tube which can be adjusted to regulate the size of the yarn as desired. Into this tube the fiber disappears in a fashion only to be described by the single word “whisked.” [Illustration: THE MODERN SPINNING PROCESS]