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63-572: Incorporated for a sum of $ 300,000, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company was located on 17 acres (69,000 m) of land at the intersection of Front and West Streets in Chester, adjacent to another Roach company, the Chester Rolling Mill , and close to Roach's shipyard. Two large brick buildings and a number of smaller ones were erected onsite, and a workforce of approximately 200 was employed there. By

126-404: 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

189-470: 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

252-424: 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

315-424: 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

378-445: 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

441-415: 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

504-494: A politically motivated act, the new Cleveland administration found reasons to void Roach's contract for Dolphin . With another three Navy ships still unpaid for in his shipyard whose contracts might also be declared void, Roach was unable to secure loans to continue his business and was forced into receivership. In the subsequent liquidation of assets, the Chester Rolling Mill along with the rest of Roach's companies, with

567-602: A reliable supply of raw materials. The Houstons also controlled Chester's only newspaper, the Chester Times , and they in turn shared business interests with Samuel A. Crozer, whose extended family—the wealthiest in Chester—owned the city's largest textile mills . Collectively, the Roach, Houston and Crozer families employed 25% of Chester's working population and accounted for 35% of its payroll, their partnership ensuring dominance of

630-413: 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

693-406: A whole consumed 1,400 tons of iron ore, 600 tons of limestone and 1,000 tons of coal per week. The workforce was also expanded to 500 people, with a weekly payroll of $ 6,000. A notable achievement for the company following the addition of the steel milling facilities was the production of steel plates for America's first steel-hulled ship, the cargo ship Alaskan , built by the Roach shipyard for

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756-477: 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 a cotton gin . The cotton gin separates seeds and removes the "trash" (dirt, stems and leaves) from

819-488: 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

882-433: 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

945-470: 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

1008-404: 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

1071-404: 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

1134-480: 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

1197-461: 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

1260-472: 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

1323-419: 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)

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1386-455: 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 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

1449-512: The Delaware River at Chester in 1871. He had two reasons for establishing the Chester Rolling Mill. Firstly, the locality of Chester lacked facilities for the large-scale production of iron plates and frames as required by his shipyard. Secondly, by establishing his own rolling mill, he could dispense with ironmaking subcontractors and thus reduce his overall costs. Roach's ownership of a network of companies supporting his shipyard, which included

1512-543: The Standard Steel Casting Company , had recently begun production. Delays in production of the steel along with additional unexpected delays prolonged construction of the ships past the 1884 Presidential election, and by the time Roach was ready to deliver the first ship, Dolphin , the new Democrat administration of Grover Cleveland , who became President on March 4, 1885, hostile to the staunchly Republican Roach, had assumed office. In what many regarded as

1575-453: The spinning and fabric-forming stages coupled with the complexities of the finishing and colouration processes to the production of 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

1638-422: 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

1701-469: 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

1764-562: The Chester Pipe and Tube Company, a position he retained until his death in 1893. In June 1899, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company was consolidated with twenty other pipemaking firms in the northeastern United States to form the National Tube Company . In 1901, the National Tube Company and nine other major American steel companies merged to form the world's first billion dollar company, U.S. Steel . The National Tube Company

1827-742: The Chester Rolling Mill, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company and later the Standard Steel Casting Company and the Combination Steel and Iron Company made John Roach & Sons one of the first large companies in the United States to adopt the vertical integration model. The Chester Rolling Mill was incorporated with a capital of $ 300,000 on March 10, 1875 by John Roach and a number of partners including Roach's sons John B. and Garrett, and local Chester business identities John Q. Denny and Charles B. and David Houston. The elder Roach became President of

1890-572: The Mill included two puddling mills with 11 furnaces and a total output of 50 tons per day, a mill for boiler and ship plate with a capacity of 45 tons per day, and a mill for angle, beam and skelp iron with a daily capacity of 35 tons. Included in the above were two large gas-operated furnaces and a mill which could produce plates from ⅛ to 6 inch thickness and 27 feet wide. Roach's milling machines incorporated both vertical and horizontal rollers which allowed plates to be finished with parallel edges, eliminating

1953-422: The Mill was to provide metal hull plates, beams and other parts for the ships built at Roach's Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works , also located at Chester. Amongst the mill's notable achievements, it manufactured the steel plates for the first steel- hulled steamship built in the United States, Alaskan , and for the U.S. Navy 's first four steel ships, the so-called "ABCD ships". Production of

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2016-643: The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and delivered in August 1883. On July 2, 1883, John Roach & Sons won the contracts for all four of the Navy's first steel ships— Atlanta , Boston , Chicago , and Dolphin —or the "ABCD ships", as they came to be known. The only bidder with his own steel mill, Roach was able to undercut the other bidders by a total of $ 270,000 on the price of steel alone. The final contracts were signed on July 23 and Roach began construction of

2079-536: The Wellman Steel Company. This venture proved unsuccessful, and Wellman dispensed with his holdings in about 1896. 39°49′51″N 75°23′14″W  /  39.8307°N 75.3873°W  / 39.8307; -75.3873 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

2142-422: 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

2205-494: The city's politics. The Chester Rolling Mill was established on the site of an old bridge and steel works at the foot of Wilson and Hayes Sts., Chester, incorporating the area between Townsend to Highland Ave., and from Front St. to the Delaware River. Construction of the main rolling mill, a building with dimensions of 160 x 185 feet, began in 1875. In 1879, the building was doubled in size, from 160 to 320 feet. Initial output

2268-422: 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

2331-504: 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

2394-588: The early 1880s, the company was manufacturing about 18,000 tons of wrought iron pipes annually from 20,000 tons of skelp iron. In 1880, Potts Brothers Iron Company Ltd., which owned a rolling mill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania , acquired a controlling interest in the Chester Pipe and Tube Company. Colonel Joseph D. Potts, a prominent figure in the transportation business, purchased the Potts Brothers Iron Company in 1890, and thereafter became President of

2457-606: The exception of his Chester shipyard and the Morgan Iron Works in New York, were sold to pay off creditors. After selling their shares in the company, Roach and his sons resigned from their positions in February 1886, and the Chester Rolling Mill appears to have been taken over by Roach's former partner Samuel A. Crozer, who became the company's new President. In 1890, the Mill was purchased by Samuel Taylor Wellman, becoming part of

2520-410: 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

2583-403: 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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2646-409: 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,

2709-413: 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

2772-878: 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

2835-480: The latter vessels drove Roach's shipbuilding empire into receivership after the government unexpectedly repudiated the contracts, and Roach was forced to sell the Chester Rolling Mill and most of his other companies to satisfy creditors. The Chester Rolling Mill later became part of the Wellman Steel Company. Roach established his shipyard, the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, on

2898-425: 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 is the seed pod of the cotton plant; attached to each of the thousands of seeds are fibres about 2.5 cm long. There

2961-546: 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

3024-459: The necessity of shearing ragged edges to size. Some of the new machinery was capable of rolling steel as well as iron ingots. Power to operate the milling machines was provided by four large Corliss steam engines and eight smaller ones. A five-ton steam hammer was also installed. After the expansion, the mill could produce 300 tons of steel plate a day in addition to the 300 tons of iron plate and 700 tons of pig iron already produced. The mill as

3087-558: The new company, and Charles and David Houston were made general manager and paymaster respectively, while their brother Thomas also received a management position. Roach and his sons held the majority of shares. The connection with the Houston family was of particular importance to Roach as the Houstons had investments in Pennsylvanian iron and coal mines, virtually guaranteeing the new company

3150-491: 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

3213-424: 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

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3276-408: 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

3339-578: The ships shortly thereafter. Roach was initially confident that he would have no difficulty supplying the steel for the four ships. To ensure the minimum of delay, he subcontracted with several other steel manufacturers, including the Norway Iron and Steel Company of South Boston, the Park Brothers' Black Diamond Works of Pittsburgh, and the Phoenix Iron Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania , for

3402-430: The shipyard. In 1880, Roach embarked on a substantial upgrade of the mill's facilities. A second blast furnace was constructed above the original rolling mill, along with new buildings covering about 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 acres, including a new 90 x 140 ft steelworks. The new furnace commenced production on November 1, 1881. In order to pay for the expansion, the firm was recapitalized at $ 600,000. By this time,

3465-427: 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

3528-467: The standard ship plate size of 12 x 4 feet (48 squ. ft) and rolled larger plates of 14 x 5 ft (70 squ. ft). This simple innovation reduced the time spent in planing, punching and chipping plates by 40%, reduced handling times, and had the added advantage of producing a stronger ship with fewer butts to strain. Roach also endeavoured as far as possible to roll plates to their finished dimensions, saving time which other companies spent on reworking plates at

3591-418: The supply of various steel parts. So exacting were the specifications however, that a third of all the parts produced were rejected by Navy inspectors, leading to cost overruns which eventually persuaded the subcontractors to renege on their agreements with Roach. Roach was left having to manufacture all the steel parts himself, although the situation was somewhat alleviated by the fact that another Roach company,

3654-400: 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

3717-431: 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

3780-493: 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 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

3843-409: 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 , is finer but the staple is only suitable for hand processing. American cotton, Gossypium hirsutum , produces

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3906-527: Was 700 tons of pig iron and 300 tons of iron ship plate. Pig iron, beams, and hull and boiler plates were produced both for Roach's main shipyard in Chester and for his other shipbuilding facility, the Morgan Iron Works in New York City . With the establishment of the Mill, Roach was able to introduce a number of innovations into the industry which reduced time and cut costs. To begin with, he rejected

3969-590: Was a subsidiary of U.S. Steel until 31 December 1951 and together with a number of other wholly-owned subsidiaries in an internal corporate restructuring became a division of the United States Steel Company (a subsidiary of the U.S. Steel Corporation). Chester Rolling Mill The Chester Rolling Mill was a large iron (later steel) rolling mill established by shipbuilder John Roach in Chester, Pennsylvania , United States, in 1873. The main purpose of

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