From Fibre To Twine

where the decor ticketing machine is located the apparatus is simple and can be moved easily from place to place by pulling the strip's between steel knives the pulp is scraped off and the clean fiber remains these fibers are often 10 to 12 feet long native girls spread the moist fiber over wire racks where it dries and bleaches in the Sun when thoroughly dry it's failed and carried to the Seacoast where it's loaded for shipment the henequen plant from which sisal fibre is obtained looks something like the century plant with which we are familiar when the plants are 5 to 7 years old cutting starts twice a year ten or twelve matured leaves are carefully cut off the lower part of each plant with a specially designed knife these are bound in two bundles loaded on carts or tram cars and carried to the dakota gating machine where the pulp is crushed out of the leaves and separated from the fiber the leaves go into one side and the fiber comes out the other but it's gathered and spread evenly over wire ranks after drying and bleaching in the hot sunshine the fiber is again gathered together pressed into 400-pound bales and conveyed to the nearest dock where it's loaded for shipment to the twine mills in New Orleans Chicago and Hamilton Canada the fiber is unloaded from the boats and trucked directly into the harvester company's warehouses but it's stored until needed every bale of fiber must pass the keen scrutiny of these inspectors before entering the mill here we start the combing process that continues through eight similar operations until the finished pine is spun into the well known big balls that we shall see later the raw fiber is carefully separated and spread as it enters the first machine and a special oil is added to increase the flexibility of the fibers and guard against damage by insects in the harvest field the fiber is carried from slow moving calms to fast ones the straightening the strands much like currying a horse's tail these big piles of fiber have come from the first calming machine and are being fed into the second by the time the fiber emerges from the second and third machines the insect repelling oil has been thoroughly worked into it and the fiber has become soft and flexible and looks like a big rope of taffy candy twine mill men call this stream of fiber the sliver the operator is signaled when the pilot Eanes a specific weight which he verifies so that piles of uniform size can be assembled for the next operation as the slivers from matched files of equal weight pass from one machine to another throughout eight similar combing operations the sliver becomes straighter and smoother smaller and more flexible until it's calmed down to the right size for spinning into binder twine like little streams of water flowing down the hillside come these smooth slivers of fiber from the last combing machine called the finisher oil upon coil it is caught in these big barrels and taken to the spinning rope and here it is the spinning room itself with a battery of a hunt winning machines in a row this is just one of many similar rooms devoted to the making of McCormick Dearing twine the barrels are taken off the coiled fiber and these piles rapidly and automatically feed into the spinners the work of each machine is checked every few minutes by expert operators the sliver is pulled through one last series of combs which straighten and separate the strands of fiber preparatory to the spinning which consists of twisting the fiber 14 and 1/2 times to the foot and winding it rapidly on this whirling bobbin which holds about 10 pounds of finished client the bobbins are taken to the balling machine where the big ball starts to take form it's a tight crisscross style of winding that makes up the McCormick Deering big ball and it continues as you see here until the ball attains the correct weight when the machine stops automatically here is the McCormick Deering big ball as it comes from the balling machine and before the patented cover has been added it is smooth uniform and guaranteed for length strength and weight each ball is weighed individually then six are grouped and weighed to make up a full weight fail you can't fool the scale beam in sets of six the balls are taken to the covering machine where the famous patented hammock like cover is added in this manner the cover becomes a part of the ball and is used to tie bundles just the same as the rest it is this patented cover that identifies the genuine McCormick Deering big ball client when covered in this manner the ball is more solid and resists the shocks encountered in shipping without losing its shape there's no raveling out of the ball and no snarling in the client can here is exactly what we mean the ball has been entirely drawn out leaving only the cover see how it holds up there's no tangling or snarling as the cover itself leaves the twine can and passes through the nutter to tie bundles just the same as the rest of the ball throughout the manufacture of McCormick Deering twine length strength and weight are constantly checked and inspected after the twine is made trained inspectors pick out balls at random to test for uniform quality and strength when thin spots are found they are marked and later subjected to this breaking test which registers the force necessary to break the twine it is by this method of inspection that a check is kept on the various spinning machines and quality maintained here is the man who cuts out that extra large size potato or grain sack that you get with each avail of McCormick Deering client and this industrious seamstress would keep up with the best of the women folks as he sews up the bags the finished banks pass through a typical printing press where they are labeled so that each brand of McCormick during twine can be identified a final inspection and then into the banks matched groups of six big balls previously weighed are bagged and passed along a moving belt to make sure of full weight each of these filled bags must pass over an automatic scale that detects instantly any bail under the specified limit now glance at the pointer tells the operator whether the bail is heavy or light from the automatic scale the bag is passed to the sewing machine which securely closes the top the bags are still on the moving belt and they're sold automatically as they pass along the next operation is roping the Bale for shipment look at the long piece of rope these men use to tie the bales more than 14 feet enough for two strong halter ropes from fibre to twine is a long and interesting process but these bales yet have a long way to go by rail and by water they are dispatched to every grain growing country on earth the spinning of McCormick during binder twine at a century of progress the World's Fair in Chicago was one of the most interesting exhibits to be found a large crowd continually surrounded this display and receives the operators with question only the final operations of the twine mill were shown these included the spinner running at about half speed the bawling machine also running slowly and the covering machine with a transparent guard to permit onlookers to see the entire operation the testing device was included to show the tensile strength of the newly made twine and the practical application was perhaps the most fascinating of all a complete McCormick daring binder his operating automatically tighten ups all day long just as they are tied in the harvest in polished steel arms took the place of bundles of grain and the device work at half speed so that everyone could see just how the knot tying mechanism works in the binder and all this to provide the best of all binder twine to tie the crops that go to feed a hungry world or without him the finest binder ever built would be only a bowing machine [Music]