46-526: Durfee Mills is an historic textile mill complex located at 359-479 Pleasant Street in Fall River, Massachusetts , USA. Developed between 1866 and 1904, it was during its period of development the city's largest and architecturally finest mill complex. Along with the adjacent Union Mills , it is occupied by numerous retail businesses and a restaurant, and is known as the Durfee-Union Mills. The complex
92-510: A cotton gin . The cotton gin separates seeds and removes the "trash" (dirt, stems and leaves) from the fibre. In a saw gin, circular saws grab the fibre and pull it through a grating that is too narrow for the seeds to pass. A roller gin is used with longer-staple cotton. Here, a leather roller captures the cotton. A knife blade, set close to the roller, detaches the seeds by drawing them through teeth in circular saws and revolving brushes which clean them away. The ginned cotton fibre, known as lint,
138-404: A cone-shaped bundle of fibres known as a "cop", as the carriage returns. Mule spinning produces a finer thread than ring spinning . The mule was an intermittent process, as the frame advanced and returned a distance of five feet. It was the descendant of the 1779 Crompton device. It produces a softer, less twisted thread that was favoured for fine fabrics and wefts. The ring was a descendant of
184-470: A continuous soft fleecy sheet, known as a lap. Scutching refers to the process of cleaning cotton of its seeds and other impurities. The first scutching machine was invented in 1797, but did not come into further mainstream use until after 1808 or 1809, when it was introduced and used in Manchester, England. By 1816, it had become generally adopted. The scutching machine worked by passing the cotton through
230-424: A loose strand (sliver or tow). The cotton comes off of the picking machine in laps, and is then taken to carding machines. The carders line up the fibres neatly to make them easier to spin. The carding machine consists mainly of one big roller with smaller ones surrounding it. All of the rollers are covered in small teeth, and as the cotton is moved forwards, the teeth get finer (i.e. closer together). The cotton leaves
276-424: A machine with large spikes, called an opener . To fluff up the cotton and remove the vegetable matter, the cotton is sent through a picker or a similar machine. In a picker , the cotton is beaten with a beater bar to loosen it up. It is then fed through various rollers, which serve to remove the vegetable matter. The cotton, aided by fans, then collects on a screen and gets fed through more rollers where it emerges as
322-445: A pair of rollers, and then striking it with iron or steel bars called beater bars or beaters. The beaters, which turn very quickly, strike the cotton hard and knock the seeds out. This process is done over a series of parallel bars so as to allow the seeds to fall through. At the same time, air is blown across the bars, which carries the cotton into a cotton chamber. In the carding process, the fibres are separated and then assembled into
368-415: A plain loom. A Northrop Loom was fully automatic and was mass-produced between 1909 and the mid-1960s. Modern looms run faster and do not use a shuttle: there are air jet looms, water jet looms, and rapier looms . Ends and Picks: Picks refer to the weft, ends refer to the warp. The coarseness of the cloth can be expressed as the number of picks and ends per quarter-inch square, or per inch square. Ends
414-413: A very thick rope of cotton fibres, the slivers are separated into rovings. Generally speaking, for machine processing, a roving is about the width of a pencil. These rovings (or slubbings) are then what are used in the spinning process. Most spinning today is done using break, or open-end spinning . This is a technique where the fibres are blown by air into a rotating drum, where they attach themselves to
460-603: A wide range of products. Textile manufacturing in the modern era is an evolved form of the art and craft industries. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, the textile industry was a household work. It became mechanised in the 18th and 19th centuries, and has continued to develop through science and technology since the twentieth century. Specifically, ancient civilizations in India, Egypt, China, sub-Saharan Africa, Eurasia, South America, and North and East Africa all had some forms of textile production. The first book about textile manufacturing
506-488: Is a weft knit. Finishing is a broad range of physical and chemical processes/treatments that complete one stage of textile manufacturing, sometimes in preparation for the next step. Finishing adds value to the product and makes it more attractive, useful and functional for the end-user. Fresh off the loom, cotton fabric not only contains impurities, including warp size, but it also requires further treatment to develop its full potential and to add to its value. Depending on
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#1733085140444552-433: Is always written first. For example: Heavy domestics are made from coarse yarns, such as 10's to 14's warp and weft, and about 48 ends and 52 picks. Associated job titles include piecer, scavenger , weaver, tackler , draw boy. When a hand loom was located in the home, children helped with the weaving process from an early age. Piecing needs dexterity, and a child can be as productive as an adult. When weaving moved from
598-470: Is boiled in an alkali solution, which forms a soap with free fatty acids. A kier is usually enclosed, so the solution of sodium hydroxide can be boiled under pressure, excluding oxygen , which would degrade the cellulose in the fibre. If the appropriate reagents are used, scouring will also remove size from the fabric, although desizing often precedes scouring and is considered to be a separate process. Preparation and scouring are prerequisites to most of
644-404: Is called Indian. The cotton seed is pressed into cooking oil. The husks and meal are processed into animal feed, and the stems into paper. Ginning, bale-making and transportation are done in the country of origin. Cotton is shipped to mills in large 500-pound bales. When the cotton comes out of a bale, it is all packed together and still contains vegetable matter. The bale is broken open using
690-502: Is considered to be 'A Treatise on the Art of Weaving' by John Murphy. Cotton is the world's most important natural fibre. In the year 2007, the global yield was 25 million tons from 35 million hectares cultivated in more than 50 countries. There are six stages to the manufacturing of cotton textiles: Cotton is grown in locations with long, hot, dry summers with plenty of sunshine and low humidity. Indian cotton, Gossypium arboreum ,
736-404: Is done by pulling yarn from two or more bobbins and twisting it together, in a direction opposite to the one it was spun in. Depending on the weight desired, the cotton may or may not be plied, and the number of strands twisted together varies. Gassing is the process of passing yarn very rapidly through a series of Bunsen gas flames in a gassing frame, to burn off the projecting fibres and to make
782-480: Is done in two different ways; warp and weft. Weft knitting (as seen in the pictures) is similar in method to hand knitting with stitches all connected to each other horizontally. Various weft machines can be configured to produce textiles from a single spool of yarn or multiple spools, depending on the size of the machine cylinder (in which the needles are bedded). In a warp knit , there are many pieces of yarn and there are vertical chains, zigzagged together by crossing
828-417: Is finer but the staple is only suitable for hand processing. American cotton, Gossypium hirsutum , produces the longer staple needed for mechanised textile production. The planting season is from September to mid-November, and the crop is harvested between March and June. The cotton bolls are harvested by stripper harvesters and spindle pickers that remove the entire boll from the plant. The cotton boll
874-461: Is mercerised under tension, and all alkali must be washed out before the tension is released, or shrinkage will take place. Many other chemical treatments may be applied to cotton fabrics to produce low flammability, crease-resistance and other qualities, but the four most important non-chemical finishing treatments are: Singeing is designed to burn off the surface fibres from the fabric to produce smoothness. The fabric passes over brushes to raise
920-472: Is the application of colour in the form of a paste or ink to the surface of a fabric in a predetermined pattern. It can be described as a form of localised dyeing. Printing designs onto previously dyed fabric is also possible. Production of cotton requires arable land . In addition, cotton is farmed intensively and uses large amounts of fertilizer and 25% of the world's insecticides. Native Indian varieties of cotton were rainwater fed, but modern hybrids used for
966-451: Is the earliest evidence of cotton cultivation in the Americas found thus far. Gossypium hirsutum includes a number of varieties or cross-bred cultivars with varying fiber lengths and tolerances to a number of growing conditions. The longer length varieties are called "long staple upland" and the shorter length varieties are referred to as "short staple upland". The long staple varieties are
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#17330851404441012-498: Is the seed pod of the cotton plant; attached to each of the thousands of seeds are fibres about 2.5 cm long. There is a higher rate of cotton being produced compared to the actual workers needed to produce the material. In 2013 a cotton farmer in Mississippi, Bower Flowers, produced around 13,000 bales of cotton in that year alone. This amount of cotton could be used to produce up to 9.4 million T-shirts. The seed cotton goes into
1058-419: Is then compressed into bales which are about 1.5 m tall and weigh almost 220 kg. Only 33% of the crop is usable lint. Commercial cotton is graded and priced according to its quality; this broadly relates to the average length of the staple and the variety of the plant. Longer-staple cotton (2½ in to 1¼ in) is called Egyptian, medium staple (1¼ in to ¾ in) is called American upland, and short staple (less than ¾ in)
1104-422: The weft . The warp, which must be strong, needs to be presented to loom on a warp beam. The weft passes across the loom in a shuttle that carries the yarn on a pirn . These pirns are automatically changed by the loom. Thus, the yarn needs to be wrapped onto a beam, and onto pirns before weaving can commence. After being spun and plied, the cotton thread is taken to a warping room where the winding machine takes
1150-469: The Arkwright Water frame of 1769. It was a continuous process, the yarn was coarser, had a greater twist and was stronger, thus suitable for use as warp thread. Ring spinning is slow due to the distance the thread must pass around the ring. Sewing thread was made of several threads twisted together, or doubled. This is the process where each of the bobbins is rewound to give a tighter bobbin. Plying
1196-422: The carding machine in the form of a sliver: a large rope of fibres. In a wider sense, carding can refer to these four processes: Combing is optional, but is used to remove the shorter fibres, creating a stronger yarn. Several slivers are combined. Each sliver will have thin and thick spots, and by combining several slivers together, a more consistent size can be reached. Since combining several slivers produces
1242-513: The center of the main facades. Most of the outbuildings are either one or two stories in height; the notable exception is the Number 3 Mill, a smaller 5-1/2 story building located at the corner of Pleasant and Plymouth. The building are noted for their high quality architecture, in particular the main office building. Durfee Mills was organized in 1866 with $ 500,000 of capital, with B.M.C. Durfee as its principal stockholder and first president. Mill No. 1
1288-422: The cotton yarn. Warp knits do not stretch as much as a weft knits, and they are run-resistant. A weft knit is not run-resistant, but it has more stretch. This is especially true if spools of elastane are processed from separate spool containers and interwoven through the cylinder with cotton yarn, giving the finished product more flexibility and preventing it from having a 'baggy' appearance. The average t-shirt
1334-504: The dents of the reed and the eyes of the healds, in the order indicated by the draft. A pirn-winding frame was used to transfer the weft from cheeses of yarn onto the pirns that would fit into the shuttle. At this point, the thread is woven. Depending on the era, one person could manage anywhere from 3 to 100 machines. In the mid-nineteenth century, four was the standard number. A skilled weaver in 1925 could run 6 Lancashire Looms . As time progressed, new mechanisms were added that stopped
1380-410: The fabric is to be dyed a deep shade, then lower levels of bleaching are acceptable. However, for white bedding and for medical applications, the highest levels of whiteness and absorbency are essential. A further possibility is mercerising, during which the fabric is treated with a caustic soda solution, to cause swelling of the fibres. This results in improved lustre, strength and dye affinity. Cotton
1426-403: The fabric will shrink less upon laundering. Dyeing is commonly carried out with an anionic direct dye by completely immersing the fabric (or yarn) in an aqueous dye bath according to a prescribed procedure. For improved fastness to washing, rubbing and light, further dyeing methods can be used. These require more complex chemistry during processing, and are thus more expensive to apply. Printing
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1472-413: The fibres, then passes over a plate heated by gas flames. During raising, the fabric surface is treated with sharp teeth to lift the surface fibres, thereby imparting downiness, softness and warmth, as in flannelette. Calendering is a process in which the fabric is passed between heated rollers to generate smooth, polished or embossed effects. Sanforisation is a form of mechanical pre-shrinking, so that
1518-878: The home to the mill, children were often allowed to help their older sisters, and laws had to be made to prevent child labour from becoming established. The working conditions of cotton production were often harsh, with long hours, low pay, and dangerous machinery. Children, above all, were also prone to physical abuse and often forced to work in unsanitary conditions. It should also be noted that Children who worked in handlooms often faced extreme poverty and were unable to obtain an education. The working conditions of cotton production were often harsh, with long hours, low pay, and dangerous machinery. Children, above all, were also prone to physical abuse and often forced to work in unsanitary conditions. It should also be noted that Children who worked in handlooms often faced extreme poverty and were unable to obtain an education. Knitting by machine
1564-546: The loom any time something went wrong. The mechanisms checked for such things as broken warp or weft threads, the shuttle going straight across, and if the shuttle was empty. Forty of these Northrop Looms or automatic looms could be operated by one skilled worker. The three primary movements of a loom are shedding, picking, and beating-up. The Lancashire Loom was the first semi-automatic loom. Jacquard looms and Dobby looms are looms that have sophisticated methods of shedding. They may be separate looms or mechanisms added to
1610-463: The mills need irrigation, which spreads pests. The 5% of cotton-bearing land in India uses 55% of all pesticides used in India. Gossypium hirsutum Gossypium hirsutum , also known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton , is the most widely planted species of cotton in the world. Globally, about 90% of all cotton production is of cultivars derived from this species. In the United States ,
1656-399: The most widely used and common natural fiber making up 90% of all-natural fibers used in the textile industry. People often use cotton clothing and accessories because of comfort, not limited to different weathers. There are many variable processes available at the spinning and fabric-forming stages coupled with the complexities of the finishing and colouration processes to the production of
1702-491: The other finishing processes. At this stage, even the most naturally white cotton fibres are yellowish, and bleaching is required. Bleaching improves whiteness by removing natural colouration and whatever impurities remain in the cotton; the degree of bleaching is determined by the levels of whiteness and absorbency required of the fabric. Cotton, being a vegetable fibre, is bleached using an oxidizing agent , such as diluted sodium hypochlorite or diluted hydrogen peroxide . If
1748-424: The required length of yarn and winds it onto warpers' bobbins. Racks of bobbins are set up to hold the thread while it is wound onto the warp beam of a loom. Because the thread is fine, often three of these would be combined to get the desired number of ends. A sizing machine is needed for strengthening the warp by adding starch, to reduce breakage. The process of drawing each end of the warp separately through
1794-408: The roving is pulled off a bobbin and fed through rollers, which are feeding at several different speeds. This thins the roving at a consistent rate. If the roving was not a consistent size, then this step could cause a break in the yarn, or jam the machine. The yarn is twisted through the spinning of the bobbin as the carriage moves out, and is rolled onto a cylinder called a spindle, which then produces
1840-427: The size that has been used, the cloth may be steeped in a dilute acid and then rinsed, or enzymes may be used to break down the size. Scouring is a chemical washing process carried out on cotton fabric to remove natural waxes and non-fibrous impurities (like the remains of seed fragments) from the fibres and any soiling or dirt that might remain. Scouring is usually carried out in iron vessels called kiers . The fabric
1886-400: The tail of formed yarn that is continually being drawn out of the chamber. Other methods of break spinning use needles and electrostatic forces. This method has replaced the older methods of ring and mule spinning. It is also easily adapted for artificial fibres . The spinning machines takes the roving, thins it and twists it, creating yarn which it winds onto a bobbin. In mule spinning
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1932-431: The thread round and smooth and bright. Only the better qualities of yarn are gassed, like the kinds used for voiles, poplins, venetians, gabardines, Egyptian cottons, etc. The thread loses around 5-8% of its weight if it's gassed. The gassed yarn is darker in shade afterwards, but should not be scorched. The weaving process uses a loom . The lengthwise threads are known as the warp , and the crosswise threads are known as
1978-603: The world's largest exporter of cotton, it constitutes approximately 95% of all cotton production. It is native to Mexico , the West Indies , northern South America, Central America and possibly tropical Florida. Archeological evidence from the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico shows the cultivation of this species as long ago as 3,500 BC, although there is as yet no evidence as to exactly where it may have been first domesticated. This
2024-485: Was built in 1866 for the manufacture of cotton cloth. The company was named in honor of Durfee's father Bradford, who is credited with starting Fall River's industrial complex and for building many of its early mills. The Durfee mill complex is the largest, and most complete to survive of the city's 19th-century mills. Mill No. 2 was added in 1871, and Mill No. 3 in 1881, raising the capacity to 109,360 spindles. It produced 23 million yards of cotton cloth annually. The company
2070-647: Was liquidated in 1935. In 1968, the site was photographed by Jack E. Boucher as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey . Textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry . It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn , then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing , household items, upholstery and various industrial products. Different types of fibres are used to produce yarn. Cotton remains
2116-740: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The Durfee Mills are located in geographically central Fall River, overlooking the northern bank of the Quequechan River , on a roughly triangular parcel bounded on the north by Pleasant Street and the southeast by Plymouth Avenue. The complex includes two main mill buildings and a large number of secondary buildings, all built out of native Fall River granite . The main mills are similar 5-1/2 story structures, oriented north-south, with their main facades facing each other. Their prominent features are seven-story Italianate towers located at
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