_The Drawing Frame._--For fine counts the slivers from the comber, and for low or medium counts those from the card, are passed to the drawing frame, because in both conditions the material is irregularly distributed throughout the several slivers, and it is the function of the drawing frame to eliminate all such irregularities by drawing several slivers down to the dimensions of one, for here the processes of combination and attenuation are carried further than in any other machine. A drawing frame consists of three or four heads, each of four pairs of drawing rollers (A, B, fig. 6). The lower rollers (B) are fluted longitudinally and the upper ones (A) are covered with leather, and weighted as at (H) to give the two a proper hold of the cotton. Each head contains several deliveries. Six or eight slivers (C) are put up to each delivery and drawn down into one by causing succeeding lines of rollers (A, B) to move at an accelerated speed; the front one revolving about six or eight times faster than the back one. On leaving the front roller the sliver is conducted to a trumpet-shaped tube (D), thence between a pair of calender rollers (E), and, finally, through a diagonal passage in a plate (F); the latter coils the sliver into a rotating can (G). Back and front devices are provided to arrest motion in this machine when a sliver fails. At the back, each sliver passes over and depresses a separate spoon-shaped lever (I), thereby lifting the hooked lower end of (I) high enough to allow an arm (J) to vibrate. On the failure of a sliver the hook of (I) engages with (J) and dislocates the driving gear. In front, the trumpet-shaped tube (D) is mounted on a lever (K), and so long as a sliver presses down the mouth of (D), the machine continues in motion, but when a sliver fails, the lever (K) causes the driving gear to stop the machine. Six or eight cans containing once drawn slivers are put up to the second head and similarly drawn, and finally, a similar number of twice drawn slivers are fed into the third head and again drawn, giving in all 6 × 6 × 6 = 216 doublings; or 8 × 8 × 8 = 512 doublings. Occasionally four heads of drawings are used and eight slivers drawn into one, which gives 8 × 8 × 8 × 8 = 4096 doublings; hence, irregularities in an original sliver have been minimized by successive combination and attenuation.