In the preceding chapter we spoke of the importance of an even sliver in the securing of a good yarn and pointed out the care with which our sliver is prepared. We have still further lessened the possibility of bunches or thin spots in our yarns by perfecting and installing on all spinning machines a device which insures a uniform amount of feed to the tube at all times. The two capstans which pull the fiber from the pins and through the tube show in our picture directly at the left of the bobbin. Their revolution also imparts the twist to the yarn. The amount of this twist--the number of turns per foot--depends on the capstan’s speed and is fixed in a way best explained by describing the flyer--the first part of the machine to be perfected. The closed flyer, as the present-day type is called, is composed of two discs joined by stay rods and carrying through their centers a spindle which holds the wooden bobbin. The capstans are set into the disc at the left and revolve with the flyer, at the same time receiving a lesser reverse power from an independent gearing. Their speed is, therefore, equivalent to the difference in speeds of these two drivers. [Illustration: “WITH ITS HUNDREDS OF FLYERS.” SPINNING ROOM, NO. 1 MILL] To insure an even twist these speeds, once they are set, should not be allowed to vary, and to obtain this steady running, the Plymouth Cordage Company uses, almost entirely, machines of a special type, so constructed as to guarantee the best possible results. Binder twine is always given what is known as a right-hand twist, but rope yarns must, for certain kinds of rope, be given a left-hand twist. This is accomplished by reversing the direction of the capstans. The flyer carries four grooved wheels--two for the right, the others for the left-hand yarn--and by these the yarn is guided from the capstans to the revolving bobbin. The spinning room, with its hundreds of flyers, each running in the neighborhood of 1,500 revolutions a minute, speaks eloquently of the years’ changes. Gone is the “drowsy dreamy sound” of the wheel in Longfellow’s “Ropewalk,” and in its place we hear the high singing noise of the gears--the voice of modern industry. And with the changes have come more rapid and economical production, better hours and pay for the workman, better rope for the consumer. [Illustration: SPINNING ROOM, NO. 3 MILL, PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY] [Illustration: PLATFORM AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND HANDLING OF TAR SUPPLY, PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY] [Illustration] CHAPTER IV TARRING OF ROPE YARNS AND OF SMALL ROPES In the last chapter we described the spinning of rope yarn. Let us now turn to the process where, for certain ropes, this yarn is treated with the tar, the manufacture of which we have already discussed.