A Spinners Vocabulary

• Bant: A circular, braided-cotton string.
  
  
• Barring-over: Starting the engine ready for the machines to be coupled for driving.
  
  
• Cop: A bobbin of spun thread, ready for fitting in a shuttle.
  
  
• Counts: The numbering system to indicate the thickness of yarn, based on the amount of cotton per pound.
  
  
• Creel: There are two creels to a mule, each carrying 120 roving bobbins.
  
  
• Doffing: Removing the full cops from the mule.
  
  
• Drafting: The process of drawing out the cotton by passing the rope of loose cotton (called a sliver) between a succession of fluter rolers geared to deliver a long, thin ribbon which then spun to make the yarn.
  
  
• Ends down: The term used to indicate that the threads between draft rollers and the spindles are broken.
  
  
• Minder or Big Piecer: The spinner’s first assistant.
  
  
• Mule: A machine which draws out the soft cotton fibres to roving bobbins then, on the quick return of the carriage, winds the threads on to cops.
  
  
• Piecing Up: Mending a broken thread.
  
  
• Scavenger or Little Piecer: The spinner’s second assistant.
  
  
• Slubs: Imperfections in threads.
  
  
• Spinner: The person in charge of a pair of mules.