ABSTRACT
In spinning with the hand wheel, the roving was taken fast hold of betwixt the left fore finger and thumb, at six inches distance from the spindle; the wheel, which by a band gave motion to the spindle, was then turned with the right hand, and at the same time the left hand, holding the roving fast as before-mentioned, was drawn back about half a yard; the roving was thus drawn out into weft, the neces sary twist was then given by a few turns of the wheel, and finally the weft was wound upon the spindle. See plate 3 . fig. 3 . Highs' Jenny performed these ope rations in the following manner:—The spindles were placed in front, and a string from each spindle went round a wooden drum or cylinder, which turned on a per pendicular axis. The drum was turned by an horizontal handle. The rovings were fixed on skewers at the back of the Jenny, each roving passing through a separate loop of wire placed about eighteen inches higher than the spindles and skewers, and half way betwixt them. At each of the front corners of the Jenny stood an upright post, three feet higher than the spindles; these posts were grooved perpendicularly on the inside from their tops to the level of the spindle. Two flat pieces of wood, made to open and shut something like a parallel ruler, but opening and shutting vertically, and not laterally, went across the front, their ends
14 fitted into the two grooves, and they were worked perpendicularly from the spindles to the tops of the posts, by a cord which coiled round a moveable bobbin fixed upon the axle of the drum. When the bobbin was on the lower part of the axle, it turned with it, but when lifted nearer the handle, the axle turned and the bobbin remained stationary. When the pieces of wood, called the clove, were raised to the pro per height, the bobbin was lifted by a latch, and the clove remained suspended until lowered by the hand of the spinner. From the wire loops the rovings passed between the flat rulers, or clove, to the spindles. After shutting the clove, or in other words, fastening the roving between the two edges of the rulers, he turned the drum, which set the spindles in motion and raised the clove, drawing out the portion of roving between the clove and the spindles. When drawn out, he lifted the bobbin, the clove thus remained stationary while he gave the weft the proper degree of twist by a few turns of the drum. The clove was then lowered, which wound the weft upon the spindles. See plate 6. Some improvements were afterwards made in the structure of the Jenny, by James Hargrave, of Blackburn. These improvements consisted in placing the spindles at the back, and the rovings and the clove at the front. In the improved Jenny the clove moves horizontally from the spindles when drawing out the rovings, and towards them when copping the weft. See plate 7.
