t it can
no longer withstand the requisite handling without being seriously
damaged. Hence the introduction of "Twist," which is by far the most
important strength-producing factor or principle entering into the
composition of cotton roving and yarn.

Without twist there would be no cotton factories, no cotton goods; none
of the splendid and gigantic buildings of one description or another
which are found so plentifully intermingled with the dwellings and
factories of large cotton manufacturing towns!

In a sense it is to this all-powerful factor of "twist" that all these
buildings owe their existence, since it would be practically impossible
to make a thread from cotton fibres without the assistance of "twist" to
make the fibres adhere to each other. Hence there could be none of that
wealth which has caused the erection of these buildings.

This is true in a double sense, since we have both the natural twist of
the cotton fibres and the artificial twist introduced at the latter
processes of cotton spinning, in order to make individual fibres and
aggregations of fibres adhere to each other. What is termed the natural
twist of the fibres may average in good cottons upwards of 180 twists
per inch, while the twists per inch put into the finished threads of
yarn from those fibres may vary, say, between 20 and 30 twists per
inch.

In all the fly frames, therefore, this artificial twist is invariably
and necessarily put into the roving. As the cotton leaves the front or
delivery rollers, each strand descends to a bobbin of from 8 to 12
inches long, upon which it is wound by special mechanism. As in
Arkwright's frame, this bobbin is placed loosely upon a vertical
"spindle," and upon the latter is fitted a "flyer," whose duty it is to
guide the cotton upon the bobbin.

The primary duty of the spindle is to insert the "twist" which has been
shown to be so necessary to give sufficient strength to the roving.

Let any reader of this story hold a piece of soft stuff in one hand
while with the other hand he rotates or twists the roving and he will
have an idea of the method and effect of twisting (see Fig. 19).

Without going into minute details we may say that the practical effect
is that, while the roving is held firmly by the rollers, it is twisted
by means of its connection at the other end to the rotating bobbin,
spindle and flyer. The twist runs right from the spindle along the 6 to
12 inches of cotton that may extend