Bobbins

Bobbins are small wooden reels or rollers, flanged at the ends, and bored through the centre lengthwise, so that they can be placed on a spindle or skewer. The bobbin or pirn on which ordinary sewing-thread is wound, although generally of small size, is a good example of their prevailing shape. Bobbins are used in the spinning processes for cotton, flax, wool, and silk, and are of various sizes, the largest being generally those used for the slubbing frames where the cotton, for example, first passes from the lap shape given by the carder into a loose kind of strand. After this the bobbins diminish in size for the various succeeding stages to the finished yarn. A 'slubbing' bobbin may be 15 inches long and 5 inches in diameter at the flange, but one or two exceptional kinds are larger than this. For special purposes, such as lace-making, the bobbins used are quite unlike the ordinary kinds. These and some other varieties are made of metal. Paper tubes are now largely adopted in certain cases where bobbins were formerly employed. Bobbins are made of birch, beech, ash, and plane tree, and machinery for their manufacture has been erected here and there in the Highlands of Scotland and other wooded parts of the country. But they are also largely made of American and other foreign woods, as well as from native material, in factories in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Ingenious automatic machinery is now employed, especially for making the smaller sizes. It will be readily understood that bobbins are used in enormous numbers wherever there are large spinning-mills.