Ring spinning

The success of the ring frame, however, was dependent on the market it served and it was not until industry leaders like Whitin Machine Works in the 1840s and the Lowell Machine Shop in the 1850s began to manufacture ring frames that the technology started to take hold.

[6] The new method was compared with the self-acting spinning mule which was developed by Richard Roberts using the more advanced engineering techniques in Manchester.

The ring frame was heavier, requiring structural alteration in the mills and needed more power.

In the main the requirements on the two continents were different, and the ring frame was not the method of choice for Europe at that moment.

After a fact-finding tour to the States by his agent Blakey, he started to work on improving the frame.

This device controlled the thread, and consequently a lighter traveller could be made which could operate at higher speeds.

Sadly, these conditions were unobtainable in most Lancashire cotton mills at the time and so the autodoffer did not go into production.

A more modern mechanical doffer system fitted as an integral part of the ring frame, reduced the doffing time to 30–35 seconds.

[citation needed] The ring frame was extensively used in the United States, where coarser counts were manufactured.

Many of frame manufacturers were US affiliates of the Lancashire firms, such as Howard & Bullough and Tweedales and Smalley.

The mules were more easily changed to spin the larger variety of qualities of cotton then found in Lancashire.

While Lancashire concentrated on "Fines" for export, it also spun a wider range, including the very coarse wastes.

The existence of the Liverpool cotton exchange meant that mill owners had access to a wider selection of staples.

[12] After 1926, the Lancashire industry went into sharp decline, the Indian export market was lost, Japan was self-sufficient.

It wasn't until the late 1940s that some replacement spindles started to be ordered and ring frames became dominant.

Debate still continues in academic papers on whether the Lancashire entrepreneurs made the right purchases decisions in the 1890s.

On each side of the frame are the spindles, above them are draughting (drafting) rollers and on top is a creel loaded with bobbins of roving.

The attenuated roving passes down to the spindle assembly, where it is threaded though a small D ring called the traveller.

The up and down ring rail motion guides the thread onto the bobbin into the shape required: i.e. a cop.

Currently, machines are manufactured by Rieter (Switzerland), Toyota (Japan), Zinser, Suessen, (Germany) and Marzoli (Italy)LMW (India).