Spinning Production

SPINNING PRODUCTION. Spinning is the process aimed at converting fiber into yarn, i.e., into threads with predetermined specific properties. The most complex and, from a sanitary-hygienic point of view, the most significant is cotton spinning. Cotton arrives at cotton spinning mills in the form of heavily compressed bales after preliminary cleaning at cotton ginning plants. Here, the cotton undergoes the following successive processing steps: loosening in a bale breaker, after which the cotton enters storage bins; further loosening and cleaning in scutching machines; parallelization of fibers and final cleaning in carding machines; drawing of the resulting "sliver" on drawing frames; further drawing, simultaneously with twisting, successively on slubbing, intermediate (rovings), roving, and (for finer yarn counts) fine roving frames; the resulting roving is then fed to the water frame or self-acting mule, on which the final drawing and twisting take place, yielding the yarn. To obtain finer yarn counts, the sliver passes through a combing machine before entering the roving frames, which removes all fibers below a certain length. The yarn is subjected to winding; if twisted yarn is required, it is doubled ("twined") on doubling machines and twisted on twisting water frames. Yarn prepared in this manner is sent to the weaving mill. Cotton spinning production is among the most mechanized industries—all processes of converting fiber into yarn are performed exclusively by machines; workers only have to transfer the intermediate product from one machine to another, and monitor and regulate the machine's operation. The exertion of physical force or the performance of any complex operations (except for apprentices) is not required here. A certain amount of physical exertion occurs only when working on the bale breaker, where workers have to move heavy bales and forcefully tear off layers of compressed cotton; further, during work on scutching machines, where workers carry heavy laps from one machine to another, as well as during the cleaning of carding machines. These jobs are predominantly performed by adult men. The remaining work is performed almost exclusively by women. Among the occupational hazards of cotton spinning production, dust, elevated temperature, and high humidity are of the greatest importance. Dust generation occurs during all spinning processes, and workers in all departments are exposed to it. Particularly large amounts of dust, containing large quantities of dirt and impurities, are generated on machines processing waste materials. Quite a few quantitative studies of this dust have been conducted at USSR factories. As typical, data from the Pavlov-Petrishchevo factory (1927) are cited. The following amounts of dust were found here (in mg/m³): in the sorting department—6.2-29.8; in the storage bin—23.2; in the carding department—2.8-8.4; during cylinder cleaning—52.3-255.5; in the drawing department—2.0-6.7; in the roving department—2.1-3.8; in the water frame department—1.1-3.3; during waste sorting—27.4. Studies conducted at other factories give approximately analogous figures (with fluctuations due to local conditions). Slightly larger quantities were found by Jotten in 1930 at a German factory in Nordhorn: at the bale breaker—8.6 mg/m³, in the carding department—10.2-12.4 mg/m³, in the roving and water frame departments—7.6-12 mg/m³. In its composition, the dust of various departments of spinning production is not uniform—the closer to the beginning of the production process, the more mineral and organic impurities it contains. Thus, for example, according to Bruevich (1923), at the Trekhgornaya Manufactory, the dust at the bale breaker contained 76.5% organic matter and yielded 18.5% ash, the dust of the carding department contained 93% organic matter and yielded 3.6% ash; the corresponding figures for the dirty willow were 56.5% and 38%. Dust studies for SiO₂ content average 1.15-6.22% according to Jotten, and 2.79-3.67% according to Bruevich. Under microscopic examination, the dust presents a rather motile picture depending on the department. Middleton gives the following picture for carding department dust (sample taken with an Owens apparatus): fibers, husk, hairs, fungi, spores, conidia, mineral particles (average size of the latter—10-20 µ). The dust generated in the final processes consists almost entirely of fine fibers and their fragments, and the greater part of the dust particles have dimensions of less than 10 µ. Undoubtedly, prolonged inhalation of dust must lead to respiratory tract disorders in female spinners. A number of data have been published on this issue; matters are usually limited to rather mild changes in the upper respiratory tract (see the studies of Bekritsky in 1924 at the Trekhgornaya Manufactory), Schilling (in 1925 at the Baden Cotton Spinning Mill), data by Bogoslovsky, Rozhdestvensky, and others. Of great interest is the question of whether changes of a coniotic character can develop in cotton spinners as a result of dust inhalation. Cates wrote about lung "byssinosis" as early as 1836, observing 250 cases among workers aged 13-30 years, but the clinical picture he cites is such that one is rather inclined to think of pulmonary tuberculosis. On the other hand, studies by Schilling, Scharlau, Landis (who performed autopsies on 50 bodies of long-service workers), and Jotten (who conducted experimental research) argue that the dust generated in cotton spinning does not cause the development of true konioses. It is more correct in these cases to speak of irritation of the respiratory organs and of various inflammatory phenomena in the respiratory organs associated with these irritations. However, the results of an examination of 324 female cotton spinner workers in Ivanovo-Voznesensk (Boxer and Ryabova, 1929-1930) showed the presence of significant dust deposition phenomena in a considerable number of workers, often quite pronounced. Without definitively prejudging this issue, one must still reckon with the fact that this dust can cause more serious changes in workers. The main measure to combat dust in spinning production is exhaust ventilation, which is implemented in the form of local exhaust on preparatory machines (bale breakers, scutching machines, willows, opening machines) and general ventilation where local exhausts cannot be installed due to the bulkiness of the machines. Fresh, clean air must be supplied to replace the removed air in an amount equal to or slightly exceeding the removed air. Dust removal from machines is most successfully achieved when the ventilation system is provided for during the design of the machine itself. The best example is a new-design scutching machine, which includes exhaust fans in its mechanism that perform a production function—transferring the loosened cotton from one part of the machine to the other and thus creating a vacuum inside the machine. The scutching department, which about 40 years ago was considered literally a "scourge" for workers due to the colossal dustiness of the air, is now one of the least dusty; for example, in the scutching department of the Trekhgornaya Manufactory (1927), dust was found to be 1.5-2.5 mg/m³. One can also point to the Dobson system bale breaker installed in a number of factories; here, thanks to a tight enclosure and double exhaust (for pneumatic cotton transfer and dust removal), the amount of dust released into the air is also insignificant—1.5-2.2 mg/m³ instead of the former 26 mg/m³ (Trekhgornaya). For machines where other devices must be used, the effect is much worse; at dusty willows equipped with hoods with exhausts, the amount of dust reaches 5.0-75 mg/m³. The work of cleaning carding cylinders, which is still done manually with the release of a huge amount of dust, can be fully mechanized (which has already been done at a number of factories—Trekhgornaya, Krasnaya Talka, Dzerzhinsky), and then dust generation is completely absent. As for the remaining departments—drawing frames, roving frames, water frames, winding frames—the reduction of the amount of dust contained in the air is achieved with the help of general supply and exhaust ventilation, the main importance of which is the regulation of the meteorological factor (see below).

The second main occupational hazard of cotton spinning is elevated temperature and high humidity of the air. This generation of significant amounts of heat for roving departments amounts to an excess of 16 calories per hour per 1 m³ of air, and for water frame departments—43 calories; since only 0.3 calories are required to raise the temperature of 1 m³ by 1 degree, one can easily calculate how quickly and to what high figures the temperature of the working premises air can rise. Indeed, everywhere, starting from the scutching machine department, the temperature turns out to be elevated, and the closer to the end of the production process, the higher it is. Here, for example, are the temperatures observed at the Trekhgornaya Factory in 1928: Carding departments... winter 23-25°, summer 26-30° Roving departments...

... » 27-32°, » 30-38°. A certain increase in air temperature is required in connection with the production process itself. The softening of the waxy sheath covering the fibers enables the latter to bond better with each other. Furthermore, the production process requires that the relative air humidity be no lower than a certain limit; and since the entire process of cotton processing is carried out by dry means, it proves necessary to artificially humidify the air of the workspaces. The purpose of the latter is as follows: from the friction of metal, leather, and other parts of machines, a significant amount of electricity is generated, which charges the air and at the same time the cotton fibers; the latter are attracted to leather parts and at the same time repelled from one another, which adversely affects the spinning process. To eliminate this phenomenon, it is necessary to saturate the air with moisture, in other words, to maintain humidity in the room no lower than a certain value. Regarding the degree of humidity, there is no unity of opinion among technologists; different requirements and norms are put forward. It can be noted that in the USSR, relative humidity is most often maintained in the carding, drawing, and slubbing departments at 55-60%, in the spinning frame departments at 60-65%, and in the mule departments even higher. At "moderate" temperatures (22-23°), such high humidities, especially taking into account the presence of air movement within 0.5-0.8 m/sec, would not cause special objections from a hygienic point of view, but since the air temperature reaches very high values (see above), a very unfavorable meteorological combination is obtained, namely high temperature with increased humidity, which very adversely affects the thermoregulation process. Since social factors and the specific natural occupational selection of workers (which is especially significant in the textile industry, since predominantly physically weak persons go here) have an enormous (if not predominant) influence on the morbidity and health status of workers, it is very difficult to isolate the influence of meteorological conditions; available literature data indicate very frequent diseases of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, "cold" illnesses, and partly respiratory tract diseases among spinners (Bogoslovsky, Rozhdestvensky, Deorden, and others). Proceeding from the features of production, where high air humidity is required, primary attention must be paid to lowering the temperature, which can be done without any detriment to the production process (requiring a temperature within 22-24°). This lowering of the air temperature with a simultaneous increase in its humidity is achieved by the operation of special ventilation and humidification installations, which are of various systems. Most spinning mills have central installations, the design principle and functions of which are generally as follows: fresh air is drawn in from the outside by suction, which is mixed with the air returned from the workspaces through recirculation pipes or a shaft; the mixed air goes into a heater if its heating is necessary, or goes directly into the humidifying chamber. Here, water is sprayed under high pressure in the smallest droplets, and the air driven here at a very high speed atomizes these droplets, turning them partly into mist. A large amount of heat is spent on this (the conversion of water into vapor); the air temperature drops significantly (e.g., from 26° to 15-16°), while it is saturated with moisture and concurrently cleaned of dust (by washing). The air then passes through separators, where the remaining droplets of moisture and unsettled dust particles are retained, and is then distributed across all floors of the factory; here, pipelines depart from the ducts, which distribute the air throughout the room. Having mixed with the room air, the air goes through the recirculation shaft to the humidifying chamber, mixes with the outside air, is humidified, and so on. The system is arranged as "recirculating," i.e., with the possibility of returning part of the air leaving the premises. In the summer time, this recirculation is unnecessary—all the air supplied to the workspaces is drawn from the outside. With proper capacity and operation of ventilation installations and good care and monitoring of them, good results can be achieved. For example, at the Trekhgornaya Manufactory, after the installation of a powerful central ventilation system, the temperature in the rooms in winter dropped to 23-26°; similar results were obtained at the new factories in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. It is necessary to achieve an even greater reduction in temperature, which is a difficult task in many old factories. Among other occupational hazards, one can point to insufficient lighting, especially daylight, in the departments of slubbers, spinning frames, and twisting frames, where machines 14 m long usually stand across the room in two rows. Here, the question of mixed lighting must be raised, i.e., the middle parts of the halls must be additionally illuminated with electric lamps. Regarding artificial lighting in spinning production, a sharp improvement has taken place at factories in the USSR in recent years: low-hung lamps with flat reflectors, which gave uneven illumination, shadows, and sharp glare, have been almost everywhere eliminated and replaced by uniformly suspended fixtures of the "Lucetta" or "Universal" system. Although the required illumination (60 lux) has far from been achieved everywhere, the situation is nevertheless much better compared to the past.—Further, one must point out the noise from the operation of machines, which is especially strong in the slubber department. Prolonged exposure to noise causes hearing loss and changes in the organ of hearing; as shown in particular by the studies of Dr. Bekritsky (Trekhgornaya Factory, 1924), mild ear changes were found in 10-11% of drawing women (length of service 3 years); in spinning frame women, 14% (length of service 3–10 years) and 30% (more than 10 years); in slubber women: 25-42% had mild and moderate changes, and 10% (length of service over 10 years) had sharply expressed changes. Various skin lesions described in England by Prosser White (there is no detailed coverage of this issue in the USSR) also deserve attention: in bale unpackers, in spinning frame women (injuries from spools), in piecers (cracks on hands), etc. The question of extremely dangerous lesions of mule spinners appears especially serious; as a result of the prolonged action of spindle oil splashing onto the hips, they develop malignant neoplasms (epitheliomas) with the main localization (91%) on the scrotum. By 1923, 361 cases were already known, of which 104 were fatal. This lesion has not been observed in other countries; obviously, the main cause is the carcinogenic properties of the lubricants used here. Constant standing on the feet and continuous walking by the majority of female workers cause a number of changes in the osteomuscular apparatus (according to a study of 63 people by Aisenshtein in 1927, "foot deformations were found in 76%"). On the spinning of other fibrous substances, see Wool Production, Flax Production, Silk Production, Hemp Production.